After the short film was released, the psychological impact it brought far exceeded expectations.
In a male dormitory at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, four sophomores are gathered around a laptop.
When Li Yan said in the short film, "Don't believe in fate! Don't be afraid of being different!", a usually silent boy from the countryside suddenly clenched his fists and his eyes turned slightly red.
He whispered: "...that's so well said."
In a design company in Shenzhen, a girl who had just graduated and was often picked on by her boss secretly clicked on the video while working overtime.
When she heard "Young people, the only capital is to dare to trample on the 'impossible' under their feet!", she took a deep breath, as if she had been given a shot in the arm, and reopened the discarded design draft.
Online comments exploded:
· Below the official video of Xingchen Community, the comment with the most likes was: "I'm crying. Mr. Li, have you peeked at my diary? Why does every sentence hurt my heart?"
· Someone in the Tianya post wrote: "I used to think that entrepreneurs are far away from us. Aloof. Li Yan’s short film makes me feel that he is among us and understands our confusion and struggle. I have become a fan!"
Some literary and artistic young people have even begun to write long reviews on their blogs, analyzing the lens language and textual connotation of the short film, raising it to the level of "a spiritual manifesto of a generation of youth."
This sudden "Li Yan craze" and "star phenomenon" also quickly attracted the attention of both inside and outside the industry, especially the Internet circles.
At an internal meeting of a second-tier mobile phone brand, the marketing director projected reports and short videos, and the boss looked livid: "Look! How did they do it? We are still debating whether to reduce the cost by five yuan or ten yuan, but they have begun to sell stories, values, and the founder's appearance! How to use this dimensionality reduction attack?"
In BJ Zhongguancun, some keen Internet entrepreneurs began to study the "star model."
Wang Xing, who had just founded "Meituan.com", mentioned in a small-scale sharing: "Xingchen's Li Yan showed us another possibility. In the field of hardware, using Internet thinking to build brands and build user relationships has amazing results. His personal IP operation is worth learning."
Several venture capital institutions that originally looked down on "traditional" mobile phone manufacturing began to proactively contact Xingchen Technology to inquire whether they have financing needs.
What they saw was not only the sales of mobile phones, but also the huge appeal of Li Yan and the young consumer groups he represented behind him.
Facing the influx of media interviews and event invitations, Li Yan changed from his previous low-key style and refused almost everyone who came.
He clearly knows that the window of opportunity to build a personal brand, especially to establish the image of "one of them" and "spiritual leader" in the minds of young people, is fleeting.
He frequently appears on the pages and in front of the cameras of various financial, technology and even fashion media, constantly repeating and deepening the brand concept of Xingchen Technology and his personal struggle story, and his tone always maintains that sincerity and determination.
Amidst this craze, an invitation letter from Shenzhen aroused Li Yan's great interest - Mr. Ma Huateng, Chairman and CEO of Tencent, invited him to visit the Tencent headquarters in Shenzhen and have dinner together.
At this time, Tencent is no longer the small company that only does instant messaging.
With QQ's huge traffic, it has built a huge business system: QQ Space has over 200 million active users, Tencent, QQ Games, as well as Paipai and Tenpay, which have just started but have great potential.
In 2008, Tencent was at a critical juncture in its transformation from a "social networking tool for all" to an "online lifestyle platform". With a market value of tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars, it was an undisputed Internet giant.
Ma Huateng's logic in issuing the invitation is very clear.
Tencent has a large number of young users, but it has been exploring how to convert these traffic into consumption more effectively.
Xingchen mobile phones, especially the A1 targeted at young people, are an excellent hardware carrier that can carry out in-depth cooperation.
Tencent's ecology is mainly online, while Xingchen is vigorously deploying offline "Xingchen Space" direct-operated stores.
Is there the possibility of online and offline linkage between the two parties and mutual channeling?
Ma Huateng himself is known for being low-key, pragmatic and focusing on products.
Li Yan’s dedication to products, precise grasp of user psychology, and this new marketing approach may have aroused the strong curiosity of this “product manager” CEO.
Li Yan readily accepted the invitation without any hesitation.
The cooperation points he saw were equally attractive.
If Tencent's core applications, such as QQ and QQ Space, can be deeply integrated or pre-installed in Xingchen mobile phones, and promoted jointly with Tencent, the appeal of Xingchen mobile phones among young users will be a huge bonus.
· Make use of QQ’s massive user data for precise GG placement;
· Hold online events for Star A1 in QQ space;
· Even jointly launch customized theme mobile phones in the future.
Hence, prepare payment channels in advance, such as Tenpay, for Xingchen’s possible future online sales.
This is a meeting where both sides have what they need and have great potential.
At almost the same time, a more sensational news was announced through official channels: Jay Chou, the undisputed king of the Chinese music scene, officially became the spokesperson of Xingchen A1!
The announcement of this news is like a bombshell, its power even exceeds that of Li Yan's personal short film.
In 2008, Jay Chou's influence was at its peak and he was a super idol in the minds of countless people born in the 70s, 80s and even the 90s.
Winning his endorsement means that Xingchen A1 has directly obtained the highest pass to enter the discourse system of young people.
In order to invite Jay Chou, Xingchen Technology paid a huge price.
According to internal news, the endorsement cooperation period is one year, and the endorsement fee is as high as RMB 8 million after tax.
This does not include the additional expenses for subsequent GG filming, graphic GG and attending the press conference.
This huge expenditure of 10 million was extremely rare in the mobile phone industry at the time, especially for a feature phone.
But Li Yan thought the money was well spent.
Jay Chou's unique music style, trend-setting personal image, and his label of "cool", "talented", and "self-assertive" in the minds of young people are highly consistent with the brand tone that Xingchen A1 wants to create.
His joining can push Xingchen A1's "Youth Storm" to its climax in an instant.
Immediately afterwards, the Xingchen A1 TV GG film starring Jay Chou began to be released crazily on all platforms.
The GG creative design was developed by 4AGG, and the scene was set in a party full of street culture and music elements.
Jay Chou holds the Star A1 and dances to the rhythm of his iconic music. Through clever editing, the A1's large screen, stylish appearance and smooth operating experience are highlighted.
GG's words are simple and direct, but full of appeal: "My music, my A1. Star A1, cool to the end!"
GG's superstar light is perfectly integrated with the product, creating a powerful chemical reaction.
At the same time, Xingchen A1 TV GG, endorsed by Jay Chou, began carpet bombing.
The effect is comparable to that of a nuclear explosion.