December 20th, Thursday morning.

Advertising and Marketing Department.

Meng Chang got a cup of coffee from the water bar and sat at his workstation, leisurely sipping his coffee while contemplating the second round of promotional tactics for “The Successor.”

The first three episodes of “The Successor” had aired last weekend, and two more episodes would air this weekend.

From the current situation, “The Successor’s” start could be described as quite ideal. The first round of promotional tactics hadn’t been very effective, the series’ ratings and viewership were relatively low, and if this trend continued, receiving a commission was definitely not out of the question.

So, Meng Chang felt he should keep up the good work.

According to the guiding principles of the Pei Promotion Method, this was the time to continue increasing promotional investment!

From a commission perspective, since the project had already been determined unlikely to recover in its early stages, increasing promotional spending at this point would surely lead to more commission;

From the perspective of the Pei Promotion Method, although there were no visible results at present and the promotional funds invested seemed to have sunk to the bottom, as long as the promotional plan ultimately succeeded and the reviews turned around, all the previously sunken heat would naturally resurface and take effect again, making the entire plan explode more thoroughly.

In short, from any angle, this was a great opportunity to increase promotional investment.

Currently, Meng Chang’s planned follow-up promotional strategy was similar to the first round, focusing primarily on direct promotion.

In his vision, the final turnaround would likely still require Master Tian to step forward, properly interpret the deeper meaning of this series, clearly explain “The Successor’s” anti-superhero core, and specifically explain the numerous details left in the series.

It didn’t matter if the audience’s first impression of this series wasn’t very good—after all, the first three episodes were meant to lay groundwork and weren’t particularly entertaining.

But for the upcoming plot, Meng Chang was quite confident.

With the broadcast of subsequent episodes, “The Successor’s” reputation should gradually improve. Once all episodes had aired and all viewers had formed a complete and comprehensive impression of it, that would be the time for Master Tian to make his appearance.

Meng Chang was happily thinking about his plan when Huang Sibo arrived.

“There’s a situation with ‘The Successor.’ I couldn’t think of a good solution, so I had to come for help.”

Huang Sibo found Mr. Qian’s review on his phone and handed it to Meng Chang.

Meng Chang was stunned: “This is…”

“Huh?”

Seeing this review, Meng Chang was dumbfounded.

Then, his brow furrowed deeply, his expression puzzled. Clearly, this matter was completely beyond his expectations.

Director Zhu explained: “This review directly attacks the story core of ‘The Successor’ and is very deceptive, so it’s difficult to handle.”

“I asked Cui Geng yesterday, but he couldn’t think of a good solution either. At this point, you’re probably the only one who can solve this problem.”

“If this problem isn’t resolved and the viewpoint of this review influences more and more viewers, ‘The Successor’s’ overall evaluation will definitely get worse and worse.”

“In the worst case, many people might start criticizing ‘The Successor’ without even watching it, and viewers who’ve already watched the first few episodes might lose patience. Once a stereotype forms, the subsequent results are unimaginable.”

Meng Chang didn’t speak, but his expression became even more grave.

He understood perfectly what Huang Sibo meant.

“The Successor” was an anti-superhero satire. To fully understand the implications of the entire story, one had to completely understand the causes and effects of the whole story and pay attention to some of the detailed content within it.

Looking at only a part of it could easily lead to misunderstandings.

Originally, according to the normal process, during the early stages of “The Successor’s” broadcast, though people might be dissatisfied and the ratings low, this poor reputation was completely bearable because viewers’ dissatisfaction was mostly a pure emotional release and difficult to coalesce into an unbreakable unified opinion.

After all episodes had aired, as long as the correct interpretation of “The Successor” was released, it would be easy to resolve the viewers’ dissatisfaction.

But now, Mr. Qian’s review had completely disrupted this process!

Unlike ordinary viewers who simply felt uncomfortable based on their first impressions, Mr. Qian’s review directly pointed to the story core of “The Successor” as a series and showed a trend toward a unified opinion.

Those viewers dissatisfied with “The Successor” originally just felt emotionally unable to accept it, or subjectively thought it wasn’t good, scattered in a way that wouldn’t amount to much.

But after seeing Mr. Qian’s review, they might strongly agree, believing this was the reason they didn’t like “The Successor,” thereby forming a unified front.

As this viewpoint spread, it would influence more and more viewers, forming a kind of impression flow.

Viewers who had watched a few episodes, or those who hadn’t watched at all and only heard about it secondhand, were easily influenced. And once most people formed stereotypical impressions, they wouldn’t actively watch the series to completion and form their own ideas but would continue to spread these stereotypes.

