If you think “Superwoman” Cindy is adorable, you’re in good company. Her fans already include Faye Wong, Gao Yuanyuan, Chen Qiao’en, Mingdao, Hawick Lau, Wei Chen, Qi Wei, Wen Zhang, Aska Yang, and Li Yuchun.
The show that’s captured viewers with an 89% approval rate has also captured the hearts of sponsors, breaking not only viewership ratings but also record sponsorship fees. Their latest ad sale for season 2 saw the sponsorship go to Yili milk for 312 million RMB, the highest ever for a sponsorship (the second is The Voice of China 3 at 250 million). This is on top of 171 million RMB of three partnerships, not to mention potential product placement revenues (season 1 had frozen goods, toothpaste, milk, beddings, and cars sponsored) and actual ad revenue to come later.
I hear “Where are we going? Dad” is on!
The new record is just one of many in China’s accelerating TV biz. Sponsorship fees have multiplied 20 times since 2005.
While the highest provincial sponsorships in 2013 being The Voice 2 at 200 million per season, so far threeshows have broke that amount for 2014 – I am Singer 2 at 235, The Voice 3 at 250, and Dad. At this rate, we should expect rather than be surprised at new records come next November.
Evolution of sponsorship fees since 2005 (source):
| Year | Highest sponsorship per season | Cost (millions of RMB) |
| 2005 | Super Girls | 14 |
| 2006 | Super Girls | 20 |
| 2007 | Super Boys | 20+ |
| 2008 | Missing | N/A |
| 2009 | Super Girls | 60 |
| 2010 | Super Boys | 70+ |
| 2011 | Super Girls | 70+ |
| 2012 | The Voice | 200 |
| 2013 | The Voice | 200 |
| 2014 | The Voice | 250 |
| 2014 | I am Singer | 235 |
| 2014 | Where are we going? Dad | 312 |
At a time that the Internet is increasing its hold on the audience, why is TV still doing so well? Part of the reason is because rather than pulling the audience away from TV, Chinese TV has managed to integrate the net to promote TV shows. “Dad” was one of the shows that managed to convince viewers who saw episodes on the Internet to sit at the TV for the airing. The benefits of Sponsorship, which is incorporated into the show, is especially important because they’re not cut out like commercials in Internet versions of the show, meaning that they benefit from not only traditional TV viewership, but also web viewership. In fact, “Dad” announced it’ll cut 6 minutes of ad revenue, probably betting on increased sponsorship deals due to more views over increased ad revenue.
The super lucky 999 children’s medicine only spent 28 million RMB to sponsor the first season as a result of home electronics company Midea (#Midea fainted crying in the bathroom# was popular on Weibo at one point) backing out right before the show aired. October saw sales of 999 children’s medicine rising 60% from the same month last year.
Cindy’s parents are filming an ad for Mengniu … and Kimi+Jimmy are being the spokespeople for Yili, which means Kimi will probably be on Season 2, and Cindy won’t. T_T
Really?? I heard that all the other casts gonna be on Season 2 except for Stone and his father, but Cindy won’t be on Season2 too? :(
I think Jimmy Lin is the only confirmed one. Shitou’s dad actually most recently said that if the show invites back all the original cast, they’ll come back, too.
But Mengniu is Yili’s biggest rival, so it wouldn’t make sense for Yili to let the Mengniu spokespeople on their show since it’ll make them more popular. Also even if Cindy goes on the show, Yili has enough power to put pressure on the show producers to make Cindy and Tian Liang look bad, which is easy enough because all they need to do is have a half-hour cut of Cindy crying and cut out all the times where she’s hyper and cute (cough, this week, cough).
That’s sad. I didn’t watch this week’s episode yet but i heard that Cindy is the one who cry the most when she has to be with a different “dad”. Everyone thought the most desperate one would be Kimi but it’s Cindy instead. hmm