Huayu: Traffic is king

Chapter 69 Fashion Resource Upgrade (4.7K)

Gu Jingyi's task today is to shoot a solo cover for the April issue of Elle, a top women's magazine.

His clothing choices were mainly Dior, and he paired them with Cartier accessories.

Dior’s Asian brand ambassador will be announced on March 3st, the day after tomorrow, which coincides with the popularity of the first public performance of “Idol Producer” which will be aired tomorrow.

In fact, when Gu Jingyi first joined "Idol Producer", he only wanted a domestic brand friend exclusively for the Chinese region.

Dio had already given it to him directly.

The title of Asian Brand Friend directly puts Gu Jingyi ahead of Yang Ying, Zhao Liying and Huang Xuan.

Dior will not recognize its Chinese brand friends on the external website, but Gu Jingyi's Asian brand friend is on Dior's official recognition list on the external website.

Although Gu Jingyi is currently just a small brand friend and cannot participate in any global marketing.

But from December 2017 to the beginning of spring 12, Gu Jingyi dominated the domestic entertainment industry. Whether it was the topic or the popularity, he almost single-handedly won it all.

Considering Gu Jingyi's good looks and talent, the lengthy background check revealed no shady history. He's also a student from a prestigious university, setting him apart from other popular figures in the Chinese entertainment industry, who are often plagued by "Nine-Leaked Fish."

Gu Jingyi's current development prospects are very good and are steadily rising.

Dior also intends to gradually improve Gu Jingyi's internal resources and treatment to facilitate the establishment of a longer-term and deeper cooperative relationship in the future.

Prada’s contact with Gu Jingyi before did make Dior a little uneasy.

Contacting Lin Ze directly, his words hinted that if Gu Jingyi developed better, it would not be a problem for him to become a global brand ambassador next year.

This promise is still very touching, as Dior has never had a spokesperson.

The highest level title is global brand ambassador.

Before masks, Dior's title was still quite valuable.

Wu Sehun will become Dior's global brand ambassador in 2021, and Gu Jingyi will make history if he achieves this in 2019.

Before him, Dior had never had a man as its global brand ambassador.

Just how much does Dior value Gu Jingyi? This cover of a top women's magazine is the best proof.

After all, not every star can be pushed onto the cover of a top magazine by a top luxury brand for a seven-figure sum just to build momentum for his or her fashion career.

Before officially announcing that Gu Jingyi became a close friend of the Asian brand, Dior was promoting Gu Jingyi crazily.

In this era of traffic, if you don’t appear in a few first-tier magazines and tell others about it, you will be ridiculed by your competitors as being “unfashionable”.

At this time, Cartier, another top luxury jewelry brand that was optimistic about Gu Jingyi, was also conducting background checks on him.

If Gu Jingyi had not been exposed to any negative news during this period, his traffic would have been stabilized.

Then Cartier will officially announce that Gu Jingyi has joined the Cartier family after he comes out of "Idol Producer" in April.

In response to Gu Jingyi appearing on the cover of Elle, Cartier also sent a number of its best-selling jewelry items of the season.

It seems that they wanted to use the Cartier that Gu Jingyi wore in this photo shoot to test his influence and ability to bring goods to the market in China. Based on this, they decided to give him the title of spokesperson.

We started in the morning and continued shooting until the evening.

The theme this time is the symbiosis of torn school uniforms and haute couture suits. Gu Jingyi holds the "Idol Producer" C-position trophy and collides with the "A Little Thing Called First Love" script.

Although "Idol Producer" will not be formed until early April, no one doubts that Gu Jingyi will not get the C position.

There is a rumor circulating in the fan circle now that if Gu Jingyi is not C, Kiwis will definitely be checked by angry fans and a few of them will be sent in to appease the public anger.

Champagne at halftime? No!

Congratulations in advance? Yes!

Gu Jingyi could fully foresee that when this April issue of "Elle" was released online, it would be sold out by enthusiastic fans.

Even the most rational fans cannot refuse the meaning of wishing their brother a good omen.

"Elle" is equivalent to buying stocks in advance, and the "Jing Fei" will naturally give back generously.

