I'm Really a Superstar

Monday.

Later that morning.

A crowd of guests arrived at the studio.

Little Wang opened the door. "You all are?"

The leader of the group smiled. "We have an appointment with your Manager Ha."

"Chairman Ma." Ha Qiqi came over to welcome them with a big smile. "You even dropped by personally? Come in quickly. Our studio isn't that big, so please make do with the space."

"It's a pretty nice place," Chairman Ma said as he looked around.

He was a vice chairman, but salutations generally wouldn't carry the word "vice" in it.

Ha Qiqi invited them to take a seat. "Director Zhang is taking a call upstairs, so please wait for a little while."

Chairman Ma said with a laugh, "That's fine, there's no need to be so courteous. It's not the first time I'm meeting Teacher Zhang anyway. We worked together on a second-tier ad during The Voice, so we're quite familiar with each other. My company understands Teacher Zhang very well as a person. We can only say that he is, as you Beijingers put it, 'fair and just.' That second-tier ad couldn't be called great, but after our company's people watched the show, we realized that Teacher Zhang would always chip in a few more words for us during the intermissions. That greatly increased the exposure of our products, and we weren't even charged an additional cent for it, so that was a really nice touch."

Ha Qiqi said, "That's right, Director Zhang has always been like that. Everyone has been so supportive of him and spent so much money as well, so the least that he could do was make it worthwhile for you all."

Chairman Ma nodded and said, "That's why when we heard that you all were interested in taking an endorsement, Chairman Xu got me to come down personally to see you right away. The timing is perfect since the previous two-year endorsement deal that we had just expired." He pointed behind himself and said, "We even brought our lawyer over. If we can negotiate this deal successfully, we can sign the contract immediately."

Ha Qiqi said, "Sure."

At this moment, Zhang Ye came downstairs.

"Yo, Chairman Ma."

"Haha, Teacher Zhang."

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I had a call from the television station."

"I know that you're busy with your new show, it's fine."

"So how's the endorsement deal going?"

"How can it? Ha, we're just waiting for you to give us the nod."

"Chairman Ma sure is easy to work with. We haven't even discussed the payment yet."

"Just name a price."

"Are we going to use my advertising proposal?"

"It would be best if we could use yours. Who in the industry doesn't know about those classic ads that you came up with? So many advertising agencies have turned them into teaching material. To be honest, we wanted to hire you as the spokesperson for our dairy product because we would also like to use your advertising proposal."

"In that case, the endorsement fees might have to be a little higher."

"That's not an issue as long as the proposal is good!"

The endorsement deals in the Chinese market usually lasted for two years, while some were even one-year deals. As for the price, based on Zhang Ye's worth in the market, a year's worth of endorsement fees should probably be in the upper range of several million. It could be 6 million RMB or 8 million RMB. But even the best offer would not pass 10 million a year, and that was with the condition that Zhang Ye come up with the advertising proposal.

Zhang Ye's endorsement fees with Brain Gold were actually much higher, but that was because it was a different situation. The Brain Gold Company did not base their valuation of Zhang Ye on his market worth. Brain Gold had gotten to where they were now because of an advertisement made by Zhang Ye. As an almost bankrupt company with the worst health supplement products in the market, they became the country's leading health supplement brand within just two years. To say they had achieved this due to Zhang Ye was not an overstatement at all. It could almost be said that this was a miracle that was single-handedly performed by Zhang Ye, so their endorsement fees for him were definitely much higher. But for the other companies that already had a mature presence in the market, their endorsement fees would still be based on the market rates.

Due to their previous cooperation, the negotiations between the two parties proceeded very smoothly.

The endorsement deal was for two years and valued at a total of 15 million RMB.

An additional term specified to the dairy company was: The budget spent on advertising each year must not be less than X amount.

While the condition for Zhang Ye was: He couldn't endorse similar brands during the contractual period and had to provide them with a full advertising proposal.

The contract was signed.

Then Ha Qiqi took out the advertising proposal Zhang Ye had spent two minutes writing in the morning and showed it to the dairy company.

Chairman Ma took it from her in anticipation.

The company staff around them also came forward to have a look at it.

But when they saw it, every one of them was speechless.

Chairman Ma said, "Teacher Zhang, there's only going to be one sentence for the advertising message?"

