This was the first time Lin Ching-ah had heard of such an advertising model. She was stunned for a long time before she regained her senses.
The strategy that Li Mu mentioned had been used many times in her previous life. Just the number of companies that had cooperated with QQ alone was uncountable. But now, no one had tried it.
In order to use virtual currency to attract physical consumers, the first thing to do was to get physical consumers to recognize virtual currency. This was especially demanding for online companies that provided virtual currency. Otherwise, if the consumers did not recognize it, the virtual currency promotion would not be effective.
In her previous life, even QQ did not really promote QQ currency in the beginning of 2003. But now, YY currency had been popular around the world for almost half a year. Whether it was YY's various paid membership services, YY cartoon shows, YY games, or YY pets, they all required YY currency. Moreover, these paid services had a large audience, so the users were especially familiar with YY currency. This satisfied the basic requirement of using YY currency to promote physical products.
Lin Ching-ah did some calculations and said, "Li Zong, if we do as you said and let Coca-Cola pay us 100 million USD, we'll give them 200 million USD worth of virtual currency, and even open a secondary page for them. We'll also advertise for this cooperation. For Coca-Cola, it's still a good deal."
Li Mu nodded and said, "Of course it's a good deal. Apart from the direct value of our advertisement, 200 million USD worth of virtual currency will play a huge role for them. If we calculate that each exchange code can be exchanged for 20 cents of virtual currency, 200 million USD worth of virtual currency will be enough for them to produce 1 billion bottles of Coca-Cola. With YY's influence, I'm afraid these 1 billion bottles will be sold out in no time."
Lin Ching-ah said, "But 100 million USD worth of marketing is too scary. I reckon that if we cut it to zero, Coca-Cola will be very interested."
Li Mu waved his hand. "What do you mean by zero? Our first collaboration advertisement must be impressive enough. This is related to our company's position and tone. From the beginning, we must put on a high posture. We must set a high enough threshold for cooperation, and we will never lower the threshold for any company. Only in this way can we guarantee our characteristics."
Then, Li Mu said, "You can directly write the proposal I just mentioned into a project proposal and give it to Coca-Cola. If Coca-Cola refuses or tries to bargain, it doesn't matter. Just ignore them. Just turn around and give this cooperation proposal to Pepsi. Tell Pepsi that as long as they agree, all the elements related to Coca-Cola will be changed to Coca-Cola's apprenticeship. Then, you can see how the two companies will fight over this."
Lin Ching-ah immediately understood and nodded, "I understand. I will come up with the project plan today and send it to the person in charge of Coca-Cola."
Li Mu smiled and said with certainty, "A budget of 100 million USD for a global marketing is a good deal for any of them. If they have normal thinking, they will definitely not refuse this kind of cooperation."
Then, Li Mu said to Li Qingya, "The next step for Makino Technology is to start external advertising cooperation, but there are a few principles that must be followed."
"First, we will only cooperate with companies that are strong enough. On a global scale, we will only cooperate with the world's top 500 companies. On a national scale, we will only cooperate with the world's top 500 companies or the country's top 100 companies. If it is a small or medium-sized country, we will only cooperate with the country's top 50, top 30, or even top 10 companies."
"Second, we will not accept any hard advertising or soft advertising. We will only accept cooperative advertising. Also, the cooperation proposal must be decided by us."
"Third, in the cooperation proposal, there must be special benefits and care for our users. Even if we cooperate with automobile manufacturers, the manufacturers must at least promise to give YY users certain benefits or special customized gifts. Otherwise, we will never cooperate."
Li Mu knew very well that as people saw more and more advertisements in their daily lives, ordinary users would become more and more resistant to advertising. The conversion rate of advertising would also become lower and lower. Such an environment would promote rapid development and continuous innovation in the next ten years. Starting from simple offline advertising and traditional hard advertising, it would gradually develop soft advertising, Internet advertising, cooperative advertising, and so on.
In Li Mu's view, in the advertising industry in the future, hard and wide advertising would gradually decline and become of little value. The high price combined with the low conversion rate, such an advertising form would eventually become the helpless choice of large enterprises to maintain exposure because of the lower and lower price-performance ratio.
Let's take Coca-Cola as an example. Even if there was a day when TV advertising would no longer have much meaning, they would still spend a lot of money on major TV media. This advertising was not to get more users or convert more sales, but to maintain the brand's exposure in front of the public. When Coca-Cola stopped advertising, it must mean that there was a major problem or change in Coca-Cola.
Although high-end users had a high demand for hard advertising, in Li Mu's view, YY would continue to put an end to hard advertising in the future. They would not do this kind of advertising that would directly make users feel disgusted.
