Starting from a Bar to Sign Internet Celebrities-Chapter 77 - 75: A Story-driven Account Heroine?

Wang Xin said his piece and left, without a hint of hesitation.

Aries was the undisputed market leader, their brand recognition already sky-high. They weren’t desperate for publicity, only needing a promotional push for new products. Whether they rode the coattails of this trending influencer or not made no difference to them.

Sister Hong saw this, looked at Chen Jincheng, and gestured toward her phone.

He reached out, took Sister Hong’s phone, and spoke into it. "Hello, this is Chen Jincheng from Second-Life Star."

An enthusiastic voice immediately came from the phone: "Mr. Chen, hello! I’m Jiang Hong, the head of promotions for Rice Technology’s daily necessities department. I saw you in the news today. We have a new socket product and are very eager to work with you."

Chen Jincheng was surprised to hear that name.

Because in his other world, this man had been the head of marketing promotions for the Rice Group. He was also the one who implemented Lei Xiaomi’s marketing strategy after the release of the Xiaomi Car.

Face-blind Dong had once lamented, "Don’t even try to compete with Lei Xiaojun in marketing. No one in our generation can beat him." Lei Xiaojun’s terrifying marketing skills were, of course, backed by a team, and this Jiang Hong had been one of its key members.

It seemed the man was currently just doing promotions for Rice’s daily necessities development and hadn’t yet made it into the core team.

He immediately smiled and said, "President Jiang, there’s no problem with a collaboration. I just told the folks at Aries my terms. Shall I lay them out for you as well?"

"Mr. Chen, please do," Jiang Hong said with a smile.

Chen Jincheng also smiled as he gave his quote. "I can shoot a dedicated video ad for the Rice socket. The base price is 500,000. After that, for every additional million likes the video gets, the fee increases by 500,000. If the video reaches three million likes, you will pay our company a total of two million."

On the other end of the line, Jiang Hong heard the quote and looked at President Liu, the head of the daily necessities development department, and at President Lei, who had come specifically to see the new product launch.

This quote was different from what influencer agencies, or even celebrity media companies, would offer.

A very interesting collaboration model.

Crucially, he could hear the confidence in the influencer’s voice.

This made him very curious.

He saw President Lei scribble a line on a piece of paper and hold it up for him. Understanding immediately, he spoke into the phone, "Mr. Chen, to show our sincerity, we’re willing to increase your rates by 10%. However, when it comes to promoting sockets, you can only work with us at Rice."

"Furthermore, we can add another incentive. For the Tiao Yin video ad, after you pass three million likes, we’ll add another one million in advertising fees as a bonus for every additional million likes."

Chen Jincheng was stunned when he heard this.

’I really didn’t expect this.’

’Look at the vision of Rice. No wonder this guy will become a member of Lei Xiaojun’s marketing team in the future.’

"Alright, let’s do it as President Jiang says. I trust that Second-Life Star won’t disappoint you and your Rice socket," Chen Jincheng agreed with a smile. After all, this deal was all upside for him.

With the current buzz around the "Chen Jincheng’s zodiac sign is a socket" trend, plus his advertising plan and a bit more hype, three million likes was practically guaranteed. He also had a very high chance of earning the subsequent bonus offered by Rice.

"Then let’s sign a digital contract first. I’ll bring the products over to Coastal City," Jiang Hong said with a smile.

Chen Jincheng quickly added, "President Jiang, one more request. We’ve prepared a concept for the ad, and we’ll need some models of plugs and sockets that can be worn on the head. We’ll need a variety of plug and outlet types, especially a model of your Magic Cube Universal Socket. Since you’ll be making them, you can design them to better showcase your product’s features."

"Okay, leave it to us. We can make them right away." After speaking, Jiang Hong hung up and turned to the two men beside him. "President Lei, President Liu, it seems this isn’t what we expected. This influencer has his own ad concept. We were just after his current popularity."

President Liu smiled. "It’s a good thing we called when we did. Otherwise, he might have ended up working with Aries."

