RRP Chapter 20

Before Ji Ling could even set off, Luo Tao had already called him.

 

“Why aren’t you back yet? What are you up to?”

 

“….” Ji Ling was starting to understand Luo Tao’s personality more and more. He spoke the same way to everyone. Ji Ling honestly couldn’t believe Luo Tao had managed to survive in the business world all this time.

 

Ji Ling replied, “I’m handling something in N city.”

 

“Have you finished yet? There’s a movie promotion, are you taking it or not? If you’re still busy, I’ll have the production team find someone else.”

 

Ji Ling almost slammed his hand on the table and quickly responded, “Yes, yes, yes! I’ll be back right away.”

 

He immediately headed back to S city. As soon as he got off the plane, the warm, humid air filled his nostrils, giving him a strange feeling as if he had been away for years.

 

Just as he landed, his phone rang. It was Mo Yulan.

 

There was no mistaking the irritation in Miss Mo’s voice. “Mr. Ji, there are a lot of things that need your approval, and several projects waiting for you to review. Please come and sign the documents immediately.”

 

Ji Ling responded casually, “I’m already back, aren’t I? Besides, I’ve been listening to your reports over the phone these past few days. You’ve handled everything well—I’m confident in you.”

 

Mo Yulan’s voice dropped a few notches. “Mr. Ji, you’re the boss. Please take responsibility.”

 

Ji Ling had never given Mo Yulan a clear role within the company. On the surface, he treated her as a manager, but Mo Yulan had never acknowledged Ji Ling as her boss. She only recognized Yan Yixuan, and her tone when speaking to Ji Ling didn’t carry that usual superior-subordinate formality. It was much freer, much more laid-back.

 

Ji Ling had once considered finding an assistant, but Mo Yulan was simply too capable. She had extensive experience in dealing with corporate clients, never flinched when handling large-scale projects, and thanks to her background in Yan Yixuan’s secretary office, she understood company operations very well. There were many times Ji Ling didn’t need to explain things; she just got it.

 

If there was one flaw, as Yan Yixuan once said, it was that Mo Yulan was ambitious and difficult to manage.

 

No matter what, Ji Ling had come to rely on her more and more, though he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.

 

The personnel issues were something Ji Ling thought about only occasionally. Right now, he was more eager to find out what the movie promotion that Luo Tao had mentioned was all about.

 

Ji Ling returned to the company and handed out the local specialties he’d brought for his staff. Before he could even make small talk with them, Mo Yulan was already on top of him, pushing him to go through the affairs of the past week.

 

There were numerous scattered production teams and platforms wanting to make contact with Ji Ling, but his company had long passed the stage of being desperate for any business. Now, they were selective, focusing on the quality of deals. For the past while, most of the business he’d taken on had been part of large-scale online promotions. The feedback had been good, but Ji Ling knew that what he really needed was a more systematic, complete marketing project to run through the whole process and further solidify his company’s structure.

 

He flipped through the invitations in his inbox. Ever since he’d gained a little fame in the industry, his inbox had been bombarded daily with promotional offers. Every day there were new variety shows premiering, new web dramas finishing production, and, on top of that, TV shows and movies—all needing marketing support.

 

But they were all small productions. Ji Ling scrolled through them, but none caught his interest.

 

He hit the one-click reply and closed the inbox, turning to Mo Yulan. “I’m going to Tian Sheng Entertainment.”

 

Since Luo Tao personally brought him this business, it had to be something special. It’d be better to get a head start and understand the details sooner rather than later.

 

When he arrived at Tian Sheng Entertainment, Luo Tao greeted him and said, “Hey, couldn’t we have just discussed this over the phone? Why’d you bother coming all the way here?”

 

“….” Ji Ling thought to himself, ‘Are you messing with me?’

 

Luo Tao saw the look on his face and burst into laughter.

 

“Alright, here’s the deal. There’s a movie, it hasn’t started production yet, but they’re looking for a publicity team.” Luo Tao finally stopped teasing Ji Ling and began explaining the specifics. “The production crew is a bit… unique.”

 

He paused, not continuing.

 

Ji Ling made a gesture, urging him to go on.

 

“Come on, cooperate. Ask me what’s so special about it.” Luo Tao continued, “The unique part is that the production crew used to make TV dramas. This is their first movie.”

 

“And then?” Ji Ling played along.

 

“Then… it’s a low-budget urban romance comedy.”

 

Ji Ling felt a little disappointed after hearing that.

 

Another small production, another comedy, and a romance at that—it sounded like a total flop.

 

The taste of today’s audience is incredibly picky. Not to mention the blockbuster films from abroad, even domestic movies are getting more and more polished, with high production and marketing budgets. For a low-budget film to make it big is nearly impossible.

 

That’s why low-budget productions struggle to attract big marketing firms, and their promotional budgets are bound to be low. The result? Poor box office sales. It’s a vicious cycle, and hardly anyone sees any potential.

