By linking my account to the check-in system, I became a leisurely traveler.

Chapter 278 Red Bull: I'll pay, you'll risk your life?
It is extremely difficult for Red Bull to find sponsors.

So when Liu Yu was contacted by this person who claimed to be a staff member from the Red Bull brand department, he was immediately excited.

This means that money is being delivered to his door again... cough cough... no, it means Li Younan has been recognized.

Liu Yu, who has worked in the advertising industry for many years, is well aware of the truth behind Red Bull's sponsorship.

Red Bull's sponsorship model is quite different from that of ordinary brands. Instead of looking for sponsors, it actively seeks out individuals or projects that align with its brand image.

Red Bull doesn't even have a public application channel; instead, it uses a secret hunting mechanism.

There is a strict set of standards for who Red Bull sponsors.

First and foremost, it has top-notch strength.

There is no doubt about it.

Secondly, there is the spirit of adventure, the courage to take on challenges, and the Red Bull-like quality of surpassing oneself—not just daring to risk one's life, but knowing how to do it.

In addition, personal charisma is also required, which means a unique story and a strong ability to connect with the audience, as well as the ability to express oneself freely in front of the camera.

On this basis, it would be even better if you had a certain media influence; the larger the number of fans, the higher the sponsorship amount would be.

Because Red Bull sponsors the top people in every field that has a certain degree of danger.

So even someone as strong as Li Younan, who performed exceptionally well in the "Living Alone in the Wilderness" program and has climbed Mount Gongga, still falls short of Red Bull's standards.

In a sense, being sponsored by Red Bull is an honor in itself.

Red Bull's greatest achievement in brand marketing is that it has maintained this tone for so many years.

After exchanging ideas with the other party, Liu Yu learned more about the inside story of Red Bull's sponsorship.

Red Bull's sponsorship is an asymmetrical relationship, with Red Bull holding the initiative. They have a professional team called the "Red Bull Suicide Squad," which secretly observes potential targets for months or even years before making contact when they deem the time is right.

Their initiative to contact each other at this point naturally stemmed from their belief that the time was ripe.

The opportune moment for this to happen was Li Younan's live broadcast of his Mount Everest climb and snowboard downhill skiing.

The Red Bull representative responsible for contacting Liu Yu had a brief chat and learned that Liu Yu could not directly make business decisions for Li Younan, so he was eager to get in touch with Li Younan.

After all, Li Younan was already live-streaming at this point, and they could still make contact while they were at the forward camp. However, once they continued upwards to reach Camp C1, the signal might not be as good.

Liu Yu said she understood and then called Li Younan.

……

Of course, Li Younan couldn't possibly be live streaming all day long, 24 hours a day without interruption.

After all, even if I don't rest, the equipment still needs to rest.

He had just said goodbye to his viewers in the live stream and made an appointment to go live again the next morning.

If it weren't for the waiting period, Li Younan would have even planned to go up that day. However, it was this decision that saved him from making a wasted trip.

He had already set up the tent and lay down inside the warm tent.

It must be said that, thanks to modern technology, the biggest challenge encountered when climbing Mount Everest in the 1960s and 70s—keeping warm—is no longer an issue at all.

It's very warm to be inside a professional sleeping bag.

Shortly after I lay down, I suddenly received a phone call.

The call was from Liu Yu.

Li Younan hesitated for a moment when he saw the incoming caller ID on the screen.

After all, he didn't know why this guy was calling at this time.

I had told Liu Yu before I decided to go to Mount Everest.

This is quite an important matter; I'm currently traveling with Liu Li.

Climbing Mount Everest is, after all, a dangerous activity, and even if it's just for her sister's safety, Liu Yu would definitely nag her a bit.

So it took quite a bit of effort to communicate with Liu Yu about this matter before.

But now that the matter has been settled, what does Liu Yu want to say when she calls?

Li Younan couldn't help but think... Could it be that Liu Li told his brother about him and her?
if it is like this……

Li Younan thought about it and couldn't help but feel a little conflicted.

