Invitations to the top big shows of the four major international fashion weeks are usually not sold publicly. Of course, some important front row positions are occasionally auctioned in the name of charity. As for whether the money is really sold It is unknown if it is used for charity. ※%, the reason why the invitations are not sold publicly is that the number of guests invited by these top big shows is limited, at most one or two hundred people, and at least dozens of people. On the other hand, it is also to maintain a high-end style, and I don't want anyone to be able to get in.
However, this Victoria's Secret show is completely different. The Lexington Avenue Armory, which can accommodate 5,000 people, has been renovated by the Victoria's Secret project team, and the number of guest seats in the venue still reaches 1,000. The project team held several discussions on how to distribute the 1,000 invitations. The number of special guests confirmed for the big show, including celebrities, media professionals, critics, business partners, etc., was less than 200. Finally, there were no vacancies. More than 800 invitations were received.
Although Victoria's Secret is only a mid-range interior brand, after several months of hype, with the current popularity of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, even if it adopts the previous strategy of selling invitations at a high price of 10,000 US dollars, it will definitely be sold out. In this world There has never been a lack of high-end consumer groups. But in that case, even in the name of charity in accordance with the industry's 'convention', it will definitely be ridiculed by the media for wanting money and thinking crazy.
The project team finally decided to accept open applications on the Yahoo website, and select suitable guests to issue invitation letters.
But the premise is that the guests who receive the invitation donate at least US$1,000 to the charity designated by the Victoria’s Secret brand. . Most businesses or celebrities are very careful and must take care of their public image, which is why there are countless charities. Although the Victoria's Secret project team only set a minimum donation amount of 1,000 US dollars, and will not disclose the donation amount of any guest, it also added a rule that the 100 guests with the highest donation amount will be directly invited to the Victoria's Secret Aterparty.
From late September when the project team entered New York to the end of October for more than a month, under the skilled media operation of the marketing team organized by Eric. The continuous news events surrounding the Victoria's Secret fashion show pushed the topic of this fashion show to the peak step by step.
Throughout October, thanks to the powerful advertising effect brought by the Victoria's Secret show, the sales of hundreds of Victoria's Secret stores in North America directly soared by 100%.
Last year, the sales revenue of the entire ltd group was only about 1.5 billion US dollars, of which the sales of the Victoria's Secret brand were about 1 billion US dollars. But this year, with the steady increase in sales driven by the advertising effect of the Victoria's Secret show from the first half of the year, the sales of the Victoria's Secret brand in the first three quarters have exceeded 1 billion US dollars, an increase of 30% compared to the same period last year. It is estimated that under the more powerful marketing campaign of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show held in the last quarter, the annual sales of a single Victoria's Secret brand under the ltd group will exceed last year's 1.5 billion revenue.
at the same time. The marketing model of cooperation with Yahoo Portal for several months has also steadily increased the average daily traffic of Yahoo Portal. As 1995 approached, in order to prepare for the IPO, Yahoo also gradually began to disclose various operating data of the company to the outside world. Although this fast-growing high-tech Internet company has already attracted a lot of attention, the entire industry was shocked when Yahoo disclosed the detailed number of users that had reached tens of millions.
Although the entire Internet industry has begun to emerge, and in addition to the Yahoo portal. The industry has also begun to appear similar websites following the trend, but only Yahoo has reached tens of millions of users. This looming trend of industry oligarchy has made most investment banks envious of Yahoo's IPO agency rights. Morgan Stanley, who actively contacted Eric in an attempt to represent Yahoo's IPO matters, boldly publicly offered 50 The valuation of 100 million U.S. dollars is more than five times the asking price when Bill's classmate tried to acquire Yahoo in the first half of the year.
Back to New York, since mid-October, the rehearsal of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show has suddenly become tense, facing the first fashion show of such a large scale. Although the preliminary preparations were very adequate, various small problems still cropped up during the rehearsal. Faced with this situation, it is estimated that no one will have a good temper. Although Eric tried his best to endure it. But on average, they have to lose their temper several times a day, and the Victoria's Secret angels have gradually formed a very unified name for Eric in private, the tyrant. An angel even yelled out in front of Eric inadvertently. Facing the girl who realized that she had made a slip of the tongue and was frightened so pale, Eric finally just twitched the corners of his mouth.
On October 31, the traditional Halloween in the West, the last rehearsal of Victoria's Secret's annual show was held in the Armory on Lexington Avenue. Forty Victoria's Secret angels, live performers, and 120 behind-the-scenes coordinators, photographers, and makeup teams all Assemble, there are still a small number of guests in the auditorium.
With the first drumbeat of the British guard of honor in red dresses, the whole arsenal moved in front of and behind the stage, and all the scenes such as the busy backstage, tense models, and the gorgeous stage were displayed in the central control room. On the eight monitoring screens, there are several walkie-talkies beside Eric, his eyes are fixed on the screen, and he picks up a walkie-talkie and says something loudly from time to time.
The final Victoria’s Secret show will be edited into a standard format of 43 minutes, but in fact, the total time for the complete six performances and the replacement of the set in the middle is more than an hour. When all the processes finally go through the last time, Eric I finally feel relieved.
Picking up the walkie-talkie to inform the executive director to let everyone gather by the stands, Eric wiped his forehead and shouted, went into the bathroom to wash his face, and then walked towards the front desk.
At this time, the Victoria's Secret show stage has undergone earth-shaking changes from when it first arrived. The entrance and exit is a giant hard rear-projection giant screen, the tall arches are dotted with various eye-catching lights, and the runway is full of dazzling The silver sequins are like a gorgeous carpet covered with diamonds, and the carefully arranged lights "cut" the catwalk and the stands clearly.
