Liu Qing stared at the icon in the bottom-left corner of the video, a little confused. She had studied Tiao Yin before but had never seen this. It looked like a shopping cart from a site like Taobao.
She tried clicking on it and was stunned. A Taobao link popped up—it was the official store for Jinghong Women's Clothing.
'Tiao Yin has a feature like this?'
'So, you can use a video ad on Tiao Yin to directly buy the featured product on Taobao?'
This feature perfectly integrated video ads with a sales environment.
She immediately started searching, wanting to add this feature to her own company's ad video. But after searching for a long time, she found no relevant information, as if no one had even discovered Tiao Yin had this feature.
She then found the customer service option and asked them about it.
"Dear user, we're very sorry, but our Tiao Yin platform does not currently have this type of feature..."
Liu Qing was stunned by the reply.
She realized it must be an unreleased feature. They were using Second-Life Star's video for beta testing. This sort of thing wasn't uncommon for internet companies.
This made her feel a little regretful.
'If only I'd known. I would have raised the offer to 200,000 for a single video. In comparison, three other influencers with fanbases only cost 600,000 combined.'
'Given the current rates, an influencer of their status would have definitely accepted 600,000.'
'That way, I wouldn't have needed Li Yueling to shoot a separate video. I could have just had her work with Second-Life Star. I would've gotten the celebrity effect *and* been able to use this feature.'
This feature was basically direct sales. Every item sold wouldn't incur any channel-related costs.
As things stood, it felt like Second-Life Star was wasting this feature.
'Fortunately, Jinghong Women's Clothing didn't even hire a celebrity, so they're destined to waste this opportunity and won't benefit much.'
It wasn't that she looked down on influencers; it was just the current trend. Everyone who had hired influencers for ads before had complained. Thankfully, influencers were very cheap, so the losses were minimal.
She clicked on Second-Life Star's video, wanting to see what kind of ad they had made for Jinghong Women's Clothing.
As the video played, an expression of disbelief slowly crept onto her face.
From the moment it started, she could tell the visual quality was excellent, and the cinematography was superb. When she saw the female lead grab the Jinghong Women's Clothing item and instantly transform, the shock stunned her.
Then, the scene where the male lead carried the female lead to the large bed made her completely lose her composure. "How can this be!"
The video was far beyond her expectations. Especially after the transformation and the change in the male lead, the way it conveyed the core appeal of the nightgown's allure was just too powerful. It far surpassed her company's video.
She suddenly realized that her own promotional ad seemed completely unoriginal and lacked creativity in comparison. It definitely didn't evoke such a strong desire to buy.
'I can't believe an influencer could produce something like this. This is different from the influencers I know.'
When she saw the video's like count, her expression grew grim again.
It was rising too fast. In just this short period, it had already surpassed the video her company had released.
And her company's video had been promoted on Weibo by the celebrity Li Yueling and to her fanbase. Not to mention, Li Yueling's agency had used its resources to help boost its initial traffic.
Now she was seeing that an ad video planned by an influencer had surpassed it in just a few minutes?
'This...'
She quickly looked at the video's comment section, and her face fell even further:
"HOLY SHIT, this is an ad? I was dumbfounded at the end!"
"I feel like there's another 70 minutes of this video they didn't release. I'll buy two nightgowns, just release the rest, okay?"
"For real, this is the first time I've ever had the urge to buy a nightgown for my sister-in-law!"
"This Jinghong Women's Clothing is pretty good, they know how to advertise!"
"Followed the Jinghong Women's Clothing store! Hope they keep up the great work!"
"..."
The level of discussion and excitement also surpassed her company's video. Crucially, the discussion about Jinghong Women's Clothing was also very high.
And in that short moment, the video's like count jumped up again, leaving her speechless.
The video's quality, combined with the direct-purchase shopping cart feature, gave Liu Qing a bad feeling.
...
「Meanwhile, in a private room at the Jinyi Hotel.」
Chen Jincheng also received a notification from the game system:
[Congratulations, the video has been uploaded. The Clothing Series Heat Card (3 Million Likes) is now active. Heat is being distributed. Estimated completion in 10 hours!]
This notification meant that Tiao Yin had finished their work and uploaded the video.
Just then, Jiang Xiaobai reported as expected, "Cheng, Sister Hong, Tiao Yin uploaded the ad video to my account. And the numbers are rising so fast."
Her words made everyone else start checking their phones.
Li Ya was one of them. Her anticipation for the ad video Second-Life Star had made for her was growing by the second.
