Hollywood Hunter

Burbank, Universal Studios.

When Grace Nichols, CEO and President of Victoria's Secret Brand, was led by a staff member to a set community like a fairy-tale town, Simon had just finished a production meeting for "Desperate Housewives".

This "fairy tale town" is naturally a set of Wisteria Street built by Simon according to his memory.

After bidding farewell to the master of "Desperate Housewives", Simon greeted the short-haired, black-haired woman with glasses in front of him, and both walked along the tidy asphalt road outside.

Leslie Wexner’s main energy is still on the transformation of LTD’s fashion business to a ‘fast fashion’ operating model, and Simon can’t spend too much time staring at this. Therefore, the preparation and implementation of the Victoria's Secret show is still in charge of Grace Nichols.

Grace Nichols is an executive in the marketing department. Last year, she was promoted to the top of Victoria's Secret by Leslie Wexner.

From this point, we can also see Wexner's management style.

Therefore, Simon does not have 100% confidence in whether Wexner's fashion business can shift the business style of LTD from a marketing-focused operation style to a ‘fast fashion’ mode of operation. However, as long as the Victoria's Secret brand is built up, Cersei Capital's acquisition of LTD is considered a success.

I have been in contact a few times before, so I am familiar with it.

Simon and Grace Nichols just chatted casually, and the topic quickly turned to the topic.

Grace Nichols still has some scruples about the Victoria's Secret show in the media: "Recently, the media has been accusing the fashion show we are preparing for showing off sexy, materialized women. I think maybe we should this time. Be conservative."

Simon did not worry about Grace Nichols, saying: "I have discussed this issue with Leslie, and the controversy is inevitable. No matter how the outside world evaluates it, we should first confirm a position for this catwalk: Victoria's Secret. The fashion show hopes to convey to consumers a fashion, charm, health, and romantic underwear consumption concept."

"I know this," Grace Nichols continued. "However, the media often don't think so."

"Some things, even if it's a lie, you tell the public a hundred times and most people will believe it," Simon said, suddenly realizing something, turning his head and looking at the woman next to him, smiling: "Okay. Right, I will help greet the media."

The freedom advertised in the Western media is more of a freedom without interest.

If you make some kind of remarks that may cause some big money owners to withdraw their advertising on the media platform, then this kind of freedom will not be free immediately.

Daenerys Entertainment, or the entire Westeros system, is undoubtedly an advertiser that cannot be ignored by any mainstream media. Whether it is mainstream newspapers and magazines, professional movies, technology, or fashion newspapers and periodicals, whether it is a cable TV network or a wireless radio station, there are companies in the Westeros system that place advertisements.

Moreover, North American media platforms basically belong to some large integrated media companies.

For example, Hearst Group, which owns countless newspapers and magazines, such as Metropolis/ABC Group, which owns ABC television network and cable networks such as ESPN, AE, etc. Therefore, even if a certain newspaper or television station had no interest in the Westeros system , It is difficult to guarantee that other media under the same parent company are the same.

Many things in this world, if you look at the bottom line, there will only be two words left in the end, interest.

Grace Nichols mentioned some of the experiences of the Victoria's Secret show in the media, and also hoped that Simon would use the connections of the Westeros system to reverse certain public opinion situations.

Simon was aware of this, and he readily agreed, mainly because of doing so. The current LTD company is already part of the community of interests of the Westeros system. In terms of media, the LTD company is also a large advertising funder.

In order to make it easier to prepare for the Victoria's Secret show nearby, Simon specially allocated a studio in Universal Studios for the Victoria's Secret team.

In fact, it seems better to choose this studio directly at Daenerys Studios in Malibu. However, the studios in Malibu are now basically used for movie shooting, and more than half are professional virtual studios for front-screen shooting. Only the old-fashioned studio on the Universal Studios side still has room.

After completing the acquisition of MCA last year, after reconfiguration, many buildings on the Universal Studios side will be demolished to build new attractions. As for the functional studio and post-production center, they will be mainly used to produce TV series.

