Jinling East Road Pedestrian Street.
With the opening of Jinling East Road Pedestrian Street and the entry of merchants from various countries, this commercial street has now genuinely become the "First Street of Hua Country."
The pedestrian street is paved with colored tiles with a gold band as the main line, symbolizing wealth and prosperity. There are also ding-dong cars traveling back and forth in the middle of the road for tourists to use for sightseeing.
Looking back two years, bustling commercial streets like Rongcheng Taiguli became the first choice for those street photography self-media. It's still okay now, and the crowds shopping are still mostly honest tourists.
"Old Gu, why did you bring the company people here?"
Li Zhun parked the car and walked over to Gu Bai, asking with confusion.
"To shoot a video."
"?"
"Just watch."
As someone who's been reincarnated, Gu Bai knows the pathways for future top internet celebrities to rise to fame.
It's nothing more than basic fields.
Singing, dancing, looks, and company branding.
After 2018, various short video modes emerged one after another, and the street photography field was one of the short video types that could capture the attention of young people.
Around this time next year, there will be an overnight viral sensation known as Rongcheng's Little Sweetie.
The reason Rongcheng's Little Sweetie went viral was actually because of a random street interview. At the time, a reporter was looking for beautiful women to interview on the street, and Chengdu's Little Sweetie happened to walk into the reporter's camera.
Later, she stated in the interview, "I don't need my boyfriend to have a lot of money, just enough to take me out to eat."
And it was precisely because of her simple answer that after the video went viral, Rongcheng's Little Sweetie became the dream girl of countless men on the internet. Many even traveled to Rongcheng just to catch a glimpse of Little Sweetie.
As for why Little Sweetie got famous, you could say it was due to deliberate hype by self-media, or you could say it completely resonated with societal circumstances.
After all, right now when you open your phone, it's all about bride prices, cars, houses, and all of a sudden a girl who looks pure and isn't materialistic shows up, sure to win the favor of countless netizens.
As to whether it's an act or not, it doesn't matter. Gu Bai plans to fully imitate Little Sweetie's rise to fame route and create a new Shanghai's Little Sweetie ahead of time.
All the employees originally responsible for the photography department in the company brought their equipment over, sparking curious glances from the surrounding tourists.
Luo Yaqian also changed into a pure outfit at Gu Bai's earlier cue, wearing light makeup, and really did have a slight resemblance to the real Little Sweetie.
In Gu Bai's heart, even if the video shot this time, after being uploaded, may not explode as much as in the previous life, it definitely won't be too bad. Giving this opportunity to Luo Yaqian, who once had an intimate moment with him, is already quite generous.
"President Gu..."
Luo Yaqian stood next to Gu Bai, greeting softly.
Gu Bai directly ignored her gaze and handed her a pre-prepared script.
"Memorize the lines on the script, and later just act according to it."
"Okay."
Noticing that Gu Bai no longer seemed interested in her, Luo Yaqian wisely didn't say anything further. She's smart; there were plenty of girls in the company prettier than her. Gu Bai giving her this chance was already considering their brief intimacy.
Gu Bai ignored Luo Yaqian's thoughts, called out, and the photography team quickly got busy preparing the equipment.
Gu Bai just stood with Li Zhun in the shade, watching them sweat.
"Director Yan, later go have someone register several Douyin accounts, remember, each account must be under the company name, then contact the staff in Douyin's marketing department, post the video directly after it's produced on the Douyin platform, and pay for a full platform promotion to ensure the video can be seen by every Douyin user."
"President Gu, wouldn't that be a bit expensive? Douyin's full platform promotion is now priced at 3 million, we could first do a small-scale promotion to test the waters."
Gu Bai shook his head.
"That's not necessary. This is our company's first video, we must ensure we create a sensation and rise to fame with a bang."
Yan Xiaobo heard this and didn't persuade further, nodding in agreement.
Next to them, Li Zhun heard Gu Bai's arrangement and didn't object, but asked, "Only promote on Douyin? What about Weibo?"
Gu Bai gazed at the busy staff ahead, slowly explaining, "This type of video is currently only suitable for promotion on Douyin. As for Weibo, if it gains some heat on Douyin, we can further spark it on Weibo."
"What about Kuaishou and Duanzi?"
"Those two platforms don't match our company's positioning. Our positioning from the start is youthful and trendy.
If Duanzi doesn't rectify itself soon, it might be shut down from above, no need to consider it, and as for Kuaishou...
We might develop some influencers suitable for that platform in the future, but not at the moment."
In his speech, Gu Bai subtly pointed out that Duanzi would be banned.
As for Kuaishou...
It's indescribable...
Kuaishou's initial positioning was down-to-earth, but it became so lowly down-to-earth... it landed straight into the underworld.
Take a look at the subsequent big influencers on Douyin, like Modern Brothers, Brother M, Dagula K, clearly pursuing a trendy style.
Then there's Kuaishou, with Little Giao, Liu Yishou, Er Lu.
One makes people yearn for them, the other is like watching a circus act.
As he thought of the weird and bizarre things on Kuaishou, Gu Bai quickly swept those images out of his mind.
