Lu Mingliang carried a sense of utmost respect as he prepared to head back to his work station to continue trialing the game.
“Right, how are you guys planning to advertise this game?” Bao Xu suddenly thought about this issue. He wasn’t worried that Game Designer wouldn’t do well; he was just curious!
This time, what novel and special way would Boss Pei use to publicize his own game?
He was really expectant!
Lu Mingliang was stunned for a while, “Errr… as for this; I haven’t asked yet. I’ll go find out now.”
…
…
Pei Qian’s office…
Lu Mingliang sneaked a glance at Boss Pei’s expression. Boss Pei did not look anxious at all! Did he no longer have any regard for life and death? Or was he brimming with confidence and had a well-thought plan?
Regardless, Lu Mingliang was very impressed!
Pei Qian was thinking.
Lu Mingliang had come to ask how Game Designer should be publicized. Originally, Pei Qian had not thought much about it; he had even thought of not doing any publicity at all. However, after thinking about it deeper, he felt that this thinking was very wrong!
He had to look at things with a seasoned view; he couldn’t view it as a foolish undertaking!
Before The Lonely Desert Road and Ghost General had been produced, Tengda was a little-known small company. If he wanted it to lose money, not doing any publicity was a very good idea.
Now, things were different!
With Ghost General and Ocean Stronghold being so widely known and popular—even if Pei Qian did not actively publicize Game Designer, players would definitely find out about it.
He could not hide this release from them!
Since that was the case…
Why not do some publicity?
He could even spend more money! However, how exactly to go about this required careful consideration. If he used ordinary publicity methods—if the game became popular, that would be bad! Hence, the best option was to spend money on publicity but not having any positive effects.
If he could get negative publicity, that would be the best.
At present, the publicity methods Pei Qian could use were just those few. Buying endorsements, commercials, finding a spokesperson…
Pei Qian definitely would not do these.
The possibility of making money from these methods was just too high! They were very traditional publicity methods; although their effects varied, considering how refreshing Game Designer’s art style was, it would easily catch people’s attention.
Such as many scam advertisements on the internet that used stolen video material. Or spend plenty of money to hire celebrities to promote it with awkward sounding catchphrases. Although all of this cost plenty, these sucky ads have a significant impact.
Although one of such related advertisements had only been about rearing orcs with simple animation, a crude snapshot, and rough splicing—as long as the website traffic was sufficient; any game would be able to bring in many players!
If such a lame commercial for Game Designer lit a spark and the game became popular, Pei Qian would really cry.
He could not take this risk.
Hence, Pei Qian did not intend to use similar methods; the chances of making money were too high.
He considered for a moment and said, “Let’s go to a video website and ask a content creator to publicize for us.”
“A content creator?”
Lu Mingliang was stunned. He had not thought about this. Most importantly, compared to other ways of publicity, content creators and sponsored partnerships commanded the lowest rates; the resulting effects were also the worst. Lu Mingliang did not think that Boss Pei would think about this method.
This was the Year 2010, and many rather well-known content creators such as Qiao Liang were still finding it tough to eke out a living.
Huang Sibo’s Boss Pei’s Daily Life that had accumulated millions of views; in the end, they had at most gotten some trashy sponsored partnerships requests. No one bothered with ‘classy and custom-made’ videos.
It wasn’t that people didn’t know what was popular; the crux was content creators just did not generate the same buzz as other publicity methods just yet. If one really had money, he could go to the video website and directly buy commercials that would hit the mark.
When gamers clicked on a gaming video and saw an advertisement right at the start, many of them might actually go and click on it immediately; wouldn’t this achieve a better effect than sponsored partnerships?
Hence, Lu Mingliang did not manage to react for a moment.
However, he recovered and said, “I understand! Boss Pei, you mean to find Huang Sibo and Director Zhu Xiaoce to do a custom-made publicity video for our game; to use Boss Pei’s Daily Life’s popularity to aid in Game Designer’s publicity, right?”
Pei Qian, “???”
When did I say I wanted to look for Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce?! Don’t misrepresent my words!
I would definitely not ask Zhu Xiaoce and the rest to help with a custom-made video; definitely not!
That would be too much value for money.
Fei Huang Workspace was a subsidiary of Tengda. If Pei Qian gave them a hundred thousand to produce a custom-made video commercial for Game Designer, this hundred thousand would become Fei Huang Workspace’s profits. A portion of that still had to be returned to Tengda!
In from the left pocket and out from the right; it was a super value discount deal. How could Pei Qian allow that?
Furthermore, Zhu Xiaoce was a genius director. Game Designer and Boss Pei’s Daily Life’s themes actually complemented each other. What if the game gained in popularity because of this? Wouldn’t Pei Qian be losing big on two ends?
If Boss Pei’s Daily Life also became popular together with Game Designer, Pei Qian would really vomit blood!
