Chapter 142: Brand Aging
Chapter 142: Brand Aging
“SNS content?”
A proposal for SNS ad content came in from Singgeut.
They were probably trying to capitalize on my buzz, which was shooting up at its peak right now.
Sure. Of course.
They paid a huge sum to sign me as their advertising model, so it would have been weird to just leave me alone until summer season.
If it had been me in my previous life, I would have worked the advertising model to the bone somehow. If anything, this felt late.
By the way, singers kept bringing up the OST I sang.
With Lee Yuna, sure. We filmed together, and she was the original OST singer, so it made sense.
But singers I had never even met.
Especially the singers I went up against on “Mystery Singer”—they were capturing my song and posting it on their Instagram.
[The emotional line is seriously insane… (thumbs-up emoji)]
[A song where you can hear the lyrics. Love it]
[The high notes are high notes, but the intro is seriously…]
It was basically pouring oil on the fire of the buzz, so I was grateful, but honestly, I was also a little stunned.
I thought people might dislike it, thinking an actor was poking around in someone else’s domain.
Either way, the fact that these reactions were not an illusion was proven by the indicators right in front of my eyes.
【Influence】
【Recognition: 73/100】
【Favorability: 70/100】
【Ripple Effect: 38/100】
Ripple Effect stayed stuck where it was.
But Recognition and Favorability each went up by 3.
Considering that the higher the number got, the harder it became to raise even a single point, it was a pretty big jump.
And because of that—
【Favorability Achievement Unlocked!】
【Goal Achieved: Favorability 70 reached!】
【Reward Granted: Stat Point +1】
【Title Granted: LV.7 Likable Actor for All Ages】
【Box Office Pull +45%】
【Effect: Viewership ratings and reservation rates for your works increase significantly】
【You are now a likable icon spanning all generations.】
I got a solid reward.
That left me with 5 stat points.
If I got just one privilege that let me break through S-rank, I could immediately raise one more ability to S-rank right now.
It’ll probably pop as a viewership reward.
Based on the system’s pattern, when I achieved a goal that was close to impossible, it gave a drastic reward.
The cursed 50% viewership line.
If the final episode hit that, I was sure it would give an incentive for breaking through to S-rank.
My Box Office Pull had risen too, so it was a peak worth aiming for.
Fifty percent. Let’s go for it.
“Ah, you’re here. I’ll guide you inside.”
A staff member led me and Team Leader Jo Sehun into the conference room.
“Hello. I’m Seo Dongju, Team Leader of Singgeut’s Ice Cream Marketing Team.”
“Hello. I’m Lee Sihyeon, an employee in the Ice Cream Marketing Team.”
The business cards I received politely had a familiar logo stamped on them.
A dairy-specialized company, Singgeut.
They had a wide range of product lines like milk, yogurt, and cheese.
But among them, “Singgeut Ice Cream” was the absolute powerhouse of the frozen dessert market.
It was hard to find someone living in Korea who had never eaten Singgeut ice cream even once. That was how familiar the company was to the general public.
“I watched Doctor Princess the other day, and it was really great. I watched it live, you know. And the OST was so good. I kept replaying it on my way to work today, too.”
“Thank you.”
“Ah, and weaving the Ministry of Health and Welfare organ donation campaign into the drama like that—I was honestly amazed, even as a marketer. How did you come up with an idea like that…”
Singgeut’s marketing team leader skillfully eased the awkwardness of a first meeting with compliments.
After a light icebreaker, he got to the point.
“Sunho, have you ever tried ‘Only One’?”
Of course.
It was the most famous whole vanilla ice cream in the country, and Singgeut’s steady-seller.
I answered with a bit of lip service mixed in.
“I remember always stacking it in the freezer and eating it when I was a kid.”
“Haha, thank you. But… you haven’t had it recently, right?”
A question that came out of nowhere.
He hit the nail on the head.
To be honest, I couldn’t remember buying Only One with my own money in the last few years.
“That’s exactly why we’re asking you to do Only One’s SNS advertising.”
The marketing team leader continued, pulling up his laptop screen.
“You probably know this already, Sunho, but Only One is the country’s longest-running brand that’s held the No. 1 spot among vanilla ice creams for a long time. But according to recent convenience store usage statistics, Only One’s average consumer age is steadily trending upward.”
“Does that mean there’s less inflow from younger consumers?”
“Hahaha. It feels a little odd hearing you say ‘younger people,’ when you’re still in your early twenties yourself.”
The marketing team leader laughed smoothly and pointed at a graph.
“You’re right. If you look at the sales share, the teens and twenties are only 10% of the total. Brand aging is happening seriously. So we’re asking you, who has strong influence with the young target on SNS, to do PPL.”
It was good that he explained it in this much detail.
It was what I asked for, and what I wanted.
Instead of blindly saying, “Our product is good, so please promote it,” sharing clear problems and goals like this made the work much easier.
And they said they would pay the PPL fee for this content separately from the already enormous model fee.
From my perspective, it was the happiest condition, with no reason to refuse.
In my previous life, I did SNS content production like this for free as a service.
I got recognized for the full value of what I was good at and what I liked doing.
Was there anything happier than that?
So my answer was already decided.
“Yes. I’ll do my best.”
I received a guarantee of free creative control from Singgeut’s PR team leader.
Given the results I had shown so far, there was no need to persuade them.
Sure, I could just hold an ice cream tub, smile prettily for a selfie, and post, “It’s delicious~.”
But that would be too half-hearted.
My pride wouldn’t allow it.
More than anything, I needed to test whether the Ripple Effect on the status window would rise through this kind of ad content too.
I planned to do it properly.
But…
Why did this person suddenly come here?
“Open the door. It’s me.”
