Chapter 1357 The Ugliest Superhero's Promotion Plan

"As for the details of the profit-sharing, talk to Aili Island website. We cooperate frequently, so it's okay to give them some leeway."

Pei Qian finished speaking and handed the plan back.

He wanted to give Aili Island as much benefit as possible, but he couldn't say it too obviously, so he could only hint at it slightly.

Anyway, earning a little less is still earning less.

The specifics of how the profits are shared won't vary much in the end. The key is how *The Successor* performs after its release.

Huang Sibao took the plan: "Oh, right, President Pei, there's one more thing."

"The subsequent episodes of *The Successor* are also being filmed smoothly. We're considering releasing one episode per week until the end of next month, finishing all 12 episodes."

"This schedule should be fine, right?"

Pei Qian glanced at the calendar on his computer. At one episode per week, it would indeed finish around the end of January or the beginning of February.

"Can it... be faster?" Pei Qian asked.

He looked at the time. If the entire series was going to air for almost two months, the heat would actually continue.

Many popular TV series release a portion this week and another portion next week, continuing like this for a month, in order to maintain online discussion.

Otherwise, if everything is released at once, everyone will only discuss the ending, and the heat will quickly pass.

But for *The Successor*, Pei Qian definitely wanted to do the opposite.

The longer it dragged on, the more likely things were to change.

It would be best to release the entire series all at once, then have the audience watch it all in one go, then collectively and vehemently criticize it, and then it would be done and over with.

Huang Sibao looked embarrassed: "This... in the most extreme case, we can shorten it to two episodes per week, with the last two episodes released together, so it can be finished in about a month."

"That would be around January 12th."

"However, this isn't good for accumulating hype. It might be feeding the audience too much at once, especially since each of our episodes is nearly an hour long..."

Pei Qian raised his hand: "It doesn't matter! I think that time is just right!"

"Let's do it that way, two episodes a week, and finish airing everything by January 12th."

If the time is short, the pre-release hype won't be very effective, and the online discussions won't build up much heat. It feels like a good choice.

Huang Sibao was a little puzzled: "Uh... President Pei, are you saying that something might happen around January 12th that would help the hype for *The Successor*?"

"Otherwise, why rush so much?"

Pei Qian: "..."

Who told you to interpret it that way!

But then he thought about it, and it seemed that Huang Sibao could only understand it that way. After all, there was no reason to release the entire series so quickly from any perspective.

Pei Qian had no choice but to say vaguely: "Well... it might be useful, or it might not be. Don't have any expectations, but it doesn't hurt to try our luck."

Huang Sibao nodded immediately: "Understood!"

"Then it's settled. I'll go discuss the details of the cooperation with Aili Island website."

...

Huang Sibao came out of President Pei's office and seamlessly connected with Meng Chang, who was waiting in the lounge.

Seeing Meng Chang, Huang Sibao said in a low voice: "You guessed it, President Pei really chose Aili Island website, and he also asked to change the buyout to profit-sharing."

Meng Chang nodded slightly, a smile appearing on his face.

Good, this shows that he understands President Pei's intentions, so the promotion plan for *The Successor* will probably be more in line with President Pei's requirements, greatly increasing the chances of success!

Huang Sibao left quickly, preparing to return to Fei Huang Studio to continue discussing the specific details of the cooperation with the staff of Aili Island.

Although President Pei finalized the profit-sharing plan, the specific amount to be shared and how each type of data is calculated still need to be carefully studied.

For the approximate level of viewership and ratings that *The Successor* needs to reach for the profit-sharing to catch up with the buyout income, this needs to be carefully considered.

But overall, if this series is relatively successful, the profit-sharing income should definitely be higher than the buyout income.

After all, with a buyout, the risk is borne by Aili Island website, while with profit-sharing, the risk is borne by Fei Huang Studio.

The party that bears more risk should receive some compensation, which is only natural.

Meng Chang came to the door of President Pei's office and knocked before entering.

"President Pei, this is the initial promotion plan I made for *The Successor*." Meng Chang handed over the plan.

"Please take a look, President Pei, and give me some advice."

Pei Qian reached out and took it, very satisfied.

Meng Chang is getting better and better.

Before, Meng Chang always hid his promotion plans, trying everything possible to prevent Pei Qian from knowing, and then after the plan failed, he always felt that Pei Qian was targeting him.

This was quite disheartening.

But now, Meng Chang is actively bringing the plan over and seriously listening to advice, which is a kind of progress!

Pei Qian is very satisfied with this and feels that Meng Chang is different from others and can be entrusted with important tasks.

Seeing President Pei's satisfied expression, Meng Chang was also very happy.