 

Luo Tao noticed Ji Ling’s reaction and it seemed to be exactly what he expected. He continued, “Even though it’s a small production, they want to find a team to take care of all their promotional work—from inserting the marketing campaign to mid-stage follow-ups and the final release. They want to outsource the entire thing.”

 

Now, Ji Ling was interested. “So you’re saying we’d handle the full marketing plan?”

 

Luo Tao nodded. “If you decide to take it. The production team is new to filmmaking, so they don’t have the resources to focus on promotion, and they don’t want to deal with multiple middle agents. They’ve decided to give one team full control.” He looked at Ji Ling. “I think this is a great opportunity. Your company has a lot of ideas, but you haven’t yet tackled any major productions. This film project could be a perfect fit for you, and it’s a good chance to get your departments in order.”

 

Luo Tao’s idea lined up perfectly with Ji Ling’s own thoughts.

 

“I see. I’ll take on this project, but will they agree? After all, this is our first time handling a large-scale marketing strategy,” Ji Ling responded.

 

“Hey, they’re making their first movie too.” Luo Tao waved it off nonchalantly. “I’ll give you their contact info. After that, it’s up to you to communicate with them.”

 

Ji Ling nodded. Luo Tao came over and patted his shoulder. “Do a good job. Don’t let me lose money.”

 

Ji Ling smiled. “You’re overthinking it. Just wait for the year-end bonus.”

 

The next day, Ji Ling got in touch with the production team and they set up a meeting. He had his team prepare the company’s promotional outline and took Mo Yulan along with a few other subordinates to meet with the person in charge of the production.

 

After the meeting, they didn’t finalize the contract right away.

 

The production team had doubts about Ji Ling’s company, unsure if they could handle the whole process. Ji Ling worked hard to convince them, and luckily, his communication skills were sharp. His team’s copywriting was also well-done, effectively boosting the company’s performance from an eight to a ten. Over the past period, Ji Ling had achieved some solid results, and with Luo Tao’s backing, the production team finally put their worries to rest.

 

But the promotional budget offered by the production team didn’t satisfy Ji Ling.

 

Although they had agreed that if the movie hit a certain box office target, there would be additional compensation, the current marketing budget was so low that Ji Ling felt they wouldn’t be able to do anything meaningful with it. How could they promote the movie without enough funding?

 

The production team was helpless, though. “The promotional budget is already a third of our total production cost, which is quite high for us.”

 

“….” Ji Ling couldn’t help but wonder how small the film’s overall budget was. Would it even make it to theaters?

 

He swallowed his complaints and worked with the production team to finalize the details. In the end, they signed the contract.

 

Ji Ling’s company would handle all the promotional efforts until the movie was taken down from theaters. If the movie’s box office hit the expected target, Ji Ling would receive an additional commission. If the box office exceeded expectations, he’d earn a percentage based on the earnings.

 

After the contract was signed, Ji Ling received all the movie’s complete materials.

 

This included the script, cast list, and shooting schedule.

 

Ji Ling began organizing all the information about the film.

 

The movie was tentatively titled ‘Confession’, and Ji Ling’s first thought upon seeing the name was, ‘Can a title like this really attract an audience?’

 

The script was based on a web novel, which was something quite common these days. Popular online novels could already develop into major IPs, with enough of a fan base to support adaptations into games, TV shows, and films.

 

But the issue was that this novel wasn’t published on a well-known novel website. It had been posted on a reading community’s light blog.

 

Ji Ling went to the website, and upon checking the novel’s page, he saw that while there were a lot of discussions, the number of interactions was much lower than on mainstream novel platforms. This showed that the novel’s reach wasn’t broad enough to rely on its fanbase to boost the movie’s box office.

 

Next came the issue with the cast.

 

While the male and female leads were well-known stars, they were all primarily TV actors. They had acted in several TV dramas each year, but none had ever taken on leading roles in films. Fortunately, the actors were youthful and attractive, with a large fan following, so they could still help prop up the movie’s box office.

 

As for the supporting roles, there were several newcomers. Ji Ling looked through them and found that they all had good looks, which should appeal to a younger audience. Luckily, there were also a few cameo roles with bigger names, but it was still uncertain whether they would be able to secure them.

 

Finally, there was the issue of the production team.

 

Ji Ling couldn’t help but analyze the situation for them—where did they get the confidence to make this movie? He looked up their past work and found that they had indeed produced several popular TV dramas, which put him at ease, at least a little.

 

But the gap between television and the big screen was massive. Would they struggle to adapt? If they couldn’t grasp what moviegoers wanted, what if audiences simply didn’t buy into it?

 

From Ji Ling’s perspective, this film had ‘flop’ written all over it.

 

But since he had taken on the job, he was going to give it his all. At the very least, it would be a valuable learning experience. Marketing was all about making even a pile of dirt look like gold. The chances of success were slim, but if they could push the box office numbers up as much as possible, there was still good money to be made.

 

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