Season 3: Chapter 40: Demian Association (1)
Nowadays, monitoring community reactions was fundamental to being popular on YouTube. Ji-Ah had known this for quite some time.
[Almond really got tricked?]
[Isn't ten million won too much? How is he going to handle it? lol]
[lmao, they really all tricked him]
[Seems like some of the viewers got tricked too]
Almond had been deceived.
"He really got fooled."
Ji-Ah honestly thought Almond was pretending to be fooled. Some streamers purposely played along to create content for their streams, but Almond wasn't usually the type.
“To me! Running is! Murder!”
Suddenly, Almond was playing a game where he had to run like crazy.
Indeed, Ji-Ah realized then.
"He really was fooled."
Almond thought he actually won ten million won.
"Ha. What to do now?"
From here on, a new dilemma appeared. Should she focus on creating YouTube content or save Almond from the misunderstanding?
Really, it wasn’t even worth pondering. Almond himself would tell her to choose the former.
"But that’s not the problem..."
Of course, the priority was to exploit the YouTube angle. The issue was that Ji-Ah had other videos planned before things went awry at G-Star.
"I planned to upload them in chronological order."
She intended to create a summary video that wrapped up the entire G-Star experience first. Then, she wanted to highlight the super plays from various games. For that, the order of videos to upload was crucial.
She had envisioned the sequence as: Tour → Game → Game → Award Speech and Review.
While the game videos could switch places, the award speech naturally took place last.
Because she worked alone, she often had to pre-plan the video concepts extensively. Of course, she had a rough storyboard for this event as well. However…
"I feel like I have to do it now..."
Almond unexpectedly received the most attention during the award speech. It seemed necessary to change the order because of his speech’s significant impact.
It was trending in all sorts of popular communities and posts. That meant clips were already circulating.
Delaying it would be like watching money slip away. At least if a fan account posted it, YouTube would handle the monetization. The video could lose all its value if it kept circulating in communities without any official use. The fun from it would eventually evaporate.
Uploading it on the official channel later wouldn’t do as well as now.
"Ugh."
Thump.
Ji-Ah made her decision as she closed the storyboard notebook on her desk.
"Okay. It’s decided."
Moments later, she uploaded a short onto the channel.
[Short: Almond’s Award Speech “Miss, add one more zero here”]
Ji-Ah decided to quickly handle the award speech first.
Was it because of her fast decision? The reactions were quite positive.
[Views: 15,000]
[Views: 30,000]
[Views: 80,000]
[Views: 172,000]
The view count rapidly increased and Ji-Ah's lips curled into a smile.
"It hurts to throw away the storyboard, but..."
Ji-Ah nodded to herself, satisfied. After all, wasn’t the point of creating a storyboard to make the video successful?
It would be foolish not to capitalize on the opportunities that the streamer naturally provided.
"Since it’s come to this, let's make the most of it."
She didn’t bother to check the comments and immediately moved on to the next task. She decided to cut the award speech into several shorts, scattering them around.
The shorts weren’t a minute long, but rather chopped into segments as short as ten seconds or as long as forty seconds.
[Short: Almond with a Blushing Face]
She placed the scene where his face turned red in this video.
[Short: Almond Claims Everything Went According to Plan]
She placed the scene where he insisted that everything went according to plan in this video.
From a single award speech, she created three different shorts. It was like creating distinct cuts to enjoy different points of the video.
This method was popular for current YouTube Shorts. By splitting one video into three, the chances of catching the algorithm also tripled.
If one received traction, viewers were also led to the other linked videos. If one became a hit, all three effectively became hits.
Now, all she needed to do was compile all these shorts into one long video.
"Let me think of a title…"
Ji-Ah pondered for a moment.
Since the video had already become a major topic, she decided on a simple and straightforward title.
***
The schedule at G-Star was split into two distinct parts. The first part involved participants as challengers and tackling various booth challenges.
People who didn't attend G-Star and only heard stories or watched streams of it could think this first part was all there was to G-Star. However, the second part played an equally important role.
It was the time to spend all the money collected from the first part.
"I guess I’m done here."
Ju-Hyeok stretched and stood up.
When the second part started, there wasn’t much left for managers to do.
Normally, managers would watch for advertising contracts or new games at booths. Since the booths had essentially turned into merchandise stands, managers felt somewhat adrift.
Ju-Hyeok decided to have a little bragging time. He began to take out several significant advertising contracts from his document case and started to plate them nicely on an empty table.
"Ahem…"
After glancing around, Ju-Hyeok took a picture with his camera.
Click.
These were confidential contracts, so they weren't for sharing on Runestagram.
[Ju-Hyeok: Be careful with the ads during editing~]
[Ju-Hyeok: (Photo)]
Who was he trying to impress? The recipient was somewhat obvious.
[Ji-Ah: Wow]
He had sent the photo to Ji-Ah.
[Ju-Hyeok: lol, cleaned them out?]
[Ji-Ah: As expected, you’re impressive]
Ji-Ah responded with a barrage of praise stickers, clearly pleased.
[Ji-Ah: You’ll be flying paid ad banners for a while lol]
[Ju-Hyeok: One of these is a model ad]
Ji-Ah was surprised at the mention of a model ad that wouldn’t require a separate video upload.
