Chapter 308: Lunchtime in Lujiazui

Noon in Lujiazui.

A pizza shop without a Chinese name.

The owner was also the chef, his nose giving away his pure Italian heritage, with the classic look of an ancient Roman.

The pizzas were baked fresh on the spot.

Unlike the greasy American-style ones from places like Pizza Hut, this shop’s pizzas were crisp and light, with hardly any oil on the crust.

Xu Chen and Sun Aimi dug in heartily, enjoying every bite.

Xu Chen raised a glass of lemonade and clinked it with Sun Aimi’s.

“Here’s to East Morning Star Advertising nabbing another project!”

Sun Aimi took a sip of her orange juice, looking a bit embarrassed.

“Boss, I didn’t really help much with this project.”

Xu Chen replied, “Once the director team joins, we’ll need to fine-tune the storyboard scripts, and that’s where you’ll shine!”

Sun Aimi smiled sweetly.

“Then I’ll get started right away!”

Xu Chen said, “No rush. The copy still needs feedback from Wang Shi.

Plus, the storyboard scripts can wait until the director team is on board. No need to hurry in the next couple of days.”

Sun Aimi blinked her round eyes.

“The previous directors, including Li Fengfeng and President Li, were always pushing us to work faster…”

Xu Chen laughed. “The thing is, it’s not that urgent! Pushing you just feels like unnecessary pressure.”

Sun Aimi adjusted her round-framed glasses.

“You’re such a great boss—kind and talented!

Today’s pitch totally blew my mind!

I’m still new to the industry, but I’ve worked with a few directors on various pitches.

You’re the most impressive ad pro I’ve ever met!”

This sincere praise really hit the spot for Xu Chen, who grinned and raised his glass again to clink with Sun Aimi’s.

Indeed, flattery could get you everywhere.

……

East Morning Star Advertising’s pitch for Jeep went off without a hitch.

But a few details still needed ironing out.

The slogan Xu Chen proposed, ‘Not all Jeeps are called Jeep,’ was quickly approved by Pang Ming and He Da Chang, with no further discussion needed.

The ad script concepts and copy, however, had to be sent to entrepreneur Wang Shi for his review.

Wang Shi had his own standards for his ads, wanting to protect his reputation and style.

Pang Ming and He Da Chang were confident in Xu Chen’s work, believing it would pass Wang Shi’s scrutiny.

Even Liu Wenqin, who had personal ties to Wang Shi, said the script and concepts shouldn’t raise any major issues.

Still, they had to send it over and wait for his official response…

He Da Chang also suggested sending the script to endorser Xie Bingran for her input.

Xu Chen offered to handle it personally and discuss it with her over the weekend.

Everyone in the room showed clear surprise at that.

They figured Xu Chen and Xie Bingran must have a solid personal connection.

But no one jumped to conclusions about it being romantic.

Meanwhile, the Jeep team would push forward with business talks with An Jin Xiong and Li Yue this week, aiming to lock in Xie Bingran’s endorsement ASAP.

With that, the Jeep project was a win for now, wrapping up this phase.

……

……

As Xu Chen and Sun Aimi ate, he suddenly got a message from Fang Jun.

[Just received the first payment for the Kunlunshan Mineral Water project…]

Xu Chen couldn’t help but smile—this was more money in the bank.

The Kunlunshan contract with Jiaduobao Group was for 1.5 million.

The contract and payment process took the usual time, plus they hit a national holiday in between, so the first installment arrived today.

Xu Chen hadn’t bothered with the details of whether it was a third or half upfront.

With Fang Jun handling finances and Si Daqing on legal, everything was airtight.

Xu Chen thought for a moment, then cheekily messaged Fang Jun:

[Fang, time to praise me!]

Fang Jun: [Praise for what?]

Xu Chen: [Little President Xu just landed another project, and it’s for a car brand!]

Fang Jun: [You’re awesome!]

Xu Chen: [……]

Fang Jun: [How much is the contract worth?]

Xu Chen: [Around two million or so… haven’t finalized it yet, but expect a decision this week.]

Fang Jun: [Great, I’ll handle the finance and legal side when it’s ready.]

Xu Chen: [Thanks, Fang!]

……

The contract fees between East Morning Star Advertising and Jeep hadn’t entered the formal stage yet.

Jeep’s brand side wanted to wait until Xie Bingran’s endorsement was at least verbally confirmed.

Xu Chen had no issues with that.

As a foreign luxury brand, Jeep valued its industry reputation and wouldn’t cheat suppliers.

It was just a matter of a few more days.

But He Da Chang had already casually discussed the fees with Xu Chen.

Jeep’s previous ad agency had a yearly deal with BBDO Tianlian Advertising, paid monthly.

That meant BBDO provided services for a year in exchange for monthly fees.

This was the standard setup for foreign and joint ventures with 4A agencies to keep teams steady.

East Morning Star Advertising’s involvement was an unexpected twist.

So, they were treating it as a one-off, which essentially tapped into BBDO’s contract funds.

Xu Chen didn’t need to worry—Jeep would sort it out with them.

For East Morning Star, the base included ad strategy, slogan, and ad script planning, totaling two million in fees.

Additionally, for the ad shoot and production, East Morning Star could get 15% of the production costs as a supervision fee, capped at 450,000.

Overall, the project could net East Morning Star between 2.2 and 2.45 million.

Xu Chen was pretty pleased with that amount for ‘Little President Xu.’

After all, his main work was done; Sun Aimi would handle the storyboards, and the director team would manage the shoot—Xu Chen could just oversee and chat.

It was all smooth sailing.