Zhang Ye nodded. "That will be the only sentence."

Chairman Ma wiped his sweat away and said, "Is it really going to be only this sentence?"

Zhang Ye nodded and said, "The core catchphrase will really only be that. I'm just providing the standard proposal for a 10 to 15 second TV commercial. I can also supervise the filming of the commercial, but for all the other matters like the follow up to the ads and Internet marketing, that will have to be handled by your company's advertising team." It wasn't possible for him to take charge of the soft marketing content and guerrilla marketing content. First, he didn't have the time to do so, and second, there was no need for it either. Their company would have a dedicated advertising team to oversee such matters.

Chairman Ma said, "That's for sure, but…"

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "Don't worry about it; there won't be any problems."

"Then…alright," Chairman Ma said.

The dairy brand company's employees looked at one another.

Fuck!

W-Would this really work?

Wasn't this advertising message a little too casual?

Chairman Ma was feeling extremely skeptical. But because of Zhang Ye's results and achievements in the industry, he didn't think that he should bring it up. As such, he could only take his staff with him and return back to their company.

After they left.

Little Wang immediately cheered, "That was too easy! We've successfully negotiated with one company!"

Wu Yi said happily, "What an auspicious start."

Zhang Zuo was the manager of internal communications of the studio, so when Ha Qiqi and the others were holding a meeting, he didn't come out to join them. When he finally came downstairs, he said, "They're one of the top three dairy brands in the country and have always had quite a good reputation. The quality of their dairy products put them at the higher end of the market, so it'd be good to get more of such products to endorse. It's a good thing that Director Zhang worked with them before this, or it wouldn't have been so easy to get it finalized."

Ha Qiqi flipped through her notes and said, "Director Zhang, I've also made an appointment with the next company. I'll be heading over to meet with their manager this afternoon to chat with them."

Zhang Ye asked, "Which industry are they in?"

Ha Qiqi said, "They're the number one reader app in the industry."

Little Wang immediately said, "I know it, I know it; I use that app to read books too."

Zhang Ye also seemed to have an impression of it. "I think Sister Zhang is their spokesperson, right?"

"Yes, it's Heavenly Queen Zhang's endorsement." Ha Qiqi blinked. "But I think the contract has expired."

Zhang Ye still had principles even though he was out to grab endorsements. Since it was his good friend's endorsement deal, he would have to ask her about it first. If she intended to continue endorsing them, he would definitely not get involved.

"Let's see, I'll go make a call first." Zhang Ye then went upstairs to call Zhang Yuanqi on her cell phone.

The call finally connected after ringing for a very long time.

There was definitely no one with Old Zhang as she didn't answer in a very friendly tone.

Old Zhang said, "What?"

Zhang Ye asked, "Busy?"

"I'm on set, hurry up and talk."

"Sure, I'll make it short. Are you endorsing that reader app? The one with the highest readership in the industry."

"Yes."

"Has the endorsement deal expired? Are you looking to continue working with them?"

"You want the endorsement?"

"That's why I'm asking you first. If you are, I won't go for it."

"I won't be continuing with them. That company has too many requests; it's too troublesome for me."

"Alright, I understand."

After hanging up, Zhang Ye said to Ha Qiqi, "Go ahead with the negotiations. Old Zhang won't be looking to renew the endorsement."

Ha Qiqi smiled and said, "Sure thing, that'll be good. Otherwise, we really couldn't snatch it from a Heavenly Queen."

Zhang Yuanqi was already someone at the summit, so her team surely had set their sights on the international market. Their goals would be different from Zhang Ye's and were surely of a different level too. As such, many of the things that she might find troublesome would not be troublesome for Zhang Ye. This was the number one reader app in the market, so it already had an air of culture to it. It would be a very good advertisement to feature in and had a good quality to it as well. Zhang Ye was an author himself, and being involved in the literary arts, such an endorsement fit well with his identity and was thus more suited for him. For the app reader company, this would also be true. In the realm of reading, even though Zhang Yuanqi was a very popular figure, the effects of her endorsement definitely would not be that much better than Zhang Ye's endorsement. There might even be a chance that her influence in this area was not going to be better than Zhang Ye's. As a result, the negotiations to get this endorsement were still very open and should be quite easy for them to take.