[Chapter 678: Unintended Consequences]
From the very beginning, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show adopted a marketing strategy closely tied to Yahoo. During the live television broadcast, which attracted over 40 million viewers, Yahoo's name was frequently mentioned between each segment of the fashion show, and the Yahoo logo appeared on screen time and again. There were even behind-the-scenes moments featuring Victoria's Secret Angels campaigning for votes on the Yahoo voting page. Thanks to this vigorous co-promotion, fueled by the show's impressive ratings and buzz, viewers wishing to learn more about the breathtaking lingerie fashion show flocked to Yahoo's website, provided they had internet access at home.
In the Boston Yahoo headquarters, the operations manager for the Yahoo website, Jeff Locke, and Yahoo's editor-in-chief, Tina Brown, eagerly watched the real-time surge in user traffic on the site. After the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show went live, the number of users visiting Yahoo increased by 50% within just half an hour. Midway through the broadcast, Tina Brown pulled the heads of the Yahoo editorial team into a meeting room to discuss how to further leverage the show's popularity to expand Yahoo's influence.
However, less than ten minutes into the meeting, Jeff Locke burst in urgently, saying, "Tina, there's a problem, the Yahoo forum server just crashed."
While she had focused on media content, since joining the industry, Tina Brown had been working hard to catch up on computer knowledge. Upon hearing Jeff Locke's announcement, she realized the gravity of the situation and immediately stood up.
The last crash occurred a few months earlier when Yahoo had just launched their YCR chat software. The unexpected surge in user growth had led to a server meltdown. The incident had become a laughingstock for competitors, especially following a discussion about "the world's largest data processing center" in Charlie's Angels. To her dismay, less than six months later, Yahoo was facing another similar crisis.
Tina Brown followed Jeff Locke out of the meeting room and asked, "Did you notify Ian and Steve?"
Jeff Locke pulled out his phone and began dialing, explaining, "I'm calling them now, but the tech department said it's not a big issue -- just a server restart should fix it."
Tina Brown shook her head, knowing things were never that simple. "Even if the tech issue isn't severe, we'll definitely be on the headlines tomorrow."
Jeff Locke paused and then offered a wry smile. The last YCR server crash had humiliated Yahoo, and now, during such a highly publicized event, they faced another setback. After connecting the call, he briefly filled CEO Ian Gurney in on the situation before hanging up and calling Steve Mitnick's number.
Due to the rapid expansion of the company, Yahoo's editorial department had separated across two office buildings. Just as Tina Brown and Jeff Locke were leaving the Yahoo editorial building to make their way to the nearby headquarters, Tina's assistant hurried up behind them with a phone saying, "Ms. Brown, it's a call from Mr. Williams."
Around ten minutes later, after the server restarted, the Victoria's Secret discussion forum was back online, and the cause of the crash had been identified.
The Victoria's Secret discussion forum was a sub-community within Yahoo's fashion section, with server capacity able to handle approximately one million visitors. In the current internet landscape, this should have been ample capacity. However, due to repeated underestimation of user traffic and the powerful referral effect from the homepage links, user visits to the forum skyrocketed during the live broadcast, ultimately doubling the server's capacity, resulting in a data flood that crashed the system.
Once normal operations resumed, Yahoo had to remove the forum's homepage link to prevent this from happening again. Thankfully, the server downtime was short-lived. After recovery, while some users expressed their dissatisfaction, normal discussion threads quickly filled the space.
...
At ABC headquarters, as the fashion show prepared to close, Eric hung up the phone and curiously opened the now-functioning Victoria's Secret discussion forum. The page buzzed with all kinds of lively topics.
"Can someone tell me the name of that Victoria's Secret Angel who looks so much like Audrey Hepburn in the second to last act?"
"Vote for my girl Cindy! The YCR fans' tribe is now open -- come join us!"
"I absolutely loved the second and third songs! Let's play lyrics chain -- I've only remembered a few lines and want to complete the lyrics!"
"Did no one notice that Eric Williams used the Soviet war song 'Leningrad Symphony' as the background music? What does that mean?"
"Why are there so many obnoxious men here? Baltimore friends, if you want to discuss lingerie styles, head to my YCR group, tribe ID 9527149."
