As a new form of cultural industry, the cultural and creative industry has multiple characteristics, such as cultural creativity as its core, strong innovation, diversified development, high value-added, and intelligence-intensive, which in itself has a better foundation for the development and application of new quality productivity. Driven by the wave of digitalisation, the cultural and creative industry is undergoing unprecedented changes. From ‘new development’ empowered by science and technology and innovative elements, to ‘new changes’ brought by process re-engineering and traditional subversive innovation, to ‘new strategies’ constructed by digital communication, digital marketing and digital copyright management, the cultural and creative industry chain is undergoing an unprecedented transformation. ‘Every link in the cultural and creative industry chain is being redefined. Under the new changes of workers, labour objects, labour tools and even infrastructures, the deep transformation and upgrading of the cultural and creative industry is being witnessed. By focusing on the upstream, midstream and downstream of the cultural and creative industry chain, in-depth discussion of the development trend of the cultural and creative industry can reveal the application and empowerment of the new quality productivity in the process of promoting the development of the cultural and creative industry.

Front-end of the cultural and creative industry chain: ‘new development’ empowered by science and technology and innovative elements

The front-end development of the cultural and creative industry relies on innovation and the original foundation of the industry. Driven by the new quality productivity, the front-end of the cultural and creative industry has shown a strong development momentum, and relevant data shows that the scale of the city's cultural and creative industry will reach RMB 2.34 trillion in 2023, with a year-on-year growth of 7%, and the creative design industry will account for nearly 70% of it, with the total output reaching RMB 1.64 trillion, with a year-on-year growth of 1.17%, among which, the total output of the digital design industry will be RMB 678.9 billion, making it the most important and most important industry in Shanghai. The total output of digital design industry reached RMB 678.9 billion, becoming a new engine for the high-quality development of Shanghai's cultural and creative industries. The deep integration of technology and innovation has brought new growth points for the design industry. New developments have been seen in four aspects: workers, labour tools, labour objects and infrastructure construction.

In terms of labour, the cultural and creative industry has shown a trend of ‘cultural and creative + scientific and technological innovation’, and a new industrial ecosystem has been attracting attention. The trend of cultivating composite talents for digital culture and creativity is present everywhere, and the policy also encourages the cooperation between domestic universities and foreign universities, domestic and foreign leading enterprises in the industry, supports the construction of digital technology courses such as human-computer interaction for art and design majors, and stresses the promotion of innovation supply by talent highland, as represented by Zhangjiang Digital Advertising Industrial Park, Resort Digital Advertising Industrial Park, Hangtou Digital Advertising Industrial Park, and so on. Industrial Park in Zhangjiang, Digital Advertising Industrial Park in Resort District, Digital Advertising Industrial Park in Hangtou, etc.

In terms of labour tools, the front end of the cultural and creative industry chain is characterized by the fusion of new technologies and creativity, with the widespread use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies, which have brought revolutionary changes to museums and art exhibitions. For example, the National Gallery of the United Kingdom used AR technology to provide an interactive experience for the Sergei Podrobinsky Retrospective, while the Louvre recreated the spectacular scenes of the French Revolution through VR technology. This summer, the immersive show supported by the yuan universe related industries as a new force of cultural tourism consumption in Shanghai quickly ‘out of the circle’: ‘Shanghai 1924: Wukang building 100 years of history immersion exhibition’ ticket sales daily average of tens of thousands of yuan; ‘Qin tide awakening’ XR immersive experience exhibition since June 1 trial turnover of more than 3 million yuan; The Egyptian Exhibition at the Shanghai Expo also followed the trend of technology and used the ‘Vanishing Pharaohs’ immersive experience project as a major breaking point. In addition, the application of AI in art creation is also increasingly widespread.

In terms of the target audience, the era of big data further accelerates the innovation of cultural models, focusing on data and expanding markets and audiences. Under the ‘Internet+’ era, user participation in content production and interactive communication in the cultural industry has become a major trend. Under the big data analysis technology, the cultural and creative industry can use big data to research the market and analyse consumer behaviour, and at the same time, according to the user data analysis and feedback, continuously improve and refine cultural products and services, explore potential users, and increase the satisfaction and loyalty of the original users. The data visualisation technology further improves the efficiency of data analysis and makes the results more intuitive and practical. This in turn lays the foundation for the production and marketing of products in the middle and lower reaches of the industrial chain.

In terms of infrastructure construction, the elements of science and technology innovation are also continuously promoting the digital transformation of the cultural and creative industries. Various types of innovation infrastructure are emerging, open innovation platforms have been established to help cultural model innovation in the cultural and creative industries, and more effective data sharing has been achieved. Digital archives and platforms have been created in many places to provide digital storage and access to cultural and historical information, reduce search costs, and strengthen the foundation for innovation. For example, the European Cultural Heritage Network (Europeana) makes use of advanced digitisation technologies, including high-definition scanning, 3D reconstruction, semantic tagging, etc., in order to efficiently manage and present a large amount of cultural heritage materials. Open data and APIs are also provided to enable developers and researchers to use these resources for the development of innovative applications and services.

Mid-end of the cultural and creative industry chain: process re-engineering and traditional subversive innovation bring ‘new changes’.

While science and technology and innovative elements have enabled the ‘new development’ of the front end of the cultural and creative industry chain, they are accompanied by ‘new changes’ in the supply chain and production chain located in the middle reaches of the cultural and creative industry. Along with the innovation and change of producers and production tools, new production technologies are constantly expanding the process, allowing it to be subdivided and matured. In particular, process re-engineering and disruptive innovation of traditional processes are key.

