Top of the big era

Manchester United comes to Japan to participate in the Club World Cup and has to play two games, one is the semi-finals and the other is the final.

The semi-finals have been played, and they defeated the local team Gamba Osaka 5:3.

Then, a lot of conflicts arose.

The conflicting parties are David Gill and Santoku.

It is not easy for Manchester United to come to Asia. Now that they are here, they must arrange some business activities and harvest a wave of success locally. Sandoko is now in charge of external business and has really good abilities. He quickly contacted three sponsors: Honda Motor, Yanmar agricultural vehicles and nutritional supplement product Manda.

This is a small-scale cooperation. The main thing is to bring a few players over and make a public appearance to show the cooperation between the two parties. Products from the three brands can then be displayed on billboards inside Old Trafford.

These three contracts can bring Manchester United 2.6 million pounds in sponsorship income every year.

However, business activities are a double-edged sword.

It's true that it makes money, but it will distract the players and affect their game state.

Especially now that it’s the Club World Cup final!

This is the first time Manchester United has participated in the Club World Cup. What if they lose in an upset? Which is more important, the championship or making money?

Ferguson was furious.

David Gill came forward to seek theory from San Dezi.

Zhou Buqi had no choice but to go to the hotel where Manchester United was staying and criticized Sandezi. "I have repeatedly emphasized that competition must be given priority! The prerequisite for developing the business market is to ensure competitive advantages."

Sandoko is still not convinced, "I have prepared very well. The signing event is in this hotel. The players get dressed, shake hands with sponsors, take photos in front of reporters, and the event is over. .Three activities, only one hour before and after. Ferguson just used the theme to make use of it."

"Using a topic?"

"In the previous Premier League match, Manchester United and Tottenham drew. This time I flew a long distance to Japan to play in the Club World Cup. The team's condition is definitely not very good. This is a problem with his management of the team and has nothing to do with my arrangements. ."

"If your condition is not good, you should focus on competition."

Zhou Buqi was a little helpless.

It can also be seen from this incident that San Dezi is a capable person in business, but he must use it properly. Once handled improperly, he will cause damage to the team's competitiveness.

However, one cannot criticize him too much.

The sponsorship contract signed is to make money for the club, not to put it into his own pocket. From a logical point of view, what he did was not too excessive. The three business activities lasted only one hour, and they were still in the hotel. They were extremely simple.

"Ferguson is the soul of this team. He has served the team for decades and we must give him full respect." Zhou Buqi thought of something and suddenly asked, "By the way, how much is Ferguson's salary?"

"Including bonuses, it's about £4 million."

"A little little, right?"

"Well, it's about half of Mourinho's, and less than Wenger and Benitez."

"Give me a raise."

"ah?"

Sandoko felt that the young boss's thinking was too jumpy.

Zhou Buqi said: "There are too many drawbacks to the fixed salary method. In a dynamic industry, the basic salary plus commission method must be the method."

Santoku said: "His basic salary is 3.6 million pounds, and the bonus will be linked to the team's performance."

Zhou Buqi glanced at him and said, "You can get a share from the surrounding areas."

"Um?"

"The coaches of Premier League teams are patriarchal, just like movie producers. In addition to the basic salary, big Hollywood producers can also get a share of the box office, which is equivalent to bonuses in football. . However, movies also have peripheral and derivative income. Big producers can also get a share of the peripherals."

"You mean..."

Santoku suddenly realized and was quite surprised. Was he going to give up part of the income share from business activities to Ferguson? If there is such a clause in his contract, Ferguson will also have to find a way to balance the relationship between sports and business.

This young boss is really extraordinary, and by analogy... he is going to embark on a development path that is completely different from the current football world.

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "Manchester United must reform and cannot focus too much on competition, because the club wants to grow and develop. Nor can it focus too much on business, because the team wants to win the championship. This balance must be done well. For Ferguson, His biggest pursuit is the championship. This is destined to cause him to become a resistance to Manchester United's reform."

If you want to promote reform, you have to either make bold moves and get people rolling in; or you can have a spring breeze, promise benefits, and work together for mutual benefit and win-win results.

Ferguson is the soul of Manchester United and cannot be touched.

Then we can only find a way to pull him over and let him support the reform and support Manchester United's commercial development.

Sandoku felt that this idea was so right and asked, "What should we do?"

Zhou Buqi asked: "How much can you get from this kind of billboard sponsorship?"

Santoku said: "The most important sponsors are definitely jersey sponsorship and jersey naming. Stadium billboards are marginal sponsorships, and the current income barely exceeds 10 million pounds."

“How much room for growth is there?”

"The first is to add more billboards, and the second is to increase the charging standards for billboards. If there is no resistance, I think we can achieve 20 million pounds in revenue within three years."

"not enough!"

Zhou Buqi shook his head.

In terms of club operations, Santoku is definitely a business wizard. In his previous life, he brought Manchester United to a new level. However, in terms of his understanding of business alone, San Dezi is still far behind Boss Zhou.

