Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 45: Million Views
"Boss Meng, I'm sorry, please wait a moment. Boss Gan said she will be here soon."

In the reception room of the headquarters building of Leshi.com, a secretary lady in standard OL professional attire spoke gently to Meng Baidao.

"Oh, it's okay, I'll just wait for her here." Meng Bai sat casually on the sofa in the conference room and waved his hand indifferently.

The secretary smiled sweetly and said, "Do you need anything to drink? Coffee, tea, or other beverages?"

"Do you have Coke, in cans?"

"Uh... there's one at the convenience store downstairs. Please wait a moment."

"Just kidding, tea will be fine."

"..."

The secretary made him some tea and left the room. Looking at the steaming tea, Meng Bai couldn't help but feel emotional.

This secretary is Gan Wei's personal secretary. When she came over a few times before, although her attitude was very good, it was basically out of professional courtesy. She had never been as friendly as she was today.

Of course, Meng Bai didn't just want to "tease" the secretary girl for no reason. He wanted to use this as an indirect way to find out Leshi.com's attitude towards the performance of "Soul Ferry".

Now it seems that at least Gan Wei is quite satisfied with the performance of this drama.

While he was thinking, the door of the reception room was pushed open. Meng Bai stood up and looked, only to see Gan Wei walking in with a document.

"Sorry, Meng Bai. I was waiting for the latest data and was a little late." As Gan Wei entered the door, he said to Meng Bai enthusiastically.

"It's okay, Sister Weiwei, I just arrived."

After a few pleasantries, as soon as the two sat down, Gan Wei said excitedly: "I really didn't expect that the broadcast effect of the drama "Soul Ferry" would be so good! Before it was broadcast, I was thinking that after all, this is the first time to make such a regular self-made drama, as long as it can break even in the end. Now it seems that this is not only breaking even, it is actually making a lot of money!"

Looking at Gan Wei's excited expression, Meng Bai also felt a little happy in his heart.

They worked very hard and finally finished the entire "Soul Ferry" in late December. Because it was a "website-made video", it did not need to be reviewed and was broadcasted directly on the day before the New Year's Day holiday.

Leshi.com has also put a lot of effort into promoting the drama. In addition to its own website's splash screen posters, homepage ads and push notifications, it has also placed promotional releases and videos on its Leshi Sports, Leshi Box, Leshi Terminal and cooperating media websites.

Even Leshi.com's treasure, "The Legend of Zhen Huan", has added a "pendulum" advertisement.

Although they are all Leshi.com's own channels, they still cover a large number of people. "Soul Ferry" was launched at 12 pm, and by am, the number of views had exceeded one million, with a total of nearly viewers.

Although as the first web drama produced by a regular video platform, there is no horizontal or past comparison, but this data is definitely not low.

However, the true performance of a drama cannot be judged by how well it premiered. After all, many producers have learned the trick of "trailer fraud". No matter how the feature film is, the trailer should be exciting to lure the audience in first.

Therefore, the key to the success of a drama lies in how many viewers it can retain.

If we use quantifiable data, the first is the growth in playback volume, and the second is the number of new members.

The potential revealed by the "Pendulum" shocked all the followers, including Meng Bai, Gan Wei and others.

"Soul Ferry" was played over 24 million times within hours of its release, and Leshi.com added more than new members;
40 hours after launch, the number of views exceeded million, and the number of new members exceeded ;

After 72 hours online, the number of views has reached nearly million, and the number of new members has reached nearly .

"Now it's more than that number." Gan Wei shook the file in her hand and said proudly: "Didn't we update the latest five episodes of this week last night? As of 12 noon today, the total number of views of the whole series is million, and the number of new members is close to !" Gan Wei is really excited now. She didn't expect that the project she decided to invest in out of friendship and her love for the script would bring such a rich return.

You know, the playback data may be inflated, but the number of new members is real and tangible profit.

What does it mean to have nearly 100,000 new members?
Let's put it this way. Last year, the number of new members of Leshi.com was only about 60. So far, the total number of members of Leshi.com is only about 150 million.

In other words, Meng Bai and the drama "Soul Ferry" completed Leshi.com's two-month KPI in less than a week.

This result is a very important achievement for both Leshi.com and Gan Wei himself.

And this is just the beginning. "Pendulum" still has half a month of broadcasting period. As the popularity and spread gradually, no one can guess what kind of results this drama will eventually achieve.

"Thanks to you, Meng Bai." Gan smiled and said, "Thank you for bringing such a hit film and television project to our LeTV."

"Sister Weiwei, you are too polite." Meng Bai said: "Speaking of which, I should be the one to thank you. After all, if you hadn't agreed to invest, there would be no such show now."

“Hahaha…” Gan Wei laughed: “Alright, let’s stop flattering each other here. We can talk about this at the celebration party after the show is aired.”

Although we still don't know what level the "Pendulum" will eventually reach, the current results are enough to hold a celebration party.

After exchanging pleasantries, Gan Wei calmed down and said, "I asked you to come here today because I wanted to tell you about the latest results and discuss the subsequent promotion plan."

For a film and television project, the feature film is equivalent to the "main course" and the publicity is equivalent to the "condiment".

The freshness of the "main course" is of course important, but to make it delicious, the control of the "seasoning" is also essential.

"Soul Ferry" is a web drama. Although it can also refer to some promotional methods of TV dramas, there will inevitably be differences.

"Our film and television department has referred to the promotion methods of short dramas on other websites and has roughly selected several directions." Gan Wei said: "One is the university roadshow meeting. This has been done by Youku and iQiyi before, and the effect is quite good. After all, college students are a very important audience group for online dramas. But this needs to be done quickly, only one or two weeks, after all, it is almost the final exam week for various universities."

"Another thing is the trending searches on Weibo. This can help us see how effective the roadshow is. If it's good, we can pick one with good results and buy a few trending search terms."

"The other is some third-party platform promotion, but this may require communication with other websites, after all, it will involve some website traffic issues..."

Gan Wei gave a detailed introduction to the publicity plan planned by Leshi.com. Meng Bai listened carefully and wrote down some useful information in his mind.

The importance of publicity to a drama is self-evident. If he wants to continue to develop as a producer in the future, he must study these in depth.

"...These are the general plans. Do you have any other ideas?" Gan Wei asked.

Meng Bai thought about it carefully and felt that it was already very comprehensive. After thinking for a while, he added: "There is nothing else to consider in terms of the big plan, but I do have two small suggestions."

"One is that in the past two years, there has been a type of video that is very popular, which is 'quickly watching a drama/movie' or 'complaining about a TV drama'. Many of these videos have millions of views. I think we can contact some video producers with a large number of fans and 'customize' some of these videos with them, which can also be regarded as a dissemination channel."

"Also, I don't know if you've heard of Bilibili, Sister Weiwei." Meng Bai asked. Seeing Gan Wei shaking her head, he explained to her, "This is a barrage video community website that focuses on barrage culture and ACGN two-dimensional young people, which is highly compatible with the audience of online dramas. Although the number of users cannot be compared with several leading video websites, it is growing very fast."

"I think Leshi.com can actually cooperate with Bilibili. We can provide them with video streams, and they can post comments when broadcasting. Comments are a very motivating feature for viewers. As long as the content is good, it will definitely bring a lot of popularity."

As a young man, the two promotional channels proposed by Meng Bai are obviously some new promotion methods. As for the effect, no one knows.

Gan Wei thought about it for a moment and nodded, "Okay, I will discuss with the Film and Television Department to see if we can use these new promotional channels."

(End of this chapter)