This director lacks vision.

Chapter 402 Visual Effects Special Offer
At 8 a.m. on July 1, Zheng Zhihao, accompanied by his assistant, hurriedly entered Building A of Fengxing Building.

The restructuring and independence of Maoyan is both a good thing and a challenge for Zheng Zhihao.

He went from being the president of Meituan's business group to the CEO of Maoyan, enabling him to independently lead a company.

However, before that, Zheng Zhihao's most important task was to gain the trust of his new boss, Jiang Yifeng.

When Zheng Zhihao entered Jiang Yifeng's office, Jiang Yifeng was having breakfast.

Behind him stood a very beautiful female secretary.

She wore a custom-made dark blue shirt paired with a beige pencil skirt, which accentuated her alluring figure with its curves.

Coupled with her striking red lips and wavy hair, she's the perfect female secretary you'd only see in movies and literature.

Zheng Zhihao knows this beautiful woman. She starred in "My Love from the Star," which his daughter especially loves to watch. She is one of the most popular actresses right now.

Today's female secretary is Zhang Tianai.

When Zheng Zhihao came in, Jiang Yifeng looked him up and sized him up, and had a very good first impression of him.

Zheng Zhihao was formerly a senior executive at Tencent. He led the team that developed QQ Space and QQ Farm.

This person is absolutely capable.

Jiang Yifeng beckoned Zheng Zhihao to sit down, then asked, "Have you eaten? Want to eat together?"

Maoyan has just been restructured, and there are a lot of things to do. Zheng Zhihao was busy until 2:30 a.m. last night and rushed to Fengxing Media as soon as he got up today, without even having breakfast.

Seeing Jiang Yifeng eating with relish, and smelling the aroma of braised pork offal, Zheng Zhihao became even hungrier.

But he wasn't familiar with Jiang Yifeng yet and wasn't sure what his new boss was thinking, so he said cautiously, "I'm not hungry, you eat first, or I'll go for a walk outside."

Jiang Yifeng glanced at Zhang Tianai, who immediately understood and asked the beautiful woman in the chairman's office to bring over another breakfast.

"Don't be shy, let's eat together and chat."

Seeing Jiang Yifeng say this, Zheng Zhihao stopped refusing. He took a bite of the fried dough stick and said while eating, "We attach great importance to the task you assigned, President Jiang. The team has been working overtime these past two days to come up with a subsidy plan."

Our initial idea was to do something similar to Transformers 4, like offering a 1-yuan movie ticket promotion to attract viewers to buy tickets on Maoyan.

Maoyan's first major project after its restructuring is the upcoming Pacific Rim movie.

Pacific Rim is different from Break Up!, which is a feature film with a relatively low average ticket price, so it's possible to offer discounted tickets for 9.9 yuan and 19.9 yuan on a large scale.

Pacific Rim is a special effects blockbuster, and the average ticket price will definitely be over 40 yuan.

It's impossible for a movie like this to be priced at 9.9 yuan on a large scale. The cost of such a subsidy would be too high, which would be losing money to gain publicity, and it's really unnecessary.

Therefore, Zheng Zhihao adopted the same approach as Transformers 4.

After Pacific Rim's release date was set, Transformers 4 was moved up a week to June 20th.

The film grossed over 10 billion yuan in its first week of release, which can be described as a huge success.

Maoyan partnered with the distributor of Transformers to launch a 1-yuan movie viewing event, using this gimmick to promote the movie and drive traffic to Maoyan.

Hearing Zheng Zhihao's words, Jiang Yifeng took a sip of soy milk and asked, "How many of these 1-yuan movie tickets will you be offering?"

Zheng Zhihao said, "The movie tickets are priced at 1 yuan each, with a subsidy of about 40 yuan per ticket. This time, the subsidy is very generous, with 100 million slots available and a total subsidy of about 4000 million yuan."

In other countries, cinemas actively participate in ticket subsidy programs and offer discounts because these subsidies encourage more viewers to go to the cinema, thereby boosting related consumption.

However, domestic cinemas are very powerful, and coupled with poor peripheral sales, cinema chains do not participate in ticket subsidies.

In China, the usual practice for ticket subsidies is for the platform and the production company to jointly fund a ticket subsidy pool, which then makes up for the price difference when viewers buy tickets at a discount.

The cinema still receives the normal ticket price, calculates the total box office revenue based on the normal ticket price, and distributes revenue and pays taxes based on this box office revenue.

Therefore, the overall cost of ticket subsidies is very high.

