Chapter 1237: The fifth step of the 'Reach the Summit' plan!
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
Sunday.
Noon.
The aroma of cooked food filled the entire studio.
Everyone had gathered here today, including Zhang Ye.
"Director Zhang, let's eat."
"We ladies have cooked some food for everyone, so have a taste of our culinary skills."
"Director Zhang, are we allowed to drink today?"
"Feel free to!"
"But Director Zhang, should we really be drinking during working hours?"
"It's the weekend, so let's not be so uptight about the rules."
"Alright, I'll go get the beer then."
"Come, come, everyone, let's eat!"
"A toast to I Am a Singer for getting number one in the nationwide viewership ratings again!"
"We've already celebrated that last week. This time, we should be celebrating our defeat of Sing! After battling with Central TV Department 1 so many times, we've finally beat them into submission!"
"Right, let's toast to that!"
"Cheers!"
"Hahaha, let's drink!"
A celebratory feast was being held at the studio today. After Central TV Department 1 announced the time change for Sing! yesterday, the fourth milestone in their "Reach the Summit" plan could be said to have been completed ahead of time. Without a strong competitor, and without Sing!'s presence to spoil the show by taking a share of their show's popularity, they were virtually unstoppable now. Honestly, the studio's staff felt terrified at the beginning. Everyone knew that doing a singing show wasn't the best choice to make at the time. Even if the viewership ratings were not bad, as long as there was Sing! to clash with, they would still lose out on quite a bit of the popularity, which would in turn affect the progression of their plan. But this outcome was undoubtedly for the best, and they probably had been more frightened than hurt by anything. The most important thing was that Zhang Ye's screen time on I Am a Singer had turned out to be much more than they had expected, and the segment was also getting a lot of attention from the viewers. Therefore, with a large amount of attention and popularity generated for the show, it corresponded into a transfer to Zhang Ye. This was their main objective for this milestone, and it was more important than anything else.
At midnight, the Chinese Celebrity Rankings Index was updated.
Chen Guang had been pushed to the forefront of the B-list.
The once-popular Zhao Wuliu had returned to the rankings and was now among those in the D-list.
He Huan's rank rose by six places.
Amy was moving further and further up the B-list.
Xiaodong was in a similar position to Chen Guang as they both closed in on the A-list.
Grandma Zhang Xia had the greatest increase in popularity among their entire group. Her jump in the rankings astounded everyone. In just the timespan of one night, Grandma Zhang got promoted into the B-list. Even though everyone knew Zhang Xia because she was a familiar face to many people through her constant presence on the yearly Spring Festival Gala, she had always been considered just a C- or D-list celebrity due to various other reasons. The older generations all liked her a lot, but there weren't too many from the younger generation who were her fans. This was also the cause of Grandma Zhang's prior lukewarm popularity.
But with the aid of her performances on I Am a Singer, Zhang Xia's songs and singing had destroyed everyone's mindset of her. Together with the somewhat fashionable gray hair of hers, many of the younger people turned into a fan of the old lady. This was what contributed to Zhang Xia's overnight shot to fame. Of course, this explosion of popularity was also due to the accumulation of decades of hard work by Zhang Xia, as well as her image. With all these conditions coming together, it brought about her miraculous rise in the Celebrity Rankings Index. This wouldn't have been possible if it were any person other than her.
As for Zhang Ye?
His rank remained the same.
He had been sitting in first place on the A-list for a very long time.
Some people simply gave it a quick glance, then skipped right past his name. But if anyone observed more thoroughly, they would have clicked on Zhang Ye's name and discovered that his popularity score was no longer the same as it was when he first reached the top of the A-list. The increase was slightly more than twofold, and he had shaken off the other A-listers behind him. Meanwhile, the gap between him and the seven S-list celebrities was no longer as large as before! While the public and the media still hadn't realized it, Zhang Ye was quietly creeping up to those seven spots!
After lunch.
The studio's staff sat down together.
Zhang Ye asked, "How far are we?"
Ha Qiqi, who was holding a statistics report in her hand, said, "We've caught up by quite a bit, but we're also still lacking by quite a bit."
Zhang Zuo laughed and said, "Perhaps it's because those seven spots have not changed in too many years, so everyone's mindset is that no one up there will be replaced anytime soon. That's why the media did not pay any attention to it. We should take this opportunity to score an unexpected victory and take them all by surprise."
Wu Yi sniggered. "Yeah, they still haven't realized it."
Tong Fu said excitedly, "Are we going to implement the fifth step now?"
Ha Qiqi nodded. "Yes, I think it's time."
"Yeah, I agree." Zhang Zuo looked at the calendar and said, "Based on the time frame that we identified, we can probably go ahead and start now."
Ha Qiqi asked, "Director Zhang, is your show recording schedule going to be busy?"