……

Earlier that morning, he’d been thinking about how ‘little rich girl’ Xie Bingran would earn more from her endorsement.

But now, he realized she worked way harder than him.

Her daily training routine wasn’t for the faint-hearted.

……

As for the Jeep ad shoot’s director team, Xu Chen didn’t need to find one.

Jeep already had a lined-up director from Hong Kong, a well-known ad director.

It was recommended by BBDO Tianlian Advertising’s Liu Wenqin.

Liu Wenqin would still be involved in the shoot.

Both because BBDO was Jeep’s main agency and due to his personal links with Wang Shi.

Xu Chen had no objections to that.

Having BBDO’s team handle the work saved him effort.

Of course, he worried Liu Wenqin might stir up minor issues during the process.

He Da Chang anticipated this and reassured Xu Chen.

“In the workflow, East Morning Star Advertising is the top supervisory entity.

So, both BBDO and the director team will follow your guidance.

We’ll make sure to communicate this with Vincent upfront—you can relax on that!”

“Got it, thanks, He Da Chang. East Morning Star will wait for updates.

Once we hear from Wang Shi and the director team joins, we’ll move on the storyboards.”

In a twist Xu Chen hadn’t expected, the international 4A agency BBDO’s team led by Liu Wenqin ended up as his subordinates.

In the meeting, when Sun Aimi heard He Da Chang’s response, she felt a wave of surprise.

Though her former company, Black Duke Marketing, was big in China, it didn’t compare to an international 4A.

Yet here, under ‘Little President Xu’s’ lead, they’d not only beaten a global giant but could now direct their team…

For Sun Aimi, it was almost unbelievable.

……

……

Xu Chen remembered it was time to push the Kunlunshan Mineral Water project forward.

He messaged Chen Xinyi from Jiaduobao’s marketing department:

[Hey Chen Xinyi, is Fei Jie free tomorrow noon or afternoon?

For the Kunlunshan Mineral Water print campaign, let’s set up a call to review the plan.]

[Hi Xu Chen! Give me a moment to check Fei Jie’s schedule…]

A few minutes later, Chen Xinyi replied.

[Fei Jie’s got meetings all day tomorrow, but she’s free from 1 to 2 PM. Does that work for you?

If not, we can shift it to the day after.]

Xu Chen: [That works—tomorrow from 1 to 2 PM it is.]

Chen Xinyi: [Okay, I’ll send the formal meeting invite via email!]

Xu Chen set down his phone and said to Sun Aimi, who was chowing down on her salad,

“We’ve got a phone pitch for the Kunlunshan Mineral Water print campaign at 1 PM tomorrow.”

Sun Aimi paused, then smiled.

“No problem, boss. The materials are all ready!”

Xu Chen added, “You’ll lead the presentation tomorrow—I’ll back you up.”

Sun Aimi: “Ah?!”

She looked a bit flustered but quickly straightened up and said,

“Boss, consider it done!”

Xu Chen chuckled and raised his lemonade to clink glasses with ‘Aimi Teacher.’

……

……

In the afternoon, Xu Chen headed back to school for classes.

The two lectures left him fighting off drowsiness.

The first was ‘Video Ad Production.’

The teacher from the ‘Broadcast Television Directing’ program was covering TV ad techniques and processes.

As someone who’d just won an ad pitch, Xu Chen found sitting through this basic stuff hilariously out of place.

The balding teacher droned on about steps from planning to storyboards, and the students hung on every word.

‘Study King’ Jiao Tianbo not only took notes but asked a couple of questions.

Xu Chen just shook his head in resignation.

It felt like a college student stuck in an elementary class.

Worse, the teacher’s ‘Video Ad Production’ course was outdated, not just from Xu Chen’s past life but even for 2006’s industry.

It was like using last-century lessons to teach today’s kids.

No wonder university courses often lagged behind real-world practice, even at a top Shanghai 985 school.

It made sense—the balding teacher had spent the last decade lecturing, not actually making ads.

……

The second class was ‘Internet and New Media.’

As someone from the future, Xu Chen had lived through Web 3.0, yet the teacher was still on Web 1.0 ‘new media.’

It gave him a major sense of timeline whiplash.

The slides even had outdated terms like ‘surfing the web’ and ‘information superhighway.’

It reminded Xu Chen of middle school computer classes debating the ‘Y2K bug.’

The teacher discussed recent ‘online new media’ trends, and the other students seemed engaged.

Near the end, the teacher shared a few new media ad examples that still felt fresh and fun.

As class wrapped up, the teacher added,

“Here at Tonghai University’s Creative and Media College, we have a built-in edge, accessing the latest industry works.

China’s biggest ad award, the Great Wall Ad Award, now includes categories for ‘Internet and New Media.’

Our Dean Lin is an honorary advisor and judge.

Every year-end, Dean Lin brings back the top winners for us to study—resources other schools can’t touch.”

Hearing about the Great Wall Ad Award, Xu Chen thought of the ‘Wang Laoshun’ project.

The ‘Afraid of Getting Fired Up’ campaign was entered for this year’s award—who knew when results would drop.

It was also submitted for the international Effie Awards.

Given ‘Wang Laoshun’s’ explosive market success, not winning would be a shock.

Just as Xu Chen pondered this, Jiao Tianbo raised his hand eagerly.

“Teacher, when will Dean Lin bring the award sessions?”

“The Great Wall Award judging finishes around early November to mid-December.

As usual, Dean Lin invites one or two creative directors to share at our college.”

Xu Chen frowned, feeling a bit awkward.

Was he going to have to do a presentation? If so, he’d pass it to Nie Fei.

By then, she should be working at his company.

……