Chapter 580: New Marketing Method: Fan Fiction

Luo Yuzhong just finished filming a drama, and now he has a new move?

And it's a new drama cooperating with Lu Yan He?

Luo Yuzhong's words stirred up a thousand waves.

People who can sit at a table with Luo Yuzhong to eat, more or less, are people with some energy in this industry.

Precisely because of this, they all wanted a piece of the pie for such a project.

"Director Luo, are you and Lu Yan He going to cooperate on a new project? What kind of project is it? The confidentiality work is done really well; not a single sound has leaked out."

Luo Yuzhong thought to himself, it's not that the sound of this project didn't leak out, it's just that those who knew Lu Yan He was going to film a Xianxia drama didn't think this Xianxia drama was prepared for him to be the director.

Luo Yuzhong himself never thought that one day he would be the director of a Xianxia drama.

It wasn't that he was deliberately putting on airs—it was that Xianxia dramas in the market had basically become "special supplies" of a certain type, all turning into idol dramas from the perspective of a big heroine. Under such circumstances, actually, when major film and television companies start dramas, they often choose ancient idol themes in this genre, rather than traditional Xianxia themes.

Of course, *Chinese Paladin* is said to be Xianxia, but in reality, it is also a martial arts story wearing a Xianxia shell.

It's just that the worldview is grander than traditional martial arts.

This was actually an important reason why Luo Yuzhong felt he could direct it after reading the script.

If it were really that kind of Xianxia drama, even if Lu Yan He begged him, he wouldn't direct it.

At his position, cherishing his own feathers is a very important thing.

He himself couldn't get into those dramas, so how could he film them well? Luo Yuzhong has always firmly believed that in the matter of creation, everyone has their own limitations and shortcomings. The premise for you to create a theme well is that you yourself like this theme and understand this theme.

After the news spread, people started to exert effort.

Mainly wanting to stuff actors in. A project directed by Luo Yuzhong and starring Lu Yan He is the best starting point for those newcomers to debut. It doesn't matter how many scenes the role has, and it doesn't matter what the character setting is like; the key is that the first drama of their debut is to appear in such a work—

Whether it's an agency or a film and television company, they will actually be very optimistic about such newcomers.

Later, when building this actor for the outside world, they can also use expressions like "chosen by Director Luo Yuzhong upon debut" or "debuted in a big hit work."

After all, in the entertainment industry, there are only so many actors who are truly known by everyone, and most casting is done through methods like looking at resumes and interviews.

Having such a good acting resume is very beneficial for them to get roles.

This situation is like your internship experience at a big factory and your previous workplace helping you find a job.

Lu Yan He is a bit impervious to oil and salt; no matter who goes to find him, the final reply is always "audition." But Luo Yuzhong is different.

Luo Yuzhong is a director who came out of this big environment, has received favors from many people, and has supported many people. Lu Yan He can withdraw from such a network of human relationships, but Luo Yuzhong cannot. In his projects, there have always been some "human relationship connections" that cannot be pushed away.

As he serves as the director, Lu Yan He definitely cannot monopolize power. Let alone that he is his teacher, just based on Luo Yuzhong's status in the TV drama circle, it is impossible for him to be a puppet director. Therefore, Luo Yuzhong also cannot use this as an excuse to shirk.

The two dramas *Chinese Paladin* and *Dragon Gate Inn* spread in the industry one after another.

The media rendered these two dramas exaggeratedly.

The former is directed by Luo Yuzhong, a big drama where Lu Yan He, Li Zhibai, and Yan Liang combine for the first time; the latter is the second work of genius director Liu Bige, with Lu Yan He as the screenwriter, and Chen Bige and Shang Yongzhou as the leads.

Two big dramas, once exposed, were destined to become highly anticipated big dramas.

All are big dramas with top directors + top screenwriters + top actors.

The most critical thing is that these two dramas not only have exaggerated lineups but also have Lu Yan He, who has maintained an undefeated myth so far, serving as the screenwriter.