Hollywood's film production tends to be more and more inclined to live shooting and TV series. Until many years later, studio shooting is still very widely used.

The Victoria's Secret team chose a small studio with a length of 45 meters and a width of 25 meters.

Simon and Grace had just turned into the hallway where the studio was located, and they saw many slim figures waiting at the entrance of the studio. Those figures obviously saw Simon for the first time, and there was obviously a commotion.

Today is the last round of interviews with Victoria's Secret Angels.

For the 40-person Victoria's Secret Angel team, about 10 places are basically scheduled, including the planned 5 Victoria's Secret Angel spokespersons, as well as several other famous models who will participate in the Victoria's Secret catwalk but not serve as spokespersons. The remaining 30 places will be selected from various model agencies.

In order to select a batch of ODY, Simon also put forward very high requirements.

Those who are less than 175CM tall, those who are not beautiful enough, and those who are not good enough to be eliminated, cannot accept the elimination of a set of harsh contracts from Victoria's Secret Angels.

The first three conditions are actually very easy to choose.

There is only the last one. For the non-well-known models, the Victoria's Secret team only gave a salary of US$5,000, which is basically equivalent to one month's salary of a salaried worker.

However, as soon as the contract is finalized, the selected model will begin to prepare for the show in November, further exercise, control diet, participate in the catwalk rehearsal, and participate in media activities according to the schedule of the Victoria's Secret show. In addition, the follow-up TV broadcast and video tape sales of this catwalk have nothing to do with these models.

Of course, in the next four months, additional expenses such as fitness and transportation for the models will still be borne by Victoria's Secret.

The model industry eats youth rice.

Focusing on one thing for four months, the result is not necessarily so, and the salary is also pitifully low. These requirements have discouraged many models who have opened up their careers and are expected to take a higher level.

The Victoria's Secret team in charge of casting does not make any concessions or demands.

Like Hollywood actors, the most indispensable thing in fashion circles is beautiful women.

Moreover, this big show is a grand publicity for the Victoria's Secret brand. For the models participating in this big show, it is a rare promotion from the fashion circle to the general public. Because the Victoria's Secret brand and Victoria's Secret Angels have a mutually beneficial relationship, Victoria's Secret has also specially designed a set of promotion plans for the Victoria's Secret Angel team.

Still the same sentence, the model circle tried every means to match the star's superior mode of the singer, in the final analysis, it was just for popularity.

The Victoria's Secret show is equivalent to a dazzling platform for a group of models to stand directly in front of the public.

When the two walked to the entrance of the studio, a series of active greetings sounded in their ears. Many girls looked at Simon with a bit of eager eagerness. However, it was probably because of too many people, until Simon passed through a group of splendid big fairies, no one dared to step forward.

Simon also saw a lot of familiar figures in his memory, but this kind of thing has hardly caused any disturbance in his heart now.

After several rounds of selection in advance, there are 100 candidates for the final 30 places.

The waiting area inside the studio couldn't fit, so it lined up outside the gate.

Entering the studio, thousands of square meters of space have been partitioned out of several working areas, including dressing rooms, dressing rooms, and angel outfit design and production spaces. In the most spacious space at the innermost side of the studio, there is a twenty-meter-long T platform across which the next audition will take place.

The audition process has already been designed.

Dress up, log on to the runway to show your figure, step by step, simply communicate, and then the next one.

Therefore, in just one afternoon, 100 people passed quickly, and many models who looked forward to ‘interacting’ with Westeros did not find any opportunities.

At 6 o'clock in the afternoon, in the brightly lit studio, the audition ended, and Simon continued to discuss with the Victoria's Secret preparation team about the reserved 10 places.

Of the five spokespersons, Cindy Crawford was the first. This supermodel who was already inclined to commercialization also accepted the three-year endorsement contract invitation of Victoria's Secret at the first time. Of course, the endorsement costs are also expensive. Five million dollars for three years. This part of the expenditure is of course the responsibility of Victoria's Secret and is not included in the budget of the Victoria's Secret Show.