Of course, it's not a matter of being afraid. He slept with his sister, so he slept with her—he slept openly and innocently, and it wasn't anything shameful. It was consensual.

There's no need to be afraid, not at all.

Li Younan took a deep breath, calmed his voice, and answered the phone: "Hello, what's up?"

Where are you now?

"I'm on my way to climb Mount Everest."

"I know, you haven't been to that C1 camp you mentioned yet, have you?"

"Yes, I didn't go."

"Here's the thing, Red Bull just called me. They want to speak with you directly. Is that okay with you? If you're interested, I'll give them your phone number."

Red Bull?

Li Younan immediately became interested. He stroked his chin and said, "Okay, give them my phone number."

After hanging up the phone, Li Younan breathed a slight sigh of relief.

It seems Liu Li hasn't told Liu Yu about that matter yet.

However, Li Younan had a wicked thought: Liu Yu loves his sister so much, how would he react if he found out about this?

As for Red Bull, Li Younan was certainly quite interested.

When Red Bull sponsors an athlete, they are always in the proactive position. In other words, if Red Bull doesn't contact you first, you can't get in touch with them through an agent.

Li Younan had also heard about this.

Although he had previously accomplished some amazing feats in front of the camera that would be astonishing to ordinary people, such as hiking and summiting Mount Gongga with heavy packs and without oxygen, rappelling down a difficult route at Beidahu Ski Resort, and killing a grizzly bear in the show "Living Alone in the Wilderness", Li Younan also knew that Red Bull would go through a very long period of time when evaluating an athlete.

Unexpectedly, Red Bull only called me after I had already climbed to the advance camp.

Just as I was thinking this, my phone rang again. This time it was a landline call, and the caller ID showed it was from the capital city.

When Li Younan answered the phone, as expected, the other party immediately introduced himself: "Hello, is this Mr. Li Younan?"

"I'm."

“Hello, Mr. Li Younan, I am the head of athlete planning for Red Bull Asia Pacific. You can call me Jimmy.”

"Hello, Mr. Jimmy."

"That's right. We've been observing you for a long time, but since you don't consistently work in a particular field, it's difficult for us to develop a predictable research path for you, so we haven't taken the initiative to contact you."

The other party even conveyed a sense of apology, as if saying, "I'm sorry I'm only contacting you now."

This surprised Li Younan somewhat.

However, he quickly understood what the other person meant.

That's true. The last time I climbed Mount Gongga was before I went to Canada, which is quite a long time ago.

Before Red Bull can sponsor an athlete, it must first determine the athlete's field of expertise. After all, even athletes who have previously climbed Mount Everest and skied downhill have conquered several peaks of 7,000 to 8,000 meters in altitude before receiving Red Bull's sponsorship.

It's really hard for me to define myself, and my public image is quite diverse, so when the Red Bull team was evaluating me, it was really difficult to conduct a vertical evaluation and planning.

Jimmy then added, "This time, we decided to contact you after seeing your video of climbing Mount Everest and live-streaming the entire process."

Li Younan hummed in agreement. He knew Jimmy still had something to say, so he wasn't in a hurry to interrupt him. He planned to wait until Jimmy finished speaking before speaking himself.

As expected, Jimmy, who holds an important position in a multinational corporation like Red Bull, is extremely efficient. Seeing that Li Younan is also a decisive person, he stopped beating around the bush and said directly, "Based on our long-term observation of you, the reason we are calling you this time is to discuss the sponsorship matter."

"I'd like to conclude this meeting over the phone. Do you have time?"

Li Younan glanced at his phone, which still had over 80% battery left, and smiled. "I'm talking to you right now, lying in my sleeping bag in the tent. Trust me, I have plenty of time."

Jimmy laughed heartily: "I love your humor, Mr. Lee."

"Let me briefly describe the content of our meeting."

"First and foremost, we need to have an in-depth discussion about our concepts."

