Chapter 1242: Attack of the advertisements!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

On this morning.

The alarm was buzzing.

Zhang Ye climbed up from bed and shouted outside his room.

"Mom, turn on the television."

"Why?"

"It's broadcasting soon."

"What? It's today?"

"That's right."

"For which brand?"

"The mineral water brand."

His parents were watching the TV in anticipation.

After the morning news, Zhang Ye's first commercial played.

This was a commercial for one of his many endorsement deals. It was one of the last ones that they had taken but took the shortest time to produce. The mineral water company's commercial spots had been scheduled long ago, so they just needed to deliver the final product for broadcast. As such, this was the first commercial to get released. This was still a pretty good time slot as there were people who had just woken up and turned on their televisions, while some others might be packing their children's bags to get ready for school, and others who watched the news while eating breakfast. After the news broadcast, the image onscreen switched to the commercial. When everyone saw Zhang Ye on television, many of them were slightly taken aback.

It opened on a classroom, and Zhang Ye was teaching a class. He was writing on the blackboard when a mischievous student sneakily opened a water bottle under the desk to have a drink of water. The squeaking of the plastic cap made Zhang Ye very angry and he chided the student. But after the class was over, Zhang Ye unexpectedly took out a bottle of the same mineral water, looking like he couldn't wait to drink it.

An advertising message appeared.

" Family Spring 1 , a rather sweet thing."

The advertisement ended.

Then the next commercial played.

His mother was stunned.

His father was dumbfounded.

Zhang Ye said with a grin, "Dad, Mom, what do you think?"

His mother pointed at the television. "Was that it?"

"Yeah." Zhang Ye said, pleased with himself, "It's quite good, isn't it?"

His mother was floored and said, "What crap is this?"

His father smacked his lips. "Family Spring's mineral water is a well-known brand. I've drank it too, but how is it sweet?" His expression then changed as he looked at his son and said, "Did you add sugar to it?"

Zhang Ye was floored!

What the!

Why would I add sugar to it!

Whatever, I really can't communicate with you two!

At the same time, two of the largest online video hosting sites in the industry started pushing out the Family Spring commercial. As long as anyone played the movies or videos on their website, there would be 30-60 seconds of unskippable video ads that were pre-rolled, with the first ad being the Family Spring commercial that lasted for 15 seconds. The television stations also repeated showings of the commercial at 8 AM, 10 AM, 12 PM, and at intervals of every two hours!

The commercial had been rolled out!

The volume at which it was played during the first day was extremely high!

The people of the advertising industry all had their attention on it, as did the competitors in the bottled water industry.

Zhang Ye was already one of the legendary figures of the advertising world. Not mentioning the few public service announcements he produced, just talking about the Brain Gold commercial alone, it was a real miracle. His commercial had launched a near-dead health supplements supplier into a leading corporation with the largest share of the health supplements market. Simply calling it a miracle of the Chinese advertising industry would be an understatement, since it was actually much greater than a miracle. And with this halo, Zhang Ye could command a much higher endorsement fee than his market value, which allowed him to fight the Heavenly Kings and Queens for the endorsements!

Now that he had come up with a new advertisement?

Who wouldn't want to gather around to analyze it!

As such, those people from the advertising industry and field of marketing all rushed over to watch it. But when they saw the commercial, they were all somewhat speechless. Their reactions were just like how Zhang Ye's mother had reacted!

What?

Was that it?

It was that simple a tagline?

What about that brainwashing technique that you used in your Brain Gold commercials? Where has that gone? What kind of a commercial is this? Isn't this just a normal TV commercial?

Some people were feeling disappointed.

Some people rewatched it over a dozen times.

But there was no sense of shock!

It was not amazing!

For a commercial like that, they could easily write ten such advertising proposals within a minute!

Some discussions were going around on Weibo.

"It's Zhang Ye's new ad!"

"Have you guys watched it?"

"I saw it this morning!"

"A rather sweet thing? Bullshit! It's not sweet at all!"

"Hahaha, yeah, I purposely went out to buy a bottle to try it just now and didn't find it sweet."

"How is it not sweet? I found it to be somewhat sweet after I had a sip of it."

"Yeah, I bought a bottle too and found it to be a little sweet as well."

"Get lost! Where on earth can you find bottled water that is sweet! That's juice!"

"Taste it carefully, it's actually sweet!"

It was originally a random thread but nearly turned into a fight. No one could have expected that when a poll was posted the two groups of people would get locked in a fierce struggle over whether Family Spring's bottled water was really sweet or not. The poll results also surprised a lot of people as 30% of the voters said that Family Spring's bottled water was actually rather sweet. In fact, it really did seem that it was slightly different from the other brands of bottled water. And just like that, this advertisement went viral!

