Starting from a Bar to Sign Internet Celebrities-Chapter 83 - 81: Chen Jincheng Is in Trouble

The department head’s report clearly caught the attention of Han Shangyou and Liu Xian.

Second-Life Star was actually getting an ad deal at a time like this.

Liu Xian immediately asked the department head, "How much is Second-Life Star’s ad fee?"

The department head promptly reported, "The guaranteed minimum for this ad is 500,000."

"500,000 for one ad? That’s 100,000 more than Sister Feiye?" Liu Xian was rather surprised.

The department head corrected him. "President Liu, it’s a 500,000 guaranteed minimum, not a flat 500,000 per ad. Second-Life Star’s contract has bonus clauses. For every additional 1 million likes the video gets, the fee increases by 500,000. In other words, if it reaches 3 million likes, the ad fee will be 2 million. If it hits 5 million likes, it’ll be 3 million."

"If they can reach 5 million likes, this one ad of theirs could be worth seven of Sister Feiye’s, and could even bring in over 200,000 yuan in sales."

"So that’s their model." Han Shangyou was surprised.

It was a bit like their previous pajama ad model.

"Bring me the contract," Liu Xian ordered immediately.

The department head handed over a tablet displaying the digital contract attachment sent by Second-Life Star.

Han Shangyou and Liu Xian quickly reviewed the contents of the ad deal.

"A stocking ad?" Han Shangyou quickly looked into the situation with Second-Life Star’s Yinyin and said in surprise, "This Yinyin has a lot of heat right now. There was that whole stocking-ripping incident before this. If the video quality is as good as that previous one by Jiang Xiaobai, breaking 3 million likes is possible."

"But 5 million likes is a long shot, unless they have some incredible PR stunt up their sleeve. If they do manage to surpass it, they’ll get a 3 million fee for one ad, which would make Tiao Yin’s choice to back Sister Feiye rather awkward."

Hearing this, Liu Xian subconsciously blurted out, "Should we throttle their traffic?"

Han Shangyou’s expression changed the moment he said it.

Before, he felt Liu Xian’s comparison of Sister Feiye’s and Jiang Xiaobai’s value was reasonable, so he hadn’t intervened.

But hearing this now, he was subconsciously infuriated. "President Liu, we are currently testing viable and reasonable models for our advertising module, not suppressing all other possibilities just to prop up a single influencer."

"Can’t you see that if Second-Life Star’s model succeeds, it will, to a certain extent, increase the prestige of Tiao Yin’s advertising?"

"But..." Liu Xian started to say.

Han Shangyou cut him off. "Rein in those thoughts. Even if this ends up being embarrassing for us, your Advertising Operations and Management Department will monitor it by the book."

With that, he had no desire to stay any longer and left directly.

’He was already mulling over whether the Advertising Operations and Management Department needed a new person in charge.’

When you’re at the helm of a company, especially one that’s rapidly growing, you absolutely cannot tolerate it when you find that the decisions and ideas of a department’s management go against the company’s direction.

Liu Xian’s expression was awful. He knew he had angered the president.

This made him take his anger out on Second-Life Star.

’If Second-Life Star hadn’t come up with this ad, everything would be fine. It would all be going according to his plan, and propping up Sister Feiye would have become a brilliant achievement for his leadership of the Advertising Operations and Management Department.’

’If Second-Life Star’s ad really blew up, it would be a huge problem for him. It would be tantamount to saying he had no vision and a poor grasp of the market.’

After all, it was under his direction that Jiang Xiaobai’s video had been prevented from ranking on the charts.

He knew how massive Tiao Yin’s future prospects were given its current growth trajectory. If he were truly proven to lack vision and have a poor grasp of the market, it would be fatal to his career.

’This can’t happen. There can’t be any surprises.’

He subconsciously called the head of the technical department.

’President Han might have his opinions, but he could do this secretly.’

As soon as the call connected, before he could speak, the voice of the technical department head came through. "Old Liu, don’t say anything. President Han just called with instructions. He said if you called me, I was to pass on a message: ’If you really don’t want this job anymore, you can just resign. It would be cleaner.’"

"..." A layer of cold sweat instantly beaded on Liu Xian’s forehead. He hastily said, "Pretend I never made this call."

After hanging up, his face fell in dejection.

Now, his only hope was that Second-Life Star’s ad video wouldn’t blow up.

...

「Second-Life Star.」

After Chen Jincheng explained the situation, Sister Hong asked, "Boss, what do we do now?"

"Back to the company first. I have a plan," Chen Jincheng said. He then looked at Cen Ning apologetically. "Cenchun, the plan was to go to the bar to shoot a video for you after this ad, but something’s come up. We’ll have to postpone it."

Cen Ning was very understanding. "It’s okay, Boss. Besides, didn’t I already shoot a video today?"

"Mm, don’t worry, I won’t let you down." Chen Jincheng nodded. ’He liked girls who were this sensible. If he had encountered someone who didn’t know their place and threw a fit in this situation, whining about promises or something, he would’ve just blacklisted them.’