Of course, the platform can get a cut of ticket sales from the cinemas, which can offset some of the subsidy costs.

Regardless, this kind of approach is only used by internet platforms when they are burning money to seize the market, and sometimes they even cooperate with the producers to make money in the capital market.

The explosive growth of China's film market box office is also related to this.

Once the market enters a period of stagnation and regulations on film capital operations tighten, even if there are still occasional ticket subsidy activities, it will be difficult to form a large scale.

According to Zheng Zhihao's plan, the ticket subsidy event for the Pacific Rim will benefit 100 million viewers.

But Jiang Yifeng still felt it wasn't enough.

He shook his head and said, "The coverage is too small, so most viewers will definitely not be able to get a ticket. For them, this 1-yuan movie ticket event is just a gimmick and a joke."

Zheng Zhihao immediately said, "Then how about we offer a discounted ticket price of 19.9? That would double the audience reach."

Jiang Yifeng remained noncommittal, then countered with, "So what is the theme of your plan? What are the marketing pitches? What specific promotional strategies will you employ?"

Zheng Zhihao explained again, saying it was nothing more than Meituan's old tricks, nothing new.

Jiang Yifeng thought for a moment and said, "Now that you are in charge of the development of Maoyan Movies, you should understand that different movies should have different strategies."

Pacific Rim was just the beginning; the upcoming Witch, releasing in early August, is the real deal.

The 9.9 yuan and 19.9 yuan discount options can be used when the movie "The Witch" is released.

This kind of special effects blockbuster, like Pacific Rim, is not suitable, and it's even less appropriate to use such an extreme gimmick as a 1 yuan discount.

Ultimately, the main purpose of this ticket subsidy campaign is to promote the Maoyan platform and the Pacific Rim movie.

Therefore, we need to establish the brand and film image during the event, conduct warm and engaging marketing, and gain audience recognition for Maoyan and Pacific Rim.

Zheng Zhihao put down his chopsticks and listened attentively.

After all, there's a long-standing legend that Jiang Yifeng is the best marketer, far more skilled than Lei Jun's monkey-like marketing tactics.

The recent success of Panda Mall's live-streaming sales has once again proven this point.

Jiang Yifeng wiped his mouth and continued, "My idea is that this ticket subsidy event will focus on the concept of 'visual effects discounts,' and will allocate subsidy resources to IMAX theaters, reducing the original price of 120-180 yuan for IMAX tickets to 49.9 yuan or even lower."

This approach reinforces the concept of Pacific Rim as a special effects blockbuster, attracting audiences seeking the ultimate experience, and also enhances Maoyan's brand image. Maoyan supports Chinese film special effects, inviting audiences nationwide to watch IMAX movies, making the best special effects films affordable for everyone.

This is marketing with a lot of heart.

Moreover, this ticket subsidy is also beneficial to the promotion of IMAX. We can cooperate with IMAX China to appropriately reduce the subsidy cost.

IMAX tickets are very expensive, and there is room for fluctuation in the final price. Overall, the occupancy rate is low, so cinemas are also motivated to offer discounts.

Meanwhile, because the number of IMAX theaters is currently limited, even if Maoyan subsidizes the entire process, the overall cost is relatively controllable.

Sometimes subsidies don't have to be incredibly cheap; they need to match the tone and style of the film.

Upon hearing Jiang Yifeng's idea, Zheng Zhihao felt as if he had been enlightened, and his thinking was completely opened up.

Special offer on visual effects – how come he didn't think of such a great concept?
A movie ticket costs thirty yuan, which is something even a relatively poor student can afford if they grit their teeth.

But many ordinary people simply can't afford an IMAX movie ticket that costs over a hundred yuan.

They also want to watch IMAX movies and experience the ultimate visual effects, but in the end, they will settle for regular 3D tickets because the price is too high.

Don't listen to those marketing press releases that boast about how hard it is to get IMAX tickets for a certain movie; it's all fake.

In fact, apart from movies of Avatar's caliber, most special effects films only have slightly tight IMAX tickets during prime time in the first few days of release, and the average occupancy rate thereafter rarely exceeds 30%.

Take Transformers 4, which is currently showing, as an example.

There are now more than 150 IMAX screens in China. Assuming a 90% occupancy rate, they can easily generate more than 5000 million yuan in box office revenue every day.

However, Transformers' IMAX box office has barely exceeded 100 million so far, which translates to about 10 million per day.

