Peninsula Platinum Era

Chapter 198 The Meat Rots in the Pot

"Based on the current efficiency, let alone Q3 of this year, I'm afraid we won't be able to launch Team N within the entire year."

The bells of Puxinge have been ringing for a few days now, and we have officially entered the year 2021. At the Big Hit business briefing at the beginning of last year, it was already planned that Source Music would launch a girl group in the third quarter of this year.

But nowadays, not only is it difficult to produce Team N, but even if it were to be produced, it wouldn't be born on Source Music. That's one of the reasons why my suggestion to Source Music to launch a new girl group was approved so quickly.

Using established artists can significantly shorten the debut time, but even so, it seems impossible to catch up in the third quarter, since IZ*ONE will not disband until the second quarter.

In this situation, it was necessary to continuously release some information to reassure the market. After submitting its listing application to the exchange in the middle of last year, it successfully completed its IPO in October.

"This is a very troublesome matter, but we can't rush it. I've done portfolio construction before, and I know that there are great risks in rushing it to the market."

Fatty Fang scratched his head. Although his success in recent years had made him lose his head, he still maintained the basic qualities of an entertainment industry professional. At least for the time being, he did not think that he could do whatever he wanted.

We'll definitely need to hold onto those IZ*ONE members for a while; concept design, team building, song production, and training all take time.

This gap period should be utilized, and a completely new image and music style different from their IZ*ONE era needs to be created for them; otherwise, it is easy for fans to fall into aesthetic fatigue.

Because IZ*ONE's style is fresh, dreamy, and glamorous fairy-like, if they were to make a comeback with a similar style, the public would naturally compare the new girl group with IZ*ONE.

It's difficult to break free from the shadow of the previous work; it takes time for the public to forget the previous image and create conditions for accepting a new one.

Although Chen Shijun wasn't quite clear on the concepts involved, these experts all said the same thing: a hasty return would be a waste of their massive online following.

"But this kind of traffic can't be wasted. Fans pay close attention to the members' movements. As long as there is a possibility of a member's return, they will keep waiting."

This big fat man deeply understands the importance of scarcity marketing. He needs to create a point that can capture the audience's attention for the new combination, and this point is still being explored.

After the company goes public, it continuously uses this level of anticipation to boost its profile, which can compensate for some of the losses caused by not being able to debut immediately.

The signing of Miyawaki Sakura is also somewhat complicated. Although her contract expires this year, Source Music hopes to acquire this cornerstone of the team a few months before it expires.

Although she is struggling in Japan, Miyawaki Sakura is still Miyawaki Sakura, and her ability to increase her popularity and build a strong fan base is undoubtedly a top-tier asset.

Paying a fee in advance to buy her out is the best option, allowing her to join the team for preseason training. However, the best thing is that she is very calm in her consideration of personal career planning.

During her two-plus years with IZ*ONE, she successfully demonstrated her enormous potential and adaptability as a K-pop idol. Fortunately, her determination to transform into a K-pop idol was very strong, which gave the company leverage to negotiate a lower price.

However, the Japanese side also made certain requests, hoping that she could participate in HKT48's single comeback in the middle of the year, and promised her the center position.

This also gave her a lot of media exposure and variety show appearances, allowing her to share her experiences with IZ*ONE and increase her visibility.

Representative Su explained everything in detail, and fearing that Chen Shijun might not be familiar with this aspect of the industry, she gave many examples to support her point of view.

The current situation also reflects a lot of competition with Min Hee-jin. The formation of Team S is a project where the core is established first, and then the team is built. Having resources in hand naturally allows one to remain calm.

However, if the time is right, it would be even better to snatch the title of "first girl group" from Big Hit. That embarrassing experimental girl group should rightfully be forgotten by everyone, as if it never existed at all.

"After we go public, our company name will also change, and we won't be able to call ourselves Big Hit anymore."

Fang Shihe suddenly announced the company's renaming plan to everyone with great excitement. This was a strategy that had been decided long ago, and Chen Shijun had of course heard about it before.

The old name "Big Hit Entertainment" was highly suggestive, and the public and investors would naturally associate it with BTS and Bang Si-hyuk personally.

In the past, this situation wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as everyone knew that Big Hit was the agency of BTS. However, as the company expanded through acquisitions and collaborations, new problems arose.

It is no longer just a single company managing BTS, but a vast ecosystem that includes multiple independent labels.

In this situation, using a relatively new and neutral name seems to be a better way to encompass all the labels and artists under its umbrella.

After all, fans of groups under Pledis Entertainment have protested before, believing that their idols are working for BTS's company.

“I hired a professional designer to design a brand new name for us, HYBE, which comes from the English word “Hive”. This design is very ingenious.”

Fatty Fang thought the name he paid for was quite good, since he had given his requirements and the designer had taken the initiative to design it.

The concept of the honeycomb symbolizes community and connection, which corresponds perfectly with his long-held idea of ​​fans, artists, and companies being closely connected, communicating, and co-creating a community like an organic organism.

At the same time, the hive also represents an efficient and organized system, and he believes he can create an unprecedented entertainment ecosystem.

"Isn't this a good name? I spent a lot of money on it, and they even included a new slogan: 'We believe in music.' We'll release it along with the company name later."

Seeing Chen Shijun nodding repeatedly, Fang Shihe felt that his money was well spent, as there were even free gifts.

Chen Shijun also agrees that spending money on this concept is like a large company changing its logo. Some time ago, a large Chinese company changed its logo, which was heavily criticized by netizens because of the huge cost.

However, a simple, catchy, globally pronounceable, and memorable name is crucial for international expansion. While Big Hit is well-known, it is essentially an English phrase, which may not sound sophisticated enough in certain contexts.

HYBE is a man-made word with no fixed cultural meaning, so it won't cause ambiguity in any language. More importantly, it's easy to register as a trademark and get legal protection. Otherwise, you would have to worry about registering trademarks for many projects.

The situation with SM and JYP is quite different. These two names are abbreviations of the names of the two founders, which in themselves have a very high level of recognition and authority, and can be said to be a huge intangible asset.

Big Hit doesn't have the glorious past of these two companies, nor do they have such huge intangible assets, and they don't have the determination of this big fat man to transform into an entertainment platform company. They are more like a talent agency.

"I hope our company's girl group can debut smoothly and then reach the top of the industry, knocking down all other girl groups like Aespa."

Fatty Fang was obviously arrogant. In his mind, he had global resources, so how could he not succeed?
"Hmm...Aespa?"

Chen Shijun felt that no matter what the market was like, he had already kept the profits for himself. He was always deeply involved in some of the projects for the future successful girl groups, which could be considered as keeping the profits for himself.

(End of this chapter)