Huayu: Starting from managing the Mahua FunAge Theater Troupe

7 PM.

There are still ten minutes until the performance starts.

Yu Kai and Shen Feiyang stood at the entrance of the auditorium, looking at the hundreds of audience members sitting in the tiered seating area.

Yu Kai turned slightly to Shen Feiyang and reported: "A total of 471 audience members came to the event. 407 of them were invited for free, and the rest bought tickets, but the ticket price was uniformly reduced to 60 yuan, and they were upgraded to front row seats for free."

The ticket revenue for this show was 3840 yuan, which barely covered the venue rental fee. However, the actors' salaries, the director's salary, the security guard's salary, the set design costs, the cost of hiring buses, the cost of hiring reporters, and other miscellaneous expenses still did not cover the costs. The show was probably a loss of about 4500 yuan per performance.

One game per day, with two games on the weekend of the 17th and 18th. The second round will have a total of 10 games. At the current rate of financial loss, those 10 games will result in a loss of 4.

"The loss wasn't too much. The venue rental fee had already been paid. The difference between ticket revenue and the unrealized loss was only a few hundred yuan, which shows that the first round of performances had accumulated some positive word-of-mouth, which is why there were dozens of paying audience members."

Shen Feiyang is optimistic: "The promotional effect hasn't been seen yet, but maybe we can make back our investment in one go during the Spring Festival season from January 24th to February 8th."

Shen Feiyang acquired all the shares. It was originally supposed to cost 200,000 yuan, but in the end he only gave Zhang Chen and Tian Youliang 130,000 yuan. Yu Kai didn't ask for any money. The 60,000 yuan saved was all invested by Shen Feiyang in the Happy Bus promotion campaign.

Although the bus publicity campaign was based on what the Mahua Troupe would normally do in the original timeline, Shen Feiyang expanded the campaign from one bus to five buses + five minibuses + five newspapers.

The promotional effect will definitely be stronger than the original version, and it's not impossible that it will solve the problem of the Yifu Theater being hidden in a remote alley.

Yu Kai remained cautious, asking about another matter: "After the original cast moves to the Haidian Theater on February 9th, will it be feasible for Shen Teng to lead the cast at the Yifu Theater? Won't we end up losing money on two fronts?"

Yu Kai then changed his tone: "How about we terminate the contract with Yifu Theater in advance? The penalty for breach of contract is 60% of the rent for each show. If we don't perform from February 9th to February 20th, we can still recoup some money."

Upon hearing this...

Shen Feiyang refused without hesitation: "Old Yu, I may not be as good as you guys at creating content, but I think I have some brains when it comes to business."

Since the penalty for breach of contract is so high, why not change our approach, preserve the venue, and start internal talent development early? Otherwise, after He Jiong and the others' performance period ends, will we still have to hire more celebrities?

"I reserve my opinion," Yu Kai said without arguing.

Shen Feiyang remained optimistic: "Don't worry, we'll definitely make money from both sides. Haidian Theater is a star-studded venue, and with such high venue fees, ticket prices will definitely have to be raised even higher."

The performance at the Yifu Theater is a special show for the theater troupe. Because of insufficient preparation, the ticket price is half that of the Haidian Theater.

I read about this in a magazine; it's called consumer segmentation, distinguishing between two consumer groups. You're from Peking University, so you definitely understand.

That makes sense.

Yu Kai replied casually.

He felt that Shen Feiyang was in a good state, at least giving people a sense of hope.

There is hope, which is better than stagnation.

……

Two and a half hours later, the performance ended.

He Jiong readily cooperated with the new promotional plan, encouraging audience members who were able to attend to share their viewing experience on local online communities after returning home.

In addition, the entire audience can participate in a lucky draw, with prizes including his single CD, autographed photos of the three lead actors, and some small gifts.

Yu Kai took charge of hosting the event, and together with Wei Xiang, Huang Nina, and Zhou Dayong, they organized a lucky draw for the audience.

For those audience members who were willing to queue up to participate in the lucky draw, Yu Kai would register their personal information one by one, including their name, age, mobile phone number, and QQ number.

Shen Feiyang created the "Happy Twist Theater Troupe Bar" and several QQ groups on the internet to gather audiences for the troupe.

He did this later when he opened a chain of barbecue restaurants; back then, it was called private domain traffic. However, in early 2004, not many people were doing this.

……

This is the backstage corridor.

Shen Feiyang shook hands with He Jiong, Yu Na, and Xie Na one by one: "Teacher He, Teacher Yu, Teacher Xie, thank you so much for your understanding and support."

He Jiong smiled and said, "I also hope that your troupe can recover soon. Although Teacher Tian has left your company, since you are still willing to do stage plays, I will definitely support you to the end. Not to mention, I have signed a contract, hahaha."

Xie Na didn't go crazy this time, and honestly said, "Teacher He asked me to come and help, so I will definitely help in the best way possible."

Yuna said, "Since we've signed the contract, we can't go back on our word."

Shen Feiyang said sincerely, "As you three teachers have seen today, there are more than 400 audience members here. Although a large part of them were attracted by our invitation to the performance, as long as we can build a good reputation, we will eventually attract more audience members who are willing to pay to watch the performance. Once we turn a profit, I will definitely give you three a big red envelope and personally visit you to express my gratitude."

We'll talk about the rest later.

The only thing Shen Feiyang can offer the three of them right now is face, so they'll just have to keep up appearances for now.

……

The audience members returned home around 10 or 11 o'clock after the performance.

A viewer named Lin Lulu, after having dinner and taking a shower, turned on her computer and logged onto Baidu Tieba.

Baidu Tieba was launched in early December 2003.

After Tieba was launched, Lin Lulu created a "Beijing Food Bar".

Lin Lulu usually shares some of the delicious food and restaurants she has eaten in Beijing on this forum, which can be considered the prototype of a restaurant review blogger.

Because of her strong writing skills, she can vividly describe the color, aroma, and taste of a dish with just words, which has attracted many netizens who love reading food posts. Thousands of people follow "Beijing Food Bar".

Lin Lulu originally went to the mall to explore shops today, but she ran into Shen Teng and was persuaded by him to tell her that it was a food-themed stage play, so Lin Lulu got on the bus.

When she arrived and saw it, although it wasn't a food-themed stage play, she almost died laughing.

Lin Lulu couldn't wait to finish writing a post titled "A Hilarious Express Appears in Beijing!", which detailed her experience today.

The most captivating line in the entire post is, "There's a type of car on the street that can take you straight to happiness."

A short while later.

Dozens of people asked about the pick-up location in the comments section of the post, and some even forwarded the post to local Beijing internet communities such as BJ Bar, Haidian Bar, and Huairou Bar.

Attention has surged.

……

The following day, June 14nd.

Between 17 PM and 19 PM, each bus transported three loads of people to the Central Academy of Drama's Yifu Theater, and each minibus also brought one load.

One bus brought 120 people in three trips, for a total of 600 people, while the minibus brought a total of 64 people.

Meanwhile, 207 tickets were sold.

Each ticket costs 60 yuan.

For the first time, ticket revenue for a single event exceeded 10,000 yuan.

Seeing the packed audience, Yu Kai was ecstatic. He grabbed Shen Feiyang's shoulder and exclaimed, "Holy crap, Lao Shen, we made a profit! We made a profit!"

"Yes. But how could it be so fast?"

Shen Feiyang was also shocked.

Didn't those newspapers say they would publish the ad tomorrow?

Although the source of the variable is unknown, the result is good.

Shen Feiyang stroked his chin: "We need to limit the number of free viewers. Starting tomorrow, each bus will make two fixed trips, and half of the tickets will be sold."