117. Advertisement Inquiry
117. Advertisement Inquiry
***
August 12, Thursday.
—BaTalk!
The BaTalk notification kept going off.
"......"
At the sound, I slowly lifted my eyelids, and out of habit, I fumbled around me.
I opened the phone I'd grabbed and checked the time: 11:01 a.m.
Still half-asleep, my consciousness hazy, I raised my body as slowly as a sloth getting up.
"I... just fell asleep yesterday, huh."
Even as I spoke, I could feel that my voice was hoarse.
Yesterday, I'd been on the phone with Seoyun for over an hour before barely managing to hang up, and it seemed I'd drifted off just like that.
Maybe because I'd talked a lot without realizing it during the call, even my voice was hoarse.
—BaTalk!
At the BaTalk notification ringing again, I checked the message first.
Park Soyul.
[It seems you haven't checked yet, Rin, so I'm reaching out again. Please take a look!]
"Soyul is really set on calling me Rin...?"
I muttered it blankly, but the feeling was strange.
Among the people I'd been messaging frequently lately, there were exactly two who called me Rin. Those two were Soyul and Hayoon. Both were my editors.
And since the editors and I had long since exchanged names, they definitely knew my real name too, yet for some reason the two of them kept calling me "Rin."
As far as I remembered, both of them had said something like it was more comfortable that way.
But in moments like now, when I wasn't streaming,
every time I saw a message addressed to Rin, the feeling was a little odd.
I scrolled up to check Soyul's earlier messages.
Park Soyul.
[It's nothing major, but could you check the emails I sent yesterday and let me know your thoughts sometime today? I need to write up the email replies using the proper format, and if it gets pushed back again today, I'll have to juggle it with the video work, so time will be tight.]
"...Right, I need to check those."
I remembered that I still hadn't checked the emails Soyul had sent yesterday asking me to review.
Soyul was managing everything related to my business email right now, so I felt a little bad.
A while back, she'd seemed to be subtly hoping for a bonus, so I'd said, "In that case, if you're willing to handle this too, I'll give you a bonus as well," and Soyul had snapped it right up.
Honestly, I'd been planning to give her the bonus even if she didn't do it.
And maybe because her career as an editor was impressive, Soyul was far more versatile than I'd expected.
Thanks to Soyul, I no longer had to worry about most emails, but even if she managed everything, decisions still had to be confirmed by me, so I occasionally got messages like this.
While checking the messages Soyul had sent, I opened a delivery app in split-screen.
"...I'm craving something sweet."
I tapped the cafe tab in the delivery app, ordered several drinks from a well-known brand cafe, and then got up.
Whatever I did, it was better to wash up and check things with a clear head.
From experience, making judgments about anything right after waking up was never a good idea.
......
After washing up and waking myself up, the first task of the day was checking the business emails Soyul had sent.
The files that Soyul, my editor, had sent asking me to review because they were too ambiguous for her to handle on her own.
Click.
As I opened it, I put the straw of the strawberry latte that had just been delivered into my mouth.
Slurp.
As I took a sip, the taste of the cold strawberry latte set to 100% sweetness definitely seemed to wake me up a bit.
The contents of the business emails I checked turned out to have more variety than I'd expected.
Soyul had even written brief additional explanations about the ads, and even in those, her meticulous care stood out.
-Banner ads.
A common ad format where a specific brand or logo stays fixed on one side of the stream. Inquiries for that kind of banner ad.
-Pre-roll ads.
Another type played immediately when a viewer entered a stream: a 10–30 second ad before the streamer's screen appeared.
Beyond that, brief explanations of various other ad types. The ad list attached to the email had prices that weren't so much consistent as wildly varied by type.
The ad emails offered anywhere from around one million won at the low end to around twenty million at the high end.
"They're all... really underwhelming."
But looking at the ads, nothing really grabbed me.
It was fascinating that someone like me, who'd only just started streaming, was receiving ads like these, but at the same time, they all felt kind of meh.
The ad amounts felt really lukewarm to me, and honestly, I had no intention of running ads right now anyway.
Even with just my current stream, the minimum donation amount was set so high that the money viewers donated was more than enough—if anything, it was excessive.
'Rejecting all the ads seems right.'
And as someone who was only just starting out as a streamer, putting ads directly on my stream screen seemed like it would look strange.
I'd set the donation amounts high precisely so I wouldn't have to accept donations, so if I then slapped an ad banner on the stream screen, viewers would probably find it absurd.
Still, the bigger reason I'd looked through all the ads was to see how ad offers came in.
With that thought settled, I immediately sent my opinion to Soyul.
Me.
[Soyul, please politely decline all the ad emails you sent me. And going forward, unless it's an ad that feels truly impossible to refuse, please decline incoming ads as much as possible. Rather than contacting me separately about it, you can make the call yourself.]
Decline all incoming ad inquiries.
Going forward, I set the direction to decline all ads unless they were truly exceptional.
Park Soyul.
[Ah, yes, I'll do that then, Rin. Oh, and actually... I didn't say anything because I thought it might be a bit presumptuous of me to give you advice, but Rin. You know? Since you said you're declining all the ads, I'll say it too. Honestly, the ad terms that have come in so far have all been pretty bad.]
From Soyul's message, I got the sense that she found the ads unsatisfactory.
"The ads were all... not to Soyul's liking?"
Honestly, since I was just starting out, I couldn't even tell whether the ad rates were fair or not.
Me.
[The ad terms are bad?]
