Liu Qingqing: Wanda Film and Television's marketing secret of 580 million yuan revenue

Some people say that Wanda Film and Television broke out in 2015: investing in 11 films brought in box office 6.15 billion yuan, and occupying all the slots throughout the year at the rate of almost one film per month.

"" Pancake Man "was originally a medium-sized film. Our initial estimate was 400 to 500 million yuan, but in the end it sold to 1.1 billion yuan. There are many success factors in it, and of course the marketing effect is also one of them. The increase in expectations brought to the film expands the final effect." He said this in an exclusive interview with Liu Qingqing, deputy general manager of Wanda Film and Television Media Co., Ltd., the "Chief Entertainment Officer".

From his simple summary, we can see the weight of film marketing.

Wanda Film and Television Media's total box office in 2015 reached 6.15 billion yuan, with revenue of 580 million yuan, completing 180% of its annual plan and a year-on-year increase of 36.1%. Some people say that in 2015, Wanda Film and Television broke out at a rate of almost one movie per month, occupying all the schedules throughout the year. So, what role does film marketing play in this miracle created by Wanda Film and Television? How do these low-key behind-the-scenes personnel help the box office of the film in a "quiet and silent" way?

There are 600 nodes in the marketing promotion of a movie. The popularity of the summer season is a sign of market maturity.

"Posters, trailers, premieres... these are all particularly important nodes. There may be twenty such nodes. You have to complete all twenty links, and the film may have a score of 65 or 70. If you can play new tricks on other nodes, such as creative activities or viral videos, you will add points, which may increase to more than eighty points. If you can do more innovative actions than in ordinary flowcharts, you may move towards 100%." Liu Qingqing said.

Among so many nodes, the one that has the greatest impact on the film is probably the schedule. At the beginning,"Charlotte Worries" was scheduled to be released on the National Day on September 30. There were "Lost in Hong Kong","Rescue My Mr." and "Mind Agents" before and after. After Liu Qingqing and the others watched the film "Charlotte Worries", they all felt that there was still a chance to "counterattack"."But the risk was also very high. If you had a high return, you would have to bear high risks. You might" Lost in Hong Kong "Very good, it's possible that it would quickly cover you." But the two comedies,"Charlotte Worry" and "Lost in Hong Kong", collided, and "Charlotte Worry" easily walked out of a counterattack curve as a dark horse. "You say it was completely predicted by us, but it doesn't count. We gave it a corresponding environment and we predicted that there might be some collisions."

Different from "Charlotte Worries","The Quest for the Dragon" is inherently "blockbuster" temperament. But the film is also unusual: the December 18 schedule was announced as early as May 2014. Xiao Guan was curious, why did Wanda Film and Television determine the schedule of "The Quest for the Dragon" a year and a half in advance? Liu Qingqing answered: "We like to set up our projects there, first establish them, and then strengthen its quality and enhance its marketing and publicity effects. At the same time, tell others that the film is already here. You can think about it for yourself whether you want to come or not. Of course, determining the schedule as early as possible can also build expectations for the audience step by step, which will be of great benefit."

So, did Wanda Film and Television choose the right schedule for all the 11 films released last year? Liu Qingqing said frankly: "Some are not very good, but most of them are right." For example, the popular "Singles Day" schedule in recent years is actually just a fake schedule in his opinion.

Looking back at last year's film market, an interesting phenomenon is that the summer box office reached 12.4 billion yuan, a record high, and its limelight obviously overshadowed the Lunar New Year. Liu Na, director of publicity for Wanda Film and Television, told Xiao Guan that this is a sign of maturity of the market. "The summer period in the North American market is the time when blockbusters are most crowded. This year's summer period, we won 5 billion yuan in one month. This is a good thing, indicating that the market is mature."

Romance films are the most difficult to market, and the materials reflect the core of the film.

Speaking of the most difficult type of film in marketing, Liu Qingqing feels that it must be a romantic film: "It is difficult to grasp and express the emotional points again." When marketing "Get Off, Tumor King", the biggest test faced by the team was how to accurately translate the protagonist Xiong Dun's optimistic attitude towards despair and convey it to the audience. "She is very optimistic to welcome it (the tumor), but in the end she will show a little bit of the fragility in her heart, making you think she is a very soulful character. In fact, when we were doing publicity at that time, we hoped to establish this character image and use various materials and means, music techniques, images techniques, viral videos techniques or interviews to do it. But can you use materials, music, and viral videos to bring out these emotions and emotions even when it is not a movie feature, accurately place these emotions and emotions in your promotional materials, and convey them to the audience? If he is moved, he will recognize the movie, and he will be interested in watching the movie."

Compared with romance films that are more difficult to convey emotions, the marketing of thrillers and comedies is relatively easy. Especially thrillers, their genre characteristics are distinct, and the materials and marketing points are very prominent. For the marketing team, it only needs to worry about how to create a thriller atmosphere.