Anyone who understands math knows the actual occupancy rate of IMAX theaters for Transformers 4.

After all, for most Chinese people, a movie ticket costs 150 yuan, and for two people it costs 300 yuan, or sometimes even 400 yuan, which is still too expensive.

Even if Avatar were re-released now, IMAX tickets would hardly be scalped to a thousand yuan each.

There are already enough IMAX theaters now. When Avatar was released, there were only 11 IMAX theaters in the whole country, so scarcity makes them valuable.

However, even though IMAX occupancy rates are low, major cinemas are still continuing to build IMAX theaters.

On the one hand, IMAX has a ticket price advantage and a high profit margin; on the other hand, having IMAX theaters can enhance the overall image and attractiveness of a cinema.

Jiang Yifeng proposed the concept of special offers on visual effects, which accurately hit the pain points of most viewers, while also effectively promoting the reputation and special effects selling points of Pacific Rim.

This is also extremely beneficial to Maoyan's brand image.

This is the most effective ticket subsidy marketing strategy.

Zheng Zhihao exclaimed, "President Jiang, you are truly amazing! Just one concept is enough for me to study for a lifetime!"

Zheng Zhihao's words were both sincere and an attempt to flatter him.

Jiang Yifeng didn't say anything, but Zhang Tianai behind him blushed and looked at her boss with eyes full of admiration.

Zhang Tianai is a complete boss-obsessed person, and she loves watching Jiang Yifeng dominate the workplace.

Seeing that Jiang Yifeng didn't speak, Zheng Zhihao also showed his ability. He said, "If the negotiations with IMAX and the cinemas go smoothly, after deducting our share of ticket sales, we can subsidize the cost of an IMAX movie ticket by about 50 yuan."

Currently, there are approximately 5 seats in IMAX theaters nationwide, with an average of 7 screenings per day, which translates to 35 seats.

Based on an average occupancy rate of 90%, we can subsidize up to 1575 million yuan per day.

However, less than 10% of the audience currently chooses to buy tickets online. Even if our promotion is very successful and the proportion of online ticket buyers is close to 50%, the maximum daily subsidy will only be around 800 million yuan.

We weathered the entire 30-day release period, subsidizing from beginning to end, with the highest subsidy reaching only 240 million yuan.

But in practice, it's definitely impossible. An average occupancy rate of 50% for IMAX over 30 days would be considered very high, and 90% is a myth.

Online ticket purchases account for less than 50% of the audience, and the actual subsidy cost is estimated to be around 1 million yuan.

Currently, buying movie tickets online is not the mainstream practice.

Even if in the past, Maoyan and Xin Hua Nu Fang held a ticket subsidy event, reducing the ticket price to 9.9 yuan per ticket.

Ultimately, only one-third of the people actually bought tickets online to watch the movie.

After all, the reach of promotional activities is limited, and many viewers are unaware of this information and still prefer to buy tickets at the cinema.

Upon hearing Zheng Zhihao quickly estimate the subsidy cost, Jiang Yifeng smiled and said, "Let's make the most thorough preparations anyway. According to industry practice, the production company of Pacific Rim will bear one-third of the ticket subsidy cost, and Maoyan will bear two-thirds."

Jiang Yifeng talked with Zheng Zhihao for another half hour, explaining all the details.

Zheng Zhihao left satisfied.

As soon as he left, Zhang Tianai threw herself at Jiang Yifeng.

"Boss, I just grabbed the wrong document. Please punish me severely!"

Jiang Yifeng: "..."

After plucking Zhang Tianai's long, wavy hair together, Jiang Yifeng sighed, "You always do this when you come to be my secretary. You should learn from Dilraba."

Zhang Tianai licked her rosy lips, tilted her head back and asked, "What is Dilraba like?"

Jiang Yifeng poked Zhang Tianai's eye and said with a smile, "Dilraba is very disciplined. Even if I add auxiliary tools to her and deliberately tease her, she can still hold back."

Unlike you, who gets a fever all the time.

Zhang Tianai whimpered twice and replied, "Boss, I was wrong, I'm willing to be punished~"

Jiang Yifeng had no choice but to spend some time teaching his secretary how to do her job well.

Zhang Tianai is great as a secretary, but she can't resist Jiang Yifeng's boss-like demeanor.

That's part of her charm.

After finishing his work at the company in the morning, Jiang Yifeng arrived at Wanda CBD Cinema at 1:30 pm to attend the premiere of the movie Pacific Rim.

(End of this chapter)