…

At a small supermarket in Beijing.

A couple were on their day off today and had come out to the supermarket to do some shopping.

"Darling, we don't have any more water left at home."

"Let's get a pack then."

"Eh, Family Spring? Isn't this the water that Zhang Ye was advertising this morning?"

"Yeah, it is. Everyone says that it's a little sweet."

"Let's get this then."

"Sure, let's buy it and have a taste."

So the couple called out to a supermarket employee for help. "Do you have a pack of Family Spring Bottled Water? We'd like to buy it."

The supermarket employee apologized, "The packs are sold out."

The wife said, "Ah?"

The employee said, "We only have individual bottles left."

…

At a streetside stall.

A teenage girl skipped over. "Auntie, give me a bottle of Family Spring."

The lady boss said, "Family Spring? We're out of stock."

The teenage girl said in surprise, "But I just saw you stocking up on it yesterday."

The lady boss was puzzled too and said, "I'm also not too sure why. But all morning, anyone who came to buy bottled water almost exclusively bought Family Spring. Only one other brand has been sold."

The teenage girl asked, "Is the water really sweet?"

The lady boss thought for a moment. "I think it's a little sweet, tangy sweet."

…

At night.

At the studio.

Zhang Ye had just returned to the office after filming a commercial.

Ha Qiqi, Zhang Zuo, and the others were all feeling perturbed and were talking among themselves. They didn't even notice Zhang Ye had stepped in.

"The commercial's been broadcast."

"Yeah, I wonder what the reception is like."

"It's pretty good. There's been quite a bit of discussion online."

"By reception, I mean the product sales."

"I really don't know about that. The commercial did seem a little too simple, ahem."

"They paid Director Zhang quite a bit for the endorsement, a premium sum even. If the commercial was not done well and causes their sales to drop, it would really look bad on us."

"That's true, we're only afraid of that happening."

Everyone was whispering among themselves.

Zhang Ye laughed from behind them. "Don't be worried about that."

"Aiyo."

"Director Zhang, you're back?"

Zhang Ye said, "Let's just do whatever we can do. There's still a lot of endorsement projects that we have to shoot. Is the advertising proposal that I wanted ready yet? Let me have a look at it."

Zhang Zuo brought it over. "Here, Director Zhang."

Everyone busying themselves again.

All of a sudden, the studio's phone rang.

Ha Qiqi was the closest to it, so she picked it up. "Hello, this is Ha Qiqi."

The person on the other end of the line sounded jubilant. "Manager Ha, it's me!"

Ha Qiqi's heart skipped a beat. "Oh, it's AGM Li. Hello, how are you?"

AGM Li was the assistant general manager of Family Spring. "You guys did it! You guys really did it!"

Ha Qiqi did not understand. "What's the matter, Manager Li? What do you mean?"

AGM Li exclaimed: "It's only the first day, but our products all across the country have practically sold out! Sales increased by 42% compared to the same timeframe last year!"

"Ah?" Ha Qiqi was stunned.

Sold out?

Could the sales figure have increased by that much?

Surely not, right?

AGM Li belly laughed. "Just how did you all do it? You guys are astounding! You must thank Teacher Zhang for me. Our GM called for an urgent meeting earlier and was saying that he wanted to add another year to the endorsement contract with Teacher Zhang. There's still room for discussion about the pay, so just name however much you all want!"

Ha Qiqi said: "AGM Li, didn't we just sign a two-year endorsement deal?"

AGM Li said: "How are two years enough? From now on, our company's endorsement won't be using anyone other than Teacher Zhang. We wouldn't mind signing an 18-year contract with him either!"

The call ended.

Everyone asked, "What's the matter, Sister Ha?"

Ha Qiqi swallowed before announcing, "Family Spring's mineral water has sold out!"

"Ah!"

"Really?"

"This is great!"

"Sold out on just the first day?"

"Fuck! Could it be any godlier than this?"

"But that water isn't sweet at all!"

Hearing their weird comments, Zhang Ye also laughed.

The commercial broadcast on television was originally from Zhang Ye's previous world and was a very old commercial for Nongfu Spring on Central TV. It was also after this commercial that Nongfu Spring became popular all over the country! If there was a ranking for the classic advertisements of Zhang Ye's previous world, this advertising tagline of " XX Spring, a rather sweet thing 2 " would surely be in the top ten. It was a marketing legend that was on par with the Brain Platinum commercials of his previous world!

Simple?

This advertisement was not simple at all!

Just those words in that tagline alone were worth ten thousand taels of gold each!

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