At that point, Mr. Qian’s review would widely influence viewers’ perceptions of “The Successor,” making it difficult for “The Successor’s” reputation to recover.

Meng Chang understood the seriousness of this matter even more clearly than Huang Sibo and was more anxious.

Because this review would directly disrupt his promotional plan, causing his Pei Promotion Method to fail at the last moment!

Meng Chang had originally thought that viewers’ dissatisfaction with “The Successor” actually stemmed from minor details, such as Phil’s character design or individual plot segments. But these were actually highly related to the core of the story.

As long as the correct interpretation was released, it would eliminate viewers’ dissatisfaction.

But now Mr. Qian was attacking the spiritual core of the entire series, being very deceptive, and had published so early!

According to Meng Chang’s original plan, in the middle of next month, after all episodes had been released, he would publish a video as Master Tian to turn public opinion around.

But that was still a month away!

During this month, Mr. Qian’s hit piece was enough to form stereotypical impressions among viewers. By then, even if Master Tian’s video was released, its effect would certainly be greatly diminished, or even completely ineffective.

Because Mr. Qian’s viewpoint and Master Tian’s viewpoint both had certain merits, neither could convince the other, and neither could completely prove themselves right.

Therefore, whichever viewpoint came out first and gained the support of a large number of people earlier would have an absolute advantage.

If that scene truly unfolded, it would be a disaster.

For the Master Tian account, if a video was released that didn’t explode in popularity, it would severely damage its persona, just like how a general who always wins would break his myth once he lost a battle, making many things difficult to handle afterward.

Some people might even question whether Master Tian was being paid to hype up “The Successor,” escalating the attack to a personal level.

And for “The Successor,” the consequences would be equally severe. Once Master Tian’s video failed to turn around its reputation, this series might never rise again, with stereotypical impressions directly suppressing it forever.

In short, the situation was critical!

Huang Sibo and Cui Geng had also realized the seriousness of the problem, but their understanding was obviously not as profound as Meng Chang’s.

Moreover, they still had hope in Meng Chang, believing that although his promotional plan hadn’t had much effect initially, he must have a backup plan.

What they didn’t know was that Meng Chang’s so-called backup plan had actually been blocked by Mr. Qian’s review!

Meng Chang frowned, deep in thought.

At this moment, his situation was awkward.

It was like someone who only knew how to memorize chess patterns playing against a real person for the first time, only to find that the opponent didn’t follow the patterns at all, leaving him confused and unable to play.

It could also be compared to a game player who had practiced combo moves on a training dummy, getting very good at it, but when playing against other players, they used some small tricks, throwing him completely off and making him unable to play.

Previously, when using the Pei Promotion Method, Meng Chang had always plugged variables into formulas, and after doing so, he would get the correct answer.

But this time, during his formula-plugging process, the known conditions had changed!

Meng Chang thought long and hard, struggling for a long time, but couldn’t come up with any solution.

The appearance of this Mr. Qian had disrupted his entire plan and blocked the path of using Master Tian to release a video interpretation, leaving him helpless!

Seeing that Meng Chang had been racking his brains for a long time without results, Huang Sibo became more anxious.

But as a veteran Tenda employee who had weathered various storms, he could still remain calm.

He could even comfort Meng Chang a bit.

“Don’t rush. It’s okay if we can’t think of a countermeasure for now; we still have time.”

“In my experience, when encountering such difficult problems, never get stuck in your own thinking. Instead, think about what Mr. Pei would do in this situation.”

“If you can view the whole situation from Mr. Pei’s perspective, you might gain some insights.”

Meng Chang was stunned, then nodded.

Huang Sibo made a good point!

It seemed that although he didn’t understand the Pei Promotion Method, he understood Mr. Pei very well.

What would Mr. Pei do in this situation?

He definitely wouldn’t be like me, getting the entire plan stuck because of the emergence of one variable.

Mr. Pei would either adapt to changes, adjusting the plan accordingly, or he would be strategic, having already anticipated such a situation and prepared a backup plan.

Between these two scenarios, the latter was obviously more sophisticated.

Because no matter how adaptable one is, unexpected events will always occur; only by considering all possibilities in advance and promptly preparing contingency plans can one remain calm and orderly when facing any problem.

Mr. Pei, with his exceptional talent, must be the latter.

Doesn’t that mean…

Mr. Pei might have already anticipated the emergence of this situation? He might even have left a brilliant strategy for us without our realizing it?

Meng Chang quickly asked: “Think carefully, has Mr. Pei given you any special instructions or requirements regarding ‘The Successor’?”