"Cut!"

Accompanied by the pleasant sound of finishing the filming, Gu Jingyi walked out of the bathtub.

Lin Ze quickly took out a thick blanket for him to cover himself with. Before the filming was completely finished, the artist's clothes and makeup could not be changed at will.

Gu Jingyi put on his bathrobe and felt the temperature rising slowly.

The cover of "Elle" has been shot a long time ago, and the inside pages are now being photographed.

The cameraman looked at the image in the camera:
Gu Jingyi sank to the bottom of the pool, dressed in a Dior satin peaked-lapel suit, his high school uniform tie tied around his neck. On his wrist was a bracelet from his re-rating on "Idol Producer." The underwater lighting gave his suit a cold, scaly sheen.

The whole picture looks full of story, decadent yet hopeful. The symbiotic elements of suits and school uniforms appear again, and Gu Jingyi perfectly interprets them.

The more the cameraman watched, the more satisfied he became. Gu Jingyi's fashion expression was really great.

He nodded. "Okay, Jingyi. We're done with filming today. You did a great job."

"Thank you for your hard work, teacher." Gu Jingyi also walked over with a blanket wrapped around him.

He added the editor-in-chief and photographer on WeChat, changed his clothes in the dressing room, and got in the nanny car.

"Jingyi, thank you for your hard work. Now let's move on to our next endorsement, Rio Cocktail."

"What's our signing fee? We didn't try to snatch the endorsement by offering a low price, did we?"

When this was mentioned, Gu Jingyi, who was still drinking ginger cola in his thermos, suddenly became restless.

"How is that possible?" Lin Ze laughed in silence.

"Everyone in the industry and at the company is very optimistic about your potential. They would never do something like that, which would greatly affect your future pricing and your future in the fashion industry."

Lin Ze looked into Gu Jingyi's eyes and spoke very seriously.

"That's good"

Gu Jingyi breathed a sigh of relief. His current endorsement fee is about 1200 million a year.

After filming Rio Cocktail, he will get another 500 million after sharing the profits with the company.

Gu Jingyi was humming a little tune and was in a good mood.

Lin Ze suddenly seemed to remember something and quickly said, "Jingyi, do you have any special plans for March 3nd? Mango TV has invited you to participate in the Lantern Festival Gala. The time and order of appearances are both good."

March 3nd was the Lantern Festival, which was only three days away. Lin Ze asked this question to find out if Gu Jingyi wanted to go home for a reunion. Gu Jingyi had spent New Year's Eve at the "Idol Producer" studio.

So when Lin Ze received the invitation from Mango TV, he did not agree immediately but first looked at Gu Jingyi's arrangements.

"Of course I'll go. I finished 'Idol Producer' in April. If there's a good variety show, Mango TV and Blue TV are the ones I can't avoid."

Gu Jingyi nodded in agreement without refusing.

"Okay, I'll send a message to Mango TV right now. I'm sorry you've been working away from home on New Year's Eve and Lantern Festival, two family reunion holidays."

Hearing Gu Jingyi's agreement, Lin Ze was happy but also a little embarrassed.

From a work perspective, the more work schedules Gu Jingyi has, the more dividends he will get.

But from a humanitarian perspective, I also feel a little guilty.

"It's okay. I remember it was Friday, right? It's a workday, and workers have to go to work. The Lantern Festival isn't a legal holiday, so there's no need for me to make it special. And I remember that the guest lineup on Mango TV for this Lantern Festival Gala was pretty average, right?"

Gu Jingyi raised his eyes and asked his agent.

"Yes, the heavyweight guest invited by Mango TV for the Lantern Festival Gala this time is Teacher Li Guyi. The gimmick of Teacher Li Guyi returning to her hometown is used to create highlights. We didn't invite a top star. If you, Jingyi, go, you will be the C position in the new press release released by Mango TV today. And you will be the finale of the Lantern Festival Gala." Lin Ze pushed his glasses and said politely.

"There's no need to fight for the center position. There's no need to suppress the number of stars in such a large-scale evening. Why should I, a young person, compete with veteran artists for the center position?"

