Analyze the marketing strategy of "Will Love" Play the nostalgic card and go to Class 61

On Valentine's Day 2011, the movie version of "Carry on Love to the End" became the biggest winner. While two Hollywood blockbusters,"The Green Hornet" and "The Deadly Companion", were released at the same time,"Will Love" box office exceeded 100 million in six days. Comparing the cost of "Will Love" with the two Hollywood giants,"Will Love" can be said to be a small gamble for the big, and it is a successful operation that will make money to the end. The reasons for pursuing it mainly rely on its ability to maximize market potential, mobilize existing resources, reasonably arrange schedules, and implant four major strategies to avoid risks.

Strategy 1: Use collective memories to attract audiences

       Zhang Wenbo, the publicity director of "Will Love", affirmed in an interview that "Will Love" has been positioned as nostalgia since the beginning of its creation, and director Zhang Yibai called nostalgia a good card in his hand. In the overall promotion and marketing of "Will Love", the film company adhered to the central idea of nostalgia. Zhang Yibai explained its fundamental purpose in one word, first of all, to ensure that it could attract the audience of past TV series. rdquo;

Audiences who once watched the TV series version of "Will Love" have now grown into the main movie-goers of China films. Through a series of publicity activities themed with nostalgia,"Will Love" has reviewed classic scenes, or the creator's memories of the old work during interviews, including the platform of the original cast Liao Fan and others who did not appear in the movie version, and Eason Chan's cover of the TV series version of the old work "Waiting for You to Love Me", etc., it has fully evoked this part of the collective memories of the post-70s and the post-80s generation, and the outbreak of collective nostalgia has finally transformed into a strong box office power.

Nostalgic marketing, which seems to be effective at present, was regarded as a double-edged sword at the beginning of creation, and some filmmakers even declined the "Will Love" project because of this. Zhang Yibai revealed that a filmmaker once contacted the project of "Will Love" and questioned that it targeted audiences born in the 1970s and 1980s. What should the audience born in the 1990s do? rdquo; Zhang Yibai also admitted that the effect of nostalgia marketing caught him unexpected. At the later stage of the promotion, we hoped to tell the audience that this was a new three-stage story, but no one cared about it anymore. Everyone had entered nostalgia. In the mood." rdquo;

The use of collective memories not only successfully attracted a large number of original audiences for "Will Love" to contribute to the box office, but also saved "Will Love"'s uneven reputation to a certain extent. For example, some viewers said on Weibo that although the film was not satisfactory, it still hit me. rdquo; It is precisely because the film successfully aroused the audience's nostalgic plot, aroused the audience's emotional resonance, and made the audience more tolerant when evaluating the film. Even if there are some doubts, this voice has had little impact on the box office of "Will Love".

Strategy 2: Reasonably arrange schedules to stagger the Spring Festival peak

       Because the date is approaching, Valentine's Day is often regarded as an extension or part of the Spring Festival. When arranging schedules, many films also habitually adopt a merger strategy to target the Spring Festival and take into account Valentine's Day. For example,"I Know the Heart of a Woman" and "The Strongest?" released during this year's Spring Festival. Films such as "Things" and "The Fantastic Heroes" are actually ambitious about Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, this year's Spring Festival and Valentine's Day are more than a week apart, making Spring Festival films weak when Valentine's Day approaches; and the unprecedented congestion of Spring Festival films this year has also depleted the combat effectiveness of Spring Festival films early; in addition, the tragedy of Spring Festival films has also caused some films originally scheduled to be released on Valentine's Day to delay the release of them. Under the combined effect of three factors, the 2011 Valentine's Day holiday, which was originally regarded as crowded, actually appeared in a vacuum."Will Love" became the only domestic film with relatively box office appeal during the Valentine's Day holiday.

Gao Jun, general manager of the Beijing New Film Federation Theater Line, also fully affirmed the schedule selection of "Will Love" in an interview. Gao Jun said that the schedule selection of "Will Love" is very good. rdquo; Gao Jun said that there is such a market rule regarding Spring Festival stalls and Valentine's Day stalls. The farther away the Spring Festival stalls and Valentine's Day stalls are, the greater the market potential of Valentine's Day stalls. This year's Valentine's Day is already a week away from the Spring Festival, so this year's Valentine's Day has great potential, and the box office results of "Will Love" also fully prove this point.

