Free Web NovelAfter Episode 5 of 〈Unfair Trade〉 aired, an unexpected trend emerged.
[Lee Seohae watch] ▲9
[Lee Seohae smartwatch] ▲4
[Han Yeoreum watch] ▲5
[Han Yeoreum wristwatch] ▲2
It was Lee Seohae’s smartwatch.
A product from Korea’s number-one powerhouse brand, symbolized by a single star floating above a deep blue mountain. The GLX marketing team, forever obsessed with overtaking America’s AP, came to the same conclusion.
“Marketing...”
“Needs to be...”
“Done again.”
The surge in sales in just one day said it all.
Now was the moment.
NEVER Blog
[Honest buyer review of Lee Seohae’s smartwatch from Han Yeoreum in Episode 5 of 〈Unfair Trade〉]
[Han Yeoreum’s wristwatch brand? Comparing the features and price of Sansung’s GLX Watch]
Sansung Electronics’ annual marketing spend totaled a staggering 12.57 trillion won. In dollars, that was 12.57 billion. Marketing was always at its most aggressive right before and right after launch.
INTUBE
[Fresh off the release! Let’s unbox Sansung’s GLX Watch~ full AP comparison] 40:27
[The quality is this insane? AP should be nervous. Just the GLX Watch pros and cons!] 38:44
[Appliance Overlord | GLX really did it~ let me properly introduce the smartwatch features] 45:36
Normally, to establish a product in the market, they had to invite trending celebrities to popup stores, shower creators with sponsorship fees, and spend like mad on ad placements.
What kind of product it was, what features it had, how it looked.
It only sold after people spent time and effort explaining and showing it.
That was simply how the market worked.
[HOT / Sansung is suddenly going insane right now LOLOLOL.jpg]
(〈Unfair Trade〉 Episode 5 capture.jpg)
This scene from Episode 5
(Han Yeoreum wrist capture.jpg)
This one moment made everyone watching the drama in real time scream, and now Sansung is getting insane benefits from it holy shit LOLOLOL
(shopping site search rankings.jpg)
Han Yeoreum smartwatch sales are suddenly rising out of nowhere
-Anonymous 1: I saw that scene yesterday and suddenly got the urge to buy it too LMAO
-Anonymous 3: I never cared about diet tracking or heart rate stuff T_T.. but in a one-in-a-million emergency if your phone got taken, it feels like the watch would save you so I ordered one.. Haha am I overthinking too much
-Anonymous 12: LMAO I thought literally the same thing
-Anonymous 44: The rush when Han Yeoreum hid here was insane.. fuck, people like me who keep replaying it are definitely gonna end up staring at the watch too TT_TT
-Anonymous 57: I’m the winner for buying it at launch V^___^V these days there are so many strap options so customizing it is fun, and it’s honestly amazing. It’s also convenient for reading messages after work and ignoring them lolol Han Yeoreum made me want to go back to the default black too
-Anonymous 88: Another launch-day buyer here 2222 seriously it’s so convenient, total jackpot
-Anonymous 102: At this point Sansung should just give Han Yeoreum an ad deal~~
But under the Han Yeoreum effect, even those obvious marketing rules were ignored.
Sales climbed without a single explanation.
Just because it had been shining on Lee Seohae’s wrist in that exact scene, at that exact time, people began paying attention to Sansung’s GLX Watch.
The product had already been out for half a year.
“Call an emergency meeting.”
By now, the marketing budget going into the GLX Watch was nowhere near what it had been at launch. Everyone who had been interested should already have bought one.
But Han Yeoreum alone changed the entire board.
A woman being chased by a man through a dark alley, suddenly hiding.
A ringing phone.
A scene that perfectly overturned a cliché so familiar it had become exhausting brought catharsis far beyond expectation.
The intensity of the moment, the way the product was shown without explanation, and the character of the person carrying it.
Everything clicked together as if it had been planned.
It made the smartwatch look absolutely necessary to the audience, useful in emergencies, and—because that person owned it—desirable.
Now that this unexpected route had opened—
“We’ll begin the meeting regarding additional PPL for 〈Unfair Trade〉.”
Sansung didn’t hesitate.