"The outside world's perception of our Red Bull sponsorship is often 'I pay for it and you risk your life.' In fact, I need to explain to you that this is just a stereotype."

"Our partnership with top athletes is not simply a matter of money and dedication, but a partnership where we create legends together and shine together."

Li Younan didn't pay much attention to this so-called concept, so he remained silent.

Jimmy added, "So we need to understand your adventure philosophy and personal story to assess how well our brand aligns with you."

"This relates to the content of our next meeting."

Li Younan thought for a moment: "Adventure concept? What aspect do you want to know?"

"Simply put, we want to know what your goal and purpose are in choosing this Mount Everest climb and rappelling expedition, and what you want to prove?"

Li Younan was initially a little confused, but upon hearing this, he immediately understood what the other party meant.

Clearly, Red Bull's sponsorship is different from typical brand sponsorships; it's not just about hiring a celebrity to take a few photos and videos, and then hyping it up for a while.

If marketing has different levels, then the highest level must be storytelling!
Red Bull has taken this to the extreme.

It not only tells stories, but also tells stories that are popular and unlikely to backfire.

Every athlete who chooses to challenge their limits usually has a remarkable story to tell.

It emphasizes the concept of pushing limits.

While both rely on storytelling for marketing, this approach is clearly far more sophisticated than some of the dry, unengaging stories used in China.

The concept of "creating legends together and shining together" is a blatant, calculated strategy that truly leads to mutual success. Li Younan immediately grasped the underlying logic of the other party's question, so he naturally had to think carefully before answering.

Memories of the past played out before his eyes and flowed through his heart, and Li Younan's gaze quickly became clear and firm.

He gathered his thoughts, and after a moment slowly asked, "Prove what?"

"Do not."

"Just now, I went to the ice wall with the staff at the Everest base camp to cut ice."

"At that time, I was thinking about two things."

"Just recently, an athlete named Lian Feng also wanted to climb Mount Everest and rappel downhill, but he failed to climb Everest."

"Another thing is that even earlier, the snow tracks left by Polish skiers stretched from the summit of Everest all the way to the base camp."

"These two issues have sparked a huge discussion on the internet, and I believe your team has heard about it."

"But I quickly forgot about these two things at the time, because while I was helping the staff retrieve ice, the sunlight etched my shadow onto the ice wall that was tens of thousands of years old."

"I thought that shadow was pretty good, but I was only focused on my own shadow at the time."

"Getting back to the main point, Red Bull's philosophy is, 'Red bull gives you wings.' Red Bull's wings should be used to ask questions—why do humans always treat their own kind as specimens, yet dare not gaze at their own reflections on the glacier?"

"From Gongga Mountain to Mount Everest, I have saved people, been scolded, been hailed as a god, but also suffered misunderstandings."

"But the mountain doesn't care about these things. It only makes way for one kind of person—the one who, while bending down to tighten his crampons, can still say good morning to the crows that land in front of the rock face."

"So now, all I want to do is be a wisp of wind on Mount Everest."

"It blew past the prayer flags of Sherpas and Tibetans, past the bandages of those who had failed before, and finally settled on the stone wall of Mount Gongga, where the Chinese mountaineering team used for training. There are my crampon marks on it, and it... will eventually be covered by new snow."

"This is my answer..."

"Extreme sports do not need witnesses."

"Red Bull has sponsored countless moments of soaring through the air, but for me, Mount Everest is the landing. The end of extreme sports should not be a tombstone or a headline, but to tell you that if you can climb the mountain alive, you can definitely come down alive, that's all."

Jimmy was silent for a while on the other end of the phone before speaking, "That's brilliant. It's the most brilliant answer I've gotten after talking to many athletes."

But then, he remained calm and asked with a smile, "But I'd like to confirm again, is this climb really not for the glory of the country?"

Li Younan smiled and said, "I love my motherland, I love this land and the people on this land, but I don't like the sentimentality under the nationalist narrative."

