The marketing team and Aiden planned a whole strategy for people to talk about the bet which will divert their attention to the movie.
They discussed how they were going to approach their plan and made measures in case things don't go right.
Marketing strategies were way more fickle than what people think. They will fail more often than not and that's why studios would often go for safer marketing for a movie rather than trying something new.
'Will it go well or not?'
'Won't it just become some sort of joke that people will forget about in a day?'
'We don't have any other plans. So, we need to give everything to this one.'
'If it fails, it fails. Let's not worry about the results right now.'
Those were the conversations happening in the marketing team when they were planning the whole strategy.
They were clearly nervous.
Even Aiden was a bit nervous as he didn't know if a bet would be interesting enough for people to talk about it. Negative or positive didn't matter as soon as people discussed the movie.
Any sort of publicity was nice for the movie.
After everything was ready, they leaked the whole bet that took place between Aiden and Arno.
For the first day, the response wasn't much and the marketing team felt like the plan had failed but they waited. And it did work.
After a while, a lot of articles came up talking about it.
Hollywood Weekly, LA times, Vanity Magazine… Every big media company wrote an article on it and soon, people were also talking about it.
Like Aiden had thought, it seemed like a fun topic for people to discuss. Like it had spreaded in the production company, it spread on the internet too.
<Aiden Silvereye and Arno Laurent apparently made a bet on the box office potential of Aiden's next movie [The Black Saint]. Find out about what the bet is.>
<Will we see Aiden Silvereye in the next Aron Laurent movie? Here's what the latest internet gossip tells us.>
<A person who attended a private screening of [The Black Saint] gave us an interview on what happened after the screening. Aiden Silvereye challenge to Arno Laurent on his movie doing 500 million dollars at the box office.>
Under these articles, there were a lot of people talking about it. Though, a lot of them were just taking jibes at Aiden for overconfidence.
[56 million likes Egg: I needed to check if it was really Hollywood Weekly or some sort of parody news site. Damn! I wonder if we will really see Aiden in Arno's next movie free of cost just because he got too overconfident.]
[Spending money to finish my video game: I don't know how this leaked but this is truly hilarious. I really wonder how the conversation went that two successful celebrities ended up making such a bet. Both of them can't back out now no matter what.]
[You can't Cena: Never took Aiden for someone so overconfident. The first movie earned around 180 million dollars worldwide but it wasn't R-rated. I like his acting but even superhero movies are struggling to make that much money right now.]
[Dildo swaggins: If this is true, then I need the stuff Aiden is smoking. I lack confidence and my man has too much of it.]
[Edward Cocaine: My thoughts on this are that Aiden deliberately made the bet to lose so he could be in the next project of Arno. He's leaving no choice for a hugely successful commercial director to cast him. He's playing 4d chess.]
[My surname is Gaylord: I don't know if this is a joke or is it for real. Has anyone confirmed it yet other than the media? And I really don't understand how [The Black Saint] will earn 500 million dollars. I mean I'm going to see it but I will be surprised if it even did half of that number.]
[A Fluffy Cow: I never understood why Hollywood celebrities have this almost arrogant level of worldview. Aiden has done great movies but I doubt a dark thriller will do that much in the current landscape. A dog will learn how to speak English but that movie won't earn that much.]
Like that, there were over 4000 comments on a post like that and on other places, more and more people gave their opinion on this.
Hashtags such as #Aiden, #Arno, #Bet and #500 million even started trending on Sparrow. A lot of people were of the thought that Aiden had become too over confident and he was going to lose the bet.
Some even took sharp jibes at him, calling him narcissistic and dumb.
And the controversy got big like this.
But it did its job.
From nowhere, people were talking about [The Black Saint]. Social media activity was a proof of it and the first part of their marketing strategy was becoming a great success.
To add to that, reporters started trying to contact everyone who was in that private screening. Aiden and the rest of the cast for [The Black Saint] got tons of calls for an interview.
He was sure that this was surely going to come up in most press interviews that they were going to do.
Reporters even started asking Arno questions regarding the controversy, hoping to find out whether this was actually a thing or not. In an event that Arno was attending, a reporter asked.
"On the internet, there's a recent controversy on the bet that you made with Aiden Silvereye regarding his next movie. Is that true? Or false news?"
Arno was already privy to the controversy on the internet and didn't hesitate to answer on this topic.
"I don't think it's a controversy but the bet did take place. I guess now that everyone knows about it, it will be more fun when the results come out."
Hearing this, the reporters were very excited. They quickly started asking more and more questions regarding the topic.
Seeing the heated response, Arno started talking more and more about the bet, what had happened between him and Aiden and his thoughts on [The Black Saint]. Soon, the event became a kind of a press conference.
In the end, Arno just said, "While I think [The Black Saint] is a great movie in its storytelling and would make waves, I doubt the commercial ability of the movie."
All his statements were enough to drive the controversy that the marketing team was also trying to keep afloat. More and more people talked about the bet and the movie like that.
Though, it was not wrong to say that Aiden's image was taking a hit here.
***
"Arno really loves the camera and attention."
Aiden remarked, looking at his phone. He was reading a few articles on things Arno had said to the media. He didn't want to comment on his words but it was achieving the effect he wanted.
"He sure does." Zavier, who was sitting next to him muttered. "He sometimes has cameos in his movies and he's always central during the promotions. He knows how to sell himself."
"Let's hope he gives more such interviews. We need more people talking about it."
"Yeah…"
Zavier's voice trailed and Aiden looked at him with confusion. There was something wrong with him.
"What?"
"Nothing. It's just the marketing strategy is becoming successful but the social media image about you is becoming worse. People think Arno is right and you are overconfident. This will affect you long term, even after [The Black Saint]. Aren't you worried?"
"I'm not, if I'm being honest."
Aiden straightforwardly said. He looked unfazed even with all the negative social media comments around him. People were labelling him as a guy who got too over confident due to the success he got.
"Why? If those things were said about me, it would be hard to even breathe."
Aiden smiled hearing that.
"Social media is fickle. It doesn't matter what they think today because it's easy to change their impression. I anticipated this when we were making the marketing strategy. I feel like it's a good risk to take, especially because it's working."
The marketing team had told him that the interest towards the movie had suddenly increased a lot.
It had come at his expense but he was okay with it. Just because of one thing.
"I know that the impression would change in the future. And even I admit that it's a big number that I made the bet on. Anyone will think it's stupid but it's because of that, people are interested. Now, they are focusing on us, the movie. If I actually won the bet, then all these comments would turn in an instant."
"What if you lost the bet?"
Zavier asked with a bit of hesitance in his throat.
"Then, I will live with a bit of embarrassment." Aiden smiled. "Though, I truly believe that I will win. After all, I'm doing my best to win. It will be more clear after the second and final stage of the marketing strategy."
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