2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 539 80% Off Endorsement
"Hey, you've gained a little weight."

In a hotel, Liu Yifei had just taken off her disguise when Boss Tan delivered a devastating blow to her.

Even Gu Qingqing couldn't stand it anymore and slapped him, saying, "How can you talk like that?"

"Haha, just kidding. It's better for girls not to be too thin. This is fine. But you celebrities can't help it if you want to appear on camera."

A person's appearance on camera tends to make them look a bit heavier. A figure that looks just right on screen is actually quite thin in real life. If someone looks very thin on camera, they are even thinner in real life, to the point that they are unsightly.

Celebrities don't actually look that great in real life; their appearance is just enhanced by makeup, styling, and the aura they've cultivated over time, plus their celebrity status.

"Mr. Tan is absolutely right. A little bit of fleshiness is more in line with healthy beauty. Being a celebrity is unavoidable for the sake of looking good on camera. It's not easy. Fortunately, we're not too busy with work lately, so we don't need to control our diet."

This was a complaint, but Boss Xiao Tan wasn't buying it: "Talk to Qingqing. Orange Products needs a chief promotion officer, which is a spokesperson. She'll tell you the specific requirements. I'm here with her today."

These endorsement contracts no longer require Tan Jincheng and Gu Qingqing to personally handle them. Once the artists to be contacted are decided, the marketing department will take care of it themselves. This time, it was just an incidental arrangement.

Zhou Pangzi tried to contact him several times but never had time. Boss Tan realized that this was a form of rejection.

"How much is your endorsement fee per year now?"

Just as Liu Xiaoli was about to start chatting, Tan Jincheng suddenly said to Liu Yifei, "A celebrity's worth isn't something that just increases with the length of their career. There are quite a few celebrities whose worth has decreased. It mainly depends on factors such as exposure and reputation."

Based on the situation last year and this year, Liu Yifei's endorsement fee should not have increased much, but it shouldn't have decreased either, since she still has the popularity she accumulated before.

In stock market terms, this period was Liu Yifei's low point, and signing her was like buying at the bottom.

Liu Yifei was a little defensive: "You're so rude! The first thing you said when you came in was that I've gained weight, and the second question you asked was about my endorsement fee. Don't you know the situation with my endorsement fee?"

"Haha, I really didn't know how much your endorsement fee is now."

When Flash signed her as their spokesperson, it was probably the highest point of her endorsement fee at that time. The annual endorsement fee of 270 million was not cheap considering the prices at that time.

It was quoted at the level of top-tier celebrities at the time, with a significant premium. Based on her market value at the time, a two-year endorsement fee of 300 million yuan would have been sufficient.

Liu Xiaoli chimed in, "Our current quoted price is 450 million yuan for two years; of course, we can offer a discount if we cooperate with President Tan and President Gu."

For some reason, even when Tan Jincheng was chatting in a joking tone, Liu Xiaoli could feel a sense of pressure, which was vastly different from when she first went to Hengdian to discuss the endorsement contract.

Tan Jincheng nodded slightly and exchanged a glance with Gu Qingqing.

Two million a year is indeed not expensive. According to Lao Zhou, it would probably cost four or five million to acquire him during this period. Other big-name stars are not so easy to acquire either. The 2008 Olympic year truly belonged to the powerhouses.

Such as those who sang the Olympic theme song, as well as Long Ge, the spokesperson for ChipSun, and a series of other international superstars, and the director of the Olympic opening ceremony, all of these celebrities in the entertainment industry are very popular.

Apart from Zhang Ziyi, most of the guests are middle-aged men, which doesn't quite fit the image of Orange Club. As for Zhang Ziyi, let's just forget about her. The post-85 actresses haven't really made a name for themselves in recent years, so there's no other option.

If you do the math, there really aren't many celebrity spokespeople who fit the image of Orange Technology and Orange Products.

"Okay, you two talk, don't worry about me, I need to take care of some work."

After saying that, Tan Jincheng took out his phone and contacted Huang Ming and the others. Huang Ming had already connected with Zhang Yong and Fukuda, who were in charge of the negotiations with Cummins, and was reporting the situation to Tan Jincheng.

"After hearing about our situation, Fukuda is still welcoming of the cooperation."

Apart from Zhang Yong's leadership, the other members of the negotiation team did not know much about Weilai Automobile, only that the main entity was Shanchi Group.

However, after Huang Ming's explanation, people gained a better understanding of Weilai Auto's capabilities. They had initially thought it was just a startup car company, but it turned out to be quite strong.

It has a partnership with Dongfeng Motor, owns its own power battery factory, holds shares in Zhongtai Automobile Beicang Branch, has its own automobile factory under construction, and also has its own industrial design institute.

It's not a shell company, nor is it a car-making idea born out of momentary impulse, nor is it looking to take advantage of others. There's really no problem in cooperating with a company that's sincere in making cars.