"Where can I find the Victoria's Secret store in Philadelphia? Help please."
"That Baroque piece was so heartbreaking; I cried listening to it. What am I going to do? I want to hear it a hundred more times!"
"Keep an eye on the TV -- the 'Cinderella Incident' is about to happen! Diane Kruger is going to drop her shoe soon!"
"OMG, I want to lick!"
Although each page could only display twenty posts, Eric couldn't help but smile at the familiar topics. Although the commercial potential of online forums had always been bleak, they successfully captured the attention of internet users and served as critical hubs for navigating online discussions.
As Eric considered how to present some thoughts on online forums to Yahoo's management, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show approached its closing segment. Soon, Nielsen provided the final viewership data, revealing that the average audience for the show reached 41.5 million. Due to the relentless hype surrounding the "Cinderella Incident," viewership peaked at 46 million when Diane Kruger dropped her shoe.
...
"It was the Super Bowl of the fashion world!"
The next morning, the New York Post splashed a bold headline across its front page proclaiming just that, featuring a captivating image of Diane Kruger in a bright red military-style angel outfit from the show's opening.
Since its first televised broadcast, the Super Bowl had held a firm grasp on annual viewership, continuously surpassing over 100 million viewers, with hardly any program able to shake its dominance. In the past, when television programs attempted to associate themselves with the Super Bowl broadcasts, they were often met with derision and scorn. However, this time, few opposed the New York Post labeling the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show as "The Super Bowl of the Fashion World."
Although Survivor eventually reached 56 million viewers, 10 million more than the peak viewership for the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, the fashion show boasted a spectacular rating of 26.8 among the key 18 to 49 demographic, outpacing Survivor by six percentage points. Moreover, the show attracted a particularly concentrated audience within the crucial 18 to 34 age range, which meant its commercial value far exceeded that of Survivor in the eyes of advertisers.
Once the ratings were released, over a hundred domestic and international TV networks reached out to Firefly Group to purchase the broadcasting rights to the fashion show. HBO, under Warner, even offered $5 million for the exclusive domestic cable rights to air the event.
While media outlets scrutinized the viewership ratings for the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, Yahoo didn't escape unscathed; the server crash that evening became fodder for several IT companies to ridicule. But these jabs barely harmed Yahoo's reputation; instead, they further enhanced its public visibility.
Many media outlets recognized the potential ties between Yahoo and Victoria's Secret during the ongoing six-month branding collaboration. Commentators from Entertainment Weekly dedicated substantial coverage to dissect the "brilliant co-marketing strategy." As Yahoo's traffic continued to surge, analysts from several major investment banks raised their assessments of Yahoo's market value.
...
After the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show took place in Manhattan a month ago, sales of LTD's products began to rise dramatically, and post-broadcast, the show's massive impact resulted in booming sales for Victoria's Secret stores across the country. LTD's stock price rose by 22% in the subsequent week, pushing the company's market cap to $4.5 billion.
However, the commercial success of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show also attracted a torrent of criticism. The day after the broadcast, media personalities and conservatives, led by New York Times columnist Thomas P. Pecker, accused the show, with its overwhelming sexual implications, of being inappropriate for ABC, a national public broadcaster. Coupled with this public outcry, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) received hundreds of letters and phone calls demanding ABC be penalized and prevented from airing the fashion show again.
The backlash from conservatives and some media outlets evoked considerable support; however, many detractors, primarily from youth-oriented online communities, vehemently opposed the conservative push to ban the fashion show. Feminist groups also voiced disagreement with conservative criticisms, leading to a heated debate that lasted over a week and even sparked several instances of online trolling.
Though the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show hadn't ostensibly violated any rules, under mounting pressure, the FCC had to meet with representatives from ABC and LTD to discuss resolutions for this controversy.
But, attempting to oust a television program with over 40 million viewers was impossible. After much clamor continued into the days before Christmas, the FCC and the production team for the fashion show eventually reached a compromise: for this year and subsequent Victoria's Secret Shows, if aired on public television, they must be scheduled after 10 PM and clearly labeled with a TV-14 warning for minors.
...
Amidst all these developments, another unexpected event left many surprised and delighted.
