Rebirth: My dad is too obedient

Chapter 491 The Difficulty of the Jie Lun Project

In the conference room, on a conference call with "Xizhilang".

After the two sides got to know each other and exchanged greetings, they each gave a brief introduction to their company.

On the "Dongchen Advertising" side, Gu Xinxin briefly introduced some past clients and cases.

On the phone, Xizhilang Marketing Manager Zheng Wan said:

"We contacted you because of last year's Jiaduobao 'Afraid of Getting a Heatstroke' advertisement..."

The marketing director, Kuang Lili, added half-jokingly:

Our founder and chairman, Mr. Li Yongjun, highly recognized and appreciated the "Afraid of Getting Angry" project, so he specifically asked us to contact him. "

Xu Chen took the initiative to say a few humble words and then began to formally communicate the project.

Before handing over the project, Kuang Lili reiterated the confidentiality obligation over the phone.

This is naturally industry practice.

The client has new products and new brands that have not yet been exposed to the public. If they are leaked in advance, it will disrupt the client's product launch strategy and rhythm, or even trigger defensive measures from competitors.

Dongchen Advertising now emphasizes the confidentiality obligations of all projects it handles during the induction training for new employees, including all interns...

Marketing manager Zheng Wan sent over a PPT document to synchronize the current new product project requirements.

Everything went as Xu Chen expected. The new product that the other party was going to promote was "Ulemei" milk tea, and the spokesperson Jay Chou had already started contacting and connecting with them.

What Xu Chen is concerned about is whether the contract with Jay Chou has been officially signed. This will directly affect whether Xie Bingran can be pushed over...

The overall project background, just as Xu Chen knew in his previous life, was that "Xizhilang" set its sights on this cake after seeing the rise of "Xiangpiaopiao" last year.

The other party verbally said that they were afraid that "Xiangpiaopiao" would expand into other snack categories and grow into a full-scale competitor of "Xizhilang", so they launched "Youlemei" milk tea defensively.

Xu Chen is certainly not stupid. There is no such thing as "defense" here. It is obvious that he is just jealous of others making a lot of money and wants to squeeze in to get a piece of the pie.

The name of the product has been decided, it is "Ulemei".

Xu Chen interrupted and asked:
“Has the product name been decided?”

Zheng Wan: "The name has been internally determined and registered, and the relevant Logo and Vi design are being done."

Kuang Lili asked:
"Does Xiao Xu always have any doubts about the name 'Youlemei'?"

Xu Chen thought for a moment and said:

“There is no doubt about it, but if it is used to fight against ‘Xiang Piaopiao’, the name is still a bit disadvantageous.

Frankly speaking, from the perspective of communication and user cognition, 'Youlemei' is weaker than 'Xiangpiaopiao' in terms of recognition, memorability, and relevance.

This will require us to spend more resources to make users remember this name..."

Xu Chen deliberately raised this point, of course, for a hidden purpose.

That is, show a little bit of "professionalism" during the initial communication.

This is also necessary to build trust and is also conducive to subsequent plan reporting.

Kuang Lili paused again, as if she had thought about it, and then spoke:

"What Mr. Xu said makes a lot of sense. In fact, I also have this concern privately.

But the product name has been finalized, and it was decided by our chairman himself.”

Xu Chen certainly didn't force the other party to change his name, so he said:

"That's okay, although it has some shortcomings, 'Youlemei' is still a good name.

The associations and tonality are perfectly matched with the product and target users.

It’s just that the three words ‘Youlemei’ need to be emphasized in the commercials and ad copy to make it easier for users to remember.”

Zheng Wan continued to synchronize the project background and then talked about the spokesperson's department.

In the meeting room of "Dongchen Advertising", several young people were quite excited when they heard that Jay Chou was the spokesperson and couldn't help but talk in a low voice.

But "Xiao Zong Xu" was thinking about how to replace Jay Chou...

On the other end of the phone, Kuang Lili took over the conversation again:

“On the spokesperson’s side, there are a few situations that need to be synchronized.

The biggest bottleneck and difficulty of this project is actually Jay Chou.”

"One is the issue of endorsement fees and rights, which we are still communicating and mediating internally.

But basically we are determined to get it, especially our chairman, who must sign the most popular star at the moment, so we must get Jay Chou to be the spokesperson, even if the cost is high..."

Xu Chen listened silently, but felt relieved.