"Foton seems to favor diesel engine technology, while we're looking for more cooperation on gasoline engine technology; we should try to secure more from them." "And what about shares?"

"Shares don't matter. The main thing is to get some technology in hand. A little more or less shares won't make a big difference."

While replying to messages, Tan Jincheng listened to Gu Qingqing talking to Liu Xiaoli about shooting commercials, cooperating with promotions, and cooperating with Orange Products' advertisements in Liu Yifei's TV series, movies, variety shows, and other projects.

"While serving as the spokesperson for Orange Products, it may involve some clothing brands. Yifei needs to negotiate this with your brand ambassador. Of course, we will not include any brands that conflict with your endorsement in the advertisements, but the clothes and accessories you wear will definitely be available on the shelves."

“Orange Products Club targets a wider female audience, and a large number of beauty products will be launched in the future. Yifei can also talk to your spokesperson about cooperating with Orange Products Club.”

Liu Xiaoli's eyes lit up. It seemed that just being a spokesperson for Orange Products could greatly help her daughter's career. Their team had already read Orange Technology's prospectus.

The prospectus clearly states that 80% of the funds raised will be used for warehousing and logistics, as well as marketing and operations for the Orange Products website.

As Gu Qingqing just mentioned, Orange Products will appear in many TV dramas, movies and variety shows this year. This is Orange Products' main advertising investment. With such a big sponsor, there should be more opportunities for appearances, right?

Another platform connects you with many brands. Even doing discount sales is a great opportunity for brand promotion. In the future, you can introduce the brands you endorse to Orange Products Club to further expand its commercial value.

Must win!
"No problem, we will do our best to cooperate as long as Orange Products needs us."

Unlike the various doubts that arose during the first signing, Liu Xiaoli readily agreed this time. As soon as she finished speaking, she seemed to remember something and added to Tan Jincheng, "Of course, we will fully cooperate with any promotional efforts needed for FlashTech's FeiYi series."

"Thank you, Ms. Liu," Tan Jincheng said, putting down his phone.

In all the investment projects that Tan Jincheng assigned to Huang Ming, even if he couldn't get a controlling stake, Tan always asked him to get as many shares as possible. Unexpectedly, this time Tan didn't care about the shares.

Previously, Huang Ming's negotiation strategy for the tripartite cooperation was mainly to obtain more shares. Since the direction has changed, the negotiation strategy needs to be adjusted in a timely manner.

"Since there are no problems, let's talk about the endorsement fee," Gu Qingqing said with a smile.

Orange Products needs a celebrity spokesperson. In terms of popularity, Gu Qingqing, like Tan Jincheng, actually prefers Jay Chou. She has studied the brands that Jay Chou endorses. He also endorses some big international brands, but he endorses almost all domestic brands on a large scale.

Moreover, these are all relatively affordable brand products. In fact, the most expensive product he endorsed was the Flashgate Royal series. However, these affordable products all saw a significant increase in sales after he became an endorser.

From a business perspective, Jay Chou would be the most suitable spokesperson for Orange Brand, which currently has a relatively low average order value. However, it's a pity that Orange Brand has consistently stated that they don't have the time, suggesting that they have no intention of endorsing him.

Orange Technology, a sports media company, also investigated other celebrities, but none of them were a good fit for commercial success. The only suitable one left was Liu Yifei, although Gu Qingqing was not keen on signing her.

It's not that he's afraid of rumors, but rather that he doesn't want to be too closely associated with a celebrity. Perhaps Jay Chou's continued rejection of Orange Technology's endorsement offer stems from this consideration.

In Tan Jincheng's words, this old guy is actually very shrewd.

Liu Xiaoli was also very direct: "As I just said, the quoted price is 450 million for two years. If President Gu can recommend our Qianqian when he does advertising in the future, the endorsement fee is negotiable."

This is what later generations called a "resource actor"—an actor chosen by a sugar daddy, who has to listen to the sugar daddy to some extent. There are actually many like this these days; for example, coal mine owners like to find a lot of pretty girls to put in their film crews.

However, the coal mine owners' aesthetic sense is clearly much higher than that of the internet tycoons; the girl is really beautiful.

"That's easy to say. It's a mutually beneficial deal. More exposure for Eiffel will also benefit our brand."

Although she wasn't really keen on signing, since they had already reached this point, Gu Qingqing was approaching it with a purely business-oriented attitude.

Liu Xiaoli pondered for a moment and said, "How about a 20% discount? 3.6 million for two years?"

It would be very shameful for celebrities to lower their standards if this got out. Many celebrities, once they reach a certain level of fame, are unwilling to lower their standards even if they don't work for a year. They would offer a 20% discount, which shows a lot of sincerity.

"No problem, let's go with this price then. It's too late today, how about I have my legal department draft the contract and send it to your company tomorrow?"

(End of this chapter)