April 12th, Thursday.
At Fei Huang Studio’s office area.
Some employees were editing the documentary “Variety of Street Stalls,” while those who had previously worked on “Mission and Choice” were now in a state of idleness, spending their days playing games, watching movies, or browsing the web, waiting for the official release of “Mission and Choice.”
The employees responsible for editing “Variety of Street Stalls” all appeared full of energy, as this series had been quite successful so far. Each episode’s popularity on the AiLiDao website continued to grow, and viewers’ comments were highly positive.
The Cold Noodle Girl restaurant had tried introducing several new menu items. With the promotion from “Variety of Street Stalls,” although Cold Noodle Girl’s reputation hadn’t completely turned around, it had significantly improved compared to its previous rock-bottom state.
The only problem was that editing these videos made people hungry, and when hungry they wanted to eat. The company provided unlimited snacks, so several editors had gained quite a few pounds.
After Huang Sibo discovered this issue, he required them to increase their workout intensity at Tuoguan Fitness. Since the trainers were their own people, increasing the training regimen was just a matter of Huang Sibo giving the word, leaving these editors suffering from the grueling workouts.
The employees on the “Mission and Choice” project, however, weren’t in such good spirits. They were all extremely dejected.
Even playing games and watching movies had lost their appeal.
As for why this situation had occurred…
Because these people were searching online every day for news about “Mission and Choice,” but nothing came up no matter how long they waited. The film was set to premiere this weekend, yet until now there had been hardly any buzz online, let alone enough to generate meaningful discussion. It was absurd!
Originally, when filming “Mission and Choice,” everyone had been extremely excited.
This film had a big budget and was a major production. Mr. Pei had personally approved the script. The same production team from “Beautiful Tomorrow” was involved, and Lu Zhiyao had delivered what was arguably his most perfect performance yet…
Moreover, this film was tied to the new game that Tenda had been developing for nearly half a year.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that “Mission and Choice” was the most important project for the entire Tenda Group for 2011-2012.
All employees felt it was a great honor to participate in this project.
But as the film’s release approached, everyone suddenly realized something was wrong.
First, the release date was moved up—giving up the golden May Day holiday slot for an unremarkable weekend.
Of course, this could still be somewhat explained. After all, the “Mission and Choice” game would be competing head-to-head with “Fantasy War Remake,” so changing the film’s release date, though a loss, was barely acceptable.
But now the biggest problem was the lack of promotion!
Not to mention anything else, you couldn’t even see a single promotional poster or display for “Mission and Choice” in theaters, and the screening rate wasn’t great either. And even this screening rate was only achieved because theaters were deliberately accommodating the film due to the success of “Beautiful Tomorrow.”
In other words, the promotion for “Mission and Choice” was essentially zero—they had done absolutely nothing!
For other films, promotional budgets were typically on par with production budgets. For instance, spending three hundred million to make a movie and then another three hundred million for global promotion was completely normal.
And for these blockbusters, star salaries usually took the largest chunk of expenses.
Whether this allocation of funds was healthy or not is beside the point—it was the industry standard.
But with “Mission and Choice,” they had spent over three hundred million on the film with just one lead actor, Lu Zhiyao, whose salary wasn’t even high. All the money had gone into props and special effects, while for promotion, they truly hadn’t spent a penny!
This was too bizarre!
Of course, putting money where it counts could better ensure the film’s quality, but spending absolutely nothing on promotion seemed too extreme, right?
Even if they didn’t want to spend money, they could at least post some news on the official Weibo! Tenda had so many loyal fans that just leaking a little information could generate buzz.
But the result was truly nothing at all!
Reportedly, Mr. Pei had given Meng Chang a promotional budget, but where that money had gone, nobody knew…
Many people even began to suspect that the film hadn’t been moved up but actually delayed!
Otherwise, how could there be absolutely no buzz?
Everyone had worked incredibly hard to bring this challenging script to life, and the content of the film was extraordinarily exciting, yet the marketing had failed so miserably. How could anyone not feel discouraged?
Director Zhu Xiaocai was also getting restless. He secretly came to Huang Sibo’s office, intending to have another private discussion.
This matter couldn’t be discussed openly, as they were both department heads. If employees learned that even they were panicking, the fear would spread rapidly, affecting the entire Fei Huang Studio’s morale.
Many employees had privately asked Zhu Xiaocai about the film’s marketing situation. Zhu had reassured them all, saying there was a professional department handling it and they shouldn’t worry.
But in reality, Zhu Xiaocai didn’t believe his own words.
With just two days before the film’s release, he himself had no idea what the advertising and marketing department was doing, or why Mr. Pei wasn’t taking charge.
Zhu Xiaocai slipped into Huang Sibo’s office and found him drinking tea while browsing the web.
“I can’t hold out much longer. Just yesterday, four people asked me about the film’s promotion.”
“What did Mr. Pei say about this?”
“At the beginning of the month when I asked, Mr. Pei said arrangements had been made;”
“When I asked last week, Mr. Pei said he had assigned it to the advertising and marketing department with dedicated personnel handling it, and told us not to worry;”
“Now the film is about to be released, where is our promotion??”
“Other films start promoting months in advance. We were originally scheduled for May Day, and although having just one or two months for promotion was relatively short, with ‘Beautiful Tomorrow’ as our foundation, the effect shouldn’t have been too bad.”
“But then the release was moved up, repeatedly compressing our promotion time, and now the film is about to premiere, yet there’s not even a ripple online!”
“What are we supposed to do?!”
Zhu Xiaocai was at a loss for words.
He had assured his colleagues that he had consulted with Mr. Pei about the promotion and that there was absolutely no problem. But looking at the current situation, there wasn’t “no problem”—there were problems everywhere!
