It's reasonable for me to be a three-time Golden Horse Award-winning director and an all-around

Chapter 137: It's just promoting a movie, why all these shady tactics? (Seeking monthly votes)

"Suspectedly due to the box office success of 'Initial D,' Jay Chou's studio announced that it will officially enter the film and television industry."

"Director Ning Hao gave an exclusive interview, stating that the script for his new film is already in preparation..."

Director Xu Ke, along with cast and crew including Li Ming, Sun Honglei, Zhen Zidan, Yang Caini, Lu Yi, Zhang Jingchu, and Jin Suyan, appeared at the Changsha International Convention and Exhibition Center for the global premiere of "Seven Swords".

The gala was hosted by Yang Lan, He Jiong, and Sun Honglei. The event featured performances by actors, including a song by Li Ming and a duet of "A Laughter in the Vast Sea" by Tsui Hark and Luo Dayou. It also included the first public screening of film clips and a display of weapons and knives.

"Taken, in collaboration with Tianya.cn, Sina/NetEase blogs, and Baidu Tieba, has launched a campaign to collect 'Rescue Stories from All'."

The rules are: Share your true story of "My Rescue Moment" on platforms such as blogs and forums, and 100 accounts will be randomly selected every day to receive free movie tickets and mystery gift packs...

...

The summer movie season is about to reach its peak, with "Seven Swords" and "Taken" launching their promotional campaigns almost simultaneously.

As for topics like Jay Chou's foray into the film industry and Ning Hao's preparation of a new script, they simply pale in comparison to these two films awaiting release.

"Seven Swords" held its premiere first, collaborating with Hunan TV to promote the film through television programs.

Xu Ke clearly intended to seize the initiative.

But to his surprise, Taken was unhurried and instead joined forces with online social media platforms to collect rescue stories.

This move was something that even he, and many people in the film and television industry, didn't understand.

"Collecting rescue stories? What's the point? Does it help with publicity?"

In his study at home, Xu Ke watched the news and asked his wife, Shi Nansheng, with a puzzled look.

However, Shi Nansheng, the vice chairman of Media Asia Entertainment Group, was also puzzled and replied with a frown, "I'll have someone keep an eye on it and see what happens."

...

Right now, blogs and online forums are experiencing a boom in development in China.

Many ordinary people, media professionals, and celebrities share content through these social media platforms, but the level of utilization of these platforms is not very high.

For example, with "Seven Swords," the main creators shared some interesting stories about the filming process on their blogs.

As for large-scale film promotion around online platforms, almost no distribution companies have tried it.

The main problem is that people don't really understand this, don't pay much attention to it, and mostly just follow the established procedures by doing offline roadshows.

Although there are circles related to celebrities and movies on Baidu Tieba, these are mostly places for netizens to discuss things spontaneously or for celebrity fans to "fight". Distributors rarely bother to promote their movies here.

This is precisely why the "Nationwide Rescue Story" collection campaign launched by "Taken" instantly sparked heated discussions on Baidu Tieba and various blog platforms.

Nowadays, most people who have access to the internet are young people.

This group of people are very quick to accept new things, so they quickly figured out the details of the activity.

It's simple: just share stories of "saving others" that you've done in your daily life, and if you're lucky enough, you can win a ticket to the movie "Taken" and a mystery gift.

It's just a matter of typing a few words, isn't it a piece of cake?
Soon, new posts and blog articles began to appear:

"I am a journalist. I once pretended to be mentally ill and broke into an illegal coal mine alone to collect evidence and saved several mentally disabled coal miners."

"My sister was bullied at school and was too scared to tell my parents, so I beat up the person who bullied her!"

"What's that compared to what I've done? You have to look at me. I'm a medical student, and I've delivered babies on airplanes before!"

"Let me tell you a story about my dad. He and his coworkers rescued a child and beat up the human traffickers. They almost used him as a human stake."

Among the stories shared by netizens, some are true, while others are just boasts.

But this is not important.

For "Taken", what it needs is popularity, discussion, and attention.

A movie ticket costs only a few dozen yuan, and with the mystery gift, it's no more than 500 yuan.

But the buzz generated by this 500 yuan is so great that even running more than ten roadshow events might not be enough to generate enough buzz!

Soon, with the assistance of the Enlight Media promotion team, the first batch of winners successfully received their movie tickets and gift packages.

Thanks to the fact that Baidu Tieba and blogs have enabled the image upload function, the people who received the items immediately took photos and posted them online.

