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Manchester United Commercial's operational headquarters are located in London.

This definitely breaks the rules of football.

However, Manchester United also has reasons. Because Ziweixing Digital Media is headquartered in London, Manchester United Business needs to carry out in-depth cooperation with Ziweixing Digital Media and locate 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 is very experienced in this. He said with a smile: "The documentary team has been found and they have started working."

"oh?"

"The transfer market this summer is so exciting, it is possible to make 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 has approached me and wants to conduct an exclusive interview with you."

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

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

As expected, he came from a marketing background and had a wonderful understanding of human nature. Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Okay, I'll follow your arrangements. Well, my dad must not show up. He is not used to this kind of scene."

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

What a loyal employee!

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

If this were the case in Ziweixing, unless they were close relatives, the vast majority of executives would not care about the vital interests of the big boss. They were more concerned about the company's interests.

The more outstanding talents are, the more they have an intellectual mentality that is neither humble nor arrogant nor compromising, which is often expressed through rebellion.

Will often criticize his boss to show his personality, ability and sentiment.

The strategy committee is okay, but in other financial meetings, personnel meetings, or technical meetings, many people often criticize Boss Zhou for the slightest 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.

Many companies have serious brain drain, so they are very anxious and are looking for ways to improve employee benefits, propose various safeguard measures, constantly engage in team building, and brainwash value-building... These measures can attract middle- and low-level employees. Ordinary employees are of no use to senior talents.

High-level elites are not short of money at all. They can live a life of excellence anywhere in the world, so they will inevitably choose a place where they can work comfortably and smoothly. If in a company, the boss cannot be criticized by employees or make unreasonable opinions, and if he speaks a different voice, he will be considered as taking advantage of the company and ruining the company, and may even be labeled as a commercial espionage sent by a competing company. .

Then the result is doomed. It must be a reverse elimination mechanism. People with no backbone, no character, no humanity, no ability, no face, no skin and clown-like figures are promoted step by step. The truly outstanding people leave one after another, and the company's performance is destined to get worse and worse. The worse.

The biggest advantage of Zhou Buqi is its employment of people.

The key point of employing people is to ensure authority 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 President Gilbert Lawrence for execution. During the execution process, Zhou Buqi must cooperate with Gilbert's work and follow some of his arrangements to do his best work.

Most of the work Zhou Buqi is doing now is arranged by others, and he has to follow the instructions and do things.

Fortunately, Gilbert Lawrence has more than 20 years of business experience. He knew that boss Zhou was very busy and did not arrange additional work for him. He also thoughtfully designed a complete set of plans to maintain the image of the Zhou family in Manchester United.

Zhou Buqi was very satisfied with his work and asked with a smile: "After the documentary is filmed, how can we make a profit?"

Gilbert said: "I am talking to several TV stations and plan to sell the rights to premiere the documentary for the next 10 years and raise operating funds in this way."

"oh?"

Zhou Buqi was a little surprised.

Manchester United's funds are actually mainly located at the headquarters. They have to pay transfer fees, pay salaries to players, renovate the stadium and renovate training facilities... so much so that Manchester United's commercial side actually has no money, and only 15 million pounds were injected when it was established. .

With such a small amount of money, it would be difficult for Manchester United Commercial to do enough business.

Unexpectedly, Gilbert was also very smart and played the trick of selling the right to premiere the documentary!

How awesome!

This is a bit like DreamWorks having no money to make a movie, selling the distribution rights to Disney, and then getting an advance payment of US$300-400 million from Disney.

Gilbert said with a smile: "The most sincere one is the BBC, and their price may exceed 36 million pounds."

"Only £36 million in 10 years?"

Zhou Buqi frowned slightly. The price of film and television copyrights in Europe and the United States is very high!

Gilbert coughed lightly