Chapter 197 Shortcomings and Goals
"What?" Zheng Dongren asked in surprise, as if he didn't understand what Zheng Xiuheng meant. The same went for Liu Xilie and Zheng Zaixing.
Zheng Xiuheng handed three printed documents to the three giants, then pointed to the L college model divided on it and explained it.
"Each agency will have trainees they focus on , and they will shoot commercials and music videos before their debut to help increase their exposure and popularity. As long as there are no accidents, these trainees will get the opportunity to debut in the end. It's just that Korean entertainment companies haven't done enough in this regard!"
"The public's curiosity is very strong, regardless of anything. This is part of human nature that most people possess, so the academy model is not only to maximize the exposure of trainees, but also to allow the public to participate!"
"So I have temporarily divided the academy model into four parts: preparatory students, trainees, model students, and graduates. When the selection conference is announced, we will promote L's large-scale team plan. All trainees who can enter the academy, except for the preparatory students, will become trainees who are bound to debut. In the future, we can use various plans to maximize the exposure of the trainees and attract the attention of the public. Secondly, we will recruit preparatory students once a year through the selection conference, and finally, through the public elimination system, the official trainees will be selected by public voting, so that everyone can participate!"
"After the debut plan is finally confirmed, members will be selected directly from the trainees. Similarly, a competition model will be adopted in each group establishment plan, and the public will also be involved to achieve the final formation of the group!"
"The most important thing is that after becoming an official debut artist, the members will still retain their positions in the academy and can also participate in some temporary projects in the future. Although this will definitely create a lot of resistance and controversy, if successful, it can form a very good idol brand and break through the development bottleneck in a short period of time. However, it is a bit regrettable that the company is still too small and it is difficult to find capable partners. Even if it is cable TV or network TV, if there is one that can cooperate with us in all aspects, the success rate will definitely be more than 50%."
After listening to Zheng Xiuheng's story, Zheng Dongren and the other two had very interesting expressions on their faces. After a long pause, Liu Xilie said, "Does this mean that the company's plans will be completely public and a certain degree of choice will be given to the public? The risks that will be taken in this way may not be too great!"
Zheng Xiuheng also nodded, but with a smile on his face, he replied: "There are risks, but they are not necessarily big. This is just to make the trainees, selections and planning slightly more public. Compared with focusing on development and then launching artists, the risk of failure is actually no different. It's just that the investment is larger. On the contrary, this method can gain more exposure. It doesn't matter even if the reviews are bad. As long as they are not malicious reviews, exposure is half the battle!"
"What if the trainees selected through public selection are not suitable for the group?" Zheng Dongren asked calmly. But his expression was surprised and seemed a little moved.
Zheng Xiuheng replied calmly: "The public's choice can only account for a part of the proportion. Since it is an elimination system, the competition mode will naturally account for a large proportion. Finally, as a planner, all arrangements for everyone will be in the hands of the company. Even if a trainee has 100% support, there are still many reasons to exclude him from the debut plan!"
The three of them were stunned, and felt a little uncomfortable when they saw Zheng Xiuheng's expression became a little dull.
But what Zheng Xiuheng said is correct, the fan culture in Korea is quite strange, and it is indeed possible that an unsuitable person will be chosen by the public. But let's not talk about the means first. If we take the five-member group as an example, the voters in the selection are all independent or a group of fans of a single person. Even if one person is directly eliminated, it will only cause opposition from a small number of people.
Zheng Xiuheng has every reason to explain this matter in various ways, and he can even let the trainees voluntarily withdraw. When Zheng Xiuheng thought of this plan, he had already determined the foundation for the success of this plan. All the trainees who join must be obedient trainees. Of course, this obedience, to a certain extent, does not mean to erase individuality. Moreover, before entering the preparatory stage, they must be selected by the company to avoid unnecessary people as much as possible.
From the perspective of the management company, Zheng Xiuheng's attitude is perfect. If a management company cannot perfectly control the company's artists, it is absolutely a failure. Although YG has been talking about free style in recent years, free style has nothing to do with the company's promotion and production capabilities. If YG can succeed, it is definitely not because of the low requirements for artists and the freedom of style. It can only show that Yang Hyun-seok does have the vision and ability of Lee Soo-man.
