Chapter 131 Interactive Marketing

Zhu Xiaoce stared blankly.

He clearly remembered that similar discussions weren't widespread yesterday, limited to small circles with little buzz.

But after just one day, various discussions suddenly exploded!

The release date for the "Mission and Choice" movie was confirmed, and while only basic information and a few trailers were released, it didn't dampen the enthusiasm of online users.

Even the "Mission and Choice" game, still a mere rumor, was being dissected by players with their clever minds. Some even connected it to the "Fantasy Battle Remastered" releasing on April 14th!

And the discussion was still growing. If this momentum could hold for two more days, anything could happen!

Zhu Xiaoce's expression quickly shifted from disappointment to surprise, then from surprise to amazement.

"How are so many people discussing this after only one day?"

"Judging by today's results alone, it's not bad at all!"

Huang Sibing's face was also full of excitement: "I understand!"

"This is where President Pei's brilliance lies. He appears to be doing nothing on the surface, but he's actually doing a lot!"

"The reason we feel the Advertising and Marketing Department hasn't done anything is because we're subconsciously applying traditional promotional methods. But this promotion clearly isn't using traditional methods!"

"Traditional promotional methods are simple and direct, but they rarely inspire player engagement."

"Interested players will only learn a little and then patiently wait for the movie release and game launch, without discussing it much."

"And those who aren't interested probably won't bother to find out more, which means investing massive amounts of money in advertising to get their attention. Due to the principle of diminishing marginal returns, the cost-effectiveness of this is very poor."

"President Pei's promotional plan, however, is an 'interactive' type of promotion!"

"Like the puzzle-solving event we used to promote *Be Quiet*, this method better stimulates player engagement and has a completely different effect than traditional advertising!"

"In layman's terms, it's a 'riddle-master' approach, setting traps for careful players to fall into. Once these players are hooked, they'll actively share it with others, creating a 'tap water effect'!"

Zhu Xiaoce also looked enlightened.

"Inspiring player engagement?"

"Huh, that makes sense!"

Carefully reviewing the "Mission and Choice" promotional plan, he suddenly realized that seemingly unrelated content was all connected!

The Advertising and Marketing Department demanded strict confidentiality regarding "Mission and Choice" projects, forbidding the leakage of any internal information, and nothing about the game's content was revealed.

Although the movie had a release date and submitted materials, there were no large-scale promotions, so most viewers didn't notice, preventing widespread discussion.

Then, the Advertising and Marketing Department began to release information bit by bit!

First, they spent a lot of resources promoting the "Collection of Classic Domestic Games," cleverly hiding "Mission and Choice" within the collection. On the surface, this money seemed poorly spent and ineffective, but it actually served an educational purpose.

The games in the "Collection of Classic Domestic Games" became familiar to players, and "Mission and Choice," a "national gaming disgrace," was brought out for a beating once again. The more players discussed it, the more players learned about the inside story.

Once this feeling of shame was rekindled, it provided fertile ground for the release of "Mission and Choice"!

Second, through an interview on the official platform, the concepts of "incubation base" and "Collection of Classic Domestic Games" were tied to Tengda Games. An accidental photo sparked endless speculation among players about Tengda's new game.

Then, the Advertising and Marketing Department made a feint, deliberately releasing false information and using *Fitness Battle* to cover up "Mission and Choice," leaving players confused once again.

At the critical moment when players were arguing fiercely, Fan Qi Media's divine assist arrived. The news of the "Mission and Choice" movie was revealed, directly confirming all of the players' previous suspicions!

Throughout the whole process, President Pei was like a beauty playing the pipa, half-veiled, always leaving behind a handkerchief or keepsake when players weren't paying attention. As the players continued to argue and doubt themselves, their expectations grew higher and higher.

Until finally, what they found was no longer just a handkerchief, a keepsake, or a plucked flower, but an invitation.

A beauty they had doubted existed invited them to meet at the gazebo on the mountain in her letter. Who could resist such temptation?

Therefore, the promotion that had been building for so long finally paid off, and the players' attention was focused!

Moreover, unlike traditional promotional methods, interested players would try to guess the game and movie's specific content through various clues, while those who weren't interested would become interested due to the large number of players discussing it.

The topic would persist, and in the next few days, discussions about "Mission and Choice" would inevitably emerge one after another, exploding in a short period of time and forming a super-sized trending event!

Compared to traditional promotional methods, the biggest advantage of this promotional method was its frugality.

Without spending too much money on advertising, players were willing to get to the bottom of things and learn more about the game!

After Huang Sibing and Zhu Xiaoce recapped, they immediately felt that President Pei's promotion was brilliant!

Although Meng Chang had created the plan, anyone could tell that it wasn't Meng Chang's style. It must have been President Pei who had guided him!

It wasn't that Meng Chang was stupid, but Meng Chang's thinking wasn't that long-term, and these ideas were completely contrary to his habits.

Like in some martial arts novels, many miraculous skills are harder for smarter people to learn.

Meng Chang was one of those smart people. Without President Pei's guidance, he would never have come up with such a brilliant plan in his life!

Moreover, strictly speaking, Meng Chang's cleverness was small cleverness, while President Pei was not only smarter than Meng Chang, but also wiser!

"In that case, President Pei is very confident in 'Mission and Choice,' which is why he dared to use such a low-cost, high-risk promotional plan."

"But even so, the problem of insufficient initial publicity still can't be solved very well."

