A mature enterprise, when implementing major projects, will set up contingency plans for key tasks and critical links, and Paradise Beverages was naturally no exception.
However, judging from the performance analysis report of their three advertising contingency plans this time, the best-performing Plan D only had a Focal Point Dwell Rate of 56%, which was still quite a distance from the "excellent" tier.
For a project with a small investment, or an for a minor product, this data could still be considered barely satisfactory.
But this was a key project for the Paradise Beverages Group, and their upper management was clearly not satisfied.
Although the originally selected Plan B had issues, its "eye-catching" effect was undeniable, inevitably making it a point of reference. This comparison naturally created a psychological gap.
In reality, everyone knew that many factors influenced the sales of a beverage, and advertising was usually not the decisive one. Since many factors were difficult to fully quantify, it was impossible to precisely evaluate the role advertising played, especially for new products.
If Plan D was adopted for a full-scale launch and the new product's sales met expectations, then all would be well. If they fell short, naturally, the person responsible for whichever link had the problem would shoulder the blame.
This was the urgent problem Pang Weizhi and Ji Cheng currently needed to solve.
The awkward position for Zhiwei Technology was that Plan B was rendered and generated by the CMS. Regardless of Li Yunxiang's identity, it did not change the fact that the company had failed to fulfill its supervisory obligations.
While this might not constitute a corporate crime, and might not even result in administrative penalties, it did not absolve them of their own responsibility.
Once the promotion of Paradise Beverages' new product suffered a setback, affecting the overall interests of the group company, they would most likely use this as grounds to publicly demand compensation from Zhiwei Technology to salvage the brand's reputation.
If it truly reached that point, even bearing only a small portion of the responsibility would cause extremely negative repercussions for Zhiwei Technology, far beyond simply paying money.
This was absolutely what Ji Yongsheng and the others did not want to see.
Therefore, the problem both sides currently faced was essentially the same. If Pang Weizhi and Ji Cheng's dilemma could be solved, Zhiwei Technology's predicament would also be resolved.
But since it was a dilemma, an appropriate solution was obviously not so easy to come by. For a moment, silence fell within the private room.
Ji Cheng waited for a while. Seeing that no one was speaking, he couldn't help but break the silence first. "Engineer Wei, I'd like to ask, since Plan B was rendered by your system, is it possible to perform a 'reverse-render' to restore it?"
He had spent the day essentially doing nothing else, just racking his brains on how to solve the ad placements issue. This was the best solution he could think of, but whether it was feasible still required consulting a professional.
Wei Hongsi thought carefully for a moment, then said, "Theoretically, it's possible, but the difficulty is extremely high. A day and a half is probably not enough time."
Hearing it was feasible, Ji Cheng's spirits lifted. "Then how long would it take?"
Wei Hongsi said, "I can't give an accurate answer right now. I'd need to do a preliminary analysis first. A rough estimate would be at least five working days."
Half puzzled and half disappointed, Ji Cheng asked, "Why would it take so long? The initial rendering shouldn't have taken much time, right?"
Wei Hongsi explained for him, "If rendering is like adding color to a sketch, turning it into a watercolor painting, then 'reverse-rendering' is like stripping the color from the painting, restoring it to its original sketch. The difficulty levels of these two are simply not on the same scale."
In truth, if the CMS logs hadn't been tampered with, restoring Plan B to its pre-rendered state would have been much easier, but there was no need to mention this to an outsider.
Ji Cheng understood Wei Hongsi's analogy and asked again, "Then what if we use Plan B as an emergency stopgap, buying us a few days to gain some time?"
Wei Hongsi hurriedly advised against it. "Doing that carries too much risk. Even within a relatively short timeframe, with a limited number of consumer views, a certain amount of Negative Valence Emotion would still accumulate.
"It's like planting a dud bomb in their minds. Influenced by other factors, it could still detonate. Moreover, exceptions are hard to rule out. Four or five days is enough time for a determined person to watch it over a hundred times."
Ji Cheng frowned. "Would someone really keep staring at an ?"
To be honest, even for his own company's product, he didn't think a single was worth watching repeatedly.
Last night, he had gone to great lengths and offered corresponding material rewards just to get over a hundred people to watch Plan B on a loop.
Wei Hongsi said, "Once a video is released, its dissemination is no longer controllable. For example, fans of the celebrity in the ad might save the video and spread it within fan communities."
Ji Cheng fell silent.
He had to admit, that possibility existed. For "die-hard fans," it was practically a necessity.
Wei Hongsi could see Ji Cheng's anxiety and understood his mindset.
The problem with Plan B was discovered through Ji Cheng's efforts, so he certainly had merit. But if the contingency plan performed poorly, the responsibility would also fall on his shoulders.
When they first met yesterday, Wei Hongsi had offered his "congratulations." If he couldn't help Ji Cheng resolve this hidden danger, wouldn't that be an empty promise?
Through their conversation just now, he had clarified the other party's line of thinking. Salvaging Plan B was clearly the optimal solution in Ji Cheng's mind. Judging by Pang Weizhi's expression, he probably agreed with this approach as well.
Wei Hongsi asked, "Director Ji, I heard you mention at the police station earlier that Plan B went through several revisions before the final cut. Don't you have any previous sample versions or raw footage?"
"No." Ji Cheng shook his head. "When we signed the contract, there were relevant clauses. They wouldn't directly provide us with sample versions. So Peng Jun always came with his laptop, showed us the version, noted down our requirements, and went back to revise the plan. Apart from the final cut, they never gave us any intermediate versions or raw materials during the process."
Lu Jiaqi, sitting next to Wei Hongsi, took the opportunity to quietly explain the reason to him.
For this advertising procurement by Paradise, due to it involving core information about the new product, the production company was required to destroy all types of materials generated during the production process after the final cut passed acceptance and was delivered.
Conversely, to protect their own commercial secrets like creative ideas and special effects, the advertising production company would not directly provide intermediate sample versions or raw shooting materials to the client.
These mutual confidentiality clauses were quite common in commercial collaborations.
Hearing this, Wei Hongsi suddenly understood. No wonder Ji Cheng was fixated on salvaging Plan B instead of trying to get something from Zihu Media. Turns out they couldn't provide anything at all.
He said somewhat apologetically, "I was thinking that if you had sample versions, you could re-edit one for emergency use."
"Even if we had them, we couldn't edit one out." Ji Cheng said with a bitter smile. "The sample versions were shot using Zihu Media's models. The protagonist of the final cut is our contracted celebrity Shen Qing. They're not even the same person!"