The next day.
A lot of people were waiting to see Zhang Ye make a joke of himself. Those from the celebrity teams who had had their endorsement deals snatched away by him, Family Spring's competitors in the industry, his foes, and even many of the insiders of the advertising and marketing world did not have any optimism regarding Zhang Ye's endorsement this time.
"He has taken too many endorsements."
"Yeah, that's why the quality isn't there."
"If the first ad is so average, I wonder how bad the rest are going to be?"
"Hai, Zhang Ye's reputation is going to get crushed."
"He asked for it by being so greedy."
"Family Spring is going to crash and burn."
"Yeah, what's the use of giving Zhang Ye such a high endorsement pay?"
"This advertisement is really too crappy. It's like something an intern would churn out."
However, the opportunity to see this joke happen did not come to pass. What came instead was an ear-ringing slap!
A lot of media outlets published news.
"Family Spring Bottled Water all sold out yesterday!"
Zhang Ye continues writing the legend of his ads!"
"Reporter's research: Family Spring Bottled Water sells like crazy!"
"Is Family Spring Bottled Water really sweet?"
"The phenomenal effect of Zhang Ye's new advertisement!"
"Family Spring's sales soar!"
"Family Spring to become the best-selling brand of bottled water in the fourth quarter?"
The other bottled water brands were stunned!
The people in the advertising world were stunned!
What was happening?
Sold out?
Are you fucking kidding me?!
A bottled water advertisement with only one sentence claiming that it was a rather sweet thing had helped it sell like crazy? Going by this logic, wouldn't an advertisement selling salted duck eggs just need a "rather salty" to take its sales figures to the moon? This didn't make any sense at all! This was nowhere in line with what they had learned from their advertising experience and logic!
Based on what?!
They simply couldn't believe this!
Meanwhile, the competing brands were starting to get anxious as if facing a formidable enemy. As similar bottled water brands, if Family Spring could sell one extra bottle of water, that would mean one bottle less of sales for them. This was unlike a health supplement product like Brain Gold. It wouldn't mean that anyone who bought a Brain Gold product would not buy other health products to supplement their iron or calcium intake. But the bottled water industry was different. This was the most direct kind of market war there was!
The netizens were amused.
"Pfft!"
"The legend continues?"
"It's like I saw a trace of Brain Gold in it from a few years back!"
"Family Spring has earned big bucks this time."
"The money they spent on Zhang Ye was not at all wasted!"
"I kinda liked that ad. 'Family Spring, a rather sweet thing.' That image and aftertaste immediately come to mind when you hear it. I even went out and bought two packs of it last night."
"I couldn't manage to get any yesterday."
"This bottled water has become really popular."
"The key is that it has a good taste. It's really quite nice."
"Haha, I bought it because of Zhang Ye. Can't help it, I'm a diehard fan of his. I'll buy whatever he endorses."
With that advertisement, he once again shocked the industry!
And that wasn't all. On the third day of the advertisement run, it received an upgrade!
Family Spring probably had some leftover stock of bottled water and needed to clear everything before introducing the ones with new packaging. Over the past two days of crazy sales, they cleared out most of their leftover stock. When the new packaging was introduced, in addition to Zhang Ye's picture on the labels, there was something new. The television commercial also had an additional line at the end.
"Family Spring, a rather sweet thing.
"For every bottle of Family Spring Bottled Water purchased, one cent will be donated to children in poor, rural areas."
All the other advertising content remained the same, except for the addition of this advertising tagline. On the product labels, details of this public welfare activity were printed in small text. As a result, even after Family Spring increased their bottled water shipments, they sold out again in just one night. All of this left everyone in disbelief and shock. It was as though Zhang Ye had used some sort of sorcery to achieve it!
No one had ever used such a move in the past!
It wasn't even something that the advertising industry had thought of!
After they saw this commercial, many of the advertising industry insiders were dumbfounded!
So it could even be made this way?
So an advertisement could actually be made this way?!
The public reception was great.
"Not bad!"
"They're a brand with a conscience!"
"This is it, I'm only going to drink Family Spring Bottled Water from now on!"
"Yeah, we can even do charity while we're at it."
"Right, it's the same no matter what we drink. Besides, this water really does taste slightly sweet."
It sold like crazy in Beijing!
It sold like crazy in Shanghai!
It sold like crazy in Shenzhen!
All over the country, sales soared!
It was as though Family Spring had suddenly risen above two of its largest competitors and occupied the entire market overnight!
Zhang Ye had created a legend once more!
Yet another advertising miracle was born!
The staff of Family Spring were all laughing like crazy!
The brands and companies that had worried if Zhang Ye had taken too many endorsements were now feeling reassured. They were increasingly looking forward to their own advertisements releasing to the market. There was only one thing left that they wanted to say: Teacher Zhang really lives up to his name!