He also realized that his previous approach was wrong, because President Pei only wanted to see how well he had mastered the Pei's Promotion Method when he looked at his plan.

Actively bringing the plan to President Pei might allow him to learn more useful things.

Pei Qian briefly flipped through the plan.

Meng Chang's plan can be said to be quite simple and crude, even a bit rough.

The theme of his promotion is: "The Ugliest Superhero"!

In the promotional materials, many ugly photos and embarrassing scenes of the protagonist, Phil, will be put up, and the series will be promoted as an "alternative superhero genre."

In addition, there are also taglines such as "Truly Authentic Superhero Movie" and "Deconstructing the Essence of Superheroes," which seem unrelated or even contradictory, as a supporting act.

In addition, of course, trailers are indispensable.

In fact, when editing the main film, the Fei Huang Studio also conveniently edited the trailer, but since they were not sure what effect to edit it into, they edited several versions.

Meng Chang specifically selected a trailer that focused on Phil's plot as the main lens, the first half of which was a shot of Phil constantly embarrassing himself, showing his ugliness to the fullest, and the second half of which was a shot of Phil using various dirty means to seize power.

In short, none of them were serious shots.

There are no very original promotional methods, and as before, it is completely just spending money to stack up materials.

After reading this plan, Pei Qian couldn't help but nod slightly.

Yes, as expected of Meng Chang, this plan is still very reliable!

Brutally stacking promotional materials can ensure a lot of money is spent while achieving not-so-good promotional results.

Completely showing Phil's ugliness will help the audience to feel repulsed and disgusted by the protagonist, deterring many viewers through their first impression.

And these contradictory slogans can also have a clickbait effect to a certain extent, causing some viewers to have a biased estimate of the content of the series, and after seeing the first three episodes, they will exclaim that they have been fooled and give a bad review on the spot.

However, in Pei Qian's view, this plan also has some imperfections.

"The overall idea of the plan is correct."

"However, I have a question."

"'Authentic Superhero Movie' and 'Deconstructing the Essence of Superheroes' are two completely opposite promotional terms. The former implies that this is an orthodox superhero movie, which can have a deceptive effect on the audience; while the latter implies that this is an anti-superhero movie."

"Why use this contradictory way to promote it?"

"You can also consider promoting it entirely in the opposite direction, creating a misleading effect on the audience."

Hearing President Pei's question, Meng Chang was not nervous, but very happy.

Yes, it seems that President Pei is going to test my learning results!

This is like many teachers who, after receiving students' homework, find that a certain link lacks the process of demonstration and directly gives the result. At this time, they will ask how this result was derived to test whether the student has truly mastered this piece of knowledge or is planning to muddle through.

Now President Pei is obviously doing something similar.

Meng Chang confidently replied: "Isn't what you're talking about the promotional technique used by *Struggle* in the first place, President Pei? I actually considered it at the very beginning."

"That is, using completely misplaced content at the beginning of the promotion to create a wrong induction for the audience or players, so that they will exclaim that they have been fooled after learning about the real situation, thereby comprehensively lowering the evaluation in the early stage."

"But after a specific analysis, I found that the current situation of *The Successor* is different from *Struggle*, and this method cannot be used."

"Because *Struggle* was highly confidential before it was launched, and the players knew nothing about the game content, so it could be fooled. However, the original novel of *The Successor* is hanging on the starting point Chinese website, and many old readers have read it, so it is impossible to fool everyone."

"If we force it, it may instead make the audience aware of the problem, stimulate their rebellious psychology, and cause the results of the initial promotion to run counter to what we expected."

In other words, if Meng Chang simply uses "This is a real superhero movie" to promote it, then it will definitely be exposed by the old readers of *The Successor*, resulting in some unpredictable consequences.

And using two different ways to promote it can play a good confusing role, making it more difficult for those new audiences to grasp the essence of the movie.

After all, not everyone has the patience to chew through hundreds of thousands of words of the original work for a new drama that is not very good.

Pei Qian nodded, very satisfied with Meng Chang's answer.

Meng Chang considered using the promotional method of *Struggle*, which is a kind of progress.

Although the game *Struggle* was ultimately successful, the promotional method of *Struggle* did attract a lot of bad reviews.

And Meng Chang can see the shortcomings of this promotional method, did not force it, but combined his own understanding to give a new plan, which is a commendable thing.

The method Meng Chang is using now is essentially the same as *Struggle*, using the wrong promotional direction to build a false expectation for the audience, and once this expectation is not met, they will angrily give bad reviews.

However, his method is more subtle and more defenseless than *Struggle*, and will not be easily exposed.