After tasting the success of this variety show, many in the company were eagerly anticipating the possibility of continuing with the second season of "Who's the King of Games?" With the second season, they could continue to build on their success and increase both the company and their artists' popularity and attention.
But Su Yin rejected the idea of an immediate second season. After all, there were only eight trainees in the company. If the same games were played repeatedly by the same people, no matter how classic or interesting they were, people would get tired of them. Furthermore, the trainees weren't professional comedians or variety show hosts, so they couldn't come up with new topics or exciting reactions in a short period of time.
Even though Su Yin has many types of games that can be changed in her mind, she does not want the images of several trainees to be firmly tied to this game variety show and variety show guests before their debut.
The production team said they could have a second season, no problem. But in reality, recording a variety show—whether it was pre-production, filming, or post-production—not only consumed a significant amount of the company's manpower, material, and financial resources, but also drained the production team's energy.
This was the first time that Yuexiang Entertainment Company came into contact with, learned and explored how to shoot and produce a variety show, which was extremely energy-consuming. Coupled with Su Yin's various innovative requirements, everyone involved in the production of this variety show was exhausted during this period.
The trainees also need to return to their original training and learning state, catch up on all the progress they have lost, and get back on track.
At the company, Su Yin also directly reiterated her philosophy to the trainees and staff from various departments: an idol's full-time job is singing and dancing, and to be an idol, one must first correct one's attitude and do one's job, at least professionally, well.
The company's idol artists are talented in film, television, variety shows, etc. Once the artists' status is consolidated and they have demonstrated sufficient expertise and advantages, the company will consider helping them transform.
Variety shows and commercials are both great, with short production times, quick reactions, and high returns. The company will definitely not stop producing variety shows, and this break is just a chance for everyone to relax and adjust.
But everyone should understand that if the company wants to train pure variety show stars or advertising models, it will not choose these amateur teenage trainees who are not yet adults and have no experience. It is necessary to grasp the right degree and absolutely cannot neglect professional training in singing and dancing.
Besides this, the company has a plethora of pressing matters, both large and small, that need to be addressed. During this period, we must effectively attract, manage, and retain new fans attracted by variety shows, ensuring they remain a long-term fan base. We must promptly address all new business partnerships and promotional initiatives that the company has been approaching, establishing friendly partnerships with new platforms and brands and securing high-quality resources. We must ensure that the recent buzz generated by this wave of variety shows is quickly and effectively converted into subsequent funding and resources for the company.
Riding on this wave of popularity, the company is officially recruiting a new batch of trainees from Yuexiang Entertainment nationwide to fill its trainee roster. The company will establish a new department directly responsible for trainee recruitment, determine the rules and standards for trainee admission, and continuously recruit trainees to completely address the company's severe artist shortage.
During the production of this variety show, Su Yin also identified several new talent in the production and post-production teams, both talented and capable. With the show's conclusion, most of the production staff received a vacation, aside from their daily training and daily videos. Su Yin also secured spots for several members of the production team at a renowned industry exchange and training conference, allowing them to receive funded training to further enhance the company's variety show production and post-production skills.
As for Su Yin herself, her most important task these days is to prepare for the second launch of the peripheral products of the eight trainees.
Early in the morning, Su Yin took Yang Ming and business specialist Lin Na to the production factory.
Ever since Su Yin had planned to restart her idol-building career in this world and establish her own idol entertainment company, she had already considered artist merchandise. In this world, artist merchandise was still at a relatively rudimentary level, with posters, photo albums, cheering banners, and light boards essentially comprising each entertainment company's merchandise library.
But in fact, in the flower-growing country of 2021 before Su Yin traveled through time, the peripheral products of support had developed to a dazzling level, and it was an era in which everyone was competing crazily for creativity.
Greeting cards, postcards, bookmarks, bracelets, badges, banners, stickers, notebooks, fan-exclusive cards, tapes, card holders, stickers, mobile phone cases, mobile phone holders, human-shaped standees, exclusive display stands, key chains... and all kinds of exclusively designed accessories and clothing that will appear on artists. As long as you can think of it, there is no peripheral product that entertainment companies, fan clubs and pirated shops cannot make.
Many basic merchandise products have been spiced up with new twists. How can sales be expanded without changing the concept? The answer is a variety of limited editions, special holiday and anniversary editions, and even monthly releases. Some entertainment companies have even begun compiling various merchandise into collections, packaging them in gift boxes and sets to inflate the merchandise's value, or selling them through blind box draws to encourage fans to covet specific merchandise.
