Zhou Hongyi's death, "real boss" takes over the short drama

Zhou Hongyi's journey of short plays is not only an attempt at personal entertainment, but also a new exploration of entrepreneurial brand communication. This article will explore how Zhou Hongyi deeply integrates his personal image with the corporate brand through the emerging medium of short plays to create an influential "entrepreneur IP".

Entrepreneurs fall in love with skits.

Recently, Zhou Hongyi has frequently appeared on the set of short dramas, attracting widespread attention from netizens.

From Lei Jun to Zhou Hongyi, from short videos and live broadcasts to short dramas, the emergence of emerging communication media often means a new window for entrepreneurs to connect with society and users.

The immersive experience, emotional resonance, and ability to accurately reach target users of short dramas have made "short dramas + entrepreneurs" gradually become an innovative combination for brand communication.

In the future, will short dramas become the standard for entrepreneurs to build their personal IP?

1. Addicted to shooting short plays

Recently, a netizen posted a video of Zhou Hongyi recording a short drama on a social platform.

The video shows Zhou Hongyi sitting at a table in ancient costume, with a character named "Ruhua" dressed as a woman next to him.

Previously, actors in the short play also released footage of the behind-the-scenes and opening ceremony of the short play in which Zhou Hongyi participated. The video copy reads "My tenth female emperor and Mr. Zhou have cooperated." The screen shows that 360's product "Nano Search" was implanted in the play.

Netizen @摄影慕小白 posted a photo of Zhou Hongyi shooting a short play

This is not the first time Zhou Hongyi has been associated with short dramas.

At the Wuzhen Internet Conference in November 2024, Zhou Hongyi's casual remark "I don't like watching variety shows, I like watching short dramas about domineering CEOs" during an interview with reporters on the scene caused heated discussion. Netizens invited him to play the "domineering CEO" in his true colors, and even thought of the title of the drama, which is "The 40-Year-Old Red-Dressed Leader Falls in Love with Me, a Divorced Man Who Owes 3.6 Million Yuan".

Although it was a joke, Mr. Zhou later responded: "Everyone said that if you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to shoot a short drama and it can be broadcast for millions of times, it is really more cost-effective than any advertisement, so for the sake of the company's product promotion, I just went all out."

So, just one week later, Zhou Hongyi's first short play "Rekindling Life: Hidden Hacker Stuns the World" was broadcast. Zhou Hongyi also revealed that this short play has a total of 16 episodes, cost 100,000 yuan, and has been broadcast more than 40 million times, "better than broadcasting on TV."

Having tasted the sweetness, Mr. Zhou immediately threw himself into the next short drama, and personally participated in everything from the warm-up of the project to the solicitation of roles. There was even a crazy phenomenon of "hundreds of thousands of people applying for the leading female role" under his account. Then came the scene at the beginning with "Ruhua".

It is worth mentioning that Zhou Hongyi also revealed a piece of news: "My second short drama is being filmed intensively. This time we try to integrate AI technology into the plot. The special effects in the drama will be generated by nano AI search."

In this skit craze, Zhou Hongyi's image positioning seems a bit subtle: he is neither a completely traditional corporate executive, nor a social star who just "works" for his personal IP.

Zhou Hongyi's public speech

As the founder of 360, he not only brings business logic, but also tries to reach the public through a more popular and entertaining form such as short dramas, looking for opportunities to resonate with the younger generation of audiences.

Such cross-border cooperation is not only an extension of Zhou Hongyi's personal image, but also an innovation in corporate brand communication: short dramas are not just for entertainment, they also have the functions of spreading products, telling corporate culture, and shaping the image of the founder.

2. Entrepreneurs engage in content creation

Zhou Hongyi's journey into short dramas reflects a trend: entrepreneurs are beginning to move beyond traditional commercial promotion methods and engage in content creation.

Among them, the most eye-catching one is Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi. Lei Jun not only personally participated in live broadcasts to promote Xiaomi's products, but also frequently posted his daily life on Douyin.

Lei Jun's Douyin homepage

His influence is not limited to consumers of his own products, but has also narrowed the distance between his company and users of other brands, forming a broad circle of potential users and strengthening the distinctive brand personality of "Lei Jun-style Xiaomi".

By the end of 2024, Lei Jun will have more than 37 million followers on Douyin alone. In the process of building his personal IP, he almost perfectly integrated Xiaomi's "second entrepreneurship" in terms of corporate transformation with his "second breakthrough" in terms of personal influence. The value of influence in the business world is undoubtedly huge.

