Becoming Rich with Daily Scavenging APP-Chapter 524: Who Sabotaged Me?

The most important thing about an internet hot topic is that it resonates with people.

In this era where product updates are happening increasingly faster,

even those who often go out shopping find it hard to figure out exactly how much a product sells for.

So, most people, seeing that there’s nothing special about the packaging, just grab it and head to checkout.

Once the money is scanned, many realize something feels off about the price.

However, many young people don’t like to lose face, and generally won’t ask on the spot—they’ll check the receipt as they leave.

When they find out that an item is particularly expensive, at most, they will just not buy it next time.

Of course, wealthy individuals might still purchase it, but whether they buy it or not, the brand’s high-price image gets ingrained in people’s minds.

This method of marketing is a bit unscrupulous, to be honest.

After Chen Yiyang gathered the team responsible for marketing activities at his agency, he quickly tailored an entire drama plan.

In fact, Zhong Gaogao placing high-priced ice cream in low-priced ice cream freezers had already sparked notable controversy on the internet.

But the complaints and disputes were too scattered, and as long as Zhong Gaogao was willing to pay, it was easy to suppress these voices.

Chen Yiyang’s team chose to bundle these voices into a topic named "Ice Cream Assassin" and directly spent money on buying traffic to push this issue to the top of social media hot search lists.

In no time, the topic of the Ice Cream Assassin, Zhong Gaogao, caught the attention of the public.

After seeing the title, people immediately clicked in, feeling a sense of shared resentment, to join in the ridicule.

Marketing accounts and various video bloggers, sensitive to traffic, also jumped on the hot topic to make news, creating a trend that even attracted central media to join in the discourse.

Zhong Gaogao initially planned to play dead.

Because they knew their ice cream marketing strategy was indeed to mix their products into low-priced ice cream freezers for sale.

But without doing so, they couldn’t quickly penetrate the market.

However, with more and more self-media getting involved, Zhong Gaogao could no longer bear it.

These self-media didn’t care about the ins and outs; they were willing to do anything as long as it could draw eyeballs.

As a result, a group of content creators came forward, burning Zhong Gaogao’s ice cream to demonstrate that it wouldn’t melt, claiming it contained inedible ingredients.

Now Zhong Gaogao was genuinely anxious.

They ignored the previous topic because they thought the trending topic helped establish the concept of expensive ice cream in the public’s mind.

With the hot search, they released a batch of ice cream priced at sixty yuan a piece.

Being at the center of the conversation, wealthy individuals didn’t care about the price; they just wanted to try it.

So this batch of ice cream was quickly sold out.

But now these media outlets were attacking Zhong Gaogao’s ice cream quality and additives.

Zhong Gaogao couldn’t allow this.

They immediately issued a public statement.

First, emphasizing that their ice cream passed national standards.

Second, asserting that their back-to-back appearances on hot search lists were clearly the result of manipulation by hired participants, and they declared war on these entities.

After releasing the statement, Zhong Gaogao started investigating the manipulation issue.

Because it was obvious someone was engineering things behind the scenes.

Without buying platform traffic packages, even the weirdest news can’t reach hot search lists on major social media in the country.

Yet, Zhong Gaogao’s Ice Cream Assassin hit number one spot twice in three days—it had to be promoted by someone spending money.

But when Zhong Gaogao hired a professional team to investigate, they were stunned by the results.

The accounts and traffic at the beginning of the topic’s hype all pointed to the entertainment industry.

"Are you sure there’s no mistake in your investigation?" The boss of Zhong Gaogao, Zhong Gaogao, was bewildered by the investigative team’s conclusion.

"No mistake. Our investigation revealed that the marketing accounts that first took action were ones frequently used by entertainment industry stars to attack opponents.

Moreover, the account that bought the trending topics and traffic package for Ice Cream Assassin also led back to the entertainment industry.

Many celebrities, companies, and teams in the entertainment industry like to share some accounts to save marketing costs.

So this is as far as we could trace it. We couldn’t identify the specific spender.

We even tried to bribe some accounts to find out who assigned them the task. However, these accounts connect with intermediaries and don’t know about higher hierarchy levels.

These intermediaries make a living from this and would never give us their lists. In prior similar investigations, we could easily guess the purchaser of the trending topic by identifying the star rivaling the attacked star.

But boss, you’re just an ice cream company; how would you offend a star to the point they’d buy a trending topic to defame you?"

The professional investigation team couldn’t wrap their heads around it.

Zhong Gaogao himself was thoroughly perplexed.

Where did he find enemies in the entertainment industry?

Could it be a star who bought an ice cream, realized they paid too much, and in a fit of rage, bought a trending topic to attack?

Surely not; aren’t these domestic stars’ weekly allowances thousands of yuan? Why would they care about such small change?

Unable to figure out who the competitor was, Zhong Gaogao could only take hits.

Though initially, many wanted to try Zhong Gaogao’s ice cream,

but honestly, ice cream, this stuff at most uses better raw materials, the cost could only be so high.

Selling an ice cream for fifty or sixty yuan is pure intelligence tax. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

So the sales for Zhong Gaogao’s ice cream couldn’t be sustained for long.

Meanwhile, the topic of the Ice Cream Assassin also quickly extended to Haagen-Dazs.

Nowadays, information is so easily accessible.

Many people in the country realized that the ridiculously expensive Haagen-Dazs sold domestically is just a cheap ice cream abroad.

Thus, the topic and the trending searches were skillfully directed to Haagen-Dazs.

However, Haagen-Dazs, comfortably profiting for many years domestically, did not sense any impending danger, ignoring these trends as if they were oblivious.

But soon, two things happened.

First, Haagen-Dazs ice cream mooncakes were exposed for using cocoa butter substitutes as chocolate, accused of false advertising, and fined by the market regulatory bureau.

Second, two batches of Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream on Wan Island were found to contain a carcinogenic pesticide: ethylene oxide.

These two events completely destroyed Haagen-Dazs’s lofty image.

And it was by this time that Chen Yiyang made his move.