January 4, 2013, the first day after the New Year’s holiday.

Meng Chang arrived at the Advertising and Marketing Department. After recharging his energy, he was ready to make a big push.

No need to say more—continue to maximize publicity resources for “The Successor”!

The New Year’s holiday had passed, and the debates around “The Successor” showed no signs of subsiding, but clearly, everyone was getting tired of arguing.

This was because both sides of the dispute had been repeating the same points back and forth. Their perspectives were already clear, and continuing to argue would just mean endless repetition.

Of course, the essence of human nature is to repeat, and the essence of arguing with people online is that everyone talks past each other.

Everyone tries hard to convince the other side, and no one is willing to accept the other’s ideas or change their own. So the end result can only be talking at cross purposes, with disputes escalating into abuse, and ultimately ending with mutual blocking.

In other words, discussing issues with others online these days will likely result in nothing but frustration.

Currently, “The Successor” was in this state of argument fatigue, with neither side able to convince the other, temporarily laying down their arms to rest.

However, the haters, represented by someone surnamed Qian, still maintained the upper hand.

This was because supporters of “The Successor” couldn’t provide sufficiently persuasive arguments to prove their point.

Young Master Tian had jumped out to draw some hatred, but he hadn’t actually started to output anything substantial. Instead, like a mystic, he had prophesied a date and then completely disappeared, not responding to anyone who tagged him or sent him private messages.

Initially, there was a high level of discussion about Young Master Tian’s update, but as nothing conclusive emerged, people gradually lost interest.

Under these circumstances, Meng Chang felt it was necessary to continue investing publicity resources to reignite the buzz and motivate both exhausted sides to renew their fighting spirit.

Letting the fire continue until mid-month, ideally with people arguing each weekend when new episodes of “The Successor” aired, would be the ideal situation.

Actually, Meng Chang had originally wanted to have Zhu Xiaocai personally record a video to be posted on Fei Huang Studio’s official account to support “The Successor.”

Although Huang Sibo was the head of Fei Huang Studio, his status in the audience’s hearts was far below that of Zhu Xiaocai. After all, Zhu Xiaocai was the director, and most people’s first reaction after seeing an excellent film was to credit the director, followed by the actors and screenwriters, and finally the investors and bosses.

Having Zhu Xiaocai show support could further provoke debate and make both sides fight more enthusiastically.

But when Meng Chang inquired with Bao Xu, he learned that this would be difficult.

This was because the suffering travel this month had already completed the indoor training phase and had officially begun suffering in the wilderness.

Compared to the previous round of suffering travel that took place in Shennongjia, this round seemed much friendlier, being located on an uninhabited island near Qiongzhou.

Of course, “uninhabited” only meant that no one lived on the island permanently.

To ensure the safety and health of the participants, a boat was standing by at all times with doctors on board. In case of any problems, they could transport people to a nearby hospital for treatment at the fastest speed.

But there was a low probability of any problems occurring.

This was because during the indoor training process, these people’s physical fitness had improved considerably. Even Qiao Liang, who had the worst physical condition, had shown significant improvement. On the island, they would at most suffer some discomfort—after all, the sun was strong and the sea breeze was fierce—but persisting shouldn’t be a problem.

Zhu Xiaocai had already gone to the uninhabited island, with heavy daily suffering tasks. Moreover, there were no phones or signals on the island, with all communications happening on the boat. How could he record a video under these conditions?

And even if he squeezed out time to film, when netizens saw the environment in which Zhu Xiaocai was recording and his suffering state, they would most likely laugh out loud, thinking Zhu Xiaocai was just doing a performance. The focus would completely shift, failing to achieve the effect Meng Chang wanted.

So after some thought, he decided against it.

Problems that could be solved with publicity funds were best not complicated with other gimmicks.

Although Meng Chang’s highest goal was to achieve the best effect of the Pei-style publicity method, burning through funds was also one of his important tasks. There was no need to be economical.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Meng Chang abandoned this idea and chose to continue mindlessly burning money in subsequent publicity plans.

While he was modifying the plan, his phone on the table vibrated.

Meng Chang picked it up and saw a message from Ye Zhizhou.

At Shangyang Games, Ye Zhizhou was a member of the previous batch of suffering travel and had already returned; Wang Xiaobin was a member of the current suffering travel and was currently suffering on the uninhabited island with Zhu Xiaocai and Qiao Liang.

These two people had a seamless handover, just like Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaocai at Fei Huang Studio.

The message Ye Zhizhou sent was an invitation for Meng Chang to visit Shangyang Games to experience the demo of “Safe and Civilized Driving” and try out the steering wheel and other peripherals, which would help him better formulate a publicity plan.

The current head of Tenda Games was Yu Fei. “Ghost General 2” started development later than “Safe and Civilized Driving,” but because its scale was smaller, both games were completed this month.

