iQIYI, Inc., an innovative market-leading online entertainment service in China, is pleased to announce that the Company is invited to attend the 2021 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, one of the most influential annual events in the global advertising and creative industry, as the only Chinese streaming platform. Top global creatives, brands and companies such as Amazon, P&G, and Accenture Interactive virtually attended this year’s Cannes Festival of Creativity.

Chen Hongjia, Senior Vice President of iQIYI, delivered a speech at the Festival. Starting with an analysis of Gen Z’s behavioral preferences and their role of leading the way of social entertainment on the internet and influencing entertainment consumption, Chen shared findings in four key areas: “immersive experiences”, “true-interactivity”, “deeper emotional connection” and “co-creation content.”

According to Chen Hongjia, mar-tech in entertainment should not be limited to video storytelling. The new industry trends in the post-epidemic era and the new demand for entertainment from Gen Z as the major consumer group, have driven iQIYI to ponder on how to jazz up Entertainment MarTech. He noted that as digital natives, Gen Z is naturally receptive to the application of technology and interactive experience and tend to consume a more interactive, experiential content and user experience.

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Chen Hongjia also elaborated on iQIYI’s inspirations and new exploration in entertainment mar-tech through two case studies: THE9’s “XCity” extended reality (XR) Live Concert” and the iQIYI “Screaming for Love” Gala 2021.

In THE9 “XCity” XR Live Concert, audience can create their own virtual avatars, waving virtual glowsticks, sending real time bullet-screen comments while also playing THE9’s online game. They could also switch among 10 camera angles and face-cams to get a closer view of the performers, which creates a completely immersive experience. It was the first time in history that all these technologies were pulled together in a live concert and that online experience brought by live steaming has surpassed the offline experience.

The iQIYI “Shout Out for Love” Gala 2021 marked the first time an internet video platform co-directed a live streaming gala with its audience. Through a voting system, viewers played a key role in the night’s roll-out by personally participating in a number of key decisions throughout the gala. Audience could leave live comments and influence a number of outcomes through their votes including the order of performances, the performers, encore performers, and the awarding of prizes. The Gala also broke the barriers of time and space by introducing the synchronous live-streaming of multiple scenes to audience, thus delivering an immersive and “panoramic” viewing experience. During the live-stream, the iQIYI app’s screen was divided into four subsections showing the stage, waiting, backstage, and drama-theater zone, allowing audience to switch between sections freely.

The COVID pandemic provides new opportunities for iQIYI and the entertainment mar-tech industry. The integration of content, technology and other means, allowing viewers to virtually attend an XR Live concert and let users co-direct a gala, provides viewers with immersive experience, true-interactivity, deeper emotional connection and co-creation content.

As advanced technologies such as 5G and AI become more widely used in business models and corporate strategies across all industries, technology is being even more flexibly applied to the video streaming industry, accelerating and refreshing content production and entertainment mar-tech. Cogitating on industry experience and iQIYI ‘s insight into Gen Z users, the Company has combined technology with content production to provide a new form of entertainment for its users that is more innovative, interactive and immersive, thereby achieving deeper emotional connections with them. Such advancement in content productions generates more possibilities for brands to reach Gen Z users and create more imaginative marketing approaches.

In the future, iQIYI will become more devoted in its effort around technology and content development to build a more creative entertainment mar-tech industry and provide more imaginative entertainment experience for the audience.

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