Chinese Entertainment: Top-Tier Boyfriends of Young Actresses

The vigorous promotional campaign for the drama officially kicked off in late August.

First, the production team began releasing a large amount of promotional materials on Weibo, with the release date poster being launched simultaneously on Tencent Video and Weibo.

As more materials were released, the online trolls and marketing accounts that Dai Lu had hired also began to exert their influence.

Related topics such as #A Love So Beautiful# and #JiangChenChenXiaoXi# began to appear frequently on Weibo, and the news that the drama was scheduled to be released in September spread like wildfire, with the discussion heat rising all the way.

Following Su Yu's suggestion, Dai Lu arranged for Su Yu, Tian Xiwei, Hu Yitian, Wang Ziwei, and other lead actors to visit the Tencent Video building.

The so-called "building sweeping" actually involved distributing afternoon tea and merchandise to platform employees on each floor, and also hosting a live stream to interact with fans.

After the afternoon tea was served, Su Yu and Hu Yitian were even dragged into playing a game of League of Legends by several Tencent Video employees.

The entire video recording of this door-to-door campaign was later edited into several short videos as reserve material for future use.

After the door-to-door survey was completed, Dai Lu followed Su Yu's suggestion to "release a little bit every day" and posted the footage taken during the survey on Weibo and Douyin in batches.

This "serialized" release of materials has fans following the official Weibo account every day for updates, with the top comments section filled with messages urging for more. Some people have even created memes from screenshots of the main actors' interactions during their building visits and shared them on Weibo.

On Douyin, the production team registered an official account and released a short video featuring a sweet clip of Su Yu and Tian Xiwei singing "How Much I Like You, You Will Know," along with edited clips. They also promoted the video to Google Play.

Su Yu also shared the video on his Douyin account.

He had already amassed a considerable following when he released the music video for "Want to See You," and his Douyin (TikTok) followers had exceeded three million at that time, making him one of the most followed celebrities on Douyin.

In 2017, Douyin was on the verge of explosive growth, and the number of celebrities joining was far less than later. Even top stars like Dilraba gained over 5.7 million followers in just four days after joining.

Although Su Yu's level of attention was not as high as that of top-tier celebrities, it was still a considerable amount of traffic at the time. A sweet clip shared from his account had a more powerful effect than the official Weibo account of the drama.

Douyin was also very cooperative, providing a lot of support in terms of streaming.

2017 was a pivotal year for Douyin, marking its transition from product refinement to rapid growth, and the platform had an extremely high demand for high-quality content.

At this stage, Douyin urgently needs a batch of topical content to drive user growth and retention.

The sweet campus drama "A Love So Beautiful" perfectly targets the core user profile of Douyin—young students.

This "content + streaming" approach not only helped the production team accurately reach the target audience, but also contributed high-quality content to Douyin, achieving a win-win situation for both parties.

This combination of strategies had an immediate and noticeable effect. Many viewers have high expectations for the drama "A Love So Beautiful".

Judging from the clips released by the production team, this drama is refreshing and clean, with bright visuals and natural dialogue.

In the 2017 drama market, whether it was satellite TV dramas or web dramas, historical dramas and suspense dramas dominated the market. Audiences had long been tired of these formulaic historical dramas. Now, this refreshing and sweet drama has suddenly appeared, which naturally caught their attention and made them look forward to it.

I watched as one trending topic after another for "A Love So Beautiful" popped up on Weibo.

#A Love So Beautiful is scheduled to air#

#JiangChenChenXiaoxi#

#Su Yutian and Xi Wei duet#

Dai Lu leaned back in her office chair, watching the constantly fluctuating data on the back end, and couldn't help but sigh, "You young people are really quick-witted; you can even come up with something new for a drama promotion."

Su Yu smiled modestly: "It's all just copying what others have already done. These methods have actually been used before."

"You're just too modest." Dai Lu put down her phone, then suddenly changed the subject, her tone becoming more serious. "Xiao Su, I heard that Daylight Entertainment has something big planned for September, did you know?"

There are no secrets in the entertainment industry, and the news that Daylight Entertainment was going to cut its artist department could not be kept from other companies.

As the head of Huace Drama Cute Studio, Dai Lu has better access to information than the average producer, so it's perfectly normal for her to receive advance notice.