In addition, Gao Jun also believes that the misjudgment of some film companies about the Spring Festival and Valentine's Day stalls led to the surrender of the excellent market for Valentine's Day, which led to the emergence of "Will Love" being the only one to dominate. ldquo; In theory, it is true that the Spring Festival stalls have a larger market than Valentine's Day stalls, but if a swarm of people squeeze into the Spring Festival stalls, they will only get one-tenth or less of the box office. On the contrary, although the Valentine's Day market is not as big as the Spring Festival stalls, if you can gain an absolute advantage, the box office will still be very impressive. In fact, the current box office performance of "Will Love" is not entirely due to the quality of its film. Part of the box office is equivalent to "I Know the Heart of Women" being ceded to "Will Love". If "I Know the Heart of a Woman" and "Will Love" both choose to be released on Valentine's Day,"Will Love" will not exceed 100 million so quickly, and the box office of "I Know the Heart of a Woman" will not be miserable. rdquo;

Strategy 3: Wang Fei and Class 1 successfully created a campaign to attract attention

       In the promotion and marketing process of "Will Love", Li Yapeng's beloved wife Faye Wong contributed significantly to the box office. Although Zhang Yibai denied that leveraging Faye Wong was a pre-planned part of their propaganda plan, he also admitted that in the middle and late stages of propaganda, leveraging Faye Wong was also part of their propaganda tactics and was very important.

Faye Wong's greatest contribution to the promotion of "Will Love" is that she attracted many viewers who were interested in "Will Love" itself, further expanding the audience for "Will Love".

In fact, whether Faye Wong intentionally or unintentionally contributed to the promotion of "Jiang Ai" on Weibo or through other channels, it was a spontaneous and proactive behavior by the Diva herself, not a premeditation or arrangement by the film company. According to film personnel, when he originally planned to invite Faye Wong to sing the theme song of "Will Love", director Zhang Yibai was worried about this and did not want to use Faye Wong's appeal to promote the film through Li Yapeng and Faye Wong's relationship. Zhang Yibai also said in an interview that no one can use Faye Wong, saying that I arranged Faye Wong to promote for us was too flattering of me." rdquo;

If the Diva's active contribution is an internal cause, then the successful grasp of Faye Wong's selling point in publicity and marketing is also an important external cause that ultimately transforms the Diva's influence into box office.

Among them, the theme song "Because of Love" co-sung by Faye Wong and Eason Chan was forwarded more than 50,000 times on Weibo on the first day, and the on-demand rate on KTV also climbed to the forefront. The widespread singing of the song has invisibly enhanced the film's popularity. After the film was released, the theme song has also become an important bonus factor for the film. At the premiere of "Will Love", Faye Wong and her family and friends group made a short appearance in Class 61, successfully occupying the headlines of major media and playing a role in publicity at the critical moment when "Will Love" was released. add fuel to the flames.

Strategy 4: Implant reduces costs and shares risks

       According to media statistics, the number of commercial implants in "Will Love" has reached at least double digits, covering various categories from wine to decoration companies to stomach medicines. However, Zhang Yibai does not recognize this number of statistics, nor does he admit that "Will Love" is a successful case of commercial implants. Compared with "Du Lala's Promotion" and "If You Are the One", I feel very embarrassed. rdquo; Zhang Yibai said that because customers were not very optimistic about the "Will Love" project in advance, the number of implants in "Will Love" did not reach his ideal. If possible, he would not exclude more implants in the movie.

For China films at this stage, it is a consensus and common practice in the industry to share production costs through commercial implants to reduce investment risks. There is nothing wrong with using implants to achieve commercial goals. Although, like most domestic films, the implants in "Will Love" are inevitably stiff and rough, and plot arrangements such as stomach medicine to treat fever have also attracted dissatisfaction from the audience, it is undeniable that although the director is not satisfied, the commercial implants also shared the production costs and commercial risks of "Will Love" in the early stage. For a film like "Will Love" with a small investment scale, the income from the implants is even more important. Compared with the real benefits brought by implantation, its negative impact on word-of-mouth evaluation is not unbearable.