Gu Jingyi waved his hands, looking a little disgusted.

He is not stupid, so how could he not guess that one of the conditions for Mango TV to invite Li Guyi to join is "the finale performance".

After all, Li Guyi is one of the most legendary singers in China. She has been singing "Unforgettable Tonight" as the finale of the Spring Festival Gala for more than 20 years.

Gu Jingyi isn't some "fanatic who suppresses fans". He'd be crazy to care about this...

If public opinion really gets into trouble, Mango TV will disappear. All the blame will be put on Gu Jingyi.

Mango TV gained traffic and reputation, and Gu Jingyi took on everything.

"Okay, I'll tell Mango TV right away. You'll be the second to last on stage, before Li Guyi."

Lin Ze works very efficiently and he quickly set the tone when he made the call.

Gu Jingyi was listening to the whole thing and could clearly feel that Mango was also relieved.

It can be seen that Mango TV is under a lot of pressure. Every year, the New Year's Eve Gala is so star-studded, but the Lantern Festival Gala is so deserted.

Gu Jingyi's presence and thoughtfulness have already made them remember this favor.

The advertising shoot for Rio Cocktail was also very simple. Gu Jingyi just had to stand on the street holding the Tipsy series and speak the lines to the camera.

It was really easy to shoot, and for actors, this kind of commercial was really easy.

On the fourth day of the holiday, Gu Jingyi moved to Shanghai.

This time he will shoot the April issue of "Bazaar Men" and cooperate with Mengniu Chunzhen to shoot advertisements for the official announcement of the new spokesperson and new products.

"Jingyi, the sales and effects of the New Year's magazine cover you and Dilraba Dilmurat shot were very good. Bazaar was very satisfied, and they invited us to continue working with us on this Fashion Men's issue."

Lin Ze's habit is to sit in the back seat of the car and talk about work with Gu Jingyi on the way to an announcement, and this time is no exception.

"ELLE magazine also expressed their satisfaction with your fashion sense and invited you to participate in their 2018 Elle Fashion."

Gu Jingyi couldn't help laughing. "You're obviously attracted by my traffic, why do you have to talk about fashion expression?"

"If we always tell the truth, that's too tasteless. Brand magazines are all like this now. With the advent of the traffic era, traditional print media will eventually be replaced by electronic publications. Even high-end luxury brands use celebrities as spokespeople to boost sales, let alone fashion magazines that rely on fan purchases."

Agent Lin Ze pointed out the truth: fashion magazines are indeed useless for top stars. If it weren't for the fact that top luxury brands really value fashion expression, those who don't appear in first-tier magazines several times a year would not be able to enter the top luxury candidate threshold.

Top stars don't read fashion magazines at all, as magazine shoots are cheap. A single shoot can take a whole day and is incredibly tiring.

Apart from the pursuit of luxury brands and maintaining style, there really aren’t many positive effects…

The two chatted for a while and soon arrived at the studio of "Bazaar Men".

Gu Jingyi started a busy filming again. Just after coming out of the studio, before he had time to rest, the nanny car started moving again.

Lin Ze sat on the side again and began to introduce the advertisement that was to be filmed later.

"The shoot later should be easier than the magazine shoot just now. This time, the Amul ad shoot should be a piece of cake for you."

"And you also know the other spokesperson signed by Amul this time. You two will work together very well."

Lin Ze noticed that Gu Jingyi was a little tired and encouraged him.

"I don't have any problem, but I remember my fans had a fight with Dilraba fans not long ago, right?"

Gu Jingyi looked up at Lin Ze.

"It's okay. As long as the fan fights aren't too extreme, they generally won't affect the relationship between the artists. I've seen the video for this collaboration. There's nothing ambiguous about it. You and Dilraba both filmed your own parts. You then show your faces together at the end, and that's the end of the commercial."

Lin Ze flipped through the documents in his hand and answered Gu Jingyi's questions with a smile.

If this advertisement was really ambiguous, Lin Ze would not agree to it.

After all, Gu Jingyi is currently on the rise. If he really doesn't care about the feelings of his fans and shoots an ambiguous double endorsement with Dilraba Dilmurat, it will be a shame.

