Chinese Entertainment: Top-Tier Boyfriends of Young Actresses

At 2 p.m. sharp, Su Yu appeared in Huo Xiaolan’s office.

Huo Xiaolan pushed a stack of neatly organized documents in front of him, which were densely filled with various invitations for business cooperation.

"In less than a week since your music video was released, more than 20 brands have proactively reached out to you."

Upon seeing Su Yu arrive, Huo Xiaolan couldn't wait to speak.

"I've screened them for you, eliminating the unreliable WeChat sellers and those clearly trying to ride the wave. The remaining ones are relatively legitimate. Take a look for yourself."

Su Yu turned to the first page.

The first was an invitation to become the brand ambassador for RIO's "Tipsy" series.

RIO has always spent heavily on marketing in the premixed cocktail market. They previously hired Yang Yang as their spokesperson, and the endorsement fees for all their products are at least in the tens of millions.

However, the "Slightly Tipsy" series is positioned as "a drink for one person" and targets young consumers. This time, the brand wanted to give it a fresh look and was attracted by Su Yu's youthful spirit in the MV and his influence among young people, so they offered a price of 1.8 million for two years.

The second was an endorsement offer from Uni-President Ice Tea.

Uni-President Ice Tea has been working hard to appeal to younger consumers in the past two years, investing heavily in everything from sponsoring ChinaJoy to social media marketing. Previously, they used popular celebrities as spokespeople.

The brand felt that Su Yu's clean and refreshing college student temperament perfectly matched their target audience, and offered him a price of two million for two years.

The others are just endorsements for small brands, which are not only cheap but also lack prestige.

"There are also quite a few commercial performances." Huo Xiaolan pointed to one of the pages. "This week alone, several offline events have approached me, all wanting to invite you to attend. Each event only lasts one or two hours, and most of them cost around 300,000 yuan per event."

In the 2017 commercial performance market, Lu Han's performance fee was around 2.8 million yuan, while first-tier artists such as Yang Mi and Tang Yan charged between 800,000 and 1.2 million yuan. Second-tier artists mostly charged between 300,000 and 500,000 yuan.

The fact that many brands are willing to pay him 300,000 yuan per show indicates that during the current window of opportunity, the market's perception of him is just at the second-tier level.

"So? Have you made up your mind?"

Su Yu then looked away from the documents and picked out the endorsement offers.

"Let's not consider these endorsements for now."

"Hmm?" Huo Xiaolan raised an eyebrow. "RIO and Uni-President Ice Tea are both legitimate brands, not those no-name micro-business brands. Two million over two years is not a low amount for someone at your current stage."

Su Yu shook his head: "My popularity hasn't reached its peak yet. After my other two dramas air in the second half of the year, my popularity will definitely rise to another level. When we talk about endorsements then, the price will be different."

Endorsements and commercial performances are different.

Endorsements are long-term contracts that bind artists to a certain period of time. The amount agreed upon during the contract period is fixed and it doesn't matter whether the artist's popularity increases or not.

In 2017, the endorsement fees of top male celebrities were generally very high. Lenovo once spent a sky-high price of 80 million yuan a year to hire Lu Han as its spokesperson, while the endorsement fees of top celebrities such as Yang Yang, Li Yifeng, and TFboys were generally in the tens of millions of yuan or more.

The reason these people can command such high endorsement fees is because they are already at the very top of the industry pyramid, with film and television works as a foundation and a huge fan base to support them. Top brands are willing to line up and compete for them.

Although the endorsement offer that the brand is currently giving Su Yu seems quite high, he has only recently become popular, so there is a limit to the price they can offer.

If he agrees now, Su Yu's status will soar after "Oh My General" and "A Love So Beautiful" air. These collaborations will not only be a low-price lock-in for him, but the brands will also reap long-term benefits.

The brand will be all smiles, but Su Yu will suffer a huge loss.

"However, I can consider taking on some commercial performances, but not too many, just two or three is fine."

Then Su Yu continued.

Commercial performances and endorsements are completely different things.

Commercial performances are one-off events. You sing a song, stand on stage, and show your face. The money is settled on the spot, the return is fast, it takes less time, and you are not tied up in a long-term relationship.

However, you can't take on too many jobs. Taking on too many jobs will make an artist seem cheap, and brands will think that you're going to any event and taking on any job, which will naturally lower your market value.

Moreover, fans' sense of novelty is limited. If they see you at this venue today and at that real estate development tomorrow, your mystique as an idol will disappear.

When you really need attention, nobody cares anymore.

Huo Xiaolan nodded and made a note in her notebook. Su Yu was quite opinionated about his career, so she didn't need to say anything more.

"Okay, as long as you understand."

She closed the commercial performance materials, then pulled out several variety show invitations from the drawer and pushed them in front of Su Yu.

"Several variety shows have approached you, including music variety shows like The Next, The Masked Singer, and The Hidden Singer. They all want you to sing on stage, since your song is currently very popular, and inviting you would be a good way to ride that wave. The asking price is quite reasonable; if you're a regular guest for a season, the appearance fee is over three million."

Su Yu flipped through the invitations for music variety shows, then put them all aside.

"Let's cancel all these music variety shows too."

Huo Xiaolan raised an eyebrow: "You turned it down? 'Masked Singer' was the top-rated show last year. Singing one song there would give you just as much exposure as doing ten commercial performances."

Su Yu shook his head at Huo Xiaolan's words.

"I know my own singing ability. I'm okay in the recording studio, and I can fix it in post-production. But when it comes to singing live on a music variety show, singing for real and sharing the stage with professional singers, my skills are simply not good enough."

Su Yu picked up the stack of music variety show materials, aligned them on the table, and put them down. "It's better to be a down-to-earth actor. It's okay to release songs occasionally as a hobby. Going to be a regular guest on a music variety show is just exposing my shortcomings. I don't want to be screenshotted after the show and turned into 'car crash' memes that fly all over Weibo."

Huo Xiaolan leaned back in her chair, picked up her Americano, took a sip, and didn't object.

"Okay, you know your own position best."

Huo Xiaolan put away the materials for the music variety show and then pulled out a separate invitation from the bottom.

"What about this? An invitation to be a regular guest on 'Chinese Restaurant,' what do you think?"

"Huh? How did this come to me?"

"This was handed over by the production team themselves. Daylight Entertainment has always had a cooperative relationship with Hunan TV. Previously, 'Nirvana in Fire' and 'The Disguiser' were broadcast on Hunan TV. We are also in contact with several other projects. And since you are currently very popular, it is normal for them to reach out to you."

Su Yu took it and opened it.

He remembered this show from his past life; it was a slow-paced variety show produced by Hunan TV, in which several celebrities ran a Chinese restaurant in a foreign country, doing everything themselves from purchasing to cooking to cleaning up, and the whole process was documented.

The first season aired in 2017 and received good ratings and reviews. The regular guests, Zhao Feite, Huang Xiaoming, and Zhang Liang, also generated a lot of buzz.

Unlike fast-paced variety shows that require competition and rivalry, "Chinese Restaurant" focuses on everyday life and human touch. The personalities of the guests are largely revealed through their daily interactions, which is actually an advantage for someone like him who is not good at "acting" on variety shows.

He himself also really likes this kind of slow-paced variety show.

"How much is the price?"

"A package deal of three million for a season. With your current status, to get this price based on the popularity of just one song is roughly on par with Zheng Kai and Wang Zulan from 'Running Man'."

Su Yu picked out the information about "Chinese Restaurant" separately and placed it on top of the stack of pending business orders.

"Okay, then I'll accept it."