February 17th, at eight o'clock on the first Friday evening after the Lantern Festival, a cycling video quietly landed on Tudou.com.
To say it was quiet isn't entirely accurate; since before the Lantern Festival, Shanchi Technology had already begun subtly promoting it on major forums, Sina blogs, QQ Zone, and other platforms, so quite a few netizens were aware of it.
Today's internet is still in the Web2.0 era.
According to the 2005 annual internet environment report released at the beginning of this year, as of December 31, 2005, we had approximately 111 million netizens, accounting for 8.5% of the total population.
These 111 million netizens, excluding large cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, were mainly concentrated in eastern coastal provinces such as Zhejiang Province, Jiangsu Province, Fujian Province, and Guangdong Province, which largely overlapped with the route of Shanchi Technology's "Ten Thousand Li Journey Along the Coast" event.
Therefore, in terms of promotion, the focus of this event leaned towards the internet.
In his previous life, during the three-year special period, most Chinese people could not travel, and it was extremely inconvenient to go anywhere; Tan Jincheng was no exception.
During those years, Tan Jincheng's regular pastime in his leisure hours was watching videos of several cycling UP streamers on Bilibili.
Some bloggers were fun, like Chuang Ge, but they were indeed too messy; this style would definitely not work for corporate promotion.
Even if Tan Jincheng designed it this way, Li Qiangzhong might not be willing; after all, he is a famous motorcyclist and still needs to save face to some extent.
For this reason, the style of the UP streamer surnamed Xu was the most suitable for Li Qiangzhong and his assistant, and most conducive to brand promotion.
There was no need for excessive advertising slogans; the lightning logo appearing in each video, as long as the video's click-through rate was sufficient, would be the best promotion for Shanchi Technology.
Whether traveling or living, one cannot do without the three essential elements: food, accommodation, and transportation.
Most ordinary people, aside from envying RV self-driving tours, cannot put them into action.
Electric bikes and bicycles are somewhat different, but they can more or less be tried.
Using diary-style content such as gourmet food, eating broadcasts, adventure, and travel, with the grand goal of the "Ten Thousand Li Journey," like a main quest in a game, makes the videos coherent and allows the audience to feel immersed.
At the same time, accompanied by narration, describing each place in detail, whether it's geological knowledge, geographical, or historical knowledge, allows the audience to gain some knowledge while watching the videos.
Tan Jincheng essentially copied this model, and with an entire team planning it, Shanchi Technology's filming crew would write scripts in advance for each location.
Li Qiangzhong and his assistant only needed to read their lines according to the script.
In terms of personal charisma, Tan Jincheng couldn't be sure if Li Qiangzhong possessed such charm.
After all, now was different from that special period when most Chinese people were confined to their homes, and the longing for such cycling was far greater than usual.
Nevertheless, Shanchi Technology's brand promotion through cycling was a pioneering effort, both in the industry and in the video world.
For Tudou.com, a video website established in April 2005, it was also a new attempt.
Speaking of which, it's interesting: this time uploading videos, Tan Jincheng also learned an interesting fact, which is that LeTV, founded in November 2004, can be considered China's first truly meaningful video website.
However, LeTV's current reputation is ordinary, and it's not as user-dominated as Tudou.com.
Early Tudou.com had some similarities to later Bilibili, with users autonomously uploading videos.
Just like its slogan, "Everyone is a director of life," all users could freely upload videos.
In December 2005, "The Case of the Steamed Bun" completely opened up Tudou.com's reputation.
However, Tudou.com during this period, after the steamed bun case, was dominated by parody videos, with "Internet Addiction War," "Spring Festival Travel Empire," and other parody videos going online one after another.
Serious videos purely about cycling, like those from Shanchi Technology, were not common.
In the study, Tan Jincheng, Gu Qingqing, Zhang Xupeng, Gu Yuxin, and the Gu Yannin siblings were preparing to watch the video together.
The lineup was a bit large.
"I wonder what the reaction will be after it goes online. We've done so much advertising, I don't know if it will be effective,"
Tan Jincheng said with a slight chuckle, a little nervous.
"It's fine. Based on my gaming experience, a video just launched is like a novice village; it'll get better later,"
Zhang Xupeng laughed heartily.
It was rare to see Xiao Tan showing apprehension.
"Xiao Tan, you attach great importance to this video?"
Gu Yuxin asked, somewhat curious.
He had come over today.
Hearing that his younger sister had come with company leaders to discuss cooperation, he, in his excitement, also came to join the fun.
Having only arrived this afternoon, he was pulled over after dinner and didn't quite understand the situation yet.
"Sort of. It's not just this one video; it's a series, a very important part of this year's promotion. Starting today, we will continuously upload videos until the end of the event,"
Tan Jincheng nodded.