Back at the company, Chen Jincheng went to his office and checked Sister Feiye’s seven ads.

Aside from the one on the ’likes’ chart, which had over a million likes and was of decent quality, the others were all rather conventional. The era of influencer marketing for ads was just beginning. Even Sister Feiye, the best in the business, had her limitations.

This was due to a lack of competition and a market that wasn’t big enough yet.

The main reason Sister Feiye’s ads were so effective was her highly focused promotion within her niche. With the launch of the platform’s creator analytics tools, she was bound to be certified as a high-yield creator—the kind with a massive fanbase—making her naturally popular with advertisers.

In this situation, it was no surprise that Tiao Yin chose her.

But in this era of competing for influencer windfalls, he naturally had no desire to become someone else’s stepping stone.

Therefore, what he had to do now was use Yinyin’s ad video to completely crush Sister Feiye’s seven ads.

Her seven ads were currently worth 2.8 million yuan.

According to his contract with Luna Stockings, 3 million likes would only net him 2 million yuan. He needed to reach 5 million likes to hit 3 million yuan. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Just by combining the heat from Yinyin’s ’stocking-ripping’ and the ’underground parking lot Big Pendulum incident’, breaking 2 million likes should be easy. But hitting 3 million or 5 million would depend on the circumstances; it would require some luck.

So, he had to create a big enough gimmick to draw people in.

And he thought of a PR stunt, one inspired by the "scandal photos" mission he’d received from the Life Simulation Game while playing in the parking lot.

’A photo scandal involving ’Ancestral Master Chen Jincheng’ would be a massive sensation. It could probably blow up the Tiao Yin platform in a short amount of time.’

’As for why every girl in the photo scandal was shot from the same position, in roughly the same pose? And why it looked like they were all in the same room?’

’Because of a special fetish for the same staged angle, of course.’

With this in mind, he immediately called over Xiaoliao and Xiaohai to give them instructions. "Right, take some screenshots from the stocking-change video we shot today and give them to Sister Hong. Sister Hong, you’ll then find some gossip bloggers and send the pictures to them."

"??" Sister Hong was clearly confused. ’Wouldn’t it be better to just release the behind-the-scenes video directly? What was so special about going through the extra trouble of sending them out as edited photos?’

Chen Jincheng explained, "Remember, the story has to be that I, Chen Jincheng, took my computer in for repairs, and these were ’discovered’ on the fixed computer. If it’s exposed that way, it’s a photo scandal. That’s infinitely more shocking than you just releasing behind-the-scenes footage. The scale of the event won’t even be on the same level."

Sister Hong’s eyes finally lit up. She now understood her boss’s meaning.

’Her boss might be a bit of a scumbag, but he’d never left any evidence online.’

’Send the photos to those gossip bloggers, and they’ll definitely publish them for the traffic. To make it seem more authentic, we’ll even charge them a small fee for the pictures.’

’Once the photo scandal breaks, it will absolutely capture everyone’s attention. The heat would be insane. Then, they could take the opportunity to ’clarify’ the situation and release the stocking ad video. The resulting popularity would be terrifying.’

’How on earth did the boss’s brain come up with a method like this?’

"Remember to ask the girls first. After all, a photo scandal stunt will cause them some harm at the beginning," Chen Jincheng added.

’However, one thing was certain: the girls in the photo scandal would definitely get a huge amount of attention. The harm would be temporary, but the benefits would be enormous.’

Sister Hong nodded. "I’ll go talk to Yinyin and the others."

Time slipped by. Elsewhere, Sister Feiye was also in her studio, monitoring the advertising leaderboard.

As the top performer for ad effectiveness on Tiao Yin, she had received inside information ahead of time about the advertising leaderboard, which was why she was making a push for the top spot today.

Moreover, that President Liu had already hinted that he would support her, so she knew this was her chance to shoot for the absolute top tier.

But then, out of nowhere, the other party’s fans started questioning her, claiming her ad video was inferior to that one by Jiang Xiaobai. This annoyed her, but she also saw an opportunity.

Second-Life Star had a lot of heat recently, which she could exploit, especially since they currently had no ads on the leaderboard at all.

"Still no response from Second-Life Star?" Sister Feiye asked an employee with a frown.

The employee beside her shook their head. "I’ve had a lot of people @ Second-Life Star and Chen Jincheng, but there’s been no reaction. It seems they don’t have any ads to show."

"Even if they did produce something, they couldn’t possibly replicate that ad video of Jiang Xiaobai’s," Sister Feiye said with a trace of confidence. "In any case, since their fans came to mock me, they can’t blame me for using them as a stepping stone."

’As long as they dared to respond, they would fall into her trap, follow her rhythm, and be hers to control.’

’Unless they could surpass her on this leaderboard, which was clearly impossible. After all, she had held back seven ads to release all at once just to dominate the chart.’

Just then, another one of her employees came over, pleasantly surprised. "Sister Feiye, good news! Quick, look at the latest hot gossip online. Something big has happened to that Chen Jincheng."

...