Thinking of this, Pei Qian shook his head. “I’m not thinking of looking for Huang Sibo and the others. Boss Pei’s Daily Life is still at the crucial stage of building a reputation; I can’t disrupt their plans and reputation just for a commercial for this game.”
“I see.” Lu Mingliang nodded as he silently chided himself for not having a broader perspective.
Boss Pei was right. At present, Fei Huang Workspace needed to build up its reputation and popularity now; it shouldn’t go overboard with sponsored partnerships.
Especially since both companies’ relationship was so tight; tongues would waggle.
“In that case… shall I contact some more well-known people in the market, content creators with more fans? Lu Mingliang asked.
Pei Qian thought about it. “How about this? I’ll give you a list tomorrow as well as a wire copy and the price; you can act accordingly.”
Lu Mingliang nodded, “Alright, Boss Pei.”
Aye, Boss Pei still doesn’t believe in my abilities and is helping me as much as he can personally; I have to buck up!
Lu Mingliang was a little ashamed.
Chapter 111 - Unique Video Script
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The next day…
Pei Qian sent a document over to Lu Mingliang. “Do as it says.”
Pei Qian trusted in Lu Mingliang’s ability to listen to instructions. Ever since they started research and development of Game Designer, Lu Mingliang had been loyally acceding to Pei Qian’s requests. Even when Pei Qian asked him to do voice-overs, he did it.
Pei Qian was very satisfied with this special characteristic of Lu Mingliang’s. Employees who did not create trouble for him were good employees!
Lu Mingliang opened the document that Pei Qian sent to him. There were three parts to the contents. They were… which content creator to find for marketing, the script for marketing, and the fees for marketing.
It was quite detailed. Lu Mingliang scanned the document from top to bottom.
“I’m finished. Why is it that I cannot understand
Boss Pei’s intentions at all?!”
Lu Mingliang began to panic. In the past, he could vaguely guess Boss Pei’s intentions. However, he was at a complete loss now! Every single sentence in this document was very clear. Why was it so hard to understand when they were all put together?
First, which content creator should he find for marketing?
Lu Mingliang read through the contents. There were all sorts of content creators from every area listed there. Even those from the beauty area were included! However, these content creators were all the bland ones; not a single famous content creator was listed!
The most famous content creator listed here who had come into contact with games was ‘Teacher Qiao’, Qiao Liang. In other words, it was the same content creator who dissed The Lonely Desert Road.
However, Boss Pei purposely cautioned Lu Mingliang not to market the game in the Trash Games Diss, but in the New Recommended Games of the Month.
On the surface, this was a perfectly reasonable request. This was because Trash Games Diss listed all the lousy games. If they were to run an advertisement in that, the marketing strategy would backfire.
That was why Qiao Liang purposely created another segment—New Recommended Games of the Month, that was meant for sponsored partnerships.
However, if one took a look at how popular each of these segments was, they would discover a problem. The New Recommended Games of the Month series was used especially for sponsored partnerships. The number of views that it got was not even one-tenth of that for Trash Games Diss!
Given that it was so much less popular, what would be the effect of marketing the game there?
The other content creators looked even more ridiculous. They were from the lifestyle area, the beauty area, the science area. Even if these content creators from all sorts of backgrounds worked hard to market the game, how many real players could they attract to play Game Designer?
When one ran advertisements, they focused on the conversion rate.
People who looked at videos in the gaming area were mostly gamers themselves. Once they saw a good recommendation, they would probably search for the game and try it out. For every hundred views—if one person tried the game out, that would still be a satisfactory result.
However, in other areas like the beauty industry—for example, the audience was filled with girls who loved to doll up. Even if they thought that the game looked fun, they might not even bother to search for it. So what if they got a million views? If only one person in every ten thousand people tried the game, it would be disastrous!
Thus, looking at the various types of content creators listed on the document, Lu Mingliang felt confused and exhausted. Yet, more confusing and exhausting things were to follow!
Second, how to market…
Normally, content creators who created videos were people with refreshing personalities. For instance, they might like cursing or saying riddles or might be especially good at coming up with storylines or special effects.
Therefore, when people offered sponsored partnerships, they were normally respectful of the creative intent behind the content creators’ work. This meant they would provide necessary materials and props and leave the content creators to come up with their own content.
Of course, as the receiving parties, if they wanted to make a name for themselves; content creators had to satisfy every single one of the sponsors’ requests. Still, no matter what, sponsors had to respect content creators’ freedom and right to create their own content. This way, both parties would win.
The document that Boss Pei sent over contained a script to be used in videos.
Whether the content creator was from the gaming area, the beauty area, the science area, or the electronics area… every single one of them had to follow the script in their video!
This alone would have been fine.
However, just reading the script made Lu Mingliang’s head hurt. He had never seen a commentary like that… with English mixed with Mandarin, lacking both in tact and tone.
Take this for example:
“Uh-oh, this is my own moment, right1?”
“How freaking cool!”
