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Iam’s debut showcase, locked in for May 4.
‘I don’t love it, but if this is the only time slot we can get, there’s nothing we can do.’
Sanghyeok could not help feeling dissatisfied, since TSP’s rookie girl group LYNX and Iam’s debut dates had ended up overlapping just one week apart.
Honestly, if you really thought about it, it was probably an annoying situation for TSP too.
A big agency’s debut schedule starts getting adjusted at least half a year in advance, so from that side, it probably felt like Iam had suddenly barged in out of nowhere.
But even so, from Sanghyeok’s point of view, it would have been a lie to say there were no regrets about the debut date.
-How about pushing the debut back by exactly two weeks?
Because if the debut were delayed by about two weeks from the planned May 4 date, it would have been perfect.
If Iam debuted when LYNX was entering its third week after debut, there was a high chance it would turn into a huge hit.
‘Week one doesn’t count toward the metrics anyway, so we give that up, then if LYNX’s fourth week goes up against Iam’s second week, the odds of winning are high.’
On music shows, the week you debut or make a comeback is not counted in the rankings, and you are included the week after, so the second week was basically an idol’s peak performance.
On the other hand, most idols promoted for four weeks, and by that final fourth week, the numbers were usually forced to be the lowest.
So if Iam delayed debut by just two weeks, LYNX’s lowest point and Iam’s highest point would line up, and the math said there was a high probability of taking first place. That was why Sanghyeok wanted to delay debut by two weeks so badly.
Iam taking first place against TSP’s LYNX? freēwēbηovel.c૦m
If it actually succeeded, the prestige of that record would be enormous.
It would mean beating a girl group from TSP, one of the top entertainment companies in Korea.
-That’s impossible, CEO.
But when Sanghyeok brought it up, Producer Raon and the marketing team answered that schedule adjustments were absolutely impossible.
Raon explained that to appear on music shows, the basic rule was coordinating schedules at least three months in advance.
Music shows were not something the network created alone, so from the very beginning of scheduling, they planned together with agencies, mapping out which artists would be placed where and in what order. After hearing that, Sanghyeok had no choice but to give up on adjusting the date.
Raon’s final point was decisive: even the fact that Iam had unusually managed to wedge into that lineup was already a huge benefit, and if they got greedier than this, they could end up getting blacklisted by everyone.
Originally, Iam was only going to appear on Music Count from M-Play, which was part of the same KJ Media group, but Producer Raon had somehow shoved Iam into the three major terrestrial music shows by pulling every connection available. Even that was basically a miracle.
[Agbaek alum rookie girl group Iam to make a surprise debut on May 5 on M-Play Music Count!]
[TSP’s LYNX and KJ’s Iam: a clash of super-rookies set to ignite the first half of the year!]
[The hot rookie Iam! Unusually scheduled to appear on the three major terrestrial music shows!]
[Can Iam carry on Agbaek’s popularity?]
Right now, Sanghyeok was checking every article on the portal site’s entertainment news board.
Starting this morning, the marketing team had been diligently feeding reporters Iam debut materials, and maybe it was working, because the entertainment news section was packed with Iam articles.
↳So the debut date is finally confirmed
↳Wow, I’m actually shocked. Terrestrial shows are putting a cable-born audition group on music shows?
↳Their buzz is huge, though. It’d be a waste to miss them
↳If the reality ratings were over 5%, that says everything
↳Wait, lately I’ve been watching Iam self-produced content and variety shows so much I forgot they still haven’t debuted
↳lol I’ve never seen an agency just dump content before fans even have to nag
↳Yours: We didn’t order this though? KJ: It’s from that gentleman over there
The comment reactions were good too.
Most comments said they were looking forward to Iam’s debut, and both the comment counts and upvote counts were high. For a rookie group that had not even debuted yet, it was a surprising level of attention.
-I think the trend in idols going forward is communication. Fans can’t relate to a mysterious image anymore.
Sanghyeok remembered what Raon had said: since Iam was a group built from the ground up through public attention, it needed a narrative of growing under that public attention, thoroughly and deliberately.
‘There’s a lot to learn.’
Sanghyeok thought of Raon as a good partner.
Sanghyeok was learning a lot from Raon, who filled in what Sanghyeok missed when approaching everything with overly calculated logic like back at the old company.
-You can’t just stop at releasing a popular song. I believe idol albums need a story. Not just the fans—people should listen to Iam’s songs and not have it end there, but become interested in the entire album.
To do that, Raon had an ambitious plan: unlike existing girl groups, Iam’s album would be made not as a standalone release, but linked with future albums.