San Dezi felt a little guilty, "Doubling the performance in three years is not enough?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Let me give you an example. It's an Internet project I did, called Friends Network. Traditional websites use on-page advertisements, one advertisement per slot, and the positions are very limited. The invention of Friends Network We have developed a new advertising model called information flow advertising, which is not a fixed advertisement.”

"Rolling ads?"

"Yes, that's pretty much what it means. The structure of Old Trafford is too old. The overhaul is more complicated, but a few modern improvements are still necessary, such as LED electronic billboards."

"Well……"

San Dezi suddenly realized.

This concept is not unfamiliar to him.

Nowadays, many stadium billboards in world football have been transformed. From the traditional single static billboards with content in the past, they have been gradually transformed into LED electronic billboards.

However, the rollout was slow.

The main thing is lack of money.

Each LED electronic advertising board is equivalent to a huge LED LCD display and is very expensive. For example, Old Trafford currently has 35 stadium billboards, all of which have been modernized and renovated. The total investment may reach 5 million to 6 million pounds.

Such a large sum of money would have been impossible to spend carelessly when the Glazer family was in power.

At the Old Trafford Stadium, only the four most important billboards in the north and south stands are electronic, and the other billboards are still the most traditional static billboards that have been in place for decades.

San Dezi was quick in thinking and immediately understood what Boss Zhou meant.

Zhou Buqi asked him: "Do you know about the Internet?"

San Dezi shook his head, "Not much."

Zhou Buqi said: "You can go to China with me later. I will introduce you to a company called Focus Media. You go there to study and investigate for a while."

"oh."

San Dezi seemed a little disapproving.

Zhou Buqi said coldly: "You have worked on Wall Street, haven't you heard of Focus Media?"

"Feel sorry."

San Dezi also felt that his attitude was wrong and quickly bowed his head in submission.

Zhou Buqi said: "Focus Media has created a unique media model in the world. They mainly do elevator advertising. In the past, they used traditional static advertising boards with limited positions and limited advertising spaces. This resulted in even their Although they can attract many sponsors, they don’t have enough advertising space. The constraints of hardware facilities make it difficult for them to make a qualitative leap in income.”

Sandoko's expression changed slightly, and he finally realized the business opportunities here, "So they have all switched to LED electronic billboards now?"

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Yes, electronic billboards. The cost is high, but the return rate is also greatly increased. Static billboards can only be placed there quietly, but electronic billboards can be placed there quietly at the same time. Within, many ads are played on a rolling basis. Subsequent costs are greatly reduced.”

Static billboards need to be customized, including design, painting, production, transportation, installation, etc., and the costs are high. Once the advertising contract is terminated, the billboard is abandoned, causing waste.

Electronic billboards are different. All advertisements are broadcast through the display screen. When the advertisement is terminated, it will stop broadcasting and no other additional expenses will be incurred.

Zhou Buqi continued: "On static billboards, one advertising space can only have one advertisement. On electronic billboards, one advertising space can have countless ads. You can charge according to the number of times and display time of the advertisement. This can ensure that Manchester United There is no upper limit on the number of sponsors, and you can receive as many sponsorship ads as you want. There is no cap on the number of sponsors like before.”

Sandoko smiled, "That's not the case, there still has to be a price standard. If the sponsorship fee is too low, there is no need..."

"No!" Zhou Buqi interrupted him, "This is still a traditional advertising idea. You can go to our company later to study and investigate and understand the Internet model better. Under the new thinking, even if a sponsor invests 1 We also charge pounds for such a contract!”

"ah?"

San Dezi was stunned for a long time, unable to understand anything.

Zhou Buqi said: "PPC, do you understand?"

Sandoku frowned, "What do you mean?"

Zhou Buqi said: "The advertising price is completely determined by the sponsors themselves, and we will not interfere. After the advertising contract is obtained, all advertisements will be arranged according to the level of sponsorship fees. The higher the sponsorship fee, the more frequent the advertisements will be. appear on billboards. If the price is too low, you may never get the opportunity to be shown.”

San Dezi suddenly realized, "The market mechanism will decide."

Zhou Buqi said: "I said that the advertising model can be charged according to the number of impressions. If it is not displayed, there will be no charge. If the sponsor of a certain advertisement has a limited budget, after it is displayed a sufficient number of times, it will be ranked according to the bidding, and the next one will be charged. Sponsors will take over. It can even be more detailed. For example, for strong dialogues such as Manchester United vs. Liverpool and Manchester United vs. Arsenal, the advertising cost should be higher. If it is an FA Cup or League Cup game, the advertising cost will naturally be higher. decline."

"Um……"

San Dezi remained silent.

He can understand that the more detailed and thoughtful the service is, the better the customer experience will be, the more recognition it will receive from the market, and the more money it will make.

However, this will also bring operational management complexity.

Just like the process the big boss just mentioned... this is too troublesome!

They collect all kinds of advertisements, and they also have bidding rankings, and they even have to differentiate between different competitions and give different advertising fees.

This requires building a system!

The model in football in the past was simple. After signing the contract, you just waited to receive the money. How good is that? As for the people in the football world, if they are asked to do such a complicated business, they are not at this level!