How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 234 The King of Connections

A "meme" is a highly condensed cultural symbol that can convey complex emotions or information using very short language, images, or actions.

At the same time, it is also a 'secret code' in social interactions. The essence of using memes in social interactions is to 'quickly identify like-minded people'. Being able to connect with a meme means that both parties have common interests, experiences, or understandings, which instantly shortens the psychological distance and avoids awkwardness, and is a way to break the ice.

Especially as real-life pressures increase, memes become more prominent as a form of social interaction or stress relief.

Memes are not a product unique to the internet age, but they are the most suitable for the fragmented and interactive nature of the internet age.

In the social media landscape of the internet age, using memes to quickly gain popularity and define an audience is very effective. For example, Pipi Shrimp quickly rose to prominence by using memes as its core.

Therefore, the ability to create memes is a very important value in the Internet age. The premise of creating memes is to focus on three key points: the emotion of the needs of the general public or target group, the symbol of dissemination, and the user participation scenario.

Then, the goal of creating memes is achieved through four steps: 'resonance anchor point', 'symbol simplification', 'interactive scenario', and 'breaking the circle'.

The popularity of the Ba Wang incident is a natural anchor point for resonance. Netizens and the public have very rich and complex emotions about this matter, and it is effective no matter which angle you approach it from.

Wang Yao and others used footage from Cheng Long's 2004 endorsement of BaWang shampoo, processed it with various special effects, and created a 30-second video, which was then posted on A/B sites.

"When I was filming this shampoo commercial, I actually refused... Adding special effects would make my hair look like it's going to 'duang'!"

After being acquired, A/B Station had financial and technical support, and the platform's stability and user base steadily increased. In addition, the number of users exceeded one million in just half a month during the "first comic convention recruitment event", and the daily active users grew from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

The main reason is that Wang Yao accessed the Tianhuo Models' material library, which contained thousands of model shooting materials that were montaged and released, attracting a large number of anime and manga fans.

In addition, the platform launched the 'Creator Incentive Program', signing more than 30 active content creators and providing income opportunities for some creators based on a CPM price of 3 yuan per thousand views. As a result, the amount of content and user stickiness have grown very rapidly.

Ba Wang and Cheng Long were already a hot topic, and with the platform pushing them further, creators on A and B stations quickly created various styles of derivative videos.

Some use the catchy "duang ah! duang ah!" sound effect combined with a magical spring-like sound to brainwash people.

There are also those who repeatedly mock others by saying "Actually, I refuse~".

There are also memes featuring Jackie Chan shaking his head to show off the volume and elasticity of his hair.

There were even parodies and videos, with this interview being turned into a song.

With the entire site streaming the video, Bilibili's first ever parody video to reach one million views was created.

The CD "Golden Fertilizer American-Japanese-African Karaoke Golden Hits CD", hailed as the originator of meme videos, only sold for 400,000 copies at the time.

Earning 3000 yuan from a million views is a windfall for many Bilibili content creators, which inspired more people to create content, and the number of submissions surged the next day.

Meanwhile, videos featuring the phrase "duang ah! duang ah!" were also reposted on platforms with a large young user base, such as Baidu Tieba, Tencent QQ Space, and Renren.com, triggering the first round of 'interactive scenarios'.

'I refused at first, but the advertising fee was high, so I agreed.'

Actually, Jackie Chan is a hidden dragon; three visits to his thatched cottage were enough.

'What?! Who put a spring in my head?'

'I must say, Jackie Chan's hair volume for his age is quite remarkable.'

To be honest, I've been using BaWang shampoo since I was a child. I don't know if it's effective for hair growth or prevention, but it's definitely better than other brands.

'If Jackie Chan really maintained this amount of hair volume and blackness after using this shampoo, then there's definitely something to it.'

The first round of interactive scenarios chose to spread the message to young people and students, mainly because they are more familiar with this new form of parody and are also the group most willing to share.

Within 24 hours of the video's release, it had garnered over 10 million views and over 100,000 discussions across the internet. Moreover, given the current controversy surrounding the Ba-Wang incident, it quickly became a new hot topic in trending comments.

The emergence of the "Duangduang" meme directly dismantled the tense atmosphere of back-and-forth discussions and attacks in the original Weibo trending topics comment section. In particular, Jackie Chan's head-shaking emoji was very useful, and you couldn't help but laugh when you saw it.

The focus of trending topics has gradually shifted from ingredient issues to comparisons of product effects and whether Cheng Long is actually using the product.

At this stage, leveraging the massive online buzz surrounding the Ba Wang incident, Cheng Long and Bilibili indirectly gained tremendous attention.

"Bro, doesn't this make me seem a bit unrefined?" Cheng Long had mixed feelings after discovering that his sound effects and head-shaking emojis had become a viral sensation online.