So, how important is material to the promotion of a film? "Material is the most direct. It represents the core of the film, the film's picture texture, star image, color, etc." Liu Qingqing bluntly said that the material directly told the audience what the film was.

"The Quest for the Dragon" once released a "wall poster" at the Cannes Film Festival. The five protagonists 'bodies were half inside the wall and half outside the wall. "There is no such shot in the movie. That shot was created by us, but the effect we want to create is this environment and atmosphere. On this poster, you will see many elements, such as the actor's shape, expression, the relationship between dress and character posture, the beauty of the design of the environment, etc., all of which are subtly conveying the selling point information of the film and allowing the audience to imagine the content of the film."

Last year's best marketing was "Pancake Man", which had

11 films a year, occupying all the slots throughout the year. For the team responsible for film marketing, you can imagine the heavy workload and pressure. Liu Qingqing manages four marketing teams, each responsible for the marketing of two or three films. "Normally, a film must have a promotion cycle of at least three months, and basically three or four projects will be promoted simultaneously." After completing a project, everyone will soon have to devote themselves to the intensive promotion of the next movie. It can be said that there will be no rest for a year.

Among the 11 films released by Wanda Film and Television last year, which one was the most successful from a marketing perspective? Liu Qingqing chose "Pancake Man". When the movie was released, the topic of Dapeng selling pancakes became popular several times, earning enough attention. This eye-catching marketing plan was planned during brainstorming by the entire team. "Pancake Man", a low-budget comedy, finally won 1.1 billion yuan at the box office and became the dark horse in this summer. It is definitely inseparable from the help of marketing.

Liu Qingqing told Xiao Guan that when Wanda Film and Television makes a decision on a project, the core of everyone's discussion is what the cost of the project is and what its break-even point is. For example, its break-even point is 200 million yuan, and it exceeds 200 million yuan. This line is not easy. "If you suddenly told you one day that Teacher Xu Zheng asked Teacher Huang Bo to shoot a comedy, and the balance point of this project is 200 million, would you vote for this balance point? You will definitely vote. If these two people add up to make a comedy, no matter what, it will sell for 1 billion yuan. Of course, there is no such simple judgment for us. The selection factors will not be so obvious, and the judgment will be more difficult." Their next job is to ensure that profits are recycled. "Of course, I'm not saying that if I work on this project until I think it can protect the capital, I won't work anymore. Just like the nodes we talk about, you have to do well at each node, throw good ideas into it, and then ensure the biggest project."

Dialogue with Liu Qingqing

Reporter: Is the criterion for judging the success of marketing a thing the box office?

Liu Qingqing: This is quite embarrassing for film marketers. One criterion by which we can now judge whether a movie is well marketed is ultimately the box office. If the box office is good, the marketing will be good. If the box office is not good, the marketing will seem to be bad. In fact, the schedule and box office of "My Adolescence" are actually average, but our partners all feel that we have done a good job in marketing, because the content and materials produced during the entire process are indeed of good quality. But there is no evaluation method to measure how well marketing is. One of the problems in the entire marketing industry is that everyone works hard and hard for me, but I don't know how much it has to do with me when I succeed.

Reporter: So where is your team's sense of accomplishment?

Liu Qingqing: The sense of accomplishment lies in the creativity itself. Whether the idea itself is good or attractive, whether it is good or attractive, how is this poster evaluated in the industry? This is our sense of accomplishment.

Reporter: Some people will report that Wanda has the advantages of this brand. Will you be stronger when cooperating with the film company?

Liu Qingqing: Wanda Film and Television's brand advantages are built by itself and accumulated through the success of each project. Because when Wanda Group first started making film and television, it was also constantly exploring. Through the accumulation of successful experiences in our own projects in 2014 and 2015, we slowly formed our own work system from development to publicity. With more successful cases, this brand advantage became familiar to the market. Now, if you are a creator and you have a project on your hands, and you want to find a publicity company for him to invest and then undertake the publicity project, you are very likely to come and talk to Wanda Film and Television. This is the advantage that you have a group of reliable teams have accumulated after doing these things.

Maybe people have a vague understanding of this advantage, that is, they think that Wanda's films make a lot of money, but they don't understand the role played by Wanda's complete set of project judgment, optimization, and publicity work system behind this. But it doesn't matter. As long as you think that Wanda can help you make money, Wanda's brand value will be placed here, and we will have a certain trust and a starting point for cooperation.

Reporter: Wanda Film and Television achieved such good results last year. Is this year more confident?

Liu Qingqing: Of course we must have such confidence. Of course, the film industry is a content industry, and good film products are the core. Wanda will continue to have many good products in 2016, so it will still achieve good results in the industry.

Reporter: What kind of type is it? Tell me about it.

Liu Qingqing: There are all types. 2015 was all kinds of movies. Because we are a collaborative, platform-based company, we cooperate with a variety of different creators, such as romance films, comedy films, action films, and even we will have some science fiction films this year, based on future science fiction themes, are the types we are trying to cooperate with.

Editor: yvonne