Raon’s goal—going beyond pulling fans from the existing idol fandom pie and instead creating a new demand layer on their own—was easy to say, but never an easy task.
But surprisingly, Raon and KJ Entertainment were doing it.
They created a dedicated content team to upload in-house videos, and the marketing team professionally managed Iam’s social accounts and kept communication going with fans.
Not only that, they even accepted only ad deals that did not stray from Iam’s concept, steadily building a unique Iam image.
KJ Entertainment managed details so obsessively that other agencies would call it wildly inefficient.
Sanghyeok was certain.
These little things would not turn into immediate results, but sooner or later, they would become a solid foundation for KJ Entertainment itself, beyond Iam.
-The response to this ad is extremely good! Up top, people are even talking about signing Iam as exclusive brand models.
Sanghyeok suddenly remembered the call from yesterday.
[Iam effect? GU membership app downloads up by 500,000 in a week!]
[After-school Iam set sells out in long lines!]
[GU defeats longtime rival CS by a wide margin in a tight sales battle! A surge in usage among their core consumer base, teens and people in their 20s, after the Iam ad, suspected as the cause?]
Maybe all that detailed effort from KJ Entertainment was finally paying off, because the ripple effect from Iam’s ad was bigger than expected.
‘Not taking a simple “famous luxury brand” ad or a high-end image ad from the start was the right call.’
Iam’s GU convenience store ad had been chosen because it matched the members’ existing image and the album concept KJ Entertainment was pursuing.
And the result was outstanding.
Even now, more and more companies were sending Iam ad offers by the minute.
TSP? LYNX? They were definitely a powerful opponent.
But if it cannot be avoided, shouldn’t they fight properly?
Click.
After finishing that thought, Sanghyeok picked up the phone and called the marketing team lead’s desk.
“We’ll hold another meeting about Iam’s debut schedule. We need to check if there’s anything we missed.”
“Yes, I’ll prepare it immediately.”
“Other than TSP, check if there’s anything else that could be a threat. And for Iam’s debut promotion schedule, cut all the minor clutter and focus only on things that can lock attention in.”
“Should we push all the variety shows, radio, and live broadcasts we’re coordinating to after the debut?”
“Yes, that’s best. I think we only have a chance if the public interest at its peak is focused solely on the music video and the debut stage.”
“Understood! I’ll report as soon as the meeting is ready.”
Click.
After ending the short call with the marketing team lead, Sanghyeok raised a wrist and checked the time.
11:57
About three minutes until the hour.
It was the moment Iam’s debut track, “Feels Like Something’s About to Start,” would upload its first teaser.
***
[Iam “Feels Like Something’s About to Start” Official Teaser no.1]
“Clear, blue spring sky filled the screen.
Lively laughter from noisy students flowed out over it.
Before anyone realized it, the screen was showing a school.
Students walked through the front gate and across the field.
♬
(Oh-oh) yeah, yeah
(Oh-oh) I can feel it, first vibe
Along with that, a short intro of very upbeat music played.
Scratch.
The screen changed again, and this time it showed a desk.
In a dim, dark room, only the orange glow of a desk lamp made it clear this was someone’s room.
Then a hand came into view, carefully writing something on a small sticky note with a pen.
[Things to do at school tomorrow!
Say hi to new friends!
Share chewy candies!
Make eye contact and talk!
.
.
.]
The hand that had been writing small goals put down a period, signaling the end.
And just before the camera slowly moved past the fingertips, past the shoulder, and was about to reveal a face—
[Still not asleep? If you’re going to school tomorrow, you should go to bed early.]
With that voice coming from off-screen, the screen faded to black.
Feels Like Something’s About to Start.
2016.05.05 00:00.”
Views: 1,125,940 Likes: 100,000.
↳Wow... it’s been a while since a teaser that isn’t even a full music video made me feel fluttery
↳Big companies really are different. The color grading is insane
↳Union Production handled it. They’re known for being good
↳If this is no.1, that means there’s more coming, right?
↳Whose hand is that?!
↳You can tell it’s Lee Sion instantly. You can recognize Lee Sion just from the hand
↳Why did they only let us hear such a tiny bit of the song, I’m crying
↳Looks like the concept is school and a new semester
↳I don’t know whose idea this was, but it’s so good. These days even rookies all come out with that tough-girl vibe and it was getting old, so I love this pure feeling!
“Is a million really that high?”
“I don’t... really know.”
“Hmmm...”
In my head, information about our members got updated yet again.