Han Seungwoo showed up at my place out of nowhere.
“What is it all of a sudden?”
“Why. I got you a tailored suit and bought you a sports car. We’re close enough that I can drop by without contact, right?”
…If he pushed it like that, I didn’t really have anything to say.
What if I hadn’t been home?
“I’m cold. Hurry and open up.”
When I opened the door, the smell of alcohol hit me hard.
When I frowned slightly, he must have felt awkward, because he explained on his own.
“I drank a bit for the first time in a while, but if I go straight home, I have to watch the boss’s mood at my place. And I don’t want to go to the hideout either, because it feels lonely alone.”
“I’m busy too.”
“What? You have a schedule? I heard you didn’t.”
“From who?”
“Someone. At my level, I can find out anything. Where are you going?”
“I’m not going anywhere. I just have something to do at home.”
“What, fine then. I won’t annoy you—do your thing. I’ll just stay quiet and leave.”
Han Seungwoo casually opened our fridge, took out a canned drink, then leaned back on the sofa like it was his own bedroom and turned on the TV.
“I told you to do your thing. Don’t mind me.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Well, if he was entertaining himself, I needed to focus on what I had to do.
Only One ice cream, huh…
Food advertising was a pretty tricky field.
Because food ads were a fight to create a mood.
Unless it was a new product, it was hard to show a clear difference in taste.
So usually, rather than pushing the product’s concrete specs, you had to make the ad in a way that stimulated the desire to “want to try it” through atmosphere and image.
And Only One was an ice cream that had held its spot for a long time, so most people probably tried it at least once.
Considering Only One’s current situation, it was even more correct to approach it emotionally instead of listing the product features in detail.
Like how Mate beverages gave off a clear, refreshing vibe.
If I want to keep Only One’s original image while adding a young feel, I’ll need a refined copy line.
I put my hand on the laptop and was about to write copy.
Then a strange anxiety brushed past me.
Wait. Is it okay for me to do this?
What I was asked to make was SNS viral content.
It wasn’t a TV commercial or a large-scale ad campaign.
Only One would already have a main advertising copy line they were pushing.
If I independently created a new copy line and put it out just because I was making SNS content…
That was an act that harmed brand consistency.
If I imagined someone doing the same thing to me, I would have put that celebrity on a blacklist without hesitation.
I almost crossed the line.
I pulled my hand off the keyboard.
I needed to rein in my greed and think of another move.
I had to pierce the essence.
What was Only One’s problem right now?
Brand aging. Staleness.
In simple terms, the younger generation found Only One too familiar and predictable, so they didn’t feel the need to buy it.
If so—
Is there a way to eat Only One differently?
At that moment, videos I had recently seen on SNS flashed through my mind.
Weird food combos.
These days, all kinds of weird combos under the name “inssa recipes” were gaining popularity.
Eating ssamjang with watermelon.
Putting mayonnaise in ramen.
Putting kimchi on cheesecake, and so on.
There were various bizarre combinations, and when people said they were surprisingly good, a challenge craze spread with everyone trying them.
You could think it was a strange trend, but for today’s generation of fun consumers who looked for entertainment in consumption, it hit their taste exactly.
And…
I tried something like that before. A weird combo.
And I did it way before it became trendy.
When I was a kid, I stayed at my grandmother’s house for a few days.
Back then, I threw a tantrum asking for a tasty snack.
After thinking, my grandmother gave me a shocking weird combo.
Chili oil ice cream.
Of course.
At first, it was a huge shock even for me.
She drizzled a little chili oil over vanilla ice cream, and the visuals were so bizarre that I cried and made a fuss, saying I wouldn’t eat it.
But my grandmother insisted to the end that I should just take one bite.
I squeezed my eyes shut and put it in my mouth like I was swallowing poison.
Mm…
How is it, you little brat? It’s tastier than you thought, right?
Khh… sniff… uh…? Why is it good…?
I planned to spit it out right away after one bite.
But it was way better than I expected, so I finished it all on the spot.
At first, I tasted the soft sweetness of the vanilla ice cream.
Then at the end, the sharp spiciness of the chili oil cut through the greasiness and finished clean.
Thinking about it now, maybe it was the origin of today’s “spicy-sweet-salty.”
I can’t believe I get to use this like this.
It felt like a good idea, but there was one thing I needed to verify.
That my grandmother’s and my tastes might have been unusually strange.
If it was going to work for the general public, I needed objective verification.
Hmm.
And I happened to have the perfect person right in front of me.
Someone who would evaluate honestly without pretense.
And someone rumored to be a foodie, with a proven palate.
“Big bro, Executive Director.”
“What.”
“Want some dessert to sober up? How about hangover ice cream?”
“Sure.”
I smiled confidently and walked to the fridge.
I took out the sponsored Only One ice cream and put it in a bowl.
After leaving it a bit at room temperature to soften, I poured a little chili oil from the cupboard.
“Here.”
“What’s the red stuff on top of the ice cream? Strawberry syrup?”
“Chili oil.”
“Get lost.”
A violent reaction, exactly as expected.
But I couldn’t give up here.
“Just one bite. Seriously.”
“Who the hell eats something like this?”
“My grandmother made it for me.”
“No wonder. The harmony of East and West really stood out.”
I saw the eye tremor.
He even went full Talullah, so he couldn’t just walk away without eating.
To drive the nail in, I should show him by taking a bite first.
“No, seriously, it’s surprisingly good. I make it often too. Look.”
“Ha, fuck… I’ll try exactly one bite.”
Finally, Han Seungwoo scooped up a spoonful.
Was this how my grandmother felt when she offered it to me?
I was so curious how he would react.
“……!”
Han Seungwoo’s face started twisting in a strange way after tasting it…?