Zhang Ye smiled. "It's not too bad since everything is already on track, so I could spare some time."
Ha Qiqi blinked. "Then you should be prepared to get a little busier from here."
Zhang Ye acknowledged, "Yeah, I was the one who called for the 'Reach the Summit' plan to be implemented. From that moment on, I knew that we wouldn't have much time to rest. So how could I not be prepared for it? Which brands have we identified as targets? Are there any that I'm familiar with? It would be easier to deal with those that we're worked with before. For those that we haven't, it might be a little more troublesome to handle."
Ha Qiqi took out a document and handed it to Zhang Ye. "While you were working on the show, we got in touch with these companies. Of course, it's just preliminary contact for now. We still haven't had any in-depth discussions with them. As there are too many rumors going around about you, some of which are quite negative, we have to start a familiarization process with them. There are some brands who are very interested in working with you. But most of the major brands already have a fixed celebrity spokesperson, so it might not be easy to approach them. Especially for those brands that are endorsed by the Heavenly Kings and Queens. I believe those will be the most difficult to take down. We can only try our luck and see how it turns out."
Zhang Ye said, "Make a list then."
Ha Qiqi said, "Alright."
Try our luck?
This wasn't Zhang Ye's style!
They would either go big or go home!
The "Reach the Summit" plan was a proposal that was drawn up to aid Zhang Ye in his goal to achieve S-list status. It involved a chain of steps, and the first step was done to pave the way for the second step, the second was done to lay the foundations for the third, while the fourth step to make a variety show was to service the fifth step's target. It was done to help Zhang Ye gain the maximum popularity and get continuous increased exposure in the television show industry. That would help increase his onscreen appeal so that the fifth step could be completed more smoothly!
And the fifth step of the plan was: fight for endorsements!
So why did they choose this time period to take action?
Because many of the major brand endorsements were due to expire during this period of time. There were at least seven or eight suitable lucrative endorsement deals whose contractual obligations with their celebrity spokespersons were expiring or had expired. Some of these endorsements might be renewed, but others had not been confirmed for renewal. That was why this window of time was extremely important for them!
For some of the ordinary endorsement deals, there shouldn't be a need for A- or B-list celebrities to fight for them. Some of the lousier endorsement deals might even get rejected by celebrities who were a little more famous. They wouldn't take the deal even if it paid a lot. Only some of the has-been celebrities or newcomers to the industry would be willing to earn this sort of money.
But for some of the bigger brand-name endorsements, even the A-list celebrities would have to fight for them. This wasn't simply about money, as some endorsements were a great help to raise the names and public presence of those celebrities. Citing an example, a big spender leading health supplement company like Brain Gold had already thrown out over tens of millions of yuan to the various major television stations to buy their commercial spots and did not even feel a pinch. Just the title sponsorship fees for I Am a Singer had already cost them 200 million RMB. Every time a 15-second Brain Gold commercial finished broadcasting, there would be a shot of Zhang Ye onscreen. He would be shown on Beijing Television, Shanghai Television, and even Hunan Television.
Why?
Because Brain Gold had bought the commercial spots on all of those stations!
Because Zhang Ye was the spokesperson for Brain Gold!
He could get paid and get the help of a corporation buying commercial spots while gaining more exposure himself. As such, who wouldn't want to fight for it?
But some of the smaller companies and brands didn't have the capacity to do so. In fact, some of the shoddier and more inferior brands might even bring down the image and popularity of a celebrity. If anyone saw it, they would surely react by thinking, Whoa, you're even taking this lousy ad? Just how badly are you doing that you'd need to accept it? That would cause the common folk to lower their perception of said celebrity, and they might really start wondering if the celebrity was really that hard up for money. It would then cause the celebrity's endorsement value to drop and lower their market influence. As a result, the other brand names would have a lower valuation of the celebrity as well and wouldn't look to use them even if they had a good advertisement campaign coming up. Therefore, the waters of the endorsement industry were very deep. The brands with potential were all fought over, while nobody cared for the lesser ones. There was just no uniform reception them.
And this time, Zhang Ye was getting ready to dip his hands into the endorsement industry!
Do not underestimate the popularity brought by advertising exposure. One or two of them might not mean much.
But what about three?
Five?
Or eight?
Just imagine, when the people turned on their televisions each day, every channel would be showing Zhang Ye. As long as the television was on, there would be a commercial with Zhang Ye in it. As long as they visited an online video hosting site, there would be advertisements with Zhang Ye's picture. What kind of a concept was that? That was the power of forced advertising, and it would be enough to increase Zhang Ye's popularity by a great deal!
This was the fifth step of the "Reach the Summit" plan!
If they could complete this step, the plan to reach the summit would surely be nearing its completion!
They were approaching the day they could finally be crowned with success!