Lee Gahyeon does not actually know much about idols.
“Shinyumon, come here.”
“What is it, Sion?”
“Our teaser hit one million views in one day. Based on this performance, what reaction is appropriate for members to show?”
I summarized the situation to ChatGPT. After a brief load—
“That’s a number where you should throw a party!”
“Really?”
“Yes! It’s not a full music video, and teasers usually get much lower view counts! If a teaser passes one million views, that’s an incredible result!”
After hearing Shinyu make a big fuss, it finally started to feel real.
‘It really was a good result.’
When a number you would expect from famous girl groups showed up on our music video teaser, for a moment I wondered if view counts for girl group videos had inflated without me noticing.
But it was not that.
It just meant the interest in us was that hot.
-Guys, let’s hang in there just a little!
A week ago, we finished filming the music video.
We should have filmed much earlier, but we could not film until after we had mastered the choreography, so the shoot ended up being rushed and urgent a week ago.
Because of that, even though people said music videos could take at least three days and up to a full week, we had to finish ours in just two days.
With the real debut so close, there was no more time to waste, so we had no choice but to do it this way.
-We’ll do that last shot one more time from a different angle!
Filming a music video was much harder than I expected.
How else could it be explained that after the other members, excluding me, came back to the dorm, they could not do anything for a full day and just slept?
Even I was tired, so there was no need to even talk about the others.
-If we want to look pretty in the music video, we have to go to bed early today!
-Gahyeon, put this on too. They say it’s good for getting rid of dark circles.
-What if my acting is awkward?
At first, the members were just excited to film a music video, but—
-We’re reshooting this part. Stylists, please fix the hair.
The director’s demands were endless.
A reshoot because hair was not fluttering right.
Retaking a single scene dozens of times because they needed to shoot as much as possible while there was natural light.
On top of that, because time was tight, we kept moving locations to shoot, and that meant we had to keep moving nonstop with no proper breaks in between.
Repeating the same scene until the director got the exact needed shot was routine.
-You moved differently than the first take here. It has to be the same.
And it was not like you filmed each scene once. You filmed it three or four times, changing only the camera angle, so it was exhausting because you had to keep your focus from the first second to the last.
Especially the rooftop scene, which could be called this music video’s highlight, had dozens of reshoots on its own.
-I want to sleep...
Thinking of the members collapsing afterward made me seriously worried.
Once promotions started, we would probably get even more exhausted than this. Could we really be this weak?
I started thinking I should probably # Nоvеlight # take the members out for morning runs soon.
Anyway, seeing a piece of the music video we suffered through like this made the feeling hit differently.
‘Pros really are different.’
At first I could not understand why we were filming certain shots at all, but since we had no time, we just filmed what we were told. Now, seeing those shots edited into a finished product, I finally understood the meaning.
-Aren’t you so excited for this music video?
And on top of that—
“It’s fun seeing what people are guessing!”
“There are comments in Japanese too! Idol Ground 100 must be popular in Japan too!”
“There’s a lot of English too.”
“I heard there are quite a few foreigners watching our variety shows these days.”
We had heard the concept explanation and filmed it ourselves, so we already knew what the music video was about.
But fans did not, so all sorts of theory posts were going up, and it was genuinely fun reading them.
“Is my hand really that obvious?”
“Yes. Your skin tone too, and your fingers are kind of long. Most people will recognize it.”
“Hmmm... I wanted it to be more of a mystery. That’s a shame.”
Honestly, it was fascinating that there were fans who recognized me just from a quick glimpse of a hand in the teaser.
I wanted to show the fans the music video we filmed, and the debut stage we were preparing, as soon as possible.
“Everyone, we’re starting filming now!”
While we were checking fan reactions on our phones, a voice called out.
It sounded like preparations for today’s self-produced content shoot were finished. At the content team staff member’s words, the members who had been resting with their phones in hand got up and gathered in one corner of the practice room.
“Hello! Yours! I’m today’s host, Kurosawa Yuri! Nice to meet you—please take care of me!”
Today’s self-produced content began with a staff slate.
Among the members, only Yuri was standing alone, holding a microphone on the small stage that had been set up in advance in the practice room.
“Today’s Iam content is! We can’t put it off anymore! It’s time to pick Iam’s leader!!!”
With Yuri’s uniquely bright voice, Yuri announced the start of today’s content: picking a leader.
‘So the time has finally come...’
Leader.
A word meaning the head who would lead the group, a position every idol group had.
‘I will stand above all of you.’
The time had come to teach these rookies what leadership really was.
