Top of the Great Era

Chapter 1456 The Affiliate Business Behind the Documentary
Manchester United's commercial operations are headquartered in London.

This is definitely breaking the conventions of football.

However, Manchester United also has a reason, because the headquarters of Ziweixing Digital Media is in London, and Manchester United Commercial needs to carry out in-depth cooperation with Ziweixing Digital Media, and set up the operation center here to facilitate communication.

The office area of ​​Manchester United Commercial is in West London. Before going to Munich, Zhou Buqi made a special trip to talk to Gilbert Lawrence, the president of Manchester United Commercial, about the strategic planning of the documentary.

Gilbert was previously the senior vice president in charge of marketing and marketing at EMI Records, and he is very experienced in this. He said with a smile: "The documentary team has been found, and they have already started work."

"Oh?"

"The transfer market this summer is so exciting, it is absolutely possible to shoot a short film of about 20 minutes to record the transfer situation of Manchester United this summer."

Zhou Buqi was very happy, "Yes! It should be! The passion in the transfer market is often even greater than the victory of important games!"

Gilbert smiled and said, "The producer approached me and wanted to do an exclusive interview with you."

"Uh..." Zhou Buqi hesitated, "Is it necessary?"

Gilbert said: "I don't think it is necessary, so I have already refused. You are the boss, you don't need to get involved, you can express your respect through the mouths of Ferguson, David Gill, Rooney, Giggs, And your contribution to the club is good. The aura of mystery will make you gain more fans."

Sure enough, he came from a marketing background, and his understanding of human nature is wonderful. Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "That's fine, I'll follow your arrangement. Well, my dad must not appear there, he is not used to this kind of scene."

Gilbert said wisely: "I know, he is Big Zhou, and you are Little Zhou. The Zhou family's father and son's huge investment and unrequited love for Manchester United can be shown in many details in the documentary."

What a loyal employee!

Or it is more comfortable to be a traditional enterprise than an Internet enterprise.

If this is in Ziwei Star, unless they are close relatives, most of the executives will not care about the immediate interests of the big boss. They are more concerned about the interests of the company.

The more outstanding a talent is, the more he has the feelings of an intellectual who is neither humble nor overbearing and uncompromising, which is often expressed through rebellion.

Will often show their personality, ability and sentiment by criticizing the boss.

The strategy committee is fine. In other financial meetings, personnel meetings or technical meetings, many people often criticize Boss Zhou for a little mistake.

Because Zhou Buqi can accept this kind of criticism, Ziweixing has formed a soil that can accept elite talents, and can gather a large number of outstanding talents.

The brain drain of many enterprises is very serious, so they are very anxious. They are trying to improve employee benefits, put forward various safeguard measures, constantly engage in team building, and constantly engage in brainwashing value building... These measures can attract middle and low-level employees. Ordinary employees are useless to senior talents.

High-level elite talents are not short of money at all, and they can live a superior life anywhere in the world, so they will inevitably choose a place where they can work comfortably and smoothly.If in a company, the boss can’t be criticized by the employees, he can’t talk about it arbitrarily, and if he speaks something different, he will be regarded as eating the company’s food and smashing the company’s bowl, and he will even be labeled as a commercial espionage sent by a competing company. .

Then the result is doomed, it must be a reverse elimination mechanism, no backbone, no strength, no humanity, no ability, no face, no skin, clown-like characters who are promoted step by step, and really outstanding people leave one after another, the company's performance is destined to be better and better worse.

The biggest advantage of Zhou Buqi is that it employs people.

The key point of employing people is to confirm rights and be able to accept criticism and suggestions from the other party.

From the perspective of Manchester United's business, strategic matters are designed and decided by Zhou Buqi, and entrusted to the president Gilbert Lawrence for execution.During the implementation process, Zhou Buqi had to cooperate with Gilbert's work and obey some of his arrangements to do his best work.

Most of the work that Zhou Buqi does now is arranged for him by others, and he has to obey the command to do things.

Fortunately, Gilbert Lawrence has more than 20 years of business experience. Knowing that boss Zhou is very busy, he did not arrange extra work for him. He also thoughtfully designed a whole set of plans to maintain the image of Zhou's family in Manchester United.

Zhou Buqi was very satisfied with his work, and asked with a smile: "After the documentary is finished, how can I make money?"

Gilbert said: "I am talking to several TV stations, intending to sell the TV premiere rights of the documentary for the next 10 years, and by the way, raise an operating fund by this way."

"Oh?"

Zhou Buqi was a little surprised.

In fact, Manchester United's funds are mainly in the headquarters. They have to pay transfer fees, pay players salaries, renovate the stadium, renovate training facilities... so that Manchester United's commercial side actually has no money. When it was established, it only injected 1500 million pounds .

With such a small amount of money, it is difficult for Manchester United Commercial to carry out enough business.