"Especially for the movie, the opening day's screenings and attendance rates are too important, and they can't be improved by just relying on the movie's quality. There have been many high-quality movies that flopped due to insufficient promotion, so the risk is still very high!"

Zhu Xiaoce raised new concerns again.

This plan wasn't perfect from the current point of view, its problem was that it was too idealistic.

The game was fine, good wine fears no deep alley, and it would eventually become popular over time, even if it took a few months. But the movie was different. If there wasn't enough initial publicity and the attendance rate was low, the cinemas would further reduce screenings, and then the daily box office would continue to decline, entering a vicious cycle!

Compared to traditional promotional methods, the current level of buzz wasn't enough.

Because traditional promotional plans were very direct. Overwhelming advertisements were launched, bragging as much as possible, and the more money spent, the better the results.

But the promotional plan that President Pei was using now saved money, but the initial results were definitely not as good as traditional plans. Its characteristics were high user loyalty, high participation, and strong staying power, but many casual moviegoers would definitely not be attracted from the start.

This discussion had to continue to spread and form a trend before it could spread to casual moviegoers.

If the game or movie didn't achieve the desired results after being released, then the chain of communication would break, and it would be over.

Huang Sibing and Zhu Xiaoce were both smart, and understood the reasoning after a little thought.

"So, initial exposure is still needed, and based on President Pei's current plan, everything is perfect, the only problem is that the current discussion has not yet broken through to a wider audience."

"If this discussion continues for three to five days, it's still possible to break through, but there's clearly no time left now..."

Zhu Xiaoce frowned.

He originally thought that the comeback had been completed, but now, after thinking carefully, he felt that a crucial link was missing: initial buzz.

This was very likely to affect the success or failure of the entire project!

Huang Sibing nodded: "Yeah... this is indeed a very serious problem."

"But as things stand, there's nothing we can do."

"We can only say that President Pei must have thought of the problems we can think of. Perhaps President Pei has already prepared a backup plan."

"Let's do our job and wait patiently."

The two discussed for a while, but couldn't figure out how to solve this final problem, so they had to give up helplessly.

At this time, they could only choose to trust President Pei!

...

At the same time, Meng Chang was lying lifelessly at his home.

He didn't go to work today because he had completely lost the motivation to go.

Even now, he couldn't accept this painful fact.

His commission for this month was probably doomed!

What was the difference between going to work or not for the next half month? Everything was left to fate anyway.

If the game and movie became popular, he wouldn't get a single penny in commission;

If the game and movie flopped, how much commission he could get would depend entirely on luck.

What's more, Meng Chang had worked at high intensity in the first half of the month, using up almost all of his enthusiasm, and now he didn't want to do anything but lie in bed.

"Buzz..."

While lying lifelessly, the phone on the bedside table rang.

Meng Chang stared at the ceiling blankly for a few seconds, and then reached for the phone with a flick of his hand, saying weakly: "Hello?"

Yu Yao's voice came from the other end of the phone: "Brother Meng, you didn't come to work today. Are you feeling unwell?"

Meng Chang: "I'm fine, I'm just a little tired and need to rest."

Yu Yao: "Yeah, indeed, Brother Meng, you've worked hard this month. I have something to report to you. Didn't you tell me to communicate with the various departments before and say that we should keep the 'Mission and Choice' things confidential?"

"Min Jingchao just called me and asked if we should continue to keep it confidential. They're about to release a new hero on their side, which has been delayed for a long time. The players are waiting anxiously, so it's not good to continue delaying it."

"Moreover, now that the news about 'Mission and Choice' has spread, it shouldn't hurt if GoG releases a new hero, right?"

Meng Chang was silent.

If he had been asked two days earlier, his answer would definitely have been a refusal.

But now, Meng Chang was in a state of giving up.

The players were all like Sherlock Holmes, guessing almost all the information about "Mission and Choice," and the movie had also been revealed.

Moreover, the movie was going to be released this weekend, so it didn't matter if it was a day or two.

Meng Chang felt like his heart was dead: "Whatever."

Yu Yao nodded: "Okay, Brother Meng, then you should rest well. I'm hanging up now."

...

After receiving a positive reply from the Advertising and Marketing Department, Min Jingchao immediately arranged for his subordinates to update GoG.

"The new hero 'Yun Que' can be launched!"

"Everyone, hurry up, don't delay for even a second!"

Min Jingchao was urging them anxiously because he could feel that this new hero must be very important to President Pei!

Anyone could see that President Pei's marketing plan was of the late-blooming type. If other people's marketing plans were like lighting a fire and then frantically fanning it, then President Pei's marketing plan was like piling up a lot of grass, burying the fuse, and then waiting for a small spark to quickly develop into a prairie fire!

But now there was a problem. The fuse had been buried and successfully sparked, but the fire wasn't strong enough and wasn't burning fast enough.

If this fire couldn't burn very big before Saturday, then it was still possible to fail!

At this time, it was time to test the various departments!

The character "Yun Que" was a collaboration with "Mission and Choice." It was originally planned to be Captain Qin Yi, but President Pei rejected it.

Therefore, this time, "Yun Que" was a female character wearing a combat uniform.

Now, this new hero was finally going to come in handy!

This update would affect the hearts of countless GoG players, and Min Jingchao would take this opportunity to help promote "Mission and Choice," contributing his modest strength!

"This should be a key trump card that President Pei left for me, right?"

"Yeah, it's almost time to play it!"