After several days.
The advertising industry had come back to its senses.
In a lecture hall, a very experienced advertising director stood at a lectern, giving a lesson to nearly a hundred interested fellow professionals. "I'm sure that everyone here has seen this commercial that was just played. I believe that all of you have watched it maybe ten, twenty, or even thirty times over."
The seated audience nodded.
Only that?
Some of them had even watched it more than forty times!
The advertising director laughed and said, "When a lot of people see this commercial the first time, they find it to be very ordinary and possibly even quite unprofessional. It doesn't introduce the branding culture of Family Spring, nor does it mention how good the quality of their water is. Instead, it just says that it's 'a rather sweet thing.' Isn't that totally nonsensical?"
The crowd nodded again.
Yes, in what way was this advertisement any good?
Then the director said, "Then I can tell you all right now. 'A,' 'rather,' 'sweet,' 'thing'—just these four words are worth 15 million each!"
The audience burst into an uproar!
"Huh?"
"15 million?"
"Fuck!"
"Each word is worth 15 million?"
"Isn't that too much of an exaggeration?"
"The credit should go to Family Spring for having good quality water. It does seem to taste a little sweet."
When the director heard that, he couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Is the water seriously a little sweet? For that reason, I specially consulted with some experts in the water industry. I can clearly and confidently say that sweetness only comes from the presence of sugar. But for all of the bottled water brands in the country, including Family Spring, it's impossible that there could be any sugar or substitute sweetener in them. Zero, zip, zilch, there's not a single trace of sweetness to it!"
The people in the industry all looked at one another.
The director said, "After watching the commercial, I also went to buy a bottle of Family Spring Bottled Water to have a taste. It did seem to have a teeny bit of sweetness to it at the time, and I'm sure that everyone here also had a similar experience to mine. But in fact, that was just a bias we had, the most basic kind of psychological suggestion that we fell for. Family Spring's mineral water source comes from the Jade Lake, which is a basin fed by the mineral water that passes through the mountains around it. It is a naturally occurring mineral water that is collected through the self-cleaning and purification processes of the Jade Lake. Zhang Ye must have seen this information back then and thought of this: 'How can we let the consumers intuitively become aware of the origin of Family Spring's mineral water and learn about the brand? How can we form a beautiful impression of a sweet spring? How can we turn that image they have into consumption?' To achieve that, it would require a simple visual marketing concept to spread the idea. And Zhang Ye is really worthy of being hailed as the smartest person in the world. He very quickly came up with an idea using those four words—A! Rather! Sweet! Thing!"
Someone questioned, "Isn't that false advertising then?"
The director waved his hands. "You can't look at it that way. Sweetness does not equate to sugar content. Sweetness does not require the water to have sugar in it. Describing water as sweet is just synonymous for it being good quality water. Just like how stinky tofu is very smelly, but there are many people who say that it smells really good. Would that be considered false advertising too? Sweetness doesn't only convey the idea that this is a product of quality, it also makes the people think of the sweet and refreshing taste of mineral water. As such, one would naturally find it somewhat sweet after drinking. Therefore, there was no introduction of Family Spring's branding in their commercial, no mention of how clean their water is, nor how much better they are than the other brands out there. This is because there isn't a need for any of that. Just by using 'a rather sweet thing,' it covered all of those points!"
Carefully thinking about it, everyone gasped in realization of the message behind it!
A copy of a report with some figures was placed on the projector.
The director pointed at it. "I did a rough calculation of the sales and net profit for Family Spring. This is the miracle that Zhang Ye's ad has created over the past few days!"
Everyone was startled!
"That much?"
"This…this…"
"Their sales nearly doubled?"
The director said, "So do you all still think that those four words are not worth 60 million in total?"
The industry's professionals could only smile bitterly.
Worthy!
It was way too worthy of that sum!
The four words being valued at 15 million each was even sounding a little too low now!
The director looked at the people in the audience. "After the ad got an upgrade, there was an additional line in the advertising tagline saying that a cent would be donated to children in poor, rural areas for every bottle of water purchased. Zhang Ye can even think of that way to advertise? Is one cent a lot? What's the value of one cent these days anyway? Besides, that money wouldn't be contributed by Family Spring at all. They won't have to run those public welfare activities, just like the other major corporations that donate several million yuan to keep up their public image. In fact, Family Spring does not even have to fork out a single red cent. They're just using the money in the consumers' pockets to do charity. For every cent the consumers donate, it increases the profits of Family Spring. The greater the sales, the greater the donations, the more they earn. Zhang Ye is really too smart of a person, and he's really too good at this. This is not just some simple ad that he's made! You all think that it's simple because you all are not on the same level as Zhang Ye!"
Some people were taking notes.
Others were looking up and listening to the lecture in earnest.