"Climbing Mount Everest has nothing to do with patriotism, but I want to give my friends who are paying attention to this a victory."

"Isn't that for commercial value?"

Li Younan laughed heartily: "Perhaps if I find a female celebrity's phone number now and call her directly, the commercial value I can bring will be even greater. Do you believe me?"

Jimmy paused for a moment, then burst into laughter.

After laughing, his tone became serious and even solemn: "Your philosophy is completely consistent with ours at Red Bull."

"Now we need to discuss the second topic, which is the actual content of the cooperation."

Li Younan remained silent.

Jimmy continued, "We work with many of the world's top athletes and have a well-established collaborative system. There are three main issues that need to be addressed."

"Firstly, in terms of brand display, your challenge this time is to display our brand logo on your helmet, backpack, and skis."

"Next, regarding content rights, Red Bull needs to obtain exclusive content copyrights. Of course, you will retain the right to share on your personal social media, but for any platform other than your personal account, only Red Bull can obtain exclusive copyrights."

"Thirdly, if there are any jointly launched commemorative products in the future, the revenue sharing ratio will be 5:5. These three points are the basic framework for our cooperation with all athletes."

Li Younan thought about it and found no problems with the three points, so he agreed.

But he added, "As you can see, since you didn't contact me before, I'm already at the forward camp."

"Moreover, the window of opportunity for climbing Mount Everest is only about 20 days away. Within this large window, as you continue to climb, you will encounter many smaller windows. For example, I am currently waiting for the window of opportunity at Camp 1."

"So time is of the essence, and there may be no way to modify the plan."

Jimmy replied, "Three days. Just give us three more days, and we can adjust the climbing plan to a level that satisfies both of us."

After a pause, Jimmy said, "We have three levels of plans for athletes. For your North Face summit speed skating, after our evaluation, there are also three plans."

"The basic plan is to complete the summit and then snowboard in a specific area, not necessarily the entire way, to get limited media coverage, and the sponsorship amount is $100 million."

“Currently, the average Mount Everest expedition we sponsor costs around $50, but due to your personal fan influence, we can offer $100 million.”

"The second tier of the plan involves a non-first but technically extremely challenging downhill snowboard route on the north face, along with some media exposure, and we will provide a sponsorship of $300 million."

"For this category, you can refer to Sfredi, who was doing his first downhill snowboarding competition. We sponsored him with $200 million."

Li Younan paused for a moment, then said, "What about the third option?"

Jimmy smiled and said, "As you predicted, the third option is the most suitable for you. This option is also the top-notch option, which is the first time to summit the North Face on a snowboard downhill, plus oxygen-free climbing, plus live streaming of the whole process, plus an exclusive documentary."

“You can take that Polish athlete as an example; we gave him a sponsorship fee of $400 million.”

"If you can accomplish this feat and meet all the conditions I mentioned, we will give you a one-time sponsorship fee of $800 million, along with a subsequent business revenue-sharing agreement!"

Upon hearing Jimmy's terms, Li Younan's mind went blank for a moment.

You should know that last time on the show "Living in the Wild," he worked himself to the bone for several months and only won a prize of $100 million. Even with the money from selling his handicrafts, he only received about a million dollars after taxes.

But can you really earn $800 million just by climbing Mount Everest and skiing down the slope?
Moreover, there are subsequent revenue sharing from commercial transactions, so it can be said that Red Bull has shown great sincerity.

With this money, Li Younan's idea of ​​getting a boat to go to the beach can be easily realized.

But then Jimmy changed the subject, saying, "However, this is the condition we can offer based on your successful challenge."

"If—I mean if, although we all hope that such a thing will not happen, but it is indeed possible, and the probability is not low—that is, if the challenge fails, or even at the cost of one's life, then we will not be able to provide you with the full sponsorship fee."

"But we will provide $200 million to your family."

"If you agree, let's move on to the next step of the discussion."

