Huayu: Starting with Marketing Bad Movies

By May 8th, the hype surrounding the foot bath water meme finally began to die down.

The joke is still there, but it's not as viral as it was at the beginning.

This is normal. Your mom calling you home for dinner was also a huge hit, but it eventually faded into obscurity.

Of course, this phrase will definitely become a buzzword of the year, but it will probably take several years for it to be forgotten by the public.

At that time, new memes will become popular and replace the old ones, attracting the public's attention.

The box office for the movie "The Warring States" has also started to decline, but judging from the trend, it shouldn't be a problem to break 400 million.

A film can make money with 300 million, so 400 million is considered a huge profit.

The most important gain was that Jing Tian became popular as a result.

And then there's Xu Feng, after all, he was in charge of the entire marketing campaign. He may not be very famous in the public eye, but his name is well-known in the industry.

However, the controversy surrounding the film did not disappear; instead, it intensified.

From a failed movie to a wildly popular foot bath product, which in turn made the movie a hit, the business was revived and started making money.

This matter has transcended its roots in the film and television industry; it has become a hot topic in society.

It's not just being discussed in the entertainment industry; even official media outlets are talking about it, and it's even made it onto social news channels.

The influence of "A Little Sweet" extends beyond the film and television industry to the entire society.

This is not an exaggeration at all. You know, back then, your mom calling you home for dinner and the question of whether or not to help someone up were both on the Spring Festival Gala.

Moreover, the film "The Warring States" quickly surpassed 400 million yuan at the box office, ranking among the top five in the all-time box office chart for domestic films.

It's clearly a terrible movie, yet it managed to become a huge hit and make money in this way, shocking many people's values.

There are many criticisms, arguing that the world shouldn't be like this and that it doesn't make sense.

Xu Feng found this idea ridiculous.

Reality doesn't follow logic.

You think 400 million for "The Warring States" is an exaggeration? When the era of internet celebrities arrives, a few random celebrities can easily get high box office returns with their awkward performances. Wouldn't that be terrifying?

The Douban rating for "The Warring States" has dropped even lower, with most people going to see the movie because of the "sweet" meme.

Some people knew the movie was bad long ago, and they were tolerant of it.

But there are also some people who know nothing about the movie and simply go to the theater because of the references. When they see that the movie is so bad, they are disgusted and give it a bad review.

These were all within Xu Feng's expectations.

But to his surprise, a number of positive reviews actually appeared.

"The subversive innovation of history points to a new direction for Chinese films. In the future, China needs more new films with such bold subversion, especially director Xu Feng. You can see that he has a lot of ideas, and I am optimistic about his future development."

Xu Feng read this film review three times, but still couldn't understand it.

How did this guy come up with a new direction for Chinese cinema from "The Warring States"? I, as the director, have no idea.

As for his ideas, he really didn't have any. When the movie was first released, the original owner of this body was quite ambitious, but the cruel reality soon made him despair, until he transmigrated to save the world.

In a large forest, there will always be people with unique ways of thinking, and some people's aesthetic sense will always be different from others, which Xu Feng can understand.

However, the success of "The Warring States" had a tremendous impact on the mainland film and television industry and can be considered a landmark event.

Many film and television companies have already started figuring out how to learn from the marketing strategies of "The Warring States" to make money.

Making movies seriously is too tiring, and there's no guarantee of making a good one. It's better to focus on marketing and try to achieve big results with a small investment.

The world will never lack people who want to take shortcuts, especially after a successful example has emerged, many people are eager to follow suit.

Working hard is too tiring; it's easier to take shortcuts.

Xu Feng was not very optimistic about this idea.

Do you really think that marketing can revive a bad movie? These people have no idea that to achieve such an effect, the right timing, the right place, and the right people are all indispensable.

And a bit of luck is also needed.

Even a slight difference can lead to drastically different results.

For example, the movie "Song of the Phoenix" was revived by kneeling down to beg for more screenings and playing the nostalgia card.

But when others tried to learn from it, it had no effect whatsoever; nobody cared, and it only attracted ridicule.