It is easy to anger the group of girlfriend fans who had the most intense conflicts with Dilraba fans before, and they will feel betrayed.

I was cheering for my brother, and he went to shoot a CP endorsement with the rival company. Isn't this betrayal?
In fact, before "Idol Producer", the label of "top star" on Gu Jingyi was still a little controversial.

Most netizens think that Gu Jingyi is the top star. If a dehydrated super topic check-in with 15 fans is not considered a top star, then how many people in the domestic entertainment industry are top stars?
Lu Han, whose official relationship has not yet been completely announced, has 20 sign-ins on his super topic, Li Yifeng has 13 sign-ins on his super topic, Chris has 11 sign-ins on his super topic, and Zhang Yixing, Yangyang and Wang Junka have 10 sign-ins on their super topic.

Gu Jingyi directly ranked second with a dehydrated sign-in of 15.

However, some netizens believe that the popularity of "A Little Thing Called First Love" is merely a testament to the actor's strong suitability for the role of Jiang Chen. Without a second hit drama and three months after leaving the talent show, Gu Jingyi's title as a top star remains unconfirmed.

Enthusiastic netizens also specially compiled the Douban male star super topic sign-in data in March, in addition to the previous "four big and three small" and Gu Jingyi.

Cai Xukun had 9 fans signing in, while Justin and Fan Chengcheng had 8 fans signing in, also ranking in the top ten of male star super topic fan sign-ins in March.

This time, those netizens who were against Gu Jingyi's rise to the top started to criticize her as if they had found evidence. They believed that Gu Jingyi relied on the double buff to become a "top star", and that he would flop after three months of the talent show and without a new hit drama.

Anyway, after arguing for a long time, both sides held their own opinions. In the end, no one could convince the other.

Therefore, the fan circle simply opened up a new genre for top-tier influencers like Gu Jingyi, defining them as new types of traffic that are different from traditional traffic.

Although his national popularity is somewhat lacking, his fans' spending power and enthusiasm are different from those of ordinary traffic artists.

However, no matter how much they argued, they were only arguing about whether Gu Jingyi's title of "top streamer" could be fully established. No one thought that Gu Jingyi's current traffic was not top streamer, but whether the new traffic represented by Gu Jingyi could challenge the long-established "four big and three small" in the domestic entertainment industry.

"Jingyi, this time, Amul will release the two promotional ads you and Dilraba shot separately. At that time, the pre-sale channels for the products will also be opened up. Amul will also be able to get clearer feedback on which fan base is more likely to spend money and play more."

"Well, I see."

Gu Jingyi nodded. He was not worried that he could not beat Dilraba Dilmurat.

The fan base of top male stars is basically dominated by female fans, and the fan base of top female stars is generally dominated by male fans.

There is a saying in the fan circle that "whoever wins the female fans wins the world", and female fans are the most motivated to collect data and support endorsements.

This is also the reason why, excluding the 85 flowers, the top female stars in the post-90s field have only Dilireba and Yang Zi.

Dilraba Dilmurat has appeared on the national variety show "Running Man 5" and formed a phenomenal CP, and Yang Zi is a household name child star.

In terms of popularity and national fame, she has advantages over other popular young actresses.

……

"Anmuxi is here." Gu Jingyi walked over with a tray full of Anmuxi.

He had a beaming smile on his face and said, "Happy New Year."

The yogurt was put down and poured into the wine glass. A group of friends clinked their glasses with smiles.

The sound of clinking glasses is crisp and pleasant.

After completing this last solo shot, Gu Jingyi's shooting mission for the day has come to an end.

"Cut, Xiao Gu, you performed very well today. You're the kind of guy that middle-aged and elderly people would say you're handsome and energetic when you see him."

The advertising director teased him from the side, and it was obvious that he was in a good mood. The faster Gu Jingyi finished, the less trouble he had to work with.

Gu Jingyi smiled and sat here playing with his phone.

He was still waiting for Dilraba Dilmurat to finish so that he could take a shot with her.

(End of this chapter)