One week after the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show aired, one million copies of its videotape officially went on sale. Emily and others had worried that no one would want to spend $30 on a mere 40-minute tape. Eric even prepared to treat the unsold tapes as giveaway items. However, on the day of release, all one million copies sold out in no time, prompting Firefly's distribution department to scramble additional resources to produce another million copies -- all of which were snatched up just as quickly.
Perhaps due to the scarcity creating a hype marketing effect, various media outlets began reporting on it. In less than a month, the sales of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show videotapes approached 7 million. Finally taking note of the phenomenon, the Firefly distribution department conducted a survey, revealing that 75% of purchasers bought the videotape primarily for the six songs. This meant that these people essentially viewed this tape as a music album.
After thorough evaluations, Firefly projected that final sales for the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show videotapes could potentially surpass 20 million copies. At $29.90 each, that was roughly $30, which could yield a staggering $600 million in sales. Given the mere 40-minute length of the show, production costs for a single tape were approximately half that of a regular movie. Subtracting distribution and retailer profit margins, each tape would yield roughly $15 in profit for the distributor -- about half of the sales revenue -- resulting in an astounding potential profit of $300 million!
Media outlets that once lamented Eric's decision to abandon filming movies for the loss of several hundred million in potential earnings were now wide-eyed, realizing that somehow, he had recouped that 'loss.'
The surprise success of the 'Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Soundtrack' caused considerable embarrassment for music magazines like Billboard and Rolling Stone. Normally, these high-profile music magazines published their weekly charts, but the past few weeks had brought in a flood of ridicule since none of the songs on their charts came from the show's soundtrack. Music fans firmly believed any song from the fashion show could easily dominate those charts. Given the overwhelming backlash, established artists who had previously planned to release new singles at year's end delayed their plans.
The situation was complex for magazines like Billboard; after all, Firefly had its own unconventional methods. Typically, when regular artists released new singles, they would aggressively promote them through radio and television to secure chart positions. Yet, Firefly had made no such efforts. Although the names of the six songs had begun circulating, no one knew which band or artist was behind them. At Eric's insistence, Firefly records had kept the identities of the performers a closely-guarded secret.
As a result, while fans buzzed about the six luscious tracks, and the videotapes continued to fly off shelves, outside of ABC and a few cable channels that secured rebroadcast rights, there were hardly any appearances of these songs on radio or television. Without promotion or public relations campaigns and zero intent to showcase their existence, why would anyone rank those songs? Only their tape sales could serve as a basis for that!
...
Following the show, Eric retreated to Southampton to spend time with his women and children, where a pre-Christmas party was held in the mansion.
In the living room, Emily snuggled little Kevin while animatedly sharing recent events with Eric and the others. "Since the Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner couldn't reach you, he kept calling me. You won't believe how much pity was in his voice the other day! He said if we don't start promoting those songs, their magazines would lose credibility. Eric, why not let Firefly Records unveil those artists ahead of time? It'd be a perfect opportunity. After all, Victoria's Secret has already reaped its rewards. If those artists grab some spotlight, who cares?"
Eric leaned back on the couch, folding his magazine and shaking his head at Emily. "Beyond considering what's best for Victoria's Secret, the current scenario actually favors those newcomers. If we start promoting them now, most of the media attention would go to Victoria's Secret and it may not be benificial to them in the long run. Instead, we should wait until after Easter next year to gradually roll out their singles. By then, the hype around Victoria's Secret would have cooled, allowing the media to focus more on these fresh talents."
Emily replied, "You're clearly worried about the impact on the Victoria's Secret tape sales. The results were astonishing -- 20 million tapes could bring $300 million in profit! $300 million! WOW, LTD's revenue has increased significantly this year, but their annual profits are only around $400 million."
Eric chuckled and said, "Wipe that drool off your chin. No amount of envy will change the fact that it was you folks who willingly sold me the rights to the Victoria's Secret Show. So this money is mine."
Amidst the laughter of Chris, Virginia, and the others, Emily merely pouted and replied, "That wasn't even my decision! The board of directors is the one regretting it. In the last meeting, those guys were even suggesting I retract the rights to the Victoria's Secret Show."
Though Emily's tone was casual, she glanced at Eric, her gaze carrying a hint of hopeful expectation.
*****
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