I'm Really a Superstar

The fight for advertisers came to an end!

In the following days, the battle for publicity officially began!

Many industry insiders and onlookers were watching this unfold with their hearts in their mouths!

"Wow, take a look at People's Daily!"

"Damn, I Am a Singer has taken out an entire page in People's Daily!"

"How lavish was that? How much did that cost?"

"I wonder how many days they'll advertise in the Party's newspaper 1 ."

"Hey, everyone. Quickly take a look at Beijing Daily, Shanghai Daily, and Huadong Morning Post. The ad pages have all been bought out by Sing! What the fuck!"

"Tianhe Discussion Forums' ad spot on the main page is running an ad for I Am a Singer!"

"TT Messenger's pop-ups are all filled with Sing! ads!"

"These two program teams must have gone fucking insane!"

"I've never come across such hardcore promotions before!"

"How wealthy! They're way too fucking wealthy!"

"I take my hat off to them. They're taking the fight all across the country!"

"This has got to be the biggest publicity battle in the history of variety shows, right?"

"How much hatred do they have for each other? It seems like they're really trying to do each other in!"

"Let them fight it out. Sing! has already lost the fight for advertisers, so let's see who'll win in the battle for publicity!"

In the various major forums!

In the various major newspapers!

On the various major chat apps!

Without an exception, all of them had become battlefields between the two shows!

The publicity battle was so widespread that even those in the music and film industries were alarmed. As they were preparing to promote their new albums, concerts, and films, they discovered they couldn't get any good spots for publicity in the media. Almost all of the critical advertising spots had been bought up by Sing! and I Am a Singer! All along, the film industry had been acknowledged as the heaviest spending industry in the entertainment circle. Be it their actors' salaries, promotional budgets, or production investments, they were the highest among the related industries. But who could have thought that the film industry would be shocked and outdone by two variety shows!

Just how many advertisement spots had they bought?

How much money had they spent on buying all those spots?

10 million?

20 million?

Just these sums spent would have been enough for the film industry to produce a budget idol film. Could they really be that well-off? And this was just the beginning? Could it be that the variety shows' production fees would go over 200 million RMB? What was 200 million good for? It was enough for them to hire the best director in the country and the best A-listers to make a film for the Chinese New Year holidays! Thinking about that, the film industry's people were unable to keep calm!

This was too much!

This was too frightening!

…

Actually, even Beijing Television couldn't keep calm.

At I Am a Singer's program team office.

Hu Fei said nervously, "Zhang'er, we've already spent over a 100 million!"

"OK, it'll be fine." Zhang Ye replied calmly, "Let's keep buying ad spots!"

Hou Ge exclaimed, "We're still buying more? Don't we have enough?"

Zhang Ye shook his head. "We're still far from enough. Since Central TV Department 1 wants to fight us in this publicity battle, we must not let them to oppress us. We'll battle them. Isn't it just a matter of who can dump more money! Don't worry about it, everyone. The money we spend now will come back multiple times over. If we're going to do this, we must up our stakes!"

Dafei didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "But the stakes are getting too high!"

It was indeed a little too much!

But all of it would be worthwhile!

I Am a Singer's greatest weakness was that it did not have any accumulated popularity to fall back on. In Zhang Ye's previous world, during the first three seasons of I Am a Singer, the reputation of the show declined season after season. But because it had accumulated its popularity and became very well-known to a lot of people, the viewership ratings got better and better with every season. The total online views of the show even managed to double. But Zhang Ye did not have the luxury of time over here. That was why they had to carry out such intense promotions for the show. He was going to spend as much as required just to up the promotions. He wanted to give I Am a Singer the most explosive viewership ratings right from the start of the first season and make it an instant hit!

All that he had done were child's play compared to this. Whether it be The Voice, A Bite of China, or King of Masked Singers, their production budgets were all too limited. The promotional budget in those shows were all raised by scrimping and saving on other production costs. But Zhang Ye did not intend to have it this way for I Am a Singer. Beijing Television had placed their trust in him and given him an unlimited budget. After pulling in Brain Gold's 200 million title sponsorship fee and other advertiser sponsorships, it gave him the freedom to spend without consideration. Further, there was still the online video hosting site's exclusive broadcast rights fee that was yet to be sold!

So why not play a big one this time!

Zhang Ye couldn't wait any longer, and neither could the plan to reach the summit!

I Am a Singer was not only a show that Beijing Television had a lot of expectations for, nor was it just a show that Zhang Ye wanted to use to face-smack Central TV Department 1 with, it was also the fourth milestone in Zhang Ye's "Reach the Summit" plan. Zhang Ye wanted to use I Am a Singer to fulfill the potential popularity he could achieve from the variety world so that he could ascend onto the altar!

Zhang Ye said, "Oh yes, earmark 2 million RMB from the production budget."

Xiao Lu asked, "Alright, what will it be used for?"

Zhang Ye said, "To film a promo video."

Hou Ge was taken aback. "A promo video? How many minutes will it be?"

"Around one minute." Zhang Ye's answer was shocking.

Everyone in the program team gasped. "Just one minute? Two million RMB? Director Zhang, isn't that too much?"

