Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 121 Live Voting
Watching advertisements and on-site voting were held in one of BBDO's largest conference rooms. A total of 35 female employees poured into the conference room, standing or sitting in the back row.

Everyone holds a questionnaire and a ballpoint pen in their hands, waiting to score on the questionnaire after the advertisement is placed.

On the surface, Hugh Hudson, the advertising director of the other party, seemed to be a person who followed the rules of the game. He took the initiative to say hello to Ronald and Darcy, "No matter who wins or loses today, they should be respected. I like your shooting method. Miss Maguire is right, if you get the same resources, I am afraid that the shooting will not be worse than mine."

Come to sympathize with the loser now?It may be too early.Ronald had experience with Britons and knew they weren't necessarily as polite as they appeared.

"It's not necessarily worse than you now, Mr. Hudson." Ronald replied.

Hugh Hudson showed a helpless smile, as if he could not do anything about the blind courage of the young children and nephews, "Well, let's wait and see the results of the judges' votes."

The trial rating was presided over by a junior female manager who announced that there would be two ads for Chewels chewing gum below, which would cycle twice.After reading, please mark your own rating on the questionnaire, and the staff will collect their questionnaire later.

The video recorder printed the advertisement on the large-screen color TV set at one end of the conference table, and all the female judges watched it attentively.

Soon two commercials were played in a loop twice.Ronald's version of the uneven bars is called Ad No. 1, and Hugh Hudson's version is named No. 2.

35 female employees scored the two advertisements on the questionnaire.

The host began to ask the judges to hand over the questionnaires to him, and a special person began to calculate the average score, and announced that their work had been completed and they could leave.

"Wait a minute, I hope these 35 female judges will stay for a while, and leave after the results are calculated." Darcy Maguire asked them to stay for a while.

Darcy Maguire got a box of Chewels gum and sent one to each employee who was scoring, giving them a first taste of the product.

Seeing this, Dan immediately ordered his men to go down and bring a few boxes of Coca-Cola, and distributed a bottle to the female employees.Ronald smiled at him. This guy thought he was buying off the judges, so he didn't know the situation very well.

The judges began to hand in the questionnaires they had completed, and then they all started to eat chewing gum, each of them showed a look of surprise. The filling of Chewels chewing gum is fruit flavored. It was the first time for the female employees to eat it, and the taste was not bad.

Some people opened the cans of Coke on the spot and drank it. There was a sound of popping the can, which made the gray-haired elderly partner very dissatisfied and gave Dan a sideways look.Now Dan asked his men to dissuade the ladies from drinking, which made the conference room messy.

The host quickly got the score result, Ronald's No. 1 got an average score of 3.6.Hugh Hudson's No. 2, got a 4.2 average.

Because the judges didn't know who shot the first shot and who shot the second shot, the scoring process was fairly fair, and neither Dan nor Darcy raised objections.

The gray-haired partner signaled the host to quiet down and announce the result.All senior executives and 35 judges heard the results.The judges didn't know who took which shot, and they looked at everyone's face left and right to infer the outcome.

Ronald was a little surprised. Although the questions in the questionnaire were obviously in favor of the opponent, the final score did not widen the gap.

This will make things easier.

Darcy Maguire was the first to attack, "The score difference is not big, we still go back to the original plan and let the test results determine which idea is finally adopted."

Dan sneered, but saw that there were still many female judges present, and there were no bad words, "The score of version 3.6 is 4.2, and version 12 is [-]. There are different numbers in single digits, and the gap is [-]%. There is no need to waste resources. On A/B testing."

The gray-haired old partner stood up, "The questionnaire is scientific, and it is a scientific means to use statistics to reflect public opinion. You all cast your own votes. This is the tradition of the 200-year history of the founding of America. We This tradition should be respected. There is no need for time-consuming, labor-intensive actual market sales tests.”

"No wonder you never beat David Ogilvy. You don't even know the ABC who voted." The old man went off in person, and it was inconvenient for Darcy Maguire to come forward to refute as an employee of BBDO. According to the plan, Ronald scolded up.

The old man opened his eyes wide, as if he didn't believe that anyone dared to refute him face to face.

Ronald quickly distributed the 35 ballots in his hand to all the judges, "There are two columns 1 and 2 on each ballot, which represent the two-page advertisements of uneven bars and painters. Please write down the ones you remember. Two advertising selling points, I will accept them later."

In fact, Ronald has more than 35 tickets in his hand, all of which were prepared by Darcy Maguire before. The ballots are divided into two parts from the middle with a line.On the left it says 1-uneven bars and on the right it says 2-painter.Below is a blank space, without a single question, for the judges to write down what they remember about the selling point of the ad.

Ronald also gave the old man a piece of hair, and the rest went to the two partners, and Dan's people. "There are only two options on the ballot. The candidate for the Donkey Party is still the candidate for the Elephant Party, remember? Voting is a civic duty, remember to vote."