He's almost sixty years old, and he really can't accept this kind of communication and the netizens' teasing.

“That shows you have a good attitude. Look, your followers have increased by almost two million in the last two days!” Wang Yao said with a smile.

“I’m not a newbie anymore, what do I need a fan base for? Are there still people who don’t know me?” Jackie Chan rolled his eyes.

"That's different. The people who are paying attention to you now are your potential fans in the future. In the Internet age, the relationship between celebrities and audiences and fans will change. People don't necessarily pay for movies just for the work itself; sometimes they also pay for the actor's persona."

After you reply to these jokes later, you will gain a lot of popularity among young people who will think you are genuinely approachable, and your popularity will increase. I call them casual fans. After the movie is released next time, you will find that the box office contribution from these casual fans is not to be underestimated.

"In the past, celebrities were high and mighty, but with the flow of information in the internet age and the changing landscape of the industry, public appeal will become very important. In the future, if you want to have a film that grosses over a billion or even several billion, relying solely on fans and moviegoers won't be enough; you'll mainly need to rely on these casual fans," Wang Yao explained.

"A billion in box office? That would take at least several years." Jackie Chan raised an eyebrow slightly, not that he thought it was impossible, but that it would take several years to develop.

"Who can say for sure?" Wang Yao shook his head with a smile.

The brainwashing and spread of the "DuangDuang" meme was even better than he had imagined. He originally thought it would take at least a week to build up the hype, but it reached the expected popularity in just three days.

"Is that e-commerce brand you and Cheng Qiyuan started really going to succeed?" Jackie Chan wasn't stupid. Although he was a little unhappy about his image being mocked and ridiculed, he could accept Wang Yao's explanation. He naturally knew that he was getting old, and the quality of his action films, which he was so proud of, might decline significantly in the future. He would only be able to rely on the audience appeal or gimmicks he had accumulated in the past to earn box office revenue.

If Wang Yao's theory of internet casual fans holds true, then he can essentially have a second spring in his career. Although film and television is his obsession, seeing the recent global economic recovery, especially after getting to know Wang Yao and witnessing firsthand how quickly online ticketing, e-commerce, and new media can generate revenue, he has also started thinking about starting a side business.

In fact, Cheng Long has been doing side businesses for many years, basically dabbling in areas that seem to offer returns, but with both profits and losses, he hasn't built any major businesses. Seeing that Wang Yao helped Ren Quan, a junior, transform into an entrepreneur worth hundreds of millions, he naturally had his own ideas.

"I'm not entirely sure, but it shouldn't lose money. However, it won't grow very big either; an annual sales volume of around 1 to 3 million would be about right, with not much profit." Wang Yao shook his head.

E-commerce brands in the personal care category can only survive by focusing on the high-end market, because they cannot compete with international big brands in terms of price and cost in the mid-to-low-end market. Even with the various patent licensing gimmicks of Barking, their consumer base is very limited.

However, it would be difficult to support the high-end market with the current consumption capacity of China. It would take at least three years for the number of middle-class people to surge. Wang Yao's current cooperation with Ba Wang is mainly to maintain control of the foundation of the Chinese herbal hair care brand and prevent it from being lost.

Once we develop patented technologies for high-end raw materials such as saffron, cordyceps, mulberry fungus, and golden thread orchid, we can then target the high-end market for wealthy women and see if we can reap a significant harvest.

“I have a good brother who started out as a dealer of luxury cars and watches. Seeing that the film and television industry is developing well, he wants to get me to cooperate with him,” Cheng Long said with a smile.

Cheng Long has many good brothers, but there are very few in China who started their businesses as dealers of luxury cars and watches.

"President Qi of Yaolai?" Wang Yao raised an eyebrow slightly.

“That’s right, you know him?” Jackie Chan asked with a smile.

"I met him once. He helped coordinate the purchase of several Rolls-Royces for the company by Ren Quan," Wang Yao nodded.

Yaolai is currently the domestic agent for top luxury cars such as Bentley and Rolex, as well as top watches such as Dulando, Ruichi Maidi, Parmigiani, and top jewelry brand Buccellati.

Last year, he also secured a distributorship for Bordeaux wines. Recently, I've often seen celebrities like Xiao Yanzi and Huang Xiaoming buying wineries and speculating on wines, which is what he was driving.

In 2008, the market value of the listed company acquired through a reverse merger was nearly 8 billion yuan. In addition, the clients were all high-end professionals. He could be said to be the king of connections in China.

"I've known him since he was a young punk, and I'm even his daughter's godfather. We've been brothers for over ten years. Recently, his agency business has hit a bottleneck, and he wants to see if there's any potential in the film and entertainment industry."