Ju-Hyeok commonly referred to it as not just a homework style advertisement, but truly a pure media advertisement. It wasn’t common among streamers, only the few top streamers.
[Ji-Ah: Huh]
[Ji-Ah: That's insane for real]
[Ji-Ah: As expected of Walnut…!]
Ju-Hyeok laughed softly as he looked at Ji-Ah's chat filled with praise stickers.
[Ju-Hyeok: No. This time, it feels more like a collaboration with Almond.]
[Ji-Ah: Wow. You finally beat some sense into him.]
No, what was she talking about?
[Ju-Hyeok: That's not possible;;;]
When Ju-Hyeok sent a sweating duck emoji, Ji-Ah burst into laughter.
[Ji-Ah: LOLLLLLLLLLL]
It was an emoji that Ji-Ah particularly liked. Specifically, she liked the situations that made Ju-Hyeok use this duck.
[Ju-Hyeok: It's a long story if I explain what happened. We screwed up a booth.]
[Ji-Ah: Give me praise too. (Link)]
Ji-Ah also took her time to boast and showed the view count of the video she recently posted.
[Ju-Hyeok: Oh, I'll look.]
Ju-Hyeok followed the link and checked it out.
[Short: Almond's Award Speech "Miss, add one zero here"]
[Short: Almond with a Blushing Face]
[Short: Almond Claims Everything Went According to Plan]
There were three short videos in total.
[Self-esteem, study motivation, and passion! The sensational award speech by the legendary Almond]
There was also a long video around fifteen minutes. All of them were probably made from the recent award speech.
'It has similar content, but the titles target completely different audiences.'
Ju-Hyeok could tell at a glance how well she understood the platform.
With short videos that required a lot of stimulation, the results were somewhat spoiled with terse titles. For regular videos watched mainly by fans, she produced witty titles suitable for Almond's channel.
More than anything, the fact that she edited the hot award speech first stood out.
[Ju-Hyeok: Doing it backward?]
[Ji-Ah: That's industry know-how~]
Ju-Hyeok chuckled.
It was indeed a strategy he knew and prepared. Could that be why?
#Real-time trending 17th place
Ji-Ah's video had climbed to an incredible rank in a short time.
***
Short videos easily garnered views, but could not climb the rankings. Only longer videos on the official channel could climb the rankings. However, that didn't mean the short videos didn't receive good views or reactions.
On the contrary…
[Short: Almond's Award Speech "Miss, add one zero here"]
— I thought it was clickbait from the title but what the heck?
— You missed one zero LOL Is this an award speech???
— Oh no
— This would be totally confusing for someone who doesn't know the context LOL
└ That's the people who were there LOL
└ I was at the scene and was really shocked
[Short: Almond Claims Everything Went According to Plan]
— It was just a plan, poor Almond…
— LOL he’s clenching his teeth and says it's according to plan
— Hannah: Agent?! Which plan is this?
└ Almond: FxxK
└ LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
└ LOL so much
— Why is he clenching his teeth??
└ Original video link
All the videos were interconnected and the view counts began to skyrocket. In fact, the original video's ranking was rising because of its influence.
The original video, around fifteen minutes long, contained all the causes of the situations in the shorts. Only by watching this video could the situation be fully understood.
— So that's why LOL
— The viewers are so wicked LOL
— Such a backstory... LOL
Ji-Ah drew their attention with provocative shorts. It was a strategy to funnel viewers to the original video.
Normally, one could guess the appeal of a fifteen minute video just from its title. A blushing Almond, persistent Almond, and Almond asking for one more zero were all used as points of entry in this strategy. It was like hanging several signs depending on the menu at a restaurant.
— Came to see the new spicy Almond product
— He didn't turn black, just blushed, that's a world-class mentality
└ LOL if it were me, I'd have run away
Among them were those who came to see Almond's blushing face.
— Came here wondering what kind of backstory there is for asking for one more zero LOL
Some were curious why he said there was one zero missing.
— Saw Plan C8~
Others came to watch Almond's plan.
In addition, many rushed to simply watch the current hot video.
— I want to deceive Almond too! I want to eat him!!
└ You mean you want to deceive, right? Not eat...?
└ LOLOLOLOL
— No, the title deceives us LOL Study motivation, touching award speech LOL
└ It is about study motivation. You wouldn't be deceived if you had seen Lucky Day in Korean class
└ LOL right
— Guys, say thanks to Yukino07~?
└ Thanks, Yukino07!
└ Thanks, best Kino!
With all of them gathered on one video, this quickly generated tremendous firepower. The plan was completely successful.
#Real-time trending 9th place
The video landed within the top ten.
"Wow!" Ji-Ah cheered for herself and collapsed onto her bed.
Thud.
She intended to rest for a moment. However, she couldn't rest for long.
In this world, receiving too much attention naturally led to side effects.
[Seriously, analysis please. Points received at Almond's last challenge booth— this is problematic??]
A post from a community began to spread.
— I thought so. 10,000 points didn't make sense
— ?? So does this mean it should be canceled?
— What are you talking about? LOL It's the original system
└ How can winning with that many points from a single booth make sense?
└ Isn't it a problem with how that booth was set up?