Only some of Lu Yan He's career fans were a bit unhappy, feeling that Lu Yan He acted in *Chinese Paladin* but didn't act in *Dragon Gate Inn*.

Liu Bige's second film work as a director, starring Shang Yongzhou and Chen Bige, is a configuration that can completely go to impact the international four major film festivals. If Lu Yan He starred, he might be able to impact an international film festival Best Actor award.

Lu Yan He's career fans still very much hope to see Lu Yan He win another top film festival Best Actor award.

The news of these two dramas stirred up the entire entertainment industry.

Actors who have cooperated with Lu Yan He, such as Liu Zefan and Wang Jing, all came to inquire if there were any supporting roles with heavy scenes that they could act in.

These actors who have started to act as leads, when they get here, don't expect to compete for the lead, and are very willing to act as a supporting role.

Wang Jing is a typical female actor who also ate huge dividends through a supporting role.

*Squid Game* allowed her explosive power to be seen by the entire entertainment industry, and she became famous.

Lu Yan He could only reply one by one, indicating that the roles for the actors had not been decided and that public auditions would be held.

Actually, because *Chinese Paladin* had Director Luo Yuzhong, the three of them starring meant that the budget for other actors was very limited, and it was impossible to invite first-tier actors to act in other roles.

Lu Yan He's idea was to hold a public audition and pick all newcomers.

Actually, *Chinese Paladin* was almost an all-newcomer lineup back then.

After all, this drama doesn't lack buzz, nor does it lack exposure; it no longer needs other actors to give capital parties a reassurance, nor does it need other actors to pull business and pull investment.

Luo Yuzhong agreed with his idea.

Because for such a theme, actually, newcomers have the benefits of newcomers. A face that the audience is not familiar with is more likely to let everyone enter this world of "youth."

As for *Dragon Gate Inn*, Lu Yan He basically didn't participate in the casting. First, the male and female leads were both recommended by him. Although Liu Bige was very satisfied with this starring lineup, Lu Yan He didn't want Liu Bige to feel that he interfered too much. After all, this is still a film work dominated by the director. Second, Liu Bige's choice of actors is very insightful. Just looking at those casting choices of Liu Bige in *Late Spring*, you can see how sharp his eyes are in picking actors. Lu Yan He himself might not necessarily have the ability to pick better than him.

Of course, the most difficult actor to pick for this film is the Jin Xiangyu played by Maggie Cheung.

Chen Bige plays the role of Brigitte Lin. In Chen Bige, there is actually such a charm. Having her act, there is no need to worry about acting skills, and the image is also close, so it is basically stable. Only Jin Xiangyu is a female character written into the history of Chinese cinema, very classic. Lu Yan He looked through the domestic entertainment industry and didn't find an actor who could at least control this role in his imagination—no way, he had a preconceived impression. So, it's better to leave it to Liu Bige.

In April, *The Summit*, starring Yan Liang, suddenly dropped and aired.

This TV series about fraud was filmed around the same time as *Gold Rush*.

Director Chen Mofan once filmed the box office hit film *The Home I Haven't Returned to for a Long Time*.

Because of such a lineup configuration, when it started airing, the volume of this drama was quite large, and after the first episode aired, the word-of-mouth was also very good, receiving good evaluations in major media.

However, after airing for three days, this drama encountered a very awkward situation: critically acclaimed but not commercially successful.

The number of viewers never went up, and the broadcast buzz could only rank in the top five, and couldn't even enter the top two.

In order to promote this drama, Yan Liang put all his effort into it, going on shows, doing livestreams, etc. But for some reason, this drama just couldn't attract the audience to watch it. So much so that when this drama was broadcast to the tenth episode on the video platform, there were actually no pre-roll ads.

This is a very awkward thing.

Pre-roll ads have basically become a key indicator for judging whether a drama is popular and whether there is an audience watching it.

Data can be faked, but the gold-master dad won't throw money at you for nothing.