Eric walked out of the arch from the backstage, looked around for a while, and thought for a moment. He didn't think of what needs to be improved during the rehearsal just now, so he looked at the staff gathered in the stands.
Surrounded by hundreds of people in the center, the Victoria's Secret angels wearing pink silk nightgowns all had a little apprehension on their expressions, as if many of them were recalling whether something happened to them just now.
Eric originally wanted to jump off the catwalk, but after stretching out his foot, he simply sat down on the catwalk and looked at the more than one hundred people in front of him who were quietly waiting for him to speak. Smiling slightly, he said, "Today is Halloween, have you ever thought about what to dress up at night?"
Many people looked at each other at Eric's somewhat abrupt reaction, and some chuckled in 'cooperation'.
Eric pointed to Diane Kruger in front of him: "Diane, do you have any plans?"
"Ah, I..." Diane Kruger didn't expect that Eric would suddenly point to herself, and hesitated a little in a panic, saying, "I, I'm going back to sleep."
"Ha ha… "
There was a burst of light laughter in the arena.
Eric also smiled. He nodded and said: "This is also a choice. After a few months of busy work, everyone must be very tired, and they have to face a 'tyrant' who can go crazy at any time. If it were me, I would also choose after everything is over, Get some sleep."
With another chuckle, Eric continued: "However. I think you must all feel the changes that have happened to you recently, Diane. What endorsement invitations have you received recently?"
Diane Kruger is a little embarrassed that Eric always speaks by himself. Of course, she knows that she was not favored by the project team when the Victoria’s Secret Angels were selected. It was Eric who personally selected her and asked her to be your One of the five spokespersons of Victoria's Secret. At first, she thought that Eric had something special about her, and she also expected that Eric would take the initiative to date her, but several months passed. All the expected things didn't happen, but Eric's somewhat special attitude towards her didn't change much. Although the forty Victoria's Secret angels are all like sisters on the surface, she knows very well that in private, almost all of them are jealous of Eric's special care for her, and there are even some scandals between her and Eric.
I was thinking so messily in my heart. Diane Kruger didn't dare to ignore Eric's question. However, she has received too many endorsement invitations recently, and she doesn't even know it herself. Most of them are handled by agents. Think about it Thinking about it, I carefully replied: "It seems that there are Chanel, Armani, Dior..."
As Diane Kruger spoke, she could even feel the jealous eyes on her body, and stopped immediately. Everyone present knew each other well, and Diane Kruger was undoubtedly the lucky one who took the last step to the sky. Before joining the Victoria’s Secret show, Diane Kruger didn’t even have the endorsement of an ordinary first-line brand, not to mention top international brands such as Chanel and Armani. Advertisement, take part in some catwalks.
Seeing that Diane Kruger stopped suddenly, Eric didn't ask any more questions. He looked at everyone and said, "I think everyone has more or less received some invitations to cooperate with brands. Maybe, occasionally, you will feel It seems that it is not enough to share the influence of this big show from among forty people. But I can say with certainty that you are definitely the luckiest forty among the hundreds of thousands of models in the world, although Spending a few months on this Victoria's Secret show will reduce your income a lot this year, but I believe that by next year, your income will definitely double. And, most importantly, you With the influence of the Victoria's Secret fashion show, your career life will be extended for many years. Of course, the premise is that you will continue to maintain your interest in cooperating with Victoria's Secret next year."
Noticing that a Victoria's Secret angel sitting in the front row obviously trembled when he heard Eric's last words, Eric couldn't help laughing, looking at the face that looked a bit like Audrey Hepburn, smiling Said: "Paulina, don't be so nervous, I can tell you now that I will definitely not direct the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show next year, and after this year's accumulation of experience, next year's preparation time does not need as much as this year, So next year you're going to get paid better, but it's going to be easier at the same time."
The Victoria's Secret Angel named Paulina gave Eric a charming smile and said, "Mr. Williams, I will definitely be back next year."
Eric smiled, changed his posture slightly, clapped his hands and said: "Well, now, let's talk about the rehearsal just now, I am very satisfied with everyone's final performance, as long as everyone still shows today's rehearsal after two days level, then, I’m sure, we’ll surprise everyone.”
Amidst the excited cheers and applause, Eric pressed his hands and said to everyone: "Then, everyone will have a day off tomorrow. Of course, tonight's Halloween, although it is not forbidden for everyone to go to various parties , but I still hope that everyone can go back and have a good rest as Diane just said, and I don’t want any unexpected situations to happen to any of you in the last two days. Now, let’s disband.”
After Eric finished speaking, he stood up on the edge of the runway and walked towards the backstage. Most of the people at the scene waited for Eric's figure to disappear in the arch, discussed excitedly in low voices, got up and walked out.
Emily, Edward Razek, and Eric's assistant Kelly just listened quietly to Eric's speech at the scene behind the arch, and at this time they also greeted them.
"Eric, do you think there is anything else that needs to be adjusted?" Emily has been on-site for dispatching just now, and did not stay in the central control room with Eric. At this time, she couldn't wait to ask. With the marketing ability demonstrated by the Victoria's Secret show, Emily now pays much more attention to the Victoria's Secret show than Eric.
Eric shook his head: "No, all the shooting effects have been tested. I just watched the whole rehearsal and found no problems. Moreover, nothing in this world is 100% perfect. If there is anything If you regret it, then keep it. We must give the media something to talk about in the future."
Emily gave Eric a blank look, didn't mention it anymore, and said with a smile: "Then what about you now, are you going to East Hampton to spend Halloween with them?"
"I just want to go back to sleep now," Eric replied, and then glanced at Kelly next to him: "Come back with me, I still have something to discuss with you." (To be continued.)