Huayu 1995

Chapter 127 Beauty Begins from the Start (Bonus Chapter for 3600 Monthly Tickets)

Hongjie has a close friend she's known for five or six years who now works for a well-known international shampoo company as a senior executive in China.

They have a good relationship and often drink and get beauty treatments together.

It's not surprising that Sister Hong knows such high-ranking people.

To some, she was just a nightclub madam.

It's just plain low-class.

However, in some people's eyes, she was a link that connected people in high society, and could introduce people of the same social class to each other in the karaoke bar.

They also occasionally help organize private dance parties.

Tell her how many people you want to invite and what kind of atmosphere you want, and she can arrange everything perfectly right away.

She can even invite people you can't invite.

If Su Chao were here, he would recognize it: isn't this just like those so-called socialite gatherings of later generations?

The last time this shampoo company executive came to the karaoke bar for drinks, he mentioned something about advertising.

Their company has just entered the mainland market, so they urgently need to come up with an eye-catching advertisement to promote their products.

The marketing department carefully selected an advertising company to collaborate with.

This is completely unexpected!
That turned out to be a fraudulent company; they ran off with the prepayment.

The money wasn't much lost, but the incident highlighted the marketing department's incompetence and caused the executive to lose face.

While drinking, she complained about the person in charge who had jumped ship from a state-owned enterprise to start his own business.

Damn it, once you get used to working in a state-owned enterprise, you'll be willing to eat any kind of food and take any kind of money.

Hongjie and Yan Siyuan discussed it together.

The opportunity is right in front of us, isn't it?
Let's open the market first and get the first shot fired.

When Su Chao emerged from his seclusion, Sister Hong introduced him to this executive.

They couldn't stay in quarantine; the entire crew of "Turn Right with Left Signal" has returned.

Su Chao and Wang Jinsong are urgently summoned back.

Su Chao needs to go back to filming, so he can only continue recording the album in the evenings.

While the film crew was still not back to work, Su Chao went to a karaoke bar to discuss business.

"This is your sister Liu, the general manager of the Herbal Essences brand marketing department. She currently needs to produce an advertisement for shampoo... This is Su Chao, you should know him..."

Sister Hong gave me a brief introduction.

"We're acquaintances, I was there on Qixi Festival, and I was also there when you released 'The Moon Caused the Trouble'... I'm practically a long-time fan of yours, haha..."

Although she was there to discuss business, Sister Liu was clearly more interested in Su Chao.

"Thank you, Sister Liu. It's a pity we didn't meet sooner!"

Su Chao shook hands with the other person, looking as if they were old friends who had just met.

In reality, he was after that rich woman's money.

"I never expected you could make commercials... To be honest, if Sister Hong and Brother Yan didn't have so much faith in you, I wouldn't have believed it."

Sister Liu raised her glass and clinked it with Su Chao's.

Su Chao took a small sip of his drink before slowly speaking:
"I can work without charging upfront, no prepayment, and no production fees. I'll produce an advertisement for your company first, and after it airs, we'll see how it goes. If it's good, then you can decide how much to pay us..."

In terms of marketing, Su Chao isn't necessarily that great.

But he's very knowledgeable.

Having witnessed two decades of rapid economic growth that was both dramatic and challenging, Su Chao has seen far too many classic advertising cases.

"Dandruff gone!"

"Let beauty begin from the head."

"Love life, love Lafang!"

"True dandruff removal means leaving no dandruff behind!"

"Contains 1/4 lotion, give your hair a milk bath!"

What he remembered was less than one-tenth of the shampoo commercials from the past twenty years, but they were all classics.

Otherwise, you won't be able to remember it.

With a little tweaking, it can earn rave reviews from brands.

That's why he dared to make such a boast.

Not only did Sister Liu forget to put the wine glass back on the table, but even Yan Siyuan and Sister Hong thought Su Chao had gone mad.

That's not how you do business.

"There's no need to be so exaggerated..."

Sister Liu murmured something, but she was really tempted, so she looked at Sister Hong, wanting to confirm the validity of the promise.