Sure enough, the ad video appeared on Jiang Xiaobai's account. She also saw the shopping cart icon. Clicking on it did indeed lead to her company's official Taobao store, and it was the purchase page for this specific series of nightgowns.
"It's so convenient." Even though Li Ya had heard Chen Jincheng explain how the shopping cart worked, experiencing it firsthand still made her sigh in amazement.
She immediately placed an order.
Her secretary immediately said, "President Li, we've received the order."
"This feature is amazing," Li Ya marveled again. This sent her expectations soaring. She had a feeling that plenty of people would be buying through the video this time.
The video Second-Life Star had filmed was novel and very appealing; it would definitely make people want to buy. If they had to go online, find the store, and then search for the product, that desire might fade during the process.
But being able to buy directly with a single click was a different story.
Sure enough, her secretary reported again, "President Li, this is incredible! We have more orders. In just this short time, 50 more pieces have been ordered."
Li Ya's smile widened. She was beginning to think that Tiao Yin would become the most important platform for advertising in the future, and she needed to prepare in advance.
This collaboration with Second-Life Star might turn out to be the best decision she had ever made.
"Mr. Chen, let me toast you!" Li Ya was in high spirits and immediately turned to Chen Jincheng.
After downing the glass, she immediately turned to Jiang Xiaobai. "Xiaobai, let's have a drink too."
Jiang Xiaobai was happily staring at her phone. The video was clearly about to blow up, so how could she not be happy? Hearing Li Ya, she immediately raised her glass and said sweetly, "President Li, I'll toast you!"
"Sister Hong, your turn." After finishing her glass, Li Ya immediately turned to Sister Hong.
"Congratulations, President Li." Sister Hong smiled and clinked glasses with her.
"President Li, another 100 orders have come in." The secretary's voice made Li Ya's smile grow even wider, her triple chin almost folding in on itself.
For the next while, both parties kept a close eye on the video's performance.
In one hour, the video's likes shot up to 300,000, and its views reached 6 million!
On Jinghong Women's Clothing's end, orders reached as high as 50,000 pieces in that hour.
"This is incredible!" Li Ya's surprised voice was loud and clear.
Sister Hong was also beaming. At a commission of 5.8 yuan per piece, that was already 290,000 yuan. And this was just the beginning; there would be more to come.
Second-Life Star's first external business venture was clearly a massive success.
This would make it easier for her to negotiate future business deals, giving her more confidence.
The only one who remained calm was Chen Jincheng. After all, in another world, during the age of livestream e-commerce, he had seen 1 billion in sales happen in just two hours. Now *that* was what you called impressive.
Besides, his current success was built on the heat accumulated from his previous two projects, plus the boost from a Clothing Series Heat Card (3 Million Likes).
Moreover, with 6 million views leading to 50,000 sales, the conversion rate wasn't even one percent.
For an ad video targeting a specific product, this rate was naturally much better than what typical video and livestreaming influencers could achieve. But compared to the professionally certified experts from the other world, especially beauty bloggers, this rate was nothing to write home about.
The main reason was that Jiang Xiaobai was a video influencer, not a certified professional expert.
One has followers who are there to watch videos; the other has followers who are there to buy things.
Of course, with the boost from a Clothing Series Heat Card (3 Million Likes), the level of heat was something those certified experts couldn't achieve either.
They had gained 300,000 likes in just one hour. Out of a hundred videos those experts posted, maybe only a few would ever get 300,000 likes.
So, different playing fields, different rules.
However, Chen Jincheng was the only one who could remain calm.
「Tiao Yin.」
Han Shangyou, the president, had been monitoring the data. When he saw the figure of 50,000 orders in one hour, he couldn't remain calm either.
Although they were optimistic about this new segment, everything had been an unknown until it was actually implemented.
Now, the data produced by this video perfectly showcased the segment's potential, proving that their decision had been correct.
"This video by Second-Life Star is pretty damn impressive. It's great at creating a desire to buy," one of the department heads remarked.
"It really is," another person agreed with a nod.
Han Shangyou didn't hesitate and gave a direct order: "Arrange for a traffic boost. Filter for users who frequently watch apparel-related content and users who pay for premium services, and push the video to them."
Clearly, the quality of Second-Life Star's video was like a competent heir who could be supported—it had the potential to be explosive.
Circumstances create heroes, and this video was worth creating into one.
Besides, the better the test data this time, the greater the benefit for the future launch of the shopping cart and storefront features.
As the traffic boost went into effect, Second-Life Star's video quickly blew up across all of Tiao Yin.