This means that the cooperation with Jay Chou has not been finalized. At least the endorsement fee and rights have not been negotiated, and the contract has not been signed, so there is still room for maneuver.

Kuang Lili continued:
“Also, Jay Chou’s team has high requirements for advertising creativity.

We actually approached several advertising companies to submit creative proposals, and some of them we thought were very good internally, but they were still rejected by the Jie Lun team..."

Xu Chen: "Can you please tell me the specific reason for the rejection?"

Kuang Lili: "They are very careful about the reputation of artists, mainly for two reasons:

One is to match Jay Chou's tone and temperament, and not accept some weird creative ideas that even lower Jay Chou's personal image.

The second is that they just made Jay Chou look handsome, cool, and awesome...

But the core issue is that this is difficult to judge.

At least they are not satisfied with the proposals given so far, thinking that they either don’t match the artist’s temperament, or the creativity is not good enough, and the Jay Chou produced is not cool enough.”

Xu Chen listened silently, feeling a little speechless.

In fact, Xu Chen had collaborated with Jay Chou's team in his previous life.

At that time, Xu Chen was in charge of the promotion of an FPS game at Tencent, and he was working with Jay Chou's team.

The other party’s various “designations” and subsequent modification suggestions also gave the project leader Xu Chen a headache.

Of course, this is understandable. From the perspective of the agent team, the main priority is to maintain the image of the artist.

Kuang Lili continued:
“So this needs to be communicated clearly with everyone in the Dongchen Advertising team first.

This time, the project plan not only had to be approved by us, but also by Jay Chou's management team.

We need to focus on the artist’s style, tone, needs and desires…”

Xu Chen naturally didn't care, after all, he knew the "standard answer".

The "Hold in the Palm" advertisement from the previous life was finally released, which means that it was recognized and approved by Jay Chou's team.

But now analyzing it, this "hold in the palm of the hand" advertisement does meet the requirements just mentioned by Kuang Lili.

For example, in order to suit Jay Chou’s temperament, he had to be photographed looking cool and awesome.

And the overall atmosphere of the commercial is very similar to some of Jay Chou’s previous song MVs.

Kuang Lili paused for a moment and added:

“There is another situation. Jay Chou’s management team has designated an actress.

This actress cannot be changed, and must appear in the film and play the leading role."

"..."

Xu Chen felt helpless.

He had seen this project in his previous life, so he naturally knew that the "designated" actress was a little star on Wandao Island named Jiang Yuchen.

As for how he got this "designated" opportunity, it is unknown.

Xu Chen thought about it and couldn't help but jokingly complained:
"They even specified an actress. This is a bit overbearing."

Kuang Lili: "This is also a point we are still negotiating for. Moreover, the offer for this actress is very high. She has no fame in the mainland at all, so we cannot match her offer."

Xu Chen: "Okay, we understand. We will take this into consideration when we come up with ideas later."

Kuang Lili smiled, and then spoke with a somewhat embarrassed tone:

“And…

By then, Jay Chou will probably designate the filming executors and directors of the commercials, and he will only use his own team.

Therefore, the participation of Dongchen Advertising in this project is only the creative solution part.”

"..."

Xu Chen shook his head silently. It really was consistent with his understanding in his previous life.

The reason why Kuang Lili showed embarrassment and apologetic tone was that according to industry practice, the execution and filming should be done by "Dongchen Advertising" who should recommend the production team and follow the filming.

This naturally also involves part of the service fees and supervision fees of "Dongchen Advertising".

If this part is removed, it would be equivalent to cutting off a large portion of Dongchen Advertising's revenue and profits.

Kuang Lili added:
“Please rest assured, Mr. Xu, our budget for separate creative solution service fees is also higher than the industry average.

Of course, the premise is that... our plan can be passed."

Xu Chen: "I understand, President Kuang, and thank you for your trust.

Dongchen Advertising is willing to participate in this project.”

Hearing this, Kuang Lili on the other end of the phone also breathed a sigh of relief.

She was actually quite afraid of being rejected by "Dongchen Advertising", especially after she mentioned the various difficulties faced by Jay Chou's team.

It was indeed Li Yongjun, the chairman of Xizhilang, who first proposed to contact "Dongchen Advertising".

The headquarters of "Xizhilang" is in Pengcheng, Guangdong Province, and the boss Li Yongjun is also from Guangdong Province.