Then he turned to the 35 female judges and said, "This is not a promotion test. You don't need a correct answer. Just write down what you remember. If you don't remember it, leave it blank. Anonymous votes, we don't use them for checking." your memory."

The beauties laughed amusedly, and picked up a pen to write the selling point of the advertisement that they remembered in the blank space.

Soon the judges finished writing the selling points they remembered. After Ronald collected them, he read the votes to the host on the spot and counted the votes on the mobile whiteboard.

The result was very one-sided, with all 35 judges remembering Ronald's ad selling point as "Chewels taste better."

And remember that the selling point of Hugh Hudson's advertisement is "Because Chewels tastes so good, I forgot that he is sugar-free" and there are only 16.The rest is either blank, or written as the selling point of Ronald's edition.

The old man didn't want to admit defeat yet, "The questionnaire is a more scientific design. Your voting is just the tyranny of the majority. The opinions of the people can't explain anything. The business world still depends on the elite to run it."

"What, you accuse the election of the commander-in-chief as unscientific? Is it the tyranny of the majority?" Ronald said.

"Hmph!" The old man fell silent, and just slapped the ballot in his hand on the table heavily.

Dan seemed to find an excuse then, "Yes, this is not a scientific design, we should adopt the scores from the first questionnaire, that is the scientific result."

"Instead of doing your 'science,' why not ask the consumer?" Ronald turned to 35 junior employees.

"Can you tell Director Dan how you feel when you eat Chewels gum?"

It was the chubby secretary who spoke first, "I think this chewing gum looks like candy, and it's delicious. The sugar-free gum is really tasteless. After chewing it twice, I feel like throwing up."

"But this Chewels chewing gum is also sugar-free, right? Delicious chewing gum that makes people forget that it is sugar-free. This is our core idea." Dan is still out of the situation and doesn't know why his version lost.

The blond secretary also said, "Director Dan, we just want to eat something with a taste. This sugar-free gum tastes better, and we will remember that."

"Yeah, there are so many brands of chewing gum that we can't remember. When we get to the supermarket, we just remember that Chewels taste better."

"Yeah, I remember the gymnast in the ad that made the Chewels gum thick, not the normal flake gum."

Everyone, you express your own opinions in a word.

"How? Did we win this review?" Darcy Maguire was asking the three partners.

The old man recovered from Ronald's offense, "You may have the support of thirty-five secretaries, but we have the results of science."

Seeing that the old man still refuses to admit defeat, Darcy Maguire's supporters in the partner are a little tired of this stubborn guy who has no advantages other than seniority, "Then 1:1, we will follow the original plan, let Sales results in Cincinnati and Cleveland will decide."

Ronald and Darcy Maguire confirmed their eyes, and the original plan was very beneficial to them, so they nodded in agreement.

Dan's patron in the partnership saw that something was wrong and agreed with the 1:1 statement, at least he saved face.Seeing that everyone agreed, the old man snorted and walked out the door.He plans to go back to semi-retirement and resume his globetrotting.

……

Standing at the door, Ronald said goodbye to the 35 female judges, and at the same time gave each of them a few pieces of Chewels chewing gum to express his gratitude.

In the end, the partners agreed to resume the original arrangement. The two versions of the advertisement are now launched in two cities separately. After one month, the sales will determine the winner, and then it will be rolled out on the national TV network.

Dan failed to achieve his goal of killing Darcy's creative ad before testing it. It took a lot of resources to get the old man back to the company, and he lost a lot of money.He led his men and left first. It is estimated that in the tests in the two cities, he still has to think of ways to try to influence the results.

Hugh Hudson was thoughtful and did not leave with Dan.He waited for Ronald to send off the female judges, and took the initiative to congratulate them, "Congratulations, Ronald, Darcy."

"Thank you, we still have a competition to try."

"No, the next thing has nothing to do with me. The filming is finished and handed over to BBDO. As for whether to use it for national release, that is Dan's job." Hugh Hudson still prefers Rhona to the judges collectively. The German version is a bit confusing.

"If you don't mind, can you tell me why these female secretaries and receptionists remember the selling point of your advertisement but not mine? I know you can't cheat."

Ronald smiled. These artists only want to make movies aesthetically pleasing. As a "author-director", they forget common sense.

"They are all working as secretaries, front desks, or art workers. They are busy every day. There are so many things waiting for them to deal with. How can they have the brains to remember such complicated ideas? Mr. Hudson?"

"Only things that can be said clearly in one sentence will be remembered by them."

"Something that can be said clearly in one sentence?" Hugh Hudson remembered this sentence and thought to himself, "Last year's Midnight Express was the story of an American's escape from prison in Turkey. This year, Allen's film became famous all over the world. It’s the story of an art school student, and it seems that I still have to take David Putnam’s story of a British sprinter winning gold in the Olympics as my first directorial work..."

(End of this chapter)