Unexpectedly, Gilbert was also very smart, playing the trick of selling the premiere rights of the documentary!

It's amazing!

This is a bit like DreamWorks has no money to make a film, sold the distribution rights to Disney, and then received an advance payment of 3-4 million US dollars from Disney.

Gilbert said with a smile: "The most sincere is the BBC, and their price may exceed 3600 million pounds."

"Only £10 million in 3600 years?"

Zhou Buqi frowned slightly, the price of film and television copyright in Europe and America is very high!

Gilbert coughed lightly, "This is the premiere broadcast right in the UK, overseas regions need to contact separately."

Zhou Buqi asked, "What about the production budget?"

Gilbert replied: "The budget of the summer window transfer film is 30-40 pounds. The budget of the season documentary is 450 million-500 million pounds. In fact, the production cost is very low, mainly because the season is too long. The biggest expense is the salaries and travel expenses of the 23-person production team."

Zhou Buqi then asked: "The BBC's annual premiere rights are 360 million pounds, and the production cost is 500 million pounds... Can our documentary recover the investment through the TV platform?"

"There is no doubt." Gilbert is very confident about this. "Manchester United is a world-class giant, and our documentaries will not worry about sales. Especially in English-speaking countries, as well as South Korea, Southeast Asia, Northern Europe, Hong Kong, Macau and other places, they can all be sold. Good price. According to our assessment, the global TV income of the Manchester United documentary, including the first round and rebroadcast rights, can reach at least 1000 million pounds. In addition, the DVD disc income may also exceed 100 million pounds. Hmm , as well as on-demand income and additional copyright income.”

"What is the additional copyright income?"

"It means that in other TV programs, such as sports news, if the corresponding content is intercepted from our documentary, a copyright fee will be paid."

Zhou Buqi was very happy, "So, the documentary plan has a great prospect?"

Gilbert laughed and said: "It's very big! If you add in the income from the possible Internet channels, the rate of return will be even more impressive. The documentary of the next season may increase the profit of Manchester United by 1000 million pounds. Really great Surprised, there is such a big market in the documentary market, but they have rarely done it in the past few years."

"The commercial development of the football market is very backward."

Zhou Buqi had already seen it, otherwise there would not be Ziweixing Digital Media.

Gilbert said: "If Manchester United starts this business, there must be many giants who will learn from us and make season documentaries."

Zhou Buqi said indifferently: "This is the industrial significance of Manchester United's commercial company. The commercial development of the football industry is too backward. The level of competition may fluctuate. The club's risk is too great to rely solely on competitive income. Commercial development can Reduce risks and avoid tragedies like Nottingham Forest and Leeds United. Manchester United must lead this industry, from new models of stadium advertisements, to team blind box dolls, to documentaries, Manchester United must be the leader of the football economy.”

"Ah."

Gilbert took a deep breath and nodded heavily, thinking that this is really a challenging and passionate job.

Sure enough, he is a big boss, his vision is really different.

People never think about small things like revenue, profit, performance, and reports, but think about big things that lead the industry, lead the world, and lead the times.

It was such a blessing to be able to get involved and be a part of it.

Zhou Buqi went on to say: "Let me briefly tell you about the business design of Ziweixing Digital Media. The fan community will be combined with the official website agency business. The fan community is free and open. Fans can exchange, communicate, and see the latest The most detailed and richest football news. However, if you want to read in-depth commentary and tactical analysis, as well as more detailed statistics, you need to become a member. And this member and official website members are one..."

Europe and the United States respect intellectual copyrights and creators' labor, so many content charges.

This is the membership model.

After the membership model, there is a bundled membership model.That is, the monthly subscription of member A is US$1, and the monthly subscription of member B is US$2. It only costs US$2.5 to open two members in one package.

There are a lot of free content on the team's official website, but if you want to see more content, you need to become a member.

For example, Manchester United's documentary, members can watch for free.

For example, when buying jerseys on the official website, members can get discounts or even free shipping.

In this way, the football community can be deeply combined with the official website business, and the official website business of Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Liverpool, Chelsea, Dortmund, Porto and other European teams can be included.

Fans of different teams, go to open the official website members of their respective clubs.Members of the official website can also watch a lot of high-quality member content in the community.

At that time, Ziweixing Digital Media can not only collect an official website service fee from the club, but also collect a commission from them for membership fees.

Can be set to 25%.

Now, there are more than 1200 million independent users of Manchester United's official website worldwide, but less than 100 million registered users and only 6 member users.

How can I increase membership users?

Answer: Provide more services for members and create more content for members.

Zhou Buqi gave Gilbert a brief deconstruction of the business design of Ziweixing Digital Media in the future, and then put forward a suggestion, saying: "I think Manchester United Business can set up its own entertainment studio."

(End of this chapter)