Whether it's idol artists or the peripheral products of the two-dimensional culture, it's undoubtedly a highly profitable industry. Here, Su Yin also wants to let the entertainment industry and fans of this world feel the terrifying power of peripheral products!
However, in the early days of the company, the trainees' fan base wasn't large enough, and their loyalty wasn't strong enough. At that time, selling merchandise was just a small-scale operation, and could even easily lead to fan complaints and become a laughing stock. Su Yin's ambitions for merchandise weren't just to make a small profit; to make merchandise, she had to produce it in large quantities and sell a wide variety of products to satisfy fans' desires and demands for instant purchases.
Su Yin had decided on the plan to manufacture and sell peripheral products a long time ago, but due to timing and funding reasons, it was delayed, and she had to repeatedly modify the product design and select a suitable factory before going into production.
Two months before the filming of the variety show, the types, designs and quantities of the first batch of peripheral products for the eight trainees were all determined, and the company's accounts were no longer stretched. Su Yin then decided to let the factory officially start production and deliver the products within a month.
Although they are still trainees who have not debuted, they now have enough fans. Su Yin has to complete the production, distribution, and shelving of the first batch of peripheral products before the variety show is broadcast, so as to seize the best opportunity of the possible surge in traffic.
Su Yin would not let this opportunity to make money slip away right under her nose.
Just before the variety show was broadcast, the first batch of peripheral products they had previously ordered was completed and officially delivered. The company also made a series of preparations including listing the peripheral products on the official website and shopping malls, order processing, logistics distribution, etc.
This time, Su Yin went to the factory to discuss increasing production of peripheral products and the next batch of new peripheral products.
More than four months ago, when Su Yin finalized the order details with the factory, everyone at the company agreed that merchandise was certainly possible, but the quantity ordered was too large. Such a wide variety and quantity of merchandise was not only a significant expense, but everyone was also concerned about whether fans would actually consume such a large quantity.
After all, these eight people have only been trainees for a little over a year and haven't officially debuted yet. All the company's current publicity is largely self-generated, as they're only a small company that's been around for two years! The first variety show hasn't even started filming yet. What if fans are just paying lip service to the show, but their purchasing power isn't there? Or what if the show flopped, and releasing merchandise at that point backfired? Naturally, they had to prepare for the worst.
Su Yin, however, allayed everyone's concerns with various data and market analysis. With the growth of her fan base, the stability of her fan base and official website's daily activity, and the preparations for the variety show, everyone gradually felt relieved. If they couldn't sell all the items, they could just keep selling them slowly; they would eventually sell them.
Su Yin, on the other hand, has confidence in the idol development program she's built over the past year and its fan base, as well as in the upcoming variety show. Therefore, she's not worried about whether all the merchandise will sell out. The initial batch of merchandise has already whetted fans' appetite for more, and with the collectible value of this "first batch" of merchandise and the upcoming variety show, she's confident the final results won't disappoint!
The facts were indeed as she expected.
On the first day that the first batch of peripheral products of the eight trainees were put on the shelves, the company’s official website mall directly earned 40 million!
After watching the variety show, old and new fans, still brimming with excitement, discovered the first batch of trainee merchandise on Yuexiang Entertainment's official website and were eager to discover it. The merchandise included photos of the trainees from past training sessions, daily life, and highlights from the variety show, as well as personal photo cards, stickers, chibi dolls, keychains, postcards, phone cases, matching training uniforms, matching designer brands, and more.
Fans were overjoyed by the sudden overflow of merchandise on the official store, exclaiming, "What a brilliant way to enjoy entertainment!" They immediately went on a shopping spree. Many fans not only wanted to buy merchandise for each member, but also wanted to buy every category. According to data from the official website, over 60% of fan members spent over 100 yuan on merchandise at one time, and over 90% bought trainee photos and postcards.
Seeing that the number of fans of each trainee had skyrocketed to tens of millions because of this variety show, and the peripheral products in the mall were being cleared out at a rapidly falling rate, everyone was speechless with Su Yin again.
From now on, they will no longer question their boss's decisions. They will just hold high the banner that the boss is always right! After all, the final results always prove that the boss is right. They will no longer be the "well-meaning employees" who are foolishly afraid that the boss will make the wrong decision!
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