The main prize is a movie ticket, while the mystery gift package contains autographed photos of the lead actors, movie posters, and some merchandise specially customized by Lü Rui.

More importantly, there was a greeting card inside with this sentence written on it:

Just like the father in "Taken" who braved danger to protect his daughter, you are the same. Every ordinary person's act of protection is their own heroic moment. Thank you—ordinary hero!

Hot topics, discussions, attention, emotional appeals, tear-jerking moments, prizes, interactions...

The interconnected promotional activities formed a closed loop, which resonated with the award-winning netizens.

While others admired them, they also dreamed of being honored as "ordinary heroes" and receiving prizes, and began to share their own stories of protection.

And when everyone started actively participating in spreading the word, the buzz exploded instantly!
Each post and blog entry seems to revolve around the story of one's own protection, but inadvertently it is also connected to "Taken".

The hype was still building up in the first two days, but by the third day, it had become a nationwide phenomenon with netizens participating!
Since you might win a prize just by posting something, it's a convenient thing to do, so why not?
...

While promoting online marketing, Lü Rui did not neglect offline efforts either.

Currently, the main contributors to box office revenue are mostly in first-tier cities.

So he arranged for several distributors to collaborate with cinemas to create a "rescue challenge," immersing the audience in the sense of overcoming obstacles in the movie.

The venues include: the Bund in Shanghai, Wangfujing in Beijing, Tianhe Road in Guangzhou, Huaqiangbei in Shenzhen, Causeway Bay in Hong Kong...

According to later generations, this should be called an "offline flash mob" challenge.

Participants must overcome challenges such as "deciphering clues," "breaking through time limits," and "rescuing hostages" before they can finally receive a "rescue gift pack."

The gift package also includes movie tickets and various merchandise, and the greeting card reads:

[Taken: He braved danger for his family, and every act of protection you make is your own heroic story.]

The hype is at its peak once again!
The game isn't particularly difficult to complete; its main appeal is the sense of participation and excitement.

With this added boost, the film's popularity naturally increased once again!

Those who participated in the game were also more willing to go to the cinema to see what the actual movie plot was like.

Online + offline.

Public participation + inherent dissemination points.

With a two-pronged approach, the hype and buzz skyrocketed!

Looking back at the traditional promotional model of "Seven Swords", it was completely outclassed.

By the time the distributors of "Seven Swords" realized what was happening, the popularity and discussion surrounding "Taken" had already exploded, and it even seemed poised to become a nationwide phenomenon!
Xu Ke looked completely bewildered.

"What is he doing? What is he trying to achieve by doing all this?"

It's just promoting a movie, why all these fancy tricks?
At this moment, he finally understood the frustration that Feng Xiaogang and Zhou Xingchi felt last year.

Everyone else was going for the traditional publicity model: just enough to generate attention, the rest would depend on word-of-mouth and the box office appeal of the cast and crew. But Lü Rui chose not to do that.

While the box office appeal of the director and actors is important, the film's own hype is also crucial, as it is an incentive to attract audiences to the theater.

So, just like how The Prestige sparked a nationwide "mystery-solving" frenzy, Taken has once again ignited a discussion about "national hero guardians."

Moreover, this is a good thing from a societal perspective.

Therefore, the film promotion model has even received considerable official support.

With all these factors combined, not only were Xu Ke and the creators of "Seven Swords" stunned, but even the film's more than ten distribution companies were dumbfounded.

"How the hell can advertising be done like this?"

"I heard that Lü Rui personally designed all these plans?"

"No? He's just a director, shouldn't he just focus on making good movies? Why is he getting involved in all this publicity?"

"Damn! If he were in charge of distribution, Ruishijie would probably become the top film distribution company in China in no time!"

In the midst of the chaos, on July 28th, just before the film's release, an Asian premiere event was added at the last minute.

The location was set up at CITIC City Plaza in Shenzhen.

Many television stations broadcast the program, but very few people paid attention to it.

At the same time, in the capital, the premiere of "Taken" was underway.

Instead of a regular ticket checkpoint at the entrance, there was an upside-down "clue wall" covered with elements from the movie.

Blurry photos of hostages, encrypted coordinates on slips of paper, the silhouette of the mastermind behind the scenes, and so on.

Lucky audience members had to draw a "clue card" with their ticket stub and follow the clues on the card (such as asking the person wearing a black trench coat for an entry code) before they could enter.

The staff on site were dressed like "spies" from a movie, and the background music was tense soundtracks from the film, giving you a sense of "entering a rescue scene" as soon as you entered.