However, in addition to hard advertising, soft advertising itself was somewhat lacking.
Soft broadcasting itself was actually a form of inducement or even deception. Therefore, this kind of method had always been extremely popular among small and medium-sized enterprises. There was a chance to win big with a small amount of effort. For a worldwide platform like YY, in order to ensure its own style, tone, and cater to its own users, it was inevitable that it would not help other enterprises play soft broadcasting in the future.
Hard advertising did not want to do it, and soft advertising could not do it. Therefore, in Li Mu's eyes, the only thing that could really be done was cooperative advertising, and a deeply customized cooperative advertising at that.
In his previous life, Li Mu had seen too many cooperative advertising. He had lost count of the number of advertisements where users scanned QR codes in exchange for QQ coins. There were even more models where users of a certain platform went to a certain merchant to enjoy exclusive discounts. Just on platforms such as Dianping, Auto Home, and Ctrip, who knew how many merchants used this model to promote their products. The operating model of those websites was the same.
This kind of cooperative advertising model was what Li Mu really wanted to see on YY.
If it was someone else, it might be difficult for them to understand Li Mu's almost mysophobic cooperation method. However, Lin Ching-ah quickly understood Li Mu's thoughts and knew what he really wanted.
What Li Mu wanted was to earn a huge amount of advertising fees while not causing any resistance to advertising among users. More importantly, he wanted users to get practical benefits from this kind of advertising. Moreover, after raising the entry threshold for advertising cooperation, the ones who would come in would inevitably be well-known companies from all walks of life. That would greatly promote the corporate image and brand value of Makino Technology.
At this time, Li Mu opened his mouth again. "By the way, Qing Ya, I'll give you two tasks."
Lin Ching-ah hurriedly said, "Li Zong, go ahead."
Li Mu said, "On one hand, you have to set up a BD team and an advertising planning team. On the other hand, you have to take some time to sort out the details of our entire set of products. See which parts are suitable for advertising cooperation and what kind of cooperation is suitable. Sort them all out, then get someone to make a plan and contact the target company."
As he said this, Li Mu gave an example. "Take McDonald's for example. If McDonald's is willing to launch a new YY set meal for YY users, and give a certain discount and customized gifts in the price of the set meal, then we can add this new set meal to the pet props in the YY pets and promote it as a popular prop. Through product placement, we can promote the McDonald's brand and products."
"In other words, in our YY show, now the clothing, accessories, cars in the background, and other items can all be used for advertising cooperation. If Merika's A&F is interested in cooperating, we can launch a batch of their latest clothing in the YY show in the YY domestic market, and let the users use it for free. If domestic companies like Metersbonwe and Benelux are interested in cooperating, we can do the same with them in our domestic YY show."
"If Ford wants to promote in the YY show, we can use their current car models as elements to design a YY show car prop and provide it to the users for free …"
Lin Ching-ah's eyes lit up and said, "I understand, Li Zong. According to your example, we have too much room for maneuver. Moreover, this kind of cooperation can achieve the best effect for us, the users, and the partners! I will carefully look for a suitable fit in our product ecosystem, and then go to the target company to discuss in depth! "
Li Mu nodded approvingly. There was no doubt about Lin Ching-ah's execution ability. She would definitely be able to do this deeply and thoroughly. This would be a huge source of profit for Makino Technology.
In Li Mu's philosophy, Makino Technology could open up advertising cooperation, but this kind of cooperation must not only look at money. All cooperation must follow the rules of the game. Otherwise, no matter who the other party was, no matter what the other party offered, as long as they did not follow the rules set by Li Mu, Li Mu would never give them any chance to cooperate.
Li Mu admired many of Steve Jobs's operating philosophy. When a company grew to a certain scale, it must have its own ecosystem and its own open platform, but it must not be completely open. It must have its own closed loop and bottom line.
Just like Apple's APP-Store, the APP-Store was an important part of Apple's ecosystem and also an open platform for Apple. In principle, Apple allowed all applications that met the requirements to be sold in its own app store, but these third-party applications must follow the rules of the game. Otherwise, no matter who they were, they would be killed.
WeChat's official account had the same operating philosophy. The official account was an important part of WeChat's ecosystem and also an open platform for WeChat's content. Whether it was an individual or a company, they could register a WeChat official account, but they must meet the requirements of WeChat. Otherwise, WeChat could ban the other party's official account at any time.
Now, Li Mu wanted to build an open advertising platform in the YY ecosystem and set strict access rules for this open platform. After a few practical tests, this cooperation model would definitely be accepted by the majority of potential partners.
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