Park Soyul.
[Yes. Pretty... they were all offers like that. Since Rin is just starting out, how should I put it... they're lowballing the rates, I guess? Considering Rin's viewer numbers and current popularity, offering that kind of money for ads is really just a scattershot approach—throw it out there and if it doesn't work, whatever.]
I'd just thought, "Oh, is that so," but Soyul had experience editing for a big-name streamer, so she seemed to know a fair bit about ad rates too.
But lowballing the rates, huh.
Wasn't there definitely an ad in the twenty-million-won range among them...?
Me.
[Soyul, going forward, if you see things that really seem off to you, please just speak up comfortably. When it comes to streaming or NewTube or that side of things, you know more than I do.]
Park Soyul.
[If you say that, I'll include a bit more of my personal opinion from now on. I didn't say anything because I thought if I told you the rates were low or whatever when your first ad offer came in, you might feel a little hurt or take it badly.]
Me.
[No, why would I get upset over what you say, Soyul? I'll listen carefully to your opinions whenever you share them, so please don't think like that.]
Park Soyul.
[Ah, then... I'll be in touch more often from now on! Honestly, there are sooooo many things I've wanted to tell you. I felt like I was taking up too much of your time, so... Rin! Then, take it easy and get ready for your stream!]
"Pfft..."
Unlike other people, Soyul had a way of wrapping things up on her own without me having to say anything, which was really impressive.
Honestly, I'd thought it might drag on a bit, but she was surprisingly considerate—or maybe just really easy to be around. So I simply ended things by reading her message.
After checking the business emails like that, the things I needed to do came to mind like a chain reaction.
From applying for partner streamer status, to donation system settings, to needing to adjust mission settings again—there were too many other things to do as well.
Slurp.
I sucked on the straw unconsciously, but felt nothing.
I glanced down and saw the cup was completely empty, as if I'd finished it without noticing. Setting the strawberry latte cup down, I picked up the cafe latte sitting right next to it as a replacement and put it to my lips.
Slurp.
Smiling softly at the familiar smooth taste, Serin slowly began working through her tasks one by one.
***
*
————
— [Jeanne d'Arc can rest too, why the hell are people trashing her so much?]
Author: DieAllBaselessHaters
(Image of Jeanne d'Arc carefully kissing the championship trophy.jpg)
- For three years, Eunha's match schedule as a pro, plus other events and ads—anyone can see it's an unreasonable schedule, and everyone knows it. Yet she still pulled it all off. I honestly thought she was some kind of superhuman. Like, any real TSJ fan knows this, right?
Even during the rest period after winning the league, Jeanne d'Arc ran Solo Queue or Team Rank every single day, and the records all show she worked harder than any other player.
So now she's resting for a bit, and the bastards trashing Jeanne d'Arc like this is their chance—what the hell are they even doing? Am I seriously the only one who understands her taking a break mid-Summer Season?
And she literally said in interviews ages ago that she was struggling, but TSJ still made her shoot ads nonstop and dragged her around to events everywhere. It was total bullshit. Honestly, I can completely understand her resting mid-season.
On top of that, Worlds—which is even more important—is happening this year. Rather than overworking her for nothing and ruining her form at Worlds, it's better for her to rest now. Even before she rested, she contributed massively to the team's results, and didn't the official announcement say she's returning just before playoffs?
Honestly, next year I hope Jeanne d'Arc doesn't re-sign with TSJ and goes to another team lololol. The way TSJ treats their players is seriously lololol. Like, what's the point of paying a lot of money? They're overworking a player who should be focusing on matches with all this non-match stuff.
People who agree, please upvote. Seriously, seeing people trash Eunha makes me so mad I wrote this in the early morning feeling all gloomy...
————
*
[This isn't the TSJ fan community, you dipshit]
[I get the content itself, but the way you talk, holy shit lololololol]
[Jeanne d'Arc makes the top posts even when she's not playing and just resting?]
[Honestly, I think she wants to rest even more because of these people, no?]
[Just leave her the hell alone lololololol]
[Whether it's baseless hate or baseless defending, the fact that it burns every single day is honestly impressive in a way...]
[I'm not a Jeanne d'Arc fan, but honestly, isn't her resting understandable?]
[Like, what percentage of people are even trashing Jeanne d'Arc in the first place lolololololol]
Slurp.
Serin, who had set down the now-empty drink container, closed the community site. She'd finished her tasks and had a bit of free time.
During that time, she'd been browsing the community. She'd checked to see what the hot topics were lately.
"My head's spinning."
Even I was confused just watching it.
Just how popular was Eunha that even now, while resting from matches, photos taken at a cafe and articles were making her this much of a hot topic?
Honestly, it almost seemed like she wasn't an Another World pro player but just a hugely popular celebrity, because no matter where you went in the community, there was always talk about Jeanne d'Arc.
'At least Eunha's image is good, so that's a relief.'
The thought even crossed her mind.
This much massive attention, honestly, even if it was positive attention, seemed like it would feel like a huge burden. It made Eunha seem all the more impressive.
And on top of that, if there were a lot of malicious comments...
She shook her head. Just imagining it was hell.
—BaTalk!
Yoo Eunha.
[Serin, do you have a moment to meet in Another World before your stream?]
Eunha's BaTalk message rang at just the right time.
"Eunha must really be bored..."
She had definitely said Eunha could message her whenever she was bored.
But even so, sending messages at one-hour intervals... what on earth was that about?