Compared with YG, it is a perfect oppression mode, with super strong production and promotion capabilities. Every artist launched will be successful, and even the worst one is not comparable to other small companies. But the same oppression and control is too extreme. Even if it has been restrained in recent years, it has gone beyond the meaning of control and is more like forcing.
The so-called control can be seen as an unequal perfect cooperation, where the company takes the initiative, maintains rationality to a certain extent, and accepts certain suggestions from the artists, but has absolute control over the key general direction. Even if it is an arrangement that goes against the other party's wishes, the other party will only complete it seriously, even if they feel a little uncomfortable, and there will be no knots left in the end.
What is required is to let the other party see the success while also allowing the artist to get the treatment they deserve. Only in this way can the other party be perfectly controlled.
Unlike the group, when the contract period is up, both parties adopt the attitude of "rather die with honor than live in disgrace".
For example, Zheng Xiuheng has never thought of adopting a free and open attitude. At least in terms of management, he will never let things go.
Of course, since the company is still in its infancy and has nothing to offer, Zheng Xiuheng would not seek prestige in front of the trainees. According to his style, it would be too easy to make the trainees in the company afraid of him, but he had never thought of asking the trainees to be afraid of him.
Liu Xilie and the other two were a little surprised, but they also understood at this moment that Zheng Xiuheng was not joking about developing in this industry. As for his words, there was no problem, because Korean entertainment companies all controlled their artists.
"So, this plan is mainly to attract the public's attention through the preparatory competition, and then through the public's participation, to increase the attention and attract the first batch of fans. I think there is nothing wrong with this plan, but the problem is that our company's public relations ability is too poor, and the resistance to promotion is probably very large. In addition, in terms of trainee resources, we can no longer describe it as scarce, and it is hard to say what the result of the selection conference will be!"
A plan is always just a plan, but before it is realized, it can be completely called a fantasy. Therefore, Zheng Dongren’s words realistically pointed out the company’s current shortcomings and the biggest problem facing this project.
If such a project were done by SM or JYP, it would immediately attract a lot of attention, just like every time a large company launches a new artist, it will attract a lot of attention.
Zheng Xiuheng also knows this truth, so this plan still needs to be improved, especially how to implement this plan, which is the most important point.
Just when Zheng Xiuheng was about to say something, Zheng Dongren suddenly looked at him very seriously and said, "Actually, I have a way to greatly increase the success rate of this plan!"
Zheng Xiuheng was a little surprised, but seeing Zheng Dongren's serious look, he asked expectantly, "What's the solution?"
Zheng Dongren adjusted his glasses, and something seemed to flash in his eyes, and then...
"In fact, the current situation is that the company still has no successful cases to show. Although we have signed Hyori, we have not proved that it is the right choice for her to join Antenna. On the contrary, compared with recognition, the voices of doubt have never stopped. So the most urgent thing to do is to complete a successful project to prove the strength of the company. Then, with the popularity of this success, we can directly hold a selection meeting and launch the Antenna Academy project!"
"Good idea!" Zheng Xiuheng's eyes lit up and he said happily. To be honest, Zheng Xiuheng had almost reached his limit in thinking of these things, and this was inspired by a chat with Lee Jong-min and others at MBC a few days ago.
In the words of Lee Jong Min, for idols nowadays to become popular it depends on two aspects: one is whether their works can become a big hit, and the other is exposure, which is basically increased by appearing on TV shows, so even if it is a radio program , Korean artists will take it very seriously.
Although it was said during a casual chat, Zheng Xiuheng was unexpectedly inspired. If the essence of Zheng Xiuheng's definition is to attract public attention and participate in the project through curiosity, then his goal is to select trainees with the lowest possibility of failure to form a team and debut while gaining huge attention, and to build a high-quality idol brand.
Not every trainee will receive a lot of attention before their debut, so no matter which company launches a newcomer, it will take a big risk. Zheng Xiuheng is not going to form a team of thirty or forty people, but to open up the selection of artists, just like a talent show. At the same time, within the circle of this plan, throwing everyone into one brand will allow for more operability in the future, and even the two groups can be mixed up temporarily. Zheng Xiuheng even dared to let Lee Hyori lead the team when he was angry. Of course, these are all relatively distant ideas. For now, Zheng Xiuheng’s goal is to get the company on the road to rapid development more quickly and effectively.