Zhang Ye said, "I'll personally take charge of the production of the promo video. I want to have the best equipment, the best production staff, and the best special effects!"

"Uh…"

"Alright then!"

"Whatever you say."

…

Several days later.

The promotional video for Sing! was released!

Just watching it, it was clear that it was a big production and a lot of money had been spent on it. The style and colors used were basically a continuation of the approach used in The Voice. Although it wasn't really anything new, the video was still beautifully produced.

The netizens were all praising it!

"That's pretty good."

"Eagerly awaiting the broadcast!"

"The promo is really nice!"

…

A day later.

I Am a Singer's promotional video was officially released!

Many people paid special attention to it, because everyone knew what kind of a show Sing! was since they've watched The Voice before. But they had no idea what sort of a singing show I Am a Singer would be. Even many of the industry insiders did not know anything since Beijing Television had not revealed much information about it. Zhang Ye's program team also requested to work on the show under a veil of secrecy and did not even want to reveal the list of participating singers. It was as though they were trying to remain mysterious right until the very end. So in the absence of any information, everyone was curious and looking forward to seeing the promotional video!

At 8 PM.

The promotional video would get its first broadcast on Beijing Television.

Zhang Ye's parents turned on the television.

Chen Guang and Fan Wenli were both sitting in the living room in wait.

Xiaodong and Amy were watching eagerly.

Many people in the industry had tuned in to watch right on time.

The background music played soothingly as an image appeared on screen!

Then Zhang Ye's magnetic voice sounded.

"The sound of a person falling.

"Is much louder than a group of people living.

"A moment of despair in someone.

"Carries the significance of dying once.

"Does life gets renewed, or does it end?

"All of it decided by the choices of every moment and every second.

"Music is not the goal, but a state of living.

"Please doubt me!

"Mock me!

"Hurt me!

"I shall greet life facing backwards.

"Why do we sing? So that we stop being afraid.

"Music is fearless.

"I…Am…a…Singer!"

A short 52-second promotional video ended!

But those who caught this promotional video the moment it was broadcast were all left with shocked expressions for a very long time. The images, colors, special effects, and voice over were all superb!

I Am a Singer's promotional video shot up to trending on the search engines!

Praise and shocked reactions were all over Weibo!

"That was fantastic!"

"How is this a promo!"

"Right? It was too artistic! The visuals in it can all be used as my desktop wallpaper!"

"It's so exquisite, concise, and artistic all at once. It's awesome!"

"Zhang Ye's amazing at creating stuff like that!"

"You can immediately see how good it is!"

"That voice over paired with the visuals and music made my heart race!"

"It's much better than Sing!'s promo! They've been flung two streets away!"

"Pfft, it looks like Sing! has lost the publicity battle as well!"

"They can't complain about that! Zhang Ye is Zhang Ye, after all!"

"I'm looking forward to I Am a Singer even more now!"

"Based on just this promo alone, I'll catch the show when it broadcasts!"

There were heated discussions everywhere!

Many of the industry insiders could not help but give it a Like!

A famous advertisement director declared on Weibo: "A wonderfully produced promotional video!"

A program director from Shanghai Television: "I've watched it six times already. This is truly art."

A little-known film director: "By creating such an artistic promotional video with an attitude of seeking perfection, the show they come up with shouldn't be bad."

The promotional video was on fire!

No one expected how hot it was getting!

It was so hot that it didn't make any sense!

Comparatively, Sing!'s promotional video was looking more dismal by the second!

This was not to say that Sing!'s promotional video was bad. But things did not stand up well to comparison. Once they were compared, the shortcomings became glaring! To be exact, this wasn't a case of Sing! losing to I Am a Singer. It was just that the gulf between the director of the Sing! promotional video and Zhang Ye was too wide!

As well as the difference in the production budgets!

How much was spent on the former's promotional video?

Tens of thousands?

Hundreds of thousands?

And what about the latter?

A full two million RMB was put into it in order to create it!

…

At Beijing Television.

Inside I Am a Singer's program team office.

Xiao Lu laughed loudly. "We've won! We've won again!"

Hou Ge said, "This video is so wonderful!

Dafei said, "Two million? Totally worth it!"

"We're trending at number three in the searches!" Han Qi said, pleasantly surprised!

Hu Fei gave Zhang Ye an acknowledging nod.

Zhang Ye smiled back. This promotional video 2 had been carefully chosen by him and came from the fourth season of I Am a Singer back in his previous world. Zhang Ye kept the video's artistic direction mostly intact but added in his own ideas and special effects for the images and music. This was to give the viewers a greater sense of visual impact with a more powerful feel. Every frame and detail was repeatedly hammered out. Otherwise, it couldn't possibly have cost two million yuan to produce!

Everything was now ready!

There was only the official recording left to film!

The highest title sponsorship fee in the industry, the highest production budget in the industry, the highest promotional budget in the industry. There were too many of "the highest in the industry" contained within this show called I Am a Singer. Zhang Ye had given his full effort so he wouldn't have any regrets later. He vowed to make I Am a Singer a classic, landmark variety show!

1. The paper is an official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party

2. https://youtu.be/GHvXmYBCw9U