This was the perfect time to pull consumers who had been eyeing AP’s smartwatch over to the GLX Watch.
“I’m a viewer who watched all of 〈Unfair Trade〉. Since Han Yeoreum’s character Lee Seohae is a genius with an IQ of 160, she never uses laptops or notebooks in the interrogation room. If we add a scene where she uses our Sansung tablet PC in an emergency, it should stand out strongly to viewers.”
“Yes. Then let’s request an additional scene highlighting the watch and tablet synchronization feature.”
And it all began with Han Yeoreum.
* * *
“Director Park, um...”
This was the set of 〈Unfair Trade〉.
Because of Shin Seojin’s unexpected injury and the resulting script revisions, the slight breathing room the production had briefly gained disappeared completely.
Director Park Jaeyoung, now forced into a seven-day live-shoot schedule, had deep shadows under her eyes.
“Owoong. Coffee?”
“No. We got word from production.”
The production PD carefully began speaking to Park Jaeyoung, who was rotating her stiff neck.
“Sansung wants additional PPL. They requested five extra seconds of Lee Seohae using the tablet PC. They also want separate close-ups for the smart pen...”
The PD hesitated, clearly uneasy about being asked to film additional scenes after everything had already been shot.
“And the watch too...”
Additional PPL meant a bigger usable production budget, which should have made Director Park happy.
But something felt strange.
Park Jaeyoung’s expression twisted as she listened.
“...Really?”
“Yes...”
“From Sansung?”
“...They didn’t add any direct comments about the story itself. Our production team already cut a lot of their requests too...”
Park Jaeyoung, whose kind face had still somehow earned warning after warning from the broadcast standards board over the show’s brutality, furrowed her brow so hard the PD’s voice shrank.
“Say that again?”
“I’m sorry.”
“No! Just say it again!”
She threw the script she had been holding.
“So the day has finally come! Sansung! Sansung! The moment Sansung asks Park Jaeyoung for additional PPL! Owoooong!”
The director suddenly remembered the past.
“Even when I was doing 〈Noir〉... advertisers came all the way to the set and threw absolute fits! They screamed they’d pull every ad! And now we brought in Sansung, which even 〈See You That Day〉 couldn’t land! Ah, shit. I’m wide awake now!”
Back during 〈Noir〉, ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) the male lead had detonated scandal after scandal, and by the second half the companies with PPL placements had demanded contract reversals.
Back then, Park Jaeyoung had been powerless.
But now, Sansung itself had initiated additional exposure requests first.
“We beat Suryeon’s side! Not with anything else—but with PPL!”
Just then, the drama 〈Noir〉 had once competed directly against Hong Suryeon’s rom-com.
As the rival show sank miserably in the same time slot, Hong Suryeon’s drama had reaped enormous reflected gains.
Remembering that, Director Park clenched both fists.
“What? Director, Sansung?”
“What? Additional PPL for what?”
Nearby staff swarmed over.
“Wow... this is actually happening.”
“I know! This is insane.”
“Isn’t Sansung’s PPL rate basically the most expensive of them all?”
Investigation and action genres almost never had situations where products could be shown beautifully.
Chases, explosions, dim evening scenes.
Advertisers didn’t usually favor these productions.
The projects that attracted easy PPL were things like Hong Suryeon’s 〈See You That Day〉 or even 〈As Expected, Happy Ending〉, which had once been flooded with office-romance ads despite now ranking last in ratings.
“Usually conglomerates really hesitate with PPL because they think it damages brand image...”
“I guess the Lee Seohae scene really was that good.”
Bloodstains, murder scenes, criminal hideouts.
This crime-action genre could destroy years of carefully built brand image in a single blow.
But that one Lee Seohae scene had succeeded in turning viewers into consumers.
“But wait. The GLX Watch still doesn’t have an official celebrity model, right?”
The moment someone blurted that out, silence fell over the set.
“Oh...”
“Come to think of it...”
“That’s true?”
To build a global image, Sansung had created the GLX Watch commercial around a foreign model and a Korean model together.
They still hadn’t put a dedicated celebrity ambassador front and center.
“Then if this goes well—”
“Yeoreum becomes the model?”