The most awkward part was that people wouldn’t think this was Mr. Pei’s fault; they would think that Zhu Xiaocai was falsely conveying orders and deceiving both his superiors and subordinates.
This was extremely frustrating!
Previously, for “Beautiful Tomorrow’s” promotion, Mr. Pei hadn’t been very involved. It was Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaocai who had full responsibility. They had basically followed conventional promotion methods, and the initial promotional effect was decent.
Of course, “Beautiful Tomorrow” became popular primarily because the film itself was solid, and its box office grew step by step.
But this time, for “Mission and Choice,” Mr. Pei had specifically instructed Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaocai not to interfere with the promotion.
At first, the two were quite pleased, thinking that Mr. Pei was taking it seriously and his personal involvement meant everything would be stable, allowing them to take a backseat.
But after all that waiting, this was the result they got.
Huang Sibo was also worried: “Who knows what Mr. Pei has up his sleeve?”
“As far as I know, Meng Chang should be in charge of the promotion this time. He’s supposed to be a marketing genius, so his strategy should have been sensational.”
“How is it that until now, there hasn’t been even a ripple?”
Zhu Xiaocai was very dissatisfied: “Him? He’s no good, he’s been left in the dust by Mr. Pei! His amateur marketing skills with Cold Noodle Girl don’t even compare to a thousandth of Mr. Pei’s abilities.”
“Meng Chang spends money to buy fake buzz, while Mr. Pei can generate real buzz without spending a penny. How can they be compared?”
“And I think Meng Chang as a person lacks character. He probably didn’t put his heart into creating the promotional strategy.”
“I’m not wrongfully accusing him. Just look at the current situation—even if you did promotion with your feet, you couldn’t possibly generate zero buzz, right?”
“There’s only one possibility: he did it deliberately!”
Huang Sibo took a sip of tea, gesturing for Zhu Xiaocai to calm down: “There’s no need to make such assumptions about our colleague.”
“Whether Meng Chang is reliable or not, since Mr. Pei has placed him in this position, there must be a reason. Besides, even if Meng Chang tried to play some tricks, do you think Mr. Pei wouldn’t know?”
“Don’t rush, let’s wait a bit longer.”
Zhu Xiaocai was typically a very calm person, but this time he couldn’t maintain composure: “Wait longer? The film is premiering on Saturday…”
“Even if the promotional strategy shows results now, what can be done in two days?”
“Other films promote more than two months in advance, but we’re promoting two days in advance…”
Huang Sibo continued browsing the web: “Although two days seems impossible, we can only choose to trust Mr. Pei.”
The two fell into a brief silence.
Suddenly, Huang Sibo’s eyes lit up.
“Look, things have already started changing! Just last night!”
Zhu Xiaocai was startled: “There’s been a breakthrough?”
Huang Sibo immediately turned the laptop around to show Zhu Xiaocai the screen.
What met his eyes was a heated discussion by netizens on Weibo!
“Tenda’s new film is here! ‘Mission and Choice,’ premiering this Saturday!”
“The top comment under ‘Raging Sea Battleship’s’ Weibo post about ‘a domestic film that was scared into changing its release date’ was referring to ‘Mission and Choice’!”
“The film’s information is out, starring Lu Zhiyao, absolutely no mistake!”
“Why is it scheduled so far back? I thought it would take up at least 40% of screenings. Is something wrong with such a low screening rate?”
“Could it be a bad film using Fei Huang Studio’s name?”
“Impossible, Director Zhu Xiaocai, starring Lu Zhiyao—this is basically the same team from ‘Beautiful Tomorrow’!”
Overnight, discussions about the “Mission and Choice” film exploded across Weibo and various forums!
Not only that, but many people also made a series of reasonable speculations about the “Mission and Choice” game.
“‘Mission and Choice’ was called the shame of Chinese gaming. Since Tenda made a film, they must also be making a game, right?”
“Why remake this? Is it a task from the official platform?”
“April 14th, why does this date seem so familiar… Oh, I remember, it’s the release date for ‘Fantasy War Remake’! Is this just a pure coincidence, or…?”
“No way, other games warm up months or even a year or two in advance, and they still get delayed before release. Is Tenda going to release without saying a word? Without even giving any notice?”
“What are you all discussing, talking about nothing? Tenda itself hasn’t said anything about releasing a ‘Mission and Choice’ game… Can you stop making things up?”
“We’re not making things up; the key is that all the clues are too suspicious. Veteran players know that Mr. Pei is always cryptic. You should believe that news about Tenda, no matter how outlandish, could be true…”
“By the way, have you noticed something else? ‘Mission and Choice’ is also in the ‘Classic Chinese Games Collection.’ This collection has been promoted for so long, with both online ads and offline promotions. How much money must that have cost?”
“The official platform has confirmed that Tenda paid for these ads. Think about it—why would Tenda pay to advertise a collection that has nothing to do with them? It must be related to their new game!”
“And the official interviews were arranged quite suspiciously. First, they interviewed the incubator of the ‘Last Resort Project,’ then they interviewed Meng Chang, who was responsible for promoting the ‘Classic Chinese Games Collection’ for Tenda. These two articles were published just over a day apart, likely conducted at the same time. Doesn’t this hint at something?”
“Yeah, I remember when Qiu Hong was interviewed, he said the ‘Last Resort Project’ had an investor, and he was just an executor. Plus, this investor had a profound impact on him. Considering the working environment of the incubator and the various benefits provided to independent game developers… this investor must be Mr. Pei, right?”
“Thinking about it that way, it’s obvious! The officials are practically spelling it out!”
“There must be a new game coming! Damn, this is exciting! I knew Tenda wouldn’t disappoint!”