For Hong Kong artists, working in mainland China represented a land of golden opportunity. Numerous mainland enterprises and brands required celebrities’ star power to endorse their products. Both international brands and mainland-based brands desired to find Hong Kong and Taiwan artists to meet endorsement needs in China. Previously, only Hong Kong superstars had the chance to appear in [mainland] commercials. However, recent television artists from popular television series, also received endorsement deals. For example, Yang Mi (楊幂) became popular after the airing of television series House <宮>. Her endorsement fee rose ten-fold from the initial price of $300,000 Yuan. Currently charging $300,000 Yuan, Kevin Cheng (鄭嘉穎) soared to popularity after the airing of Step by Step Startling <步步驚心> aired in China. A skin care brand immediately invited him to attend promotional activities in Beijing, paying him $150,000 Yuan for the event. How can artists not be tempted? In addition, it was rumored that Kevin earned $160,000 Yuan per episode while filming in mainland China, which was sixteen times his TVB salary. TVB executive, Virginia Lok (樂易玲) commented, “Kevin has currently reached this price! I can tell you that his price is not the highest. $160,000 Yuan per episode is not too high. It’s okay. However, Kevin still has a long contract ahead with TVB!” The following artist endorsement fees were obtained from an intermediary who was familiar with artists appearance and endorsement fees (Yuan) : Creds: Ming Pao/Dramasian/TVBW
Donnie Yen? Daniel Wu? Louis Koo? I would of thought they are up there. 16 times salary, kind of hard to pass up that offer to go mainland
Most of these people aren't tvb though, so you wouldn't know if the tvb artists would get the same reception. Also the names up there are big stars, and I would say that not all the people leaving tvb are as big.