He saw an advertisement titled "Afraid of Getting a Sore throat", which transformed Jiaduobao from a niche Lingnan herbal tea into a national beverage brand. Naturally, he was very envious.

I also had great interest in the company behind it, Dongchen Advertising.

The "Ulemei" project had just been launched, and it was also an annual project that the company was going to bet on and re-promote, so Kuang Lili from the marketing department took the initiative to contact "Dongchen Advertising".

……

After the requirements were roughly communicated, Xu Chen had a rough idea in his mind.

Jay Chou's endorsement has not yet been finalized, and there are still some "difficult" aspects with the other party's management team, which gives a lot of room for maneuver.

However, how to "sell" Xie Bingran to the other party still requires careful planning and consideration.

……

On the "Xizhilang" side, Zheng Wan synchronized some product documents for reference by the creative team of "Dongchen Advertising".

But in fact, this kind of instant milk tea product does not have very sophisticated technical features or differences from competing products, so it relies on advertising and marketing to build its brand.

The other side asked about the time for the proposal report, and Xu Chen didn't want to drag the battle on for too long to prevent them from signing Jay Chou in the end.

After looking at the time, I scheduled the proposal submission for next Friday.

Including making a plan and thinking about persuasive speech, the time is more than enough.

Kuang Lili once again expressed her sincere gratitude to Dongchen Advertising for being willing to take on this project.

Finally, a special reminder:
"Next Friday, Mr. Xu will bring his team to present the proposal, and our chairman, Li Yongjun, may also come to sit in and attend.

This project will be directly decided and controlled by our CEO Li within our company...

Once Mr. Li’s proposal is approved, he will communicate with Jay Chou’s team.”

Xu Chen: "Okay, no problem."

Kuang Lili: "Thank you again, Mr. Xu. We'll talk in person next week!"

……

After hanging up the phone, there was a slight silence in the conference room.

Just now I was excited about being able to work on Jay Chou's project, but now I feel the difficulties and challenges of the project.

Gu Xinxin turned to look at Xu Chen and said:

"Boss... this project sounds a bit difficult.

Not only do we have to deal with the client, we also have to get Jay Chou’s team’s approval.

Moreover, if the production and director team decide on their own, we may not have much say in the shooting and the final product, and we may not know what the idea has been changed into in the end.”

Sun Amy adjusted her round-frame glasses:

“And they also designated an actress, which is also difficult.

Even if we get it, the modifications we have to make to accommodate the actors later on might wear them out..."

Xu Chen smiled and said:

"Don't panic, let me think about it first."

Having said that, he stood up and wanted to eat.

Gu Xinxin was stunned for a moment, and quickly stopped him:
"Boss, aren't you going to assign me a task?

If the proposal is to be made next Friday, we will have to work on it quickly.”

Xu Chen: "Let me first think about how to do this.

The plan is actually not that important. I just thought about it and it’s not that difficult…”

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment, especially Pan Mengting who had just arrived, and the two interns.

When Gu Xinxin and Sun Amy heard what Xu Chen said, they both smiled at the same time, as if they were relieved.

……

……

In the conference room at the headquarters of "Xizhilang" in Pengcheng.

Marketing Director Kuang Lili ended the conference call and breathed a sigh of relief.

Zheng Wan, the marketing manager at the side, glanced at the message on the computer and said:
"Sister Lily, the proposal I just sent over was rejected by Jie Lun's team again."

Kuang Lili frowned: "What's the reason this time?"

Zheng Wan flipped the mouse and said, "It's said that it doesn't match the tone of Brother Jie Lun, and the creativity doesn't seem advanced..."

Kuang Lili: "This matter really has no end!"

Zheng Wan: "Can Dongchen Advertising... handle this?"

Kuang Lili: "Let's deal with Mr. Li first!

The project has not made any progress. Now that Dongchen Advertising is willing to propose a proposal, we can put some time on Mr. Li’s daily urging.”

Zheng Wan: "Then I feel that when 'Dongchen Advertising' comes to propose next week, it will be the same routine as before.

Even if Mr. Li's proposal is approved, it will be rejected by Jie Lun's team...

Then it’s a vicious cycle again.”

Kuang Lili let out a breath of annoyance:

"Let it go on like this. At least we can have some peace and quiet until next Friday."

(End of this chapter)