This operation not only surprised the audience, but also made the guests eager to try it out.

But that's definitely not an option, because the guests in the industry all have to walk the red carpet and it's not really appropriate for them to play games with the audience. It would be terrible if it caused a stampede.

"Director Lü, your marketing this time was absolutely brilliant, the results are undeniable."

"Haha, Mr. Liu, you flatter me."

Lu Rui was greeting guests at the door with Jiang Wen and Liu Yifei, and they would greet each person who came in.

Without exception, everyone who entered the venue praised his marketing campaign.

Lü Rui mostly nodded and smiled in response, while silently observing the situation of the guests entering the room.

Compared to his previous film, The Prestige, he sent out even more premiere invitations this time.

Some of these gifts weren't even sent out in the name of Ruishijie or him personally, but rather through the own channels of investors like China Film Group and Shanghai Film Group.

This also resulted in many people who, although Lu Rui could name them, were meeting them for the first time.

The longer he stayed in this industry, the more he understood why it was collectively referred to as the "entertainment circle," "literary and artistic circle," or "film and television circle," and why there were distinctions such as the Beijing circle, the Northwest circle, and the Hong Kong circle.

Large circles contain small circles, and small circles contain large circles; you are in me, and I am in you.

Even if two people don't know each other, the people around them will always know them, and after going around in circles, they will always be able to find a connection.

The most powerful group right now is still the "Beijing circle".

Jiang Wen had previously explained to Lü Rui that the Beijing entertainment circle was roughly divided into three factions.

One group mainly consists of children from theaters such as the Beijing People's Art Theatre, the National Opera, and drama troupes, as well as performing arts troupes and orchestras.

This faction consists mostly of actors and singers, and leans more towards the arts and culture scene.

Although the individuals among them may not have a huge amount of power, they have a very strong voice. Notable figures include Pu Qianxin, Cai Nanqing, Song Dandan, and Cui Jian.

Even the Queen of Pop was included, because her mother was a singer in the coal mine art troupe.

This is precisely why she was able to perform a solo on CCTV when she was a child.

If I hadn't gone to Hong Kong back then and hadn't gotten into all those romantic entanglements, I might not have fared any worse off staying in the capital than I would have in Hong Kong.

The second faction consisted mainly of the children of directors, actors, and employees of film studios such as Beijing Film Studio and August First Film Studio.

Their influence can often be seen behind mainland Chinese films; notable figures include Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang, and Ge You.

As for the new generation, Teng Huatao's voice is still the loudest.

If Lu Chuan hadn't been embroiled in plagiarism controversies, he would definitely be a leading figure in this industry now.

Strictly speaking, Lü Rui can also be considered part of this faction, since he is a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy.

The difference between him and those people is that he went it alone, without a "good father" behind him, so he had to rely on himself from the very beginning.

The last faction consists of the children of high-ranking officials from military compounds. This faction is very large in number and has extremely strong power and influence.

For example, Jiang Wen is from this faction.

Others in this circle include the two Wangs of Huayi Brothers, Zheng Xiaolong, Wang Shuo, Feng Xiaogang, Ye Daying, and Hong Jiantao.

The so-called "Beijing Circle" was started by this group of people.

Of the three factions, their influence was the greatest.

However, these people do not all cooperate with each other, and some even never speak to each other again. But when they encounter an "enemy," they usually unite against it.

Currently, Lü Rui is considered a hot commodity in Beijing's social circles.

Because he hadn't offended anyone in the industry, and he was also a resource provider, everyone fawned over him and even tried to curry favor with him.

But the situation is different in the Hong Kong entertainment circle. Apart from Yinghuang, he has offended almost everyone else.

It wasn't really that he offended him; it was just that those people gave him a Best Director award at the Hong Kong Film Awards but didn't get any benefits from it, so they disliked him a lot.

More than half an hour later, most of the guests had entered the venue.

"Come on, let's go in too."

Lu Rui waved to Jiang Wen and Liu Yifei, and the three of them walked into the venue together.

Jiang Wen remained quite calm. Although the scene today was quite grand, he had seen "the sun" before, so this was nothing special.

On the contrary, Liu Yifei couldn't withstand the pressure and subconsciously shrank behind Lü Rui.

"Don't be nervous. Didn't I already show you the reporter's interview transcript? Just read it from there later."

Lu Rui noticed her subtle movements and gently comforted her.

"Okay, senior."

Liu Yifei clenched her fists, mustered her courage, and took a step forward, only half a shoulder behind Lü Rui...

(End of this chapter)