"Give me a brief introduction to the product, and then I'll write an advertising plan for you. It'll be a few dozen words and take five minutes."

It's not that Su Chao had to show off.

The main problem is that if you don't take drastic measures, you simply can't control these people.

Although he has a mature demeanor, he looks rather young, appearing to be around twenty years old. Young people like him are the least reliable.

Then he just became a nightclub singer.

If he said he could write an awesome song, Sister Liu would probably believe him without hesitation. But you say you can get the advertising she needs.

That would take a lot of talking.

It would be better to offer an outrageous condition to break down her psychological defenses.

Take a look.

Now Sister Liu no longer doubts his abilities.

"Let him try writing a proposal first. Actually, I don't know how capable he really is. This kid is capable of creating miracles, you have no idea..."

Then he went on and on about how Su Chao was bragging.

Anyway, it's all to prove that Su Chao is really good at it.

Sister Liu gave a brief introduction to the Herbal Essences brand.

For example, it focuses on herbal extracts and features natural ingredients as its main characteristic.

For example, targeting the teenage girl market.

From shampoo, conditioner, anti-dandruff shampoo, 2-in-1 shampoo to styling products, we have the most comprehensive range of hair care products.

Su Chao inwardly scoffed.

The name is a bit unfamiliar. The few impressions I have are that it seems to have hired Chris Lee and "Keeping the Blind" as spokespeople.

That's completely useless.

The former is completely fake, and the latter is completely fabricated.

When it comes to choosing a spokesperson, they have successfully avoided all the right answers.

It also appears that dioxane levels were exceeded.

However, this isn't something she can "exclusively" enjoy; it includes Head & Shoulders, Vidal Sassoon, Pantene... every single one of them has it.

The same applies to domestic brands.

Some domestic brands call on you to support them while simultaneously trying to rip you off like you're Japanese.

Su Chao quickly wrote an advertising plan.

A close-up shot shows a girl running through a flower field, getting petals stuck to her hair.

Add some butterfly effects.

Advertising slogan: "Natural floral fragrance, even butterflies can't tell the difference!"

"Let beauty begin from the head!"

Buy 400ml and get a free comb!

It's very simple, and it only takes less than three minutes from start to finish.

Sister Liu accepted it with some skepticism.

He immediately opened his eyes wide.

In just a few words, the girl, the flower field, and the butterflies create such a vivid image.

Moreover, it perfectly aligns with their product positioning: herbal essence, natural ingredients, absolutely genuine—otherwise, how would they attract butterflies?

The advertising slogans are also catchy.

Especially the phrase "Beauty begins from the head," it feels like anyone could come up with such a simple statement.

But none of the three people present could come up with an answer.

Uh……

What's really outrageous is the "400ml comes with a comb" offer. At first glance, it seems like they're ripping people off, but Liu Jie, a true professional, immediately saw the devastating impact of that statement.

Moreover, she quickly calculated the costs.

It’s harmless!

In fact, Su Chao's "free comb with 400ml" was a marketing strategy first implemented by Pantene, which triggered a buying frenzy that lasted for several days.

The protests only subsided when other brands followed suit.

"I think it seems pretty good, Liu, what do you think?"

Sister Hong clenched her fists nervously just now.

Now I've finally let go.

Even she, a layman, could see that the advertisement was very well designed.

If Sister Liu didn't admit it, she clenched her fist again.

She was beaten so badly that she couldn't take care of herself.

How much should we pay you for producing this advertisement?

There's no need to wait for the commercials to air to see the results.

This is such a simple thing; anyone can tell whether it's good or bad.

“It’s simple to make. I have connections and resources in this area. If we don’t hire big stars, it can be done for under a million. We’ll use 35mm film, and I guarantee the results will be comparable to movie footage. But as you know, there are many other things to take care of, so I’ll charge you 1.8 million. What do you think?”

He asked for over a million right off the bat.

This is a lot of money for the Scottish Premiership at this stage.

However, for foreign companies, Ms. Liu was very worried about whether such an excellent advertisement could be produced with the expected quality.

No, I need to pay more!
(End of this chapter)