Exclusive interview tracker Zhang Yutong: a trailer started the company, how to expand the business territory
Of course, the state of our production is different from that of those major film companies, we are pure production, similar to independent production companies. Capital moves may be considered by the end of the year.
Trailer has three meanings in English: trailer, trailer and tracker.
in 2010, Beijing Tracker Culture Media Co., Ltd. (Trailer Brothers) was officially established. At that time, there was no professional film trailer editing company in China. And because of the business card of Wei Nan, the royal editor of Zhang Yimou, there should be no doubt that the tracker is the "leading brother" of the trailer film industry.
recently, Chief Entertainment Officer interviewed Zhang Yutong, chairman and CEO of Tracker exclusively. With a background in journalism, MBA expertise and relevant work experience, he joined the tracker, giving the studio-style trailer company wings to take off.
" personally, I think the tracker has just given me a way to break through and move forward. Now the film industry is in a stage of rapid development. I majored in journalism in university. After working for a period of time, I went to Singapore and the United Kingdom to study MBA, and some of my original understanding of the film industry can be organically combined. " Zhang Yutong said frankly that this is a choice for harmony between the time, the earth and the people.
over the past five years, the tracker has made trailers for more than 200 films, made special features and posters, and has won many awards such as best visual effects and best picture editing in the US Golden Trailer Awards. Among them, there are many Top10 films at the box office of the year, such as "the Thirteen Women of Jinling", "painted skin 2", "wreaking havoc in Heaven", "the Hunger Games", "the Expendables" and so on.
such a big brother in the film trailer industry, after increasing the business of film posters and making special features, this year he began the process of film production and entered the production industry. Zhang Yutong told Xiaoguan that after the whole process of more than 200 films, the advantage of the tracker lies in the insight into the market and the integration of resources. At present, the company already has visual integrated marketing and production two major business sectors, it can be said that the development prospect is very good.
strong > Integrated Marketing + Independent production, are there any bigger moves in the future? / strong >
Reporter: now that film and television companies are favored by the capital market, have you accepted financing?
Zhang Yutong: in fact, there have been all kinds of capital to talk to us about financing and mergers and acquisitions since three years ago, but I used to dabble in this industry, and I will have my own ideas, because I know a lot about the purpose of capital. some capital does not match the future development of our company.
but in the future, I will have some ideas and plans for this aspect.
Reporter: what kind of preparations have been made in recent years?
Zhang Yutong: in the past few years, I have combed the business section of the company.
if you just make a trailer, the whole market volume may be there, no matter how much the market puts, its growth base is there. So I added posters and special production departments, so that my volume will be changed from the original one to three business sections, and then those two business sectors will be supported by a trailer, which is also a state in which the company's performance has doubled.
since 2013, I have been considering integrating trailers, posters and special features to become an overall promotional materials company and position myself as a visual integrated marketing company. This is the same as the practice of overseas mature film markets, because this publicity material is holistic. In the past, everyone is scattered, maybe the style of the poster and the style of the trailer, although it is a unified propaganda idea, but the style is not quite the same. However, after the integration of these several pieces of business, all of our things are integrated, consistent things, more convenient for the film and propagandists to use materials, the overall fit of materials will also be higher, maybe 1: 1 is not equal to 2, may be equal to 3.
this is the first step, including all the visual integrated marketing business, it is enough to make a leap and do something, but it is still limited, so we started a movie this year-"falling from Heaven".
Reporter: are you making your own movies?
Zhang Yutong: yes, because we are a publicity company, we will intervene in the promotion and marketing of the film in advance. And starting from this year, there may be some new businesses related to film and television production, the screenwriter and director team has begun to expand, and Wei Nan has also begun to transform into a producer and director.
of course, our production is different from that of those major film companies. We are pure production, similar to independent production companies.
with visual integrated marketing and independent production, we may consider some capital actions at the end of this year.
Reporter: where is the future growth space for trackers?
Zhang Yutong: in recent years, the growth rate of the film box office is about 30% a year, and the growth rate of the whole marketing market will be greater than that of the box office. The total volume of marketing was 2.8 billion yuan in 2013 and 3.6 billion yuan in 2014, an increase of 28.6% over the same period last year. It should be noted that China's film marketing has only entered a period of high growth since 2013, and this market has only just begun. Immediately after we opened up overseas markets in 2017, more films poured into China. For overseas companies, they pay more attention to marketing, so this volume is gradually enlarged.
so our visual marketing section will be a sector of steady growth. Needless to say, if one or two films are successful, there will be an explosive growth, of course, accompanied by some risks.
Reporter: what is the market share of the company's existing business?
Zhang Yutong: last year, for example, the marketing cost of the entire Chinese film was 3.6 billion. As a visual marketing, we are an indispensable important link in the film marketing link. The producers of publicity materials originally started the market. Our market share has reached 70% to 80%. Now that the volume of the whole market is getting bigger, our share may be gradually shrinking, because we only focus on high-quality products and only large films, in this case, we can also reach a market share of 40% to 50%. While the market base is gradually enlarged, the company's overall performance is steadily improving.