That's why she called Su Yu over alone today; she wanted to poach him.

"I know." Su Yu nodded.

"So what are your plans for the future?"

Su Yu's expression shifted slightly.

Dai Lu wouldn't ask such a question for no reason; there was clearly another layer of meaning behind her "plan".

"Xiao Su, I won't beat around the bush anymore," Dai Lu said frankly.

"You know, I've always had high hopes for you. From the day you came to audition, I felt that this young man was extraordinary."

"How about it? Want to consider coming to Huace? You know, Huace is the largest TV drama production company in China, producing seven or eight big-budget productions every year. We have a very mature system from pre-production to post-production promotion. If you come here, the compensation will definitely be better than at Noon Sunshine, and I can personally train you. What do you think?"

After listening, Su Yu remained silent for a moment, then spoke frankly: "President Dai, I am honored to be favored by you, but back in June, I had already discussed the follow-up arrangements with the company. After leaving Noon, I decided to open my own studio, and Noon will also invest in my studio later."

Dai Lu frowned slightly after hearing this.

She never expected that this newcomer, who had been in the industry for less than two years, would want to go solo.

However, upon further reflection, she understood that Noon Sunshine also felt that Su Yu, this young man, had potential and did not want to give up on him.

Su Yu changed the subject: "However, Mr. Dai, Huace could also be considered..."

"stop!"

Before he could finish speaking, Dai Lu ruthlessly interrupted him.

She wiped the smile from her face, and her tone revealed a hint of displeasure: "Xiao Su, your idea is not very practical."

"Currently, no artist's studio in China is qualified to have both Daylight Entertainment and Huace Media, two major production companies, invest in and endorse it."

She spoke in a somewhat aggressive tone when she said those words.

Su Yu also understood her subtext: What level are you to dare to have two major companies endorse you at the same time?

After listening, Su Yu did not rush to defend himself, but nodded, "President Dai is right, I did not consider things thoroughly enough."

Dai Lu's expression softened slightly, thinking that the topic had come to an end.

"However," Su Yu changed the subject, "President Dai, I'm not asking Huace to invest in my studio. What I mean is, you can do it in a private capacity."

This suggestion was completely unexpected by Dai Lu.

Su Yu smiled slightly and continued, "If you're also willing to come, I can open up a portion of the shares to you. This investment has nothing to do with Huace; it's yours personally. You have faith in me, and I also need a senior like you to guide me."

This idea was not something he came up with on a whim.

He had already been planning this in his mind since the first time Huo Xiaolan talked to him about the studio.

While Noon Sunshine's resources are certainly stable, the scale is limited, and most of the dramas they produce are serious dramas. Although these dramas can increase the actors' national popularity, the filming cycle is long, and actors have to invest a year or even longer to film one drama.

This kind of drama is certainly a plus for older actors whose fame is already established, but for young stars like Su Yu who need popularity, it is definitely a minus.

Huace has the largest TV drama production capacity in China, producing seven or eight big productions every year, mainly youth idol dramas and ancient costume dramas, which are very suitable for Su Yu.

If we can get in touch with Dai Lu, it will be much easier to secure projects and find investors than simply relying on Noon Sunshine.

More importantly, Dai Lu's reputation and connections within the industry are rare resources.

Dai Lu did not respond immediately.

She knew Su Yu very well. This young man could write songs, write scripts, was smart, and understood human relationships. Moreover, after the official broadcast of "A Love So Beautiful", she believed that Su Yu's popularity would definitely skyrocket in a short period of time. That's why she took the initiative to ask Su Yu to join Huace.

But after hearing what Su Yu said, she began to re-evaluate the pros and cons.

If she invests in her personal capacity and Su Yu succeeds, the personal gains she receives will be far greater than if she operated within the Huace Group's system.

Moreover, it does not require internal budget approval and resource allocation processes, making decisions faster and with fewer constraints.

Even if Su Yu fails, the only risk she bears is the investment capital, which is much less risky than directly signing him into Huace.

She had to admit that Su Yu's suggestion was somewhat tempting.

"There's no rush," Dai Lu said, her usual calm expression returning. "I'll go back and think about it some more."