"The box office and theatrical market haven't been very hot lately, so he asked me to invest in a cinema together, using my IP. But after seeing how you and Tan Hui have taken over Chengtian, he felt that this approach might not work, and wanted to see if there were any other avenues," Cheng Long admitted.

He and Qi Jianhong do have a good relationship, especially after 08 when their cooperation became even closer. Qi Jianhong's eldest son is now the head of Cheng Long's agency, and his youngest daughter was also brought by Cheng Long to appear on Hunan TV's gala earlier this year, hoping to pursue a child star career.

After Wang Yao and Tan Hui acquired Chengtian Cinema, along with the online ticketing service of Kanpianer.com, they have become the largest and unshakeable cinema chain leader in China. Wang Yao has also integrated 10% of the market in Korea. In the future, the entire Asian region will basically be dominated by the Tianhuo Cinema Group.

Although Yao Lai has money and Cheng Long has enough fame, blindly rushing into the competition for theaters probably won't bring any benefits, especially since Wan Da is also eyeing the market covetously.

Although Cheng Long's investment skills are average, he has a good eye for investment and knows how to cut his losses in time. His involvement in helping the Ba Wang couple this time is also because he hopes to do something together with them in the future.

“E-commerce brands are a trend, but their scale won’t be very large in the short term. However, Yaolai’s advantage is that it has a huge number of high-quality customers. We could consider doing service-oriented business with these high-quality customers.” Wang Yao squinted his eyes.

Yao Lai sells hundreds of Bentleys and Rolexes every year, which means it serves hundreds of clients with a net worth of hundreds of millions each year, not to mention other watch and jewelry clients.

"Brother, you don't know, making money from rich people is harder than climbing to heaven. They are indeed very wealthy, but they know how to spend money. The only things that can make them spend a lot of money are things that can generate money. Don't be fooled by Yaolai's good development; it's really just so-so," Cheng Long scoffed.

Wang Yao nodded upon hearing this: "If you put it that way, then the entertainment industry is indeed doing alright right now. The technology and internet industries do have opportunities, but you have to take a chance and cast a wide net. If you want to do cinemas, you can cooperate with me."

“This year, at that cinema in Beijing, they came up with a movie-watching + celebrity merchandise model for me, selling derivative products of my works. Sales were pretty good. Do you think this model has a market?” Jackie Chan asked.

“It’s certain that there is, and the growth rate of the fan economy is also quite good. However, it’s deeply tied to celebrities, so once their image collapses, they’re all finished. Oh, you want to turn your e-commerce brand into a celebrity brand and do merchandise business?” Wang Yao raised an eyebrow slightly.

Having roughly grasped Cheng Long's intentions, he listened to the e-commerce brand shampoo he heard about yesterday and felt that he could use the celebrity collaboration model to carve out a market.

“That’s right.” Cheng Long nodded.

The success of Yaolai Film City made him and Qi Jianhong realize that the sales brought by cinemas and celebrity merchandise were still considerable. These fans were willing to pay for celebrities. They also referred to the fan economy models in Korea and Japan and felt that this path was feasible.

If e-commerce can be added, turning celebrity collaborations into celebrity brands, profits can be made simply by signing various celebrity licenses to produce products. Given Jackie Chan's prestige and influence, many celebrities would probably be willing to collaborate.

If a brand succeeds, its packaging and listing can generate hundreds of millions in returns.

“That’s doable, but to be honest, it’s quite tedious.” Wang Yao smiled. This is the standard model of the micro-business era, which uses celebrity influence to make money and recruit agents. It is indeed very profitable, and the Zhang Ting couple is a successful example.

"Shall we schedule a time to talk?" Cheng Long asked with interest.

"Sure, but I'm going to visit the set later." Wang Yao checked the time; Nazha and the others' variety show "Sister Flower" had already started filming, and Wang Yao agreed to go check it out.

"Visiting the set? You have a movie filming in Hong Kong? Why didn't you tell me?" Jackie Chan was taken aback.

"It's a variety show, and we'll only be filming for less than half a month. I asked Brother Le to help with the arrangements. You're filming a movie lately, so I didn't bother you," Wang Yao said with a smile.

Jackie Chan's first collaboration with him on a transformative project, the anti-trafficking film "Dawn of Justice," has already begun filming and is expected to finish in September, aiming for a release during the Spring Festival.

“Why are we brothers talking about this? Even if I’m busy, I still have time to make a phone call. Louis Koo may have enough influence, but he’s not as useful as me. What variety show is it?” Jackie Chan asked seriously, while also inquiring about it.

Wang Yao discussed the format and theme of "Sister Hua".

“That’s great! Using celebrity influence to showcase the cultures of both places, facilitating exchange and dissemination, is very interesting. Get me one too; we need this kind of content for external promotion.” Cheng Long immediately became interested.

(End of this chapter)