Lei Xiaojun, who was standing beside them, shook his head. "Aries would never have accepted that offer. The guy in charge there is an old classmate of mine. I once told him his sockets were ugly, and he got mad. His company would never approve a deal like this from an influencer. Still, an ad concept from an influencer... I’m curious to see what he comes up with."

"By the way, didn’t we release two versions of the Magic Cube Universal Socket? Have the celebrity promote one and this influencer promote the other. Let’s see what the results are. We’ll mass-produce whichever one does better and discontinue the other."

"President Lei, you’ve been paying a lot of attention to online promotion lately," President Liu said with a smile.

"Mhm!" Lei Xiaojun didn’t deny it.

He was becoming more and more convinced that online promotion would become a mainstream battleground in the future, possibly even outperforming celebrity endorsements.

It’s just that he had never quite found a good method for it.

Hiring celebrities came with the risk of a scandal that could affect the company’s products, and the risk was even worse with influencers.

If it weren’t for his public profile, and the fact that Rice was completely tied up with its IPO plans this year, he would have even considered getting in on the action himself—endorsing and promoting his own products.

...

Back at Second-Life Star, Sister Hong quickly reported to Chen Jincheng that the digital contract with Rice had been signed.

Without hesitating, Chen Jincheng opened his email, pulled up the "Love Between a Plug and a Socket" ad concept he’d created at Yinyin’s home, printed it out, and called for Lao Chen.

"Boss, what are your orders?" Lao Chen arrived at the office quickly.

Chen Jincheng handed him the "Love Between a Socket and a Plug" ad concept. "Take a look at this. You’ll be leading the team to complete this video independently. There are a lot of different scenes, so you’ll need to scout the locations in advance."

Hearing this, Lao Chen quickly took the concept and began to read.

He knew that as the company grew, his photography department couldn’t just follow the boss around forever. With so many female influencers to film for an increasing number of videos, they needed to start learning how to shoot independently based on a script.

But after reading the script, he had a strange look on his face. "Boss, this is a socket ad, but we’re shooting the love story of a plug and a socket. The first part is really heartwarming, even a little touching, and the copy is great. But why is it that in the last segment, there’s no dialogue, yet the scumbag imagery is so potent?"

Chen Jincheng smiled. "You’ve been with me for so long. Isn’t this exactly the kind of thing you’re good at shooting? Shouldn’t be a problem, right?"

"No problem! I definitely won’t let you down!" Lao Chen immediately guaranteed.

"Good." Chen Jincheng nodded, then added, "Once this ad is filmed and the fee comes in, I’ll give you a bonus."

"Thanks, Boss!" Lao Chen was instantly fired up.

Next, Chen Jincheng took some time to explain his requirements for the ad’s scenes to Lao Chen. They couldn’t just find any random locations; they had to be shot with an artistic atmosphere. It would be best to reference the original; they couldn’t do a disservice to the concept.

’An ad that won multiple awards for creativity and design in the other world can’t be turned into a shoddy, carelessly filmed product in this one.’

Lao Chen could also sense how important this ad was to his boss. He left the office with the script, now two hundred percent focused on the task.

Before long, Sister Hong came again. "Boss, the people from Luna Stockings are here. They’re in the reception room."

"Let’s go." Chen Jincheng nodded and headed for the reception room.

The plan for Luna Stockings was simple. If possible, he hoped to get the video shot today.

When he arrived at the reception room, he saw a beautiful woman in a chic business suit, her long legs clad in black stockings. She was on her phone, and her voice was very pleasant to the ear.

Just seeing her profile made Chen Jincheng’s eyes light up. She had the unmistakable aura of a leading lady, the kind perfect for a serialized drama account.

And she did look a bit familiar.

She looked a lot like Qing Lan from his other world, an actress who specialized in playing the roles of wealthy female CEOs. But this woman’s aura and beauty were even more striking!

’According to the development of Tiao Yin in the other world, the 60-second video feature should be launching next month. The era of story-driven accounts is about to begin, and Tiao Yin will see a new wave of top-tier influencers.’

’Seeing this beauty from Luna Stockings, I’m suddenly getting an idea!’

’But is it really a good idea to poach an employee from a business partner?’