Showing Signs
Lee Yung-Sook, an intern at Burger Queen's publicity department, had originally dreamt of becoming a drama writer. However, the path to becoming a drama writer was challenging.
She managed to become a junior writer thanks to her connections but gave up after enduring three years of drawing a 600,000 won salary per month. It wasn't just about the money, but also about the stiff competition that she faced from university graduate writers since she was only a high school graduate.
Although many had complimented her for being naturally talented at writing, the reality was harsh.
She eventually left her job as a writer and plunged into the battlefield of society. Currently, Lee Yung-Sook was interning at the publicity department of Burger Queen, which was ranked third in the burger industry.
"What should I do…?"
Lee Yung-Sook shut her eyes tightly and gathered courage. She had to make her presence known as an intern if she wanted to get a contract position.
Pulling out her phone, Lee Yung-Sook approached Team Lead Kim Yung-Jin, who had been frowning all morning.
"M-Mr. Kim. Could you please take a look at this?"
"What is it? Did you come up with a good ad copy or something?"
Lee Yung-Sook felt as if her heart sank at Kim Yung-Jin's irritated tone.
However, she couldn't back down now.
She showed Kim Yung-Jin the live search rankings on Nave on her phone.
[1st: Morning Takes Off]
[3rd: Morning Takes Off Viewership Rating]
[7th: Burger Queen's Burger Maiden Jung Yoo-Jin]
[9th: Burger Queen Jung Yoo-Jin]
[10th: Morning Takes Off Jung Yoo-Jin]
"What is this? Wait a second. Jung Yoo-Jin…? Is this that Jung Yoo-Jin?"
Jung Yoo-Jin's name was undeniably known to all at the Burger Queen's publicity department. After all, she was the legendary part-timer responsible for a 500% increase in sales at the Cheonho-dong branch.
"Did she debut already?"
"Yes. She made her first appearance on TV yesterday. She's trending online and everyone's talking about her."
"I was wondering what she was up to after disappearing for a year. She must've been preparing to become an actress during that time, huh?"
"Yes, sir. Moreover, her first appearance was in a drama written by Lee Ji-Yeon. The viewership ratings yesterday were no joke."
"How high were the ratings?"
Being someone who wasn't particularly fond of dramas, Kim Yung-Jin asked without much anticipation.
In response, Lee Yung-Sook zoomed in on the rating chart on her phone and showed it to Kim Yung-Jin.
At that moment, Kim Yung-Jin's eyes widened in surprise.
"Listener is at 20.1% and TNK at 20.2%? That's huge!"
Even if he didn't care much for dramas, he was, after all, the head of the publicity department. He knew better than anyone that a drama exceeding 20% in viewership ratings was a big deal.
"It's a work by the renowned writer, Lee Ji-Yeon. And take a look at this. These are the hourly statistics."
Lee Yung-Sook continued to explain excitedly.
The rating chart she showed displayed an interesting trend. The ratings remained at 19.1% until 10:50 PM but suddenly began to rise dramatically about five minutes before the episode ended.
"The ratings soared out of nowhere five minutes before the drama ended. Why did the graph shoot up like this?"
"Because that was when Jung Yoo-Jin made her appearance. Her acting was just amazing and…"
Kim Yung-Jin cut off Lee Yung-Sook and questioned.
"Hold on. How's the traffic on our website? If Burger Queen's name has reached this ranking on the live search, there must be a reaction from people, right?"
Lee Yung-Sook scratched the back of her head in response to Kim Yung-Jin's question.
"Isn't that managed by Deputy Chief Choi?"
"Oh, right. I'm sorry."
Kim Yung-Jin momentarily forgot that Lee Yung-Sook in front of him was just an intern. He quickly sought out Deputy Chief Choi Moo-Sung and asked about the data.
"Well? How does it look?"
"It's increased."
"By how much?"
"By 5%."
"What? 5%? Why are you only telling me now?"
"Y-you had me do something else earlier…"
A 5% increase in overall website traffic was not a small number.
"Could it be because of our discount event?"
Choi Moo-Sung shook his head.
"No. We've been running the discount event since the beginning of the month, remember? You said it was a failure since we didn't see any changes in the graph."
"R-right. I remember that."
"And do you remember saying that our current ad model, Park Eun-Bin, isn't worth the money?"
Kim Yung-Jin awkwardly scratched the back of his head at Choi Moo-Sung's consecutive questions.
"Alright, alright. I remember. I'm sorry, okay? Are you satisfied after hearing me apologize?"
"Yes. I feel so much better."
Watching Choi Moo-Sung's refreshing bright smile, Kim Yung-Jin clenched his fist tightly.
At that moment, Chief Ahn Ji-Yoon of the publicity department stormed in with a frown. With the fourth quarter's sales dropping and the imminent threat of dropping a rank in the burger industry, Burger Queen was in a critical situation.
"What's with all the fuss? I told you not to let your guard down just because it's the end of the year."
"Ms. Ahn! Come here. Take a look at this. Miss Yung-Sook, update her about what you told me earlier."
Prompted by Kim Yung-Jin who sat Ahn Ji-Yoon down, Lee Yung-Sook tried her best to calm her racing heart and repeated what she had said earlier.
After being updated on the situation, Ahn Ji-Yoon gave clear directions on the next steps.
"Look into changing our ad model. Jung Yoo-Jin's price might be cheap since she's only a rookie, right?"
"But what about Park Eun-Bin? Are you going to cancel our contract with her?"
"We might need to wait a bit and see people's reactions, but it seems like we should for now. How much did our sales increase compared to before and after we hired Park Eun-Bin as our ad model?"
"They didn't go up. They went down…by 7%."
"Oh, good. So you are well aware. That means it's even worse to continue using Park Eun-Bin as our ad model than having no model. I thought our sales might increase since she's in Lee Ji-Yeon's drama, but her acting is terrible. People are saying that she acts like an AI robot. You know that, right?"
"B-but she's still popular among her fandom…"
"Fandom? Oh, it's not like there's a ton of them anyway. Even if each of them buys ten burgers a day, it won't be good enough to impact our sales."
"Okay, I understand."
"Um, Ms. Ahn, Mr. Kim."
"Yes, Mr. Choi?"
"I just checked and the number of people accessing our webpage through the app increased by 10% and order volume has also increased by 12%. There are even comments on the webpage asking if there's some kind of event happening."