Li Younan ignored Jimmy's comments about the consequences of failure and asked curiously, "Although our country has already installed 5G signal towers at the 6500-meter advance camp, theoretically there should be a signal going higher, the signal is still not very stable above 7 meters using beamforming technology. If we were to broadcast the whole thing live... I doubt it would be going to work."

Jimmy said, "Don't worry about that, you probably don't know much about this area."

"But we have a wealth of experience."

"The signal is unstable above 7 meters altitude, and this is only for your individual live stream."

"But in fact, we can use 5G plus satellite dual-link communication to ensure smooth live broadcast signal by using direct connection between Inmarsat BGN and AsiaSat 2R satellite."

"Of course, this will require you to carry some new equipment, including a T1 weapon backpack, a freeze-proof camera, a portable encoder, and a satellite phone. You will also need to apply for a communication permit, which will cost around 30 yuan. The equipment will weigh about five kilograms, but don't worry, we will cover that cost. It's just that you will have to bear the extra weight... I'm sorry, this may add some difficulty and risk to your climb."

Li Younan was somewhat surprised. After thinking for a moment, he said, "So, you'll be able to transport these things to me within three days?"

Jimmy laughed and said, "As long as you agree, we will prepare these things right away, fly to Shigatse Airport before tomorrow, and deliver them to base camp within two or three days."

"However, our staff may find it difficult to come up the route from base camp to forward camp in person, so we'll have to trouble you to come back and pick it up."

"But I believe this journey will be easy for you; consider it an advanced adaptation training."

It has to be said that Li Younan was really tempted.

Although he is currently live streaming, his equipment is still somewhat inferior to professional live streaming equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

He originally thought his live streams were just for fun, so he never intended to invest so much money.

Now, Red Bull has not only offered generous sponsorship fees, but also plans to upgrade his live streaming equipment.

All I need to do is wait two or three more days and then go back from the advance camp.

This cost is really nothing, considering that those who are seriously trying to climb Mount Everest spend more than ten days going back and forth between the advance base camp and Camp 1.

Li Younan agreed, thus forming a preliminary framework for cooperation.

The following day, Li Younan packed his things and prepared to go downstairs.

Since he was heading back anyway, Li Younan didn't bother to start a live stream.

After all, there are many haters who can't stand to see others do well, and a large number of people lack the ability to think independently. If someone tries to stir up trouble, saying things like "fear" or "hype," although the final facts will definitely prove these people wrong, Li Younan is too lazy to explain.

So I decided not to do a live stream and just went back.

Of course, there will be problems if he doesn't go live, and the fans who are waiting for him to go live will inevitably have all sorts of thoughts.

However, compared to explaining things while live-streaming down the mountain, it's still easier.

For most people, going up a mountain is easy but coming down is difficult, but for Li Younan, this is not a problem at all.

The next day, he packed his gear and started walking downhill, moving with incredible speed.

Normally, it would take at least half a day to travel from the advance camp to the transition camp and then to the Everest base camp, but Li Younan covered most of the distance in just one morning.

During this time, we naturally ran into the mountaineering team we had met before, who were still doing acclimatization training.

When they saw Li Younan come down, they didn't ask him whether he had given up or for some other reason, but their expressions already revealed their inner thoughts. They patted Li Younan's shoulder with some sympathy and encouragement.

In this forbidden zone of life, the climbers I encountered were all very friendly to each other.

Li Younan didn't bother to explain, simply greeted them, and continued walking.

In the afternoon, Li Younan returned to the base camp.

Inside the RV at the base camp, Liu Li was comfortably upside down on the sofa in the oxygen-rich area, reading a book.

Her nightgown drooped down... the view underneath was faintly visible.

Li Younan unlocked the door with his fingerprint and came in, and was stunned by what he saw.

Liu Li was so startled that she fell off the sofa.

"what!"

At the last second, Li Younan heard a cry of pain and saw a pair of fair and smooth legs.

(End of this chapter)