In terms of process reengineering, new quality productivity plays a huge role, and the midstream of the industry presents a diversified and intelligent development trend with science and technology and innovation as the core. Among them, digital manufacturing, modular design, customised production of three aspects of technology has developed more mature. In terms of digital manufacturing, thanks to computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) technologies, designers can accurately produce complex cultural and creative products. For example, IKEA has achieved rapid iteration of furniture design and customised production through digital processes. In addition, 3D printing technology is also widely used in all kinds of cultural and creative projects, such as the reproduction and display of museum artefacts, the British Museum's display of ancient Egyptian mummies used this technology. Modular design allows for the rapid adaptation of product design to meet the needs of different markets, while reducing production costs. Customised production uses digital technology to achieve small batch, diversified production based on individual consumer demand.

Traditional subversive innovation should not be underestimated, and the cultural and creative industries have shown a trend of fusion and collision between tradition and modernity, art and technology, and different fields in the production process. The explosive popularity of the Chinese game ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ is the best proof of the integration of Chinese elements and digital cultural creativity. The key to its success lies not only in the excellent graphic quality and gaming experience brought about by powerful digital technology, but also in the strong Chinese elements in it: an action role-playing game based on Chinese myths, which recreates the hero legend full of oriental aesthetic characteristics through emotional narratives. In addition, the game screen highly reproduces many famous monuments and buildings in China, fully displaying the local history and culture and city landmarks. The fusion of traditional handicrafts with modern technology is also becoming more and more common, such as the use of laser cutting technology combined with traditional carving techniques to produce decorative items. In recent years, the combination of traditional Chinese paper-cutting art and modern graphic design has attracted a lot of attention. Meanwhile, cross-border co-operation between artists and designers from different fields is also providing a creative spark on the production side. For example, G-Star RAW, a fashion brand, combines traditional denim craftsmanship with modern design through co-operation with an artist to create a unique product line that is widely admired.

The re-engineering of the process and the subversive innovation of tradition not only bring great innovation and expansion to the middle reaches of the industry chain, but also feed the upstream innovative design by providing a larger platform to perform; at the same time, it brings more possibilities and marketing and sales highlights to the downstream production.

The End of Cultural and Creative Industry Chain: Digital Communication, Digital Marketing and Digital Copyright Management Constructing ‘New Strategies’

In the era of ‘Internet Plus’, the traditional marketing and after-sales service at the end of the industry chain have changed. Digital communication, digital marketing and digital copyright management have been emphasised by major enterprises as important contents of digital construction, and have been constantly introduced as necessary strategies for operation and sales. Under these circumstances, new relations of production are about to emerge.

Digital communication strategies include targeted advertising and content marketing using social media platforms to increase brand awareness and product exposure. For example, Patagonia, an outdoor clothing brand, has successfully attracted a large number of loyal consumers by emphasising its environmental philosophy and sustainable business model through its website and social media platforms. In addition, local culture and tourism publicity also cleverly use social platforms to reach an effective ‘out of the circle’, such as Zibo barbecue, Tianshui spicy hot pot and Northeast hospitality, through the local characteristics of the publicity emphasis, successfully enhance the city's reputation and image. Similarly, a ‘Flourishing’ is also a successful case of ‘film and television + cultural tourism’ innovation model.

The practice of digital marketing involves influencer marketing and user-generated content. By partnering with opinion leaders or influencers in their field, brands can use their influence to promote their products. At the same time, consumers are encouraged to share their experiences of using the products, increasing their credibility and appeal through word-of-mouth marketing. The second Xiaohongshu Road Life Festival is a pioneering case based on creative linkage to explore the ‘value co-creation’ model, which broadens new offline marketing scenarios by bringing business to the roadside, helping brands to deeply participate in consumers' real-life scenarios, and turning the life scene into a content marketing field. This provides a practical guide for the cultural industry to continuously improve the innovation ecology under the ‘value co-creation’ model: by creating a humanistic economic atmosphere that is inclusive of innovation, involving various forms of value co-creation, such as consumer ingenuity, consumer-producer co-creation, and consumer-consumer co-creation, to cultivate the whole society to give full play to the ability to carry out labour and input to achieve the growth of the cultural industry. Input to achieve the growth of the cultural industry.

In addition, the online experience function provided by information technology is constantly being applied, so that consumers can learn how to use or customise product services in a convenient form. For example, in the selection of cultural and creative products, AR/VR and other technologies are used to provide services such as virtual trying on and previewing effects, so as to enhance the user experience. Museums provide users with immersive cultural experiences through virtual reality exhibitions and online learning programmes. In addition, online performance platforms extend audience reach for musicians and performing artists and create new forms of performance and artistic experiences. Shanghai-based company Miha Tour's game The Original Gods linked up with museums to promote traditional Chinese cultural elements around the world, and undoubtedly had its high quality digital marketing behind the circle-breaking effect it triggered globally.

The cultural and creative industries also continue to emphasise the importance of digital copyright management. In the after-sales service of cultural and creative products, late-stage digital copyright management ensures that the intellectual property rights of cultural and creative works are protected. For example, using blockchain technology to track the origin and ownership of artworks, NFT Artworks is a typical case of using blockchain technology to ensure the uniqueness and ownership of works. In Shanghai, intellectual property protection has been given high priority in recent years, and copyright work has continued to improve the level of creation, application, protection, management and service, and to promote the development of the copyright industry.

With the development of new quality productivity, the cultural and creative industry is forming a new production relationship. The relationship between enterprises and users is no longer confined to the traditional production-sales model, but a closer interaction has been realised through a new closed loop of user demand, value recognition, branding and potential demand. This innovation-driven industrial development model will undoubtedly bring broader development prospects for the cultural and creative industries. (Text: Cao Yi Ya Ye Rui Yan)

source: Wenhui news