Subsequently, Simon Gerry, who happened to be popular last year, was second.

This'waist fine' used to be one of the spokespersons of Victoria's Secret in the original timeline. Whether it is physical appearance or considering the racial diversity of the spokesperson, Yasmin Gary is a very suitable candidate.

Although there is already the Asian mixed race of Yasmin Gary, but the five spokespersons, if there are no black people, certainly not justified, this year 19-year-old Tyra Banks was selected for this reason. The black model has already debuted at the age of 15. For the model, 19 is already considered an older age, and the other party's reputation is enough.

In fact, some people recommend Naomi Campbell.

Although the black supermodel was expelled from Elite's agency last year for various bad deeds, but because of his solid foundation, he is still active in the fashion circle after changing to a agency.

However, as everyone knows, this black supermodel is really difficult to do, short-term cooperation is no problem, if it is a long-term endorsement, you can imagine, it is definitely troublesome.

After Cindy Crawford, Yasmin Gary and Tyra Banks, with two remaining places, Simon finally selected Helena Christensen and Stephanie Seymour.

Compared with Cindy Crawford’s $5 million endorsement fee for three years, the endorsement costs of the last four angel spokespersons all happened to be reversed, at $3 million for five years.

In addition to the five spokespersons, the remaining five supermodels who will attend the show are also basically determined. They are also the most famous supermodels of this era such as Linda Ivangolinsta and Claudia Schiffer.

The next day was another Friday.

It is already July 3, and this year's Independence Day holiday happens to be Saturday.

As the most popular schedule in July, on July 3rd, there were three heavy-weight films released in North American theaters, namely Daenerys and Warner Bros’ cooperation project "The Last Mohican", and Disney’s The sci-fi family comedy "My dear, I made my child bigger" and "Patriot Games" produced by Paramount Pictures.

"Killing Hour", which was drawn the previous week, ended up at a box office of 23.73 million US dollars in the first week.

Due to the subject matter, this kind of opening performance is not high, but it has also met expectations. The key is to look at the subsequent box office trends of the film.

Although this independent day holiday coincides with Saturday, salaried workers in the United States generally arrange their own annual leave during this time, so this period is still popular.

Yesterday, I spent an afternoon in the preparations for the Victoria's Secret show. Simon flew to San Francisco again this morning.

After half a year of preparations, Blockbuster’s online platform happened to be launched during the Independence Day holiday. Nancy Brill hoped that Simon would be able to attend the press conference today.

As the largest video tape chain in North America and even the world, the press conference of'Blockbuster Online' naturally attracted a lot of media attention. The conference was also selected in the conference hall of the Marriott Hotel in downtown San Francisco.

Simon arrived at the Marriott Hotel, and the press conference was approaching.

Just simply say hello to the guests present today, and everyone starts to sit in and sit down.

At 10 o'clock, the conference officially began.

The executives of Blockbuster introduced in detail the development history of Blockbuster Online, the application process of the website and the prospects of online business, etc. On the stage, Nancy Brill discussed Baishida with Simon. The problem faced by Shida at this time.

After taking over Blockbuster for a few years, the video chain company now has more than 4,300 chain stores worldwide. Nancy’s ultimate goal is to have 5,000 chain stores worldwide, including 3,500 in North America and 1,500 overseas.

This goal will probably be achieved next year at the latest.

Compared with the scale of Blockbuster's more than 9,000 global chain stores in the heyday of memory, the 5,000 chain stores seem to have shrunk by half, but now Blockbuster, under the operation of Nancy Brill and the Blockbuster team, Through continuous optimization of the operating model and warehousing and logistics system, it is stronger than Blockbuster, who is only pursuing scale in the original time and space.

However, in Nancy Brill's view, Blockbuster still faces many problems that need to be changed.