The staff all exchanged looks.
“Hey! We just got another call.”
The previously silent production PD muttered while staring at the phone.
“More PPL and sponsorship requests came in from fatigue recovery supplements, vitamins, canned coffee, dak-galbi, A4 paper, fountain pens, furniture companies... and more.”
For a genre drama to sweep up PPL like this was something that had never happened anywhere before.
Right now, 〈Unfair Trade〉 was rewriting history.
* * *
“....”
Hong Suryeon was speechless.
“Suryeon, Suryeon, what’s wrong? Want to look in the mirror? Your favorite mirror is right here.”
Beside the sickly wilting Hong Suryeon, her manager lifted a hand mirror. Inside the sparkling glass, Hong Suryeon’s even more sparkling face filled the reflection.
“Isn’t it beautiful...”
“Exactly. You’re gorgeous again today, so what’s the problem?”
“Right... maybe the problem is that I’m too beautiful...?”
Today was Monday.
The day 〈Unfair Trade〉 and 〈See You That Day〉 aired.
Last week, 〈See You That Day〉 had been pushed aside by the sheer buzz around 〈Unfair Trade〉.
“Maybe I’ve simply reached the absolute peak of beauty... so even through the screen it overwhelms people’s hearts...”
Hong Suryeon teared up, unable to believe reality.
The clear tears gathered in her glamorous catlike eyes looked like pristine dawn dew on flower petals.
“So that must be it...? Everyone got so flustered they squeezed the remote too hard... and the channel switched to SBC...”
For a long time now, Hong Suryeon had held the title of the woman of ratings.
If a romantic comedy starred her, male actors fought to seize the male lead role without even asking questions.
She never shone alone.
She made any man beside her seem more special than anyone else could.
Simply standing next to someone, she taught viewers what chemistry meant.
A fairy of romance.
“Suryeon! You’re still number one in ratings, what are you worried about?”
“My pride is hurt... and it’s not as fun anymore...”
“Should I bring you a magnifying glass? Why would the fun be gone?”
“The comments on my kiss scene... are fewer than the comments on Lee Seohae...”
“They’re too busy having heart palpitations to comment.” fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
“Right... that must be it...?”
She sighed with her full lips, still unable to tear her eyes from the mirror.
But something still bothered her.
Still number one in ratings.
That word still.
Because if it was still, then even her own manager thought it was becoming precarious.
And if it was ratings alone, that meant 〈Unfair Trade〉 had already beaten her elsewhere.
“Sis... I think we need to ask our making-film team for something. I wasn’t going to go this far, out of respect for Director Park! I’m not only beautiful on the outside, after all.”
“Right. Our Suryeon’s heart is even more beautiful.”
“That’s not right... for my heart to be more beautiful than my face, I’d have to be an angel. No, wait... I am an angel! Why am I beautiful both inside and out... anyway, sis. Should we bundle the making film and the viral push and sell that?”
“What? Suryeon, are you sure?”
“Even if I’m not, what choice do I have...? Until now I never had to sell myself like this because everyone bought in on their own, but timing matters.... For our production company, the promo company, the staff, the director, the writer, and my eternal beauty. A tiny bit of image consumption is nothing.”
Shipping marketing.
Selling the illusion that the male and female leads were “basically real.”
The kind of business that drove drama fans insane by tying together making films, SNS comments, and even trivial things like matching phone cases.
Until now, Hong Suryeon had never needed that.
Her face, acting, and the work’s quality alone had made the public do the shipping themselves.
But now the final airing was only two weeks away.
〈See You That Day〉 would end in two weeks.
“If it’s to spread my beauty even further!”
Buzz, critical acclaim, ratings.
Everything had to end at number one.
For Hong Suryeon’s enjoyment.
And then, a few days later—
“...These are complete lunatics, aren’t they...?”
SBC had unleashed poison.
INTUBE
[Han Yeoreum reunites with a very special guest! The man who looks better the darker it gets came as a cameo... finally giving you slicked-back hair again (∗❛ᴗ❛∗) | 〈Unfair Trade〉] 05:48
The other side had gone ahead and released Ji Haebeom’s making clip a full two weeks before broadcast.