The first one was a genius, the second one was a mediocre person, and the third and fourth ones were complete idiots.

Xu Feng didn't just use the foot bath water trick randomly. His inspiration came from Scarlett Johansson's bathwater, and he also referenced the marketing tactics of the infamous bad movie "The Blair Witch Project," adding a bit of later manipulation, which is why he succeeded.

Even so, it mainly relied on the system's guaranteed items; otherwise, it's hard to say whether it would have succeeded.

Luck plays a crucial role in everything you do. You might do everything perfectly, but if you lack luck, the result will be completely different from what you expected.

When the time is right, heaven and earth lend their strength; luck is beyond the control of even the greatest heroes. Without luck, things may turn out completely differently.

Xu Feng has a cheat code, but others don't. If they try to learn from him, they're very likely to fail miserably.

However, Xu Feng underestimated people's bottom line and their determination to do anything to achieve box office success.

Meanwhile, a large group of people are still criticizing the marketing tactics of "Warring States" as vulgar and obscene.

Meanwhile, the cast and crew of the movie "Guan Yu" held a press conference and collectively washed their feet. Anyone who watched the movie could receive a cup of the original foot bath water.

This movie is under a lot of pressure. It was released just a few days ago when "The Warring States" was all the rage, and so far the box office is less than 70 million.

It's worth noting that this film cost 200 million yuan to produce, making it more expensive than "The Warring States," and it would need to gross 600 million yuan to break even.

But the current data shows a huge loss, even worse than the loss of "Warring States" back then.

No wonder this group of people resorted to any means necessary, learning Xu Feng's marketing techniques in hopes of defying fate.

As long as it makes money, nobody cares whether the marketing methods are vulgar or obscene.

We can't give up making money just to save face.

But the result disappointed them.

Just as a group of people were fiercely criticizing the marketing of "The Warring States", the movie "Guan Yun Chang" came along and ran right into the crossfire, receiving a barrage of criticism from major media outlets and suffering extremely poor reputation for a time.

Audiences didn't buy it either, and they criticized it fiercely, causing box office revenue to continue to decline.

Marketing is completely counterproductive.

The crew of "Guan Yu" felt wronged. They felt that the marketing methods were similar, so why was it not as effective as "The Warring States"?

Xu Feng was speechless. Didn't they see that when he was marketing, he always focused on Jing Tian and its mysterious background?

This creates the impression of a princess descending to earth for the audience, and the act of washing her feet evokes a sense of sensuality mixed with a touch of taboo.

It's a little bit perverted, but not so much that it's offensive.

But what's with the whole cast of "Guan Yun Chang" washing their feet? How could anyone be interested in the foot bath water of rough, burly men like Zhen Zhidan and Jiang Wen?

This isn't just perverted, it's disgusting and will make people extremely repulsed.

Sun Li is a woman, but how can a woman nearing thirty compare to the effectiveness of washing feet as a young and beautiful girl like Jing Tian?

Most importantly, the phrase "a little sweet" is the key to the entire marketing campaign.

It can only be said that the producers of "Guan Yu" completely failed to grasp the essence of Xu Feng's marketing; they couldn't even learn it by copying it.

Trying to draw a tiger but ending up with a dog instead.

Rumor has it that the "A Chinese Ghost Story" production team also wanted Liu Yifei to wash their feet, but the two sides were at odds for a long time. They only gave up after seeing the entire "Guan Yun Chang" production team washing their feet and attracting a lot of criticism.

This film cost over 100 million yuan, slightly less than "Guan Yun Chang". It was also released earlier, avoiding the peak popularity period of "The Warring States", but it was still affected.

The box office has just surpassed 100 million, so the pressure is immense. No wonder they want to study.

It seems this movie is destined to lose money.

Film critic Liu Chang once wrote an article saying he would be willing to taste Liu Yifei's foot bath water and compare it with Jing Tian's, which attracted considerable attention.

People can really change easily. I remember when Xu Feng asked him to sign the contract, Liu Chang was very reluctant and needed psychological counseling to agree.

It's only been a few days, and they're already willing to try it.