• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, 5 hours ago

Apparently if you’re a woman between the ages of 18-55, you are a prime target audience for micro-dramas, and they’re beginning to take over your social feed (or they will in the next few months).

Micro-dramas are a series of 90-second dramatic videos that resemble over-the-top soap operas.  They are commonly low-budget, low-quality, and high drama.  I saw a few that involved lots of people kissing, lots of gasps, lots of vampires and lots of shocked looks.  Each episode has a cliffhanger to keep you watching. The full shows consist of as many as 100 episodes that combine to create a single 2-hour movie. 

Think of the “Twilight Saga” with b-roll, cut into 9- second episodes.

Soap opera TV has been around for years.  It started as daytime TV, morphed into prime time, shifted to streaming and is now embedded squarely in your TikTok feed. 

There are new apps popping up that exist solely to aggregate and provide a publishing platform for these shows, and they are inevitably going to succeed.  It’s short-attention-span theater that draws lots of eyeballs and monetization opportunities.  If you follow the audience, you can follow the money, and the path leads directly to micro-dramas.

It's clear advertisers will want to be involved.  I am sure interruptive ads will be there, and I naturally assume virtual insertions (full disclosure -- this is part of what I do in my day job) will be a natural piece of the pie for micro-dramas.

The attention is so focused, and the content is so quick, it's an easy opportunity for brands to get involved.  The content itself can fall into a branded content journey, with brands creating these serialized dramas as well. 

The campy nature of these shows is the only thing that could dissuade brands from getting involved.  Comparing these shows to more traditional dramas is like looking at the quality differences between traditional TV and UGC or creator content.  The overall downswing of quality is made up for by the accessibility of the content for audiences.  That format also convinces the audience that anyone can do it, so they get sucked into the concept of making these shows themselves. 

Regardless of the apparent lower quality, these shows are not simple to create.  They are scripted and long-form. Writing a show that has that many cuts, cliffhangers and “special situations” is not easy.  It’s an art form, whether you want it to be or not.  Even an episode of “Mr. Beast” requires a ton of work an time to get off the ground. 

The audience for micro-dramas is growing rapidly.  When will we see the first breakout show that creates mainstream buzz?  It’s only a matter of time.