For “Ghost General 2,” they would probably invite Meng Chang over in a few days.

Now all department heads at Tenda knew that Mr. Pei was gradually handing over all publicity work to Meng Chang, so when projects were nearing completion, they would wait for Meng Chang to visit, inspect, and develop publicity plans.

If Meng Chang didn’t come, everyone would anxiously message him to invite him over.

After all, these projects embodied the heart and soul of entire departments, and no one wanted to see low buzz due to insufficient publicity resources.

Seeing this message, Meng Chang hesitated a bit.

Previously, when meeting with Mr. Pei, he had already said that he wouldn’t handle publicity for these two games and would continue to pour publicity resources into “The Successor,” which Mr. Pei had agreed to.

Of course, he still needed to allocate some publicity funds to these two games, but he wouldn’t need to create the plans himself.

If he was just providing money and not creating publicity plans, was there still a need to experience the games?

After some consideration, Meng Chang ultimately decided to go.

Mr. Pei had officially handed over the task of allocating publicity resources to him, so now he couldn’t just consider his own commission; he had to look at the bigger picture for the entire Tenda Group.

Completely neglect projects that didn’t affect his commission?

Although theoretically Meng Chang could do this, if he actually did so, Mr. Pei would definitely be disappointed.

Meng Chang wasn’t taking on publicity plans for these two games because they weren’t suitable for the Pei-style publicity method.

But they still needed to have the regular publicity they deserved.

People at Tenda Games and Shangyang Games were skilled in development, not publicity, so if they were just given publicity funds to use freely, the effect would be quite unpredictable.

Meng Chang considered that if he was going to help, he should go all the way. As the head of the Advertising and Marketing Department, he had a responsibility to teach them.

If he could just help the heads of these two departments learn a bit about marketing and use some aspects of the Pei-style publicity method to fully utilize these publicity resources, then these games should have no problem becoming popular.

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime!

With this in mind, Meng Chang decided to visit Shangyang Games, experience “Safe and Civilized Driving,” and then create a targeted publicity plan.

But this publicity plan wouldn’t be given directly to Ye Zhizhou. Instead, like Mr. Pei, he would guide Ye Zhizhou to comprehend it on his own.

This way, he would achieve the natural spread of the Pei-style publicity method.

Otherwise, with Tenda now having so many departments and projects, and certainly more to come in the future, if Meng Chang had to create publicity plans for every project, wouldn’t that exhaust him?

So Meng Chang’s future approach would definitely be to focus on the important and let go of the minor.

For some major projects, he would personally create publicity plans; for some regular projects, he would just allocate some publicity funds and let the department heads create their own publicity plans.

There was no need to worry about lack of professionalism. The other employees in the Advertising and Marketing Department could help and collaborate, refining the initial plans provided by department heads, and then fully implementing them.

Meng Chang felt that when Mr. Pei handed over the right to allocate publicity resources to him, this was exactly what he expected.

…

Meng Chang took a car to Shangyang Games, where Ye Zhizhou warmly welcomed him.

“Here, please look, this is the complete set of equipment we’ve prepared for the new game!”

Shangyang Games had a dedicated game room that was very spacious, and it was now set up with the complete peripherals for “Safe and Civilized Driving.”

“Our peripherals can be purchased separately, but we recommend buying a package.”

“There are three packages to choose from. The first is the entry-level package, priced at 5,800; the second is the advanced package, priced at 6,800; and the third is the deluxe package, priced at 9,999.”

“If you want the best experience, let’s try the deluxe package first.”

Ye Zhizhou briefly introduced the equipment differences between the three packages to Meng Chang.

Meng Chang scanned the three different combinations, and clearly, the G-force chair in the deluxe package was the most eye-catching.

All three packages used the same steering wheel, pedals, and control panel. The difference was that the entry-level package only had a frame without a seat, requiring you to provide your own; the advanced package added a handbrake, and the adjustable frame and seat were integrated; the deluxe package included all accessories and also featured a G-force chair, looking obviously more impressive.

Needless to say, these three packages were aimed at three different groups of players.

The entry-level package was relatively the most cost-effective and practical, as it didn’t take up much space. It could be placed in a study or next to a computer desk. When you wanted to play, you could make do with a computer chair, and when you didn’t want to play, it wouldn’t take up extra space with a racing seat.

The advanced package had a modest price increase. Actually, the thousand-yuan difference was mainly for the hydraulic handbrake and the integrated seat and frame. Its advantage was that you could get a better drifting experience with the hydraulic handbrake, and since the seat and frame were connected, you wouldn’t worry about the seat sliding when you pressed the accelerator too hard or made large movements. Plus, the seating posture was definitely adjusted to the most suitable angle for driving.