“Slurp, gulp. Slurp, gulp. Slurp, gulp… (Sounds of your tongue slurping and you swallowing saliva)”
“Awesome1!”
“What a beautiful image to start the game with! This picture alone makes me feel like the game is worth… three thousand yuan.”
“Okay, I’m going to try and take this as a simple running exercise. I’m not going to glorify it1… I won’t overstate it.”
“Uh-oh x14 (continuously).”
Everything else was similar to the above.
After reading the entire script, Lu Mingliang became deeply puzzled. He began questioning himself.
Has my IQ… deteriorated so much?
Why did he feel like this script for the video would be extremely insulting to the content creators?
Speaking in English mixed with Mandarin would be irritating enough; he was even laying down requirements for their use of onomatopoeia? They had to say ‘uh-oh’ fourteen times and not a single time less? Did he think that content creators were not losing fans quickly enough?
The final matter was about the fees.
The content creators were to be paid according to the number of fans they had. However, overall, the fees that Boss Pei was offering were too… too generous! Pei Qian even prepared an additional amount to be used to raise the offer!
It was obvious that Pei Qian had predicted some content creators would reject this high-value sponsorship request (mainly due to their own pride or ego).
It was alright even if they wanted to reject it at first; Boss Pei would offer them more money! Of course, it was not a limitless amount. The highest they could raise the fees offer to was two times.
Lu Mingliang guessed that it would be hard for these content creators to reject this amount. This was because Pei Qian selected the less-famous content creators. These people were finding it hard enough to make a living; there was no reason for them to cherish their own pride and ego that much.
However, for Tengda, this seemed like a lose-lose situation.
The content creators would surely be cursed by their fans. Then, people would stop watching them and recommending them to their friends. Tengda would be spending this huge amount of money to achieve limited marketing success. They would lose money.
Just thinking about this outcome made Lu Mingliang feel helpless.
“Calm down. Boss Pei must have his own reasons for doing this. If you don’t understand this document, don’t act of your own accord. Just do as it says.”
Lu Mingliang had no choice but to log on to various video websites to contact the content creators on Pei Qian’s list.
…
…
In a certain rented house in Beijing…
Qiao Liang looked dispirited. He was holding up a bowl of instant noodles and slurping for it. It was a bowl, not a cup. This was because he could no longer afford cup noodles. He could only afford the packet ones.
Business was bad these days!
It was not that he did not want to work hard. The important thing was there were no good games to talk about. There were no fun games; neither were there extraordinarily lame games! All in all, he could not ride on the popularity of any games or become popular on his own.
What’s more, nobody was offering him sponsored partnerships these days. All of these things made Qiao Liang feel like he was stuck in a deep pit. He was even considering changing his career.
Look at what Boss Pei Daily Life had become!
His face was twisted with jealousy. Those videos were getting so many views. He guessed that the creators’ hands were getting tired from taking up so many sponsored partnerships.
As he ate his noodles, he mindlessly surfed the web. Suddenly, he received a private message from someone on Potato Web.
“Teacher Qiao, how are you? I am Lu Mingliang, the chief planner for Tengd
a games. I wanted to talk to you about a business partnership. Is now a convenient time for you?”
Qiao Liang did not read the contents of the message in detail. His eyes were transfixed on the words ‘business partnership’.
Convenient?
Of course, it is! It was very convenient! He was starving to death. He was counting on Lu Mingliang to have money to eat!
Qiao Liang’s mind was completely overtaken by the words ‘beggars can’t be choosers’. The thought of making a living perked him up at once. Both of them liaised with each other on the website and quickly became friends.
“I wonder how much they will offer me. How much should I ask for? 1,500 yuan? Would that be too much…?”
Qiao Liang hesitated.
Unexpectedly, the man named Lu Mingliang started a conversation. “Teacher Qiao, would three thousand yuan per video do?”
Chapter 112 - Boss Pei… Would not Bear a Grudge, Would He?
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Qiao Liang looked at the bowl of hot noodles in his hand and then looked back at the number in the conversation window on his screen: one three… and three zeroes.
“Three thousand yuan?! Does this company belong to a rich lord?!”
Qiao Liang was stunned. The amount of money he was used to earning per video was only about a thousand yuan. From time to time, he was paid 1,500 to 2,000 yuan. However, those videos normally had many requirements, and they were few and far between.
This big client’s offering price was three thousand yuan?
Once he was finished with this job, he would be able to catch fish1 for at least half a month!
Qiao Liang no longer felt tired. “No problem! What kind of video am I supposed to make? Please brief me.” As long as there was money to be earned, he could do anything.
Lu Mingliang sent a document to him, containing the video script that Pei Qian wrote. “Teacher Qiao, this is the script for the video. The only requirement is that you strictly follow this script. Prepare the necessary material. It’ll be good if you can show your face, but if you don’t, that’s fine. You cannot make any changes to this script. That’s the only condition; there are no others. Later on, I will send you a few recordings of the game.”
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