With Lei Jun's example, short videos have gone from being a "net celebrity thing" that entrepreneurs looked down upon to something that everyone is eager to follow. From Li Bin, the founder of NIO, to Wei Jianjun, the chairman of Great Wall Motors, more and more car company bosses hope to replicate Lei Jun's success by shooting videos and doing live broadcasts. Huawei's executive director Richard Yu also joined Douyin and gained 1.85 million followers in one day.

Zhou Hongyi's short drama test is precisely the epitome of this trend. He not only showcased 360's technology products through the short drama, but also built his own "entrepreneur IP".

It can be predicted that if Zhou Hongyi's short drama in which he takes the lead in "getting involved himself" can also work wonders, then in the future, perhaps the "fake boss" in the short drama will enter reality at some point in time, and the "real president" in reality may soon collectively flock into the short drama.

On the one hand, this transformation is based on the demand of the times that "content is king", and on the other hand, it is also an upgrade of brand marketing methods.

In the past, the relationship between entrepreneurs and brands was often abstract and implicit. The brand represented the core value of a company, while the founder was more of a behind-the-scenes promoter.

With the rise of social media and new communication media, the relationship between brands and founders has changed. Entrepreneurs have begun to realize that their personal image, especially the story behind them, has also become a marketing asset.

Today, short dramas have become the most visible and most accessible media form. They can naturally implant brands through plots, stories and character settings, and can also more easily narrow the distance with consumers.

In a business world full of competition and uncertainty, the personal image and influence of entrepreneurs are no longer just a symbol of corporate culture, but an important part of the corporate brand.

3. “True Boss” Enters the Short Drama

The rise of short dramas has given entrepreneurs unprecedented opportunities to showcase their self-image and corporate values.

As part of content marketing, the biggest feature of short plays is that they can help entrepreneurs establish an emotional connection with the audience. Unlike traditional advertising, short plays are more immersive. Through multiple elements such as plot, characters, and lines, they can naturally integrate the brand's tone and the founder's personality into it, allowing the audience to resonate with the brand without realizing it.

This approach can not only subtly reduce the audience's vigilance and increase brand awareness, but also penetrate emotions and enable consumers to develop long-term trust in the brand.

The presence of founders in the skits means that they are not only the driving force behind the product, but also the “face” of the brand in the minds of consumers.

By frequently appearing, participating in the plot, and interacting with actors, the founder deeply binds his personality to the brand story and creates a three-dimensional entrepreneur IP. This kind of IP image often has strong personal characteristics, which can not only meet the emotional needs of the audience, but also effectively enhance the market influence of the brand.

In addition, the "personal private domain traffic" advantage of short dramas also provides more possibilities for the creation of entrepreneurial IP.

Judging from the brand marketing influence and development history of traffic stars in traditional film and television dramas, it is only a matter of time before the "fan economy" phenomenon that stars have always brought with them migrates to the field of short dramas, and entrepreneurs are likely to become the best means to take on this wave of traffic and economic consumption power transfer.

Fans took photos of the "real boss" Lei Jun

Through skits, entrepreneurs can also continuously reach target consumers through the private traffic pool using skits as a starting point. This kind of reach is no longer a one-way advertising push, but a multi-level, in-depth brand penetration that can establish long-term and stable relationships with consumers, and is more conducive to the formation of "N+" conversions of the "fan economy".

Therefore, shooting short dramas brings an opportunity to repeatedly reach potential consumers. This is essentially about establishing a private domain, building your own reach, and building an entrepreneur IP who is a "real boss" in reality.

In this regard, Zhou Hongyi also said that short dramas are one of the important ways of corporate promotion in the future, and entrepreneurs should go where the users are.

However, using short plays to create an "entrepreneurial IP" is not an easy task. It requires the founder or executive to have enough personal charm and story background, and also relies on the creativity and execution of the team.

The marketing in the short drama must be accurately integrated into the plot, rather than simply being a "hard advertisement", otherwise it will destroy the audience's viewing experience and even cause disgust.

Lei Jun played memes at the press conference

Whether Zhou Hongyi's short plays can achieve long-term success may not only depend on his personal performance, but more on how he balances commercial needs and audience experience.

After all, apart from acting skills and appearance, entrepreneurs have more sincerity, and the audience does not want to see someone who can only read advertisements for his own products.