"Brother Zhun, if you have time, you can check out Kuaishou, then you'll understand why I'm not putting our video on Kuaishou."
.............
"President Li, President Gu, we're ready."
The film crew leader wiped the sweat off his face and came up to Gu Bai and Li Zhun.
"Thank you for your hard work."
Gu Bai made a polite remark and continued, "Tell the actors to get ready, and let's start shooting directly."
Standing in front of Luo Yaqian, Gu Bai said expressionlessly, "How you perform in a bit is up to you, but I have one request: tone down your flirtatiousness and act as pure as you can according to your understanding. If you become popular, pure will be your persona from now on. Understood?"
"Understood..."
Luo Yaqian replied weakly.
"Go ahead."
Gu Bai waved his hand.
In half an hour, after a few takes, the filming was finally done.
Yan Xiaobo handed the finished video to Gu Bai for a look.
"Alright, just like that. We'll do some slight post-editing later and upload it to the Douyin platform.
Also, register a Douyin account for Luo Yaqian called 'Shanghai's Little Sweetie'. As for the publisher's account, let's name it 'Xingnai Street Photography', and leave everything to the company for management."
"Understood."
Li Zhun came over.
"Is that it?"
Gu Bai rolled his eyes: "What else? You think we're shooting a movie?"
"And this can create an influencer? Then influencers would be too cheap, wouldn't they?"
"It seems simple to you because we have money, resources, and people. Everything is ready. For the average person, without special opportunities, where do they get the chance to become famous?"
Li Zhun shook his head.
"I still think it's a bit unreliable."
Gu Bai gave Li Zhun a reassuring smile, put his arm over his shoulder, and said, "Alright, we're just testing the waters. There are many follow-up actions to come, so don't confuse influencers with idols.
Idols are idols; influencers are influencers. Even when crafting a minor idol, it begins with a high-end approach, totally separated from ordinary people. Influencers, to put it bluntly, are grassroots. These concepts are different.
It's not like making someone famous with one video and leaving it at that. Follow-up exposure is needed to keep the traffic."
Gu Bai was right.
Take for example the Little Sweetie from Chengdu in the past life—how popular was she then?
It was precisely because there was no follow-up exposure that she disappeared over time. Although she made a comeback later, she was almost forgotten. This is when the economic company's role becomes evident. Gu Bai's goal was to retain traffic and then monetize it.
....................
30th floor of Central Mansion.
"President Gu, everything is ready. We've also contacted the Douyin marketing department. The promotional cost has been negotiated down to 2.6 million, with full platform promotion to ensure it reaches every Douyin user's phone."
Yan Xiaobo reported, standing next to Gu Bai and Li Zhun.
Currently, the Douyin platform has about 100 million active users, close to 200 million. The price of 2.6 million is relatively low, much more reasonable than the tens of thousands an hour for a hot topic on Weibo.
Gu Bai nodded, then instructed, "Tell the PR department, with a budget of 400,000, if the results are good, increase it. Get me a bunch of internet promoters to push this video to the top and create some buzz!
I want the Douyin trending topics tomorrow to be completely dominated by Shanghai's Little Sweetie."
"Understood."
"Take a look at this list first. Once this event is over, I want you to sign all these people to Xingnai Media. I don't care what means you use; if they're already under contract, poach them. If not, offer lucrative benefits. I want them all to become our influencers within a month."
Yan Xiaobo glanced at the list, which consisted of influencers already somewhat famous on Douyin.
"Modern Brothers, Brother M, Dagula K, Lianyin Society, and about a dozen others."
As for others, from Gu Bai's impression, they were full of scandals. Don't end up not making money off of them and instead causing a whole bunch of trouble. It's not worth it.
"Understood."
"Alright, go get busy."
Li Zhun handed Gu Bai a cigarette and said with a smile, "I say, Old Gu, why don't you just quit studying? I see you're so adept at handling company matters. The company ideas are yours too, why not just be the general manager?"
Gu Bai lit the cigarette, rolling his eyes at him: "I'm a successor of socialism; why would I give up studying to make money? Am I crazy? I have more money than I can spend.
Also, you don't have to worry too much. Once the company is on track, just wait to collect the money. Monetizing influencers is the future trend. No loss here."
At this moment, Luo Yaqian knocked and walked in.
"President Li, President Gu, if there's nothing else, I'm going to get off work."
Under Gu Bai's instructions, Luo Yaqian was deliberately covering up her flirtatiousness and was planning to go for a pure image.
Seeing Luo Yaqian's outfit, Gu Bai felt an inner restlessness.
"Come off work with me."
With that, Gu Bai stood up and said goodbye to Li Zhun, "I'll head back first; I'll check on the video's performance tomorrow."
Li Zhun made an OK gesture with his hand: "Take it easy, you're young—don't learn from Old Zhao, treating kidney supplements like a meal."
Luo Yaqian obediently followed Gu Bai.
In the past life, everyone rushed to Rongcheng for the authentic Little Sweetie but couldn't get her. In this life, the knock-off Little Sweetie at least has to make something happen, right?