I predict that after 2017, the film marketing market may reach an annual growth rate of about 40%, and the annual marketing expenses may reach about 10 billion yuan. Our company will also be affected by the performance leap brought about by the development of the film market.
strong > do not hesitate to invest millions to protect copyright. Hollywood / strong >
Zhang Yutong: I personally understand that there are two levels of films on the market: first, she is an art, and second, she is a commodity. Well, the trailer is actually the video advertisement of the film as a commodity, and the poster is actually the print advertisement of the film, so the visual integrated marketing company I am talking about is actually the advertising production company of the film industry.
Reporter: will you be in line with foreign countries in these aspects?
Zhang Yutong: trackers are actually "notoriously expensive" in the industry. We are the only company in China that makes Hollywood movie trailers. All our copyrighted music is Hollywood copyrighted music, which is synchronized with Hollywood, and we are the only company in the country that can do this. Maybe a trailer for more than one minute, when we choose music, in a huge music library, we select a few songs from hundreds or even thousands of songs to support the trailer for more than a minute. We are different from others because of our concept of excellence, so taking our things out has a certain effect on the market.
the trailer industry has a Golden trailer Award in the United States, which weighs as much as the Oscars in the trailer, and we are the trailer company that has won this award in China. So our whole editing idea, music style and special effects packaging are more international. Of course, something international or something closer to Hollywood does not mean that it is suitable for the Chinese market, so our characteristic is that all our technical aspects have reached international standards, but our creativity and ideology are closer to the Chinese market.
Reporter: is this music edition rich and powerful?
Zhang Yutong: you can actually imagine this. Do you think Hollywood can be cheap? So the average company is very difficult to accept this fee.
in fact, there is also a very important core issue of publicity materials, that is, the issue of copyright. Why should I sign an agreement with the Hollywood Music copyright Library? There are strict requirements for the use of copyright pictures, including posters, that is, sometimes your work infringes on other people's copyright, which will cause unnecessary trouble to the whole film. So a lot of our things are compliant and legal. Including all our software is authentic. We have some equipment, and it may cost millions to add a piece of software. This is also the reason why some film parties are willing to cooperate with us, because some small companies are unable to make such an investment, which is potentially risky.
strong > experience the success or failure of more than 200 films, want to be an independent production company / strong >
Zhang Yutong: judging from the time node where we are now operating, we plan to produce a work in one or two years and take the route of fine quality.
first of all, we are relatively different from other promotional materials companies, even in terms of trailers, why we are at the top of the market in the first place, because many of our things are based on the market point of view. To lead the audience into the cinema, we need to find the direction of the film and the orientation of her audience, find the most wonderful scenes and pictures in this film from the perspective of the audience, from a market-oriented point of view, and finally cut it into a trailer. Including poster special and so on a series of things.
from the perspective of publicity materials, we are a relatively market-oriented company. All the things that are made into films are relatively market-oriented, so naturally the experience we have accumulated can react to our films. In terms of controlling the content of films, we may be more market-oriented.
secondly, because of the particularity of our industry, 50% or 60% of the films we are familiar with are from the corresponding business sectors of our company, so we know the whole process of success and failure of many films. From this point of view, we have accumulated more than 200 films' relevant experience in mastering each link.
third, when we were founded five years ago, we were the only trailer company in China. at that time, there was no special film marketing material company, and we had project contact and cooperation with almost all film and television companies. in this way, we will have more opportunities to learn from big companies.
Reporter: the risk of making a movie is very big. How will you control the risk?
Zhang Yutong: of the more than 700 films made every year, 50% lose money, 40% are basically the same, and only 10% make money, so the risk of film investment is quite big.
how to control the risk? Each company has its own business experience, for example, for project selection, we will combine our own situation, at this stage we mainly focus on small and medium-sized budget films. With regard to the copyright fees of the film and the corresponding business placement, it will divide some upfront investment costs. Then there will be less pressure at the box office in the later stage, and we are a production company that will be very careful about cost control. This is only about some aspects of risk management, and of course there will be a lot of measures to reduce our risk. At the same time, we pay more attention to production in the composition of the project, we are very cautious about the investment of funds, and we will cooperate with large companies with strong capital to complete the project in due course.
Reporter: do you think being an independent production company is an opportunity in China?
Zhang Yutong: in fact, Hollywood trailer companies have a history of a hundred years, but when we appeared five years ago, people were not optimistic about this industry. But the truth is, after five years of development, the emergence of such companies has made the market more and more segmented. Therefore, although there are no special independent production companies in China, and many companies are taking a comprehensive development path, then we have chosen this direction, and the results need to be tested by the market.
this is the same as when we first started our business, we just dare to innovate.
the current situation of China's film market is a bit similar to that of China's Internet market, where hot money is flying and everyone thinks this place can panning for gold. This is not only an opportunity, but also a very big pit. Many companies may want to jump in just because of that state. And we are not, we have this idea since the beginning of the company, but we will not blindly want to enter the market when we feel immature, because you may lose miserably at that time.
now, we think the time is ripe.
Edit: yvonne