Since departing Beihai on the Lantern Festival, today was the sixth day of cycling.
Currently, Li Qiangzhong and others had already entered Yulin.
The reason for delaying the video upload by a week was to reserve time for the filming team to write scripts and edit.
In fact, the first report in print media had already been released, but print media's influence was limited, and it was specialized media; not many consumers were interested in reading print media.
There were not high expectations for print media.
The internet was the top priority.
"The Case of the Steamed Bun" initially didn't have many viewers when it was uploaded.
It only became popular after netizens downloaded and reposted it to other video websites.
To be fair, from Tan Jincheng's perspective in his later life, the production quality of "The Steamed Bun" could only be considered average.
As for screen clarity, that's beside the point due to the technological environment.
The video content was actually a bit dragged out, and the production was relatively crude.
The reason it became popular was because someone's film was so terribly made, angering moviegoers.
One must know that movie tickets were quite expensive at the time, averaging between 50 and 80 yuan to watch a movie in a cinema, and the video creator spent 80 yuan on a single movie ticket.
80 yuan, most people across the country didn't even earn that much in a day's wages, and you show me this stuff?
Even funnier, countless people who hadn't seen the movie bought tickets to the cinema out of curiosity sparked by "The Steamed Bun" to seek out something unusual.
This kind of reverse promotion isn't uncommon in later generations.
For example, "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" was promoted as the worst movie in history, using internet trolls to spread the word.
Tan Jincheng was also tricked into watching it back then.
But the movie's director miraculously sued the video creator, right on this year's Lantern Festival, February 12th, causing an uproar in society.
Big directors like Lao Mouzi even openly ridiculed this action.
It was absolutely hilarious.
"What actual benefits can spending such a large sum on cycling videos bring to the brand? How much can sales increase?"
Gu Yuxin continued to ask curiously.
Gu Yuxin's question was also what Zhang Xupeng and others were curious about.
Compared to Tan Jincheng, they had never developed a product or owned their own brand, so they lacked brand awareness and didn't quite understand Tan Jincheng's way of thinking.
In traditional thinking, advertising was primarily based on television media, and the internet was still an illusion in the eyes of most people.
They didn't believe that online marketing could bring many substantial benefits or increase product sales.
"Of course it's useful. As long as the viewership reaches a certain level and there are enough reposting websites, first, the brand's influence and coverage will significantly increase. You know, our country has over 100 million netizens."
"Most of these over 100 million netizens are young people. Let's say we expect 1 million viewers. If 1 million people seriously watch this video series, it's equivalent to planting the seed of the Shanchi brand in the hearts of 1 million people. In the future, it could lead to 100 families, and then multiply its reach."
"Even if it's 100,000 people, it's already remarkable. In the future, when people see the lightning logo on the street, they will easily remember it."
The target of 100,000 shouldn't be difficult to achieve.
After today's upload, the company's subsequent marketing team will actively download and repost it to other websites, and then boost it with internet trolls.
"These are the substantial benefits. As for the sales you mentioned, I can't estimate them in the short term, but long-term, it definitely won't be bad. However, first, the video needs to be popular, and currently, I truly don't know if this type of video series will be well-received."
After all, this method is still a bit ahead of its time for current netizens.
Although netizens are touted as the most receptive group, Tan Jincheng truly couldn't be sure about the actual effect.
If 1% of the viewers can be converted into actual consumers, and there's a good foundation, then this promotion wouldn't be a loss.
And if this promotion yields good results, then in the second half of the year, Tan Jincheng plans to set up a company, dabble in internet investment, pick up some bargains, and also recruit a few programmers to engage in technology incubation, laying the technical groundwork for smartphone apps in a few years.
This wouldn't require much investment; there's no need to use Shanchi Technology's funds, Tan Jincheng's own money would be enough.
If an internet medium could be incubated and controlled by him, it would be even more perfect.
Whether it's today's electric scooters or future cars, internet media is a crucial component.
The "Wei Xiaoli" (NIO, Xiaopeng, Li Auto) among the new forces actually had their own internet media before getting into car manufacturing.
Among "Wei Xiaoli," "Li," who sold large refrigerators, had a professional automotive website in hand before establishing a car company.
Through internet media, they could achieve promotional effects and cultivate a user base at the same time.
As a consumer, Tan Jincheng could complain about these companies, but as an aspiring entrepreneur, there was still much to learn from these individuals.
Since he possessed memories of his previous life, it was feasible to apply some of their more effective business logic to Shanchi Technology.
"Stop talking, let's watch the video. It's starting,"
Gu Qingqing said softly, stopping Gu Yuxin from asking further questions.
(End of chapter)