TVB’s promotion tactics: ‘Arranging’ for an artist to win an award
7/22/2010 10:57:00 AM
kenmouse
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Raymond Lam
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TVB Award
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TVB News
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It is rumored that this year, TVB will ‘support’ Raymond Lam to become TV King – whether this is true or not, it’s too early to tell.However, there is absolutely no doubt that Raymond Lam is currently TVB’s most heavily promoted “biological son”: at the beginning of the year, he received the ‘Asian Region Most Popular Male Singer’ award at JSG, he is the lead in several series airing this year, and he is also the male lead in two TVB/EEG film collaborations.
In order to ‘heavily promote’ an artist in this fashion, it is necessary to plan at least 1 year in advance, otherwise it is almost impossible for the artist to be in one series / film after another.
Within the industry, TVB’s annual Anniversary Awards ceremony has always been considered “a closed-door game among their own family members” – however in recent years, it is obvious that public opinion has been able to play a part in ‘skewing’ the results.
Therefore, the task of ‘successfully’ supporting a particular siu sang or fa dan to the top is no longer an ‘easy’ task. If there turns out to be a ‘major competitor’ in the running [within the award category], there is a huge possibility that – under tremendous pressure from the viewing audience and the public – the award must be given to the ‘competitor’ who is most deserving and most expected by the masses to win, which of course, would affect TVB’s original ‘idea’ [for the artist they support to win]. If we are to presume that TVB has ‘plans’ in this area, then during the annual mid-year progress meetings (which occur in the summer months), they would have to start making arrangements for the artists they are planning to promote in the coming year.
To increase their chances of becoming TV King or TV Queen, it is most suitable for the artist’s ‘representative work’ [the series he/she would be nominated for] to air in the prime spot between the summer months and the anniversary gala [June to November].
Participating in the grand production anniversary series is not necessarily a bad thing – but the series would air a bit too close to the anniversary awards show. Last year, because TVB wanted audiences to finish watching the anniversary series before casting their votes, they deliberately delayed the awards ceremony to December.
Another important tactic is to write a “tailor-made” character specifically for the artist being supported. If the artist has good acting skills, he/she needs a well-written character to fully showcase these skills; if the artist lacks acting skills, he/she actually needs a well-written character more than ever – because oftentimes, audiences are not able to differentiate between whether it’s the artist’s acting skills that are “good” or whether it’s the character that is “good”. [TN: Implying that an artist's bad acting skills can be covered up by a well-written and well-received character]
Usually, just because an artist has good acting skills does not necessarily mean that he/she will win the award. Therefore, the importance is placed more on being given a character that very obviously stands out and is markedly different from the others. For those artists whose acting skills are still in development and not yet recognized [by the audiences], a character that borders between ‘good’ and ‘evil’ usually gives the most advantage.
Also, in the same series, there absolutely cannot be another ‘major character’ that could steal the show and ‘challenge’ the artist being promoted – so a lot of thought needs to be put into the various collaborations of the artists.
In order to successfully ‘support’ a certain artist to win the award, all those who may have a chance to “challenge” him/her need to ‘make way’ – therefore, series that have even a remote chance of being anticipated or well-received by the audiences [TN: series that do not have the artist being promoted for the award] are either delayed to the end of the year (or later) or are aired way earlier in the year. This type of arrangement should not be too difficult for TVB, given their status as “the single major TV station” in Hong Kong.
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