Lu Yan He actually always watches the dramas of Li Zhibai and Yan Liang.

He also watched this drama.

This drama is indeed filmed very well, completely revealing the operation mode of a fraud group.

However, perhaps precisely because of this reason, this drama adopts a multi-line narrative rhythm, and Yan Liang's line only accounts for about one-third of the volume in the drama.

In the first two episodes, there are many characters and many clues, which makes people feel a bit brain-burning.

No wonder it is critically acclaimed but not commercially successful.

No way, the TV drama market is just like this; if you film a drama a bit more complexly, you will inevitably reject some of the audience.

Just like why *The Home I Haven't Returned to for a Long Time* was a box office hit? Because the audience who watched it all said it was good. Why did this film win so much praise from the audience? Because this film only had the perspective of the heroine from beginning to end, letting the audience be led by the heroine from beginning to end, without any interruption in emotion.

However, the quality of this drama is actually really high. From the analysis and recommendations of major film history bloggers on this drama, it can be seen that people with a larger viewing volume have a much higher acceptance of this drama.

Is there any way to make the results of this drama warm up a bit?

This drama is not that it is not good enough, nor is it that there are no big stars to attract the audience, but the audience often doesn't want to watch after watching the first or second episode; the stickiness is not enough.

This problem can also be seen from the discussion volume of this drama.

"Fan fiction?" Lu Yan He looked at Chen Siqi in shock.

Chen Siqi said: "Yeah, actually in this drama, the discussion volume of several characters is quite high. Most of the people who are really chasing this drama have some characters they like in it. If you want to further attract the audience to watch this drama, I would suggest starting from this aspect, first establishing a small circle that really likes this drama and these characters, and then spreading the discussion volume of this drama through this small circle."

"Won't this be a bit slow? This drama will be finished airing next week, and the number of episodes is not many."

"It might be a little slow, but I believe this is currently the most suitable promotional method for this show," Chen Siqi said. "The subject matter and style of this show aren't really suited for conventional marketing, because it's not that the majority of the audience hasn't seen it, but rather that they aren't interested in this subject and plot. In this situation, you have to take the initiative to dig out the show's appealing points and hold them up for everyone to see. Let them watch the show with that expectation, and their tolerance will be higher. At the very least, if they can make it through the first four episodes, gradually understand the show's worldview, and get into the plot, it's possible for them to be hooked."

Chen Siqi's judgment inspired Lu Yan He quite a bit.

Some dramas are because the star lineup is not good, so they need to open up popularity and let everyone know there is such an interesting drama.

But *The Summit* is not this situation.

It is purely because the theme and style are not the mainstream of the current market, and the audience can't accept it and can't watch it. The number of viewers for the first episode was over ten million, and by the eighth episode, there were only about two million left. The data is enough to explain everything.

Chen Siqi is actually right.

Doing any word-of-mouth marketing can't attract people over again.

No matter how good your word-of-mouth is, I have watched the previous ones, I don't like it, so I am too lazy to watch.

You have to let many people see—

Oh, there is such a plot development later? This character is actually like this?

Feed the attraction point to their mouths, use another form to move the audience, this drama seems to have good parts later, so you can pick it up and watch it.

Fan fiction is just a means, a point, a raw material for promotion and marketing. If someone really creates fan fiction with relatively large influence through the drama *The Summit*, for example, if a thousand drama fans think it's good, the drama side will promote and market this fan fiction, creating hot topics, using the story of fan fiction to attract more people into the pit of the TV series.

Lu Yan He actually knows the influence of fan fiction.

*The Grave Robbers' Chronicles* was able to achieve such explosive influence, and fan fiction made an indelible contribution to online promotion and marketing, especially promotion and marketing on Weibo.

Lu Yan He hesitated because he didn't know if doing this would have any effect.

Chen Siqi said: "I'll go contact the drama side of *The Summit* and the broadcast platform to see if they are willing to cooperate with *Jump Up*. If they don't look favorably on our plan, then forget it. If they are willing to cooperate, we can try. The cost of this kind of marketing is not high and is relatively easy to control."

Indeed.

Lu Yan He understood Chen Siqi's meaning.

At first, actually, you only need to find a few writers who are good at writing this kind of fan fiction to create fan fiction based on this drama. See if they can stir up some topics and waves in the current drama fan circle. If they can, then continue to invest and expand the promotion. If they can't, you can also stop losses in time, with the initial investment not exceeding 100,000 yuan.

Lu Yan He nodded.

He felt it was feasible.

After discussing with Chen Siqi, Lu Yan He told Yan Liang about this matter.

Brothers, clear accounts.

Lu Yan He is also unwilling to see such a good drama end up being critically acclaimed but not commercially successful.

If Chen Siqi's marketing method succeeds, it can actually have a lot of reference significance for many high-quality dramas later.

However, it cannot be that because this drama is starred in by Yan Liang, Chen Siqi and *Jump Up* should do voluntary labor and work for free.

Yan Liang was very surprised after hearing what Lu Yan He said.

He didn't expect that Lu Yan He was still thinking of ways behind his back for the poor viewership of *The Summit*.

Moreover, Lu Yan He's analysis actually made Yan Liang enlightened.

During this period, he was posting on Weibo, doing livestreams, and doing all kinds of promotions, but it didn't help the viewership of *The Summit* much. He and the drama side were both very painful and also discovered the reason why the viewership of this drama was sluggish in the later stages, but there was really no way to break the situation.

This situation of being critically acclaimed but not commercially successful is really the most difficult situation to handle.

However, the marketing method given by Chen Siqi made Yan Liang faintly feel that maybe this could improve the viewership of *The Summit*.

Yan Liang said: "Don't let Siqi take the initiative to contact them; I will go say it. I will let Zhou Ping'an say it, letting them take the initiative to find Siqi and find *Jump Up* to do marketing."

Whoever takes the initiative, their posture naturally has to be a bit lower.

Yan Liang was considering this.

Lu Yan He said: "Your drama has already been broadcast halfway; you have to speed up, otherwise, dragging it out, the drama will be finished."

"I will."

Yan Liang's efficiency was indeed very high.

After hearing Yan Liang's retelling, Zhou Ping'an also felt that Chen Siqi's method was feasible and could be tried.

The main reason was that the initial investment cost was low, and there was no need to spend much money.

100,000 yuan can't even buy a hot search.

But it can buy a possibility—the promotion and marketing ability of the *Jump Up* promotion team led by Chen Siqi has been tested by many projects.

Even the proud Zhou Ping'an attached importance to the plan they put forward.

Zhou Ping'an, as the agent of the lead actor, proposed to save this drama on the grounds that the viewership of this drama was not good.

"If the word-of-mouth of this drama was bad, that would be fine, but the key is that the word-of-mouth of this drama is so good now, yet it can't attract the audience. I can't accept it no matter what," Zhou Ping'an said. "I suggest we can go find the *Jump Up* team. They have always had a way of doing promotion and marketing; maybe they can help this drama find a breakthrough point."

The drama side and the platform hesitated for a moment, and the platform said: "Their asking price is very high. We contacted them for cooperation before, but their price was ridiculously high, so we didn't talk it through."

Zhou Ping'an: "Yan Liang is Yan He's friend; I will let Yan Liang communicate and see if we can talk."

He went out for ten minutes in a pretentious manner and came back.

"They agreed to charge in stages," Zhou Ping'an said. "In the first stage, they only charge 200,000, and later charge according to the promotion effect. This price is very kind, right? Except for Yan Liang and Li Zhibai, no other artists can get such a favorable price from the *Jump Up* team."

Zhou Ping'an had the tone and expression of "It is your blessing that you found Yan Liang to star in this drama."

In fact, the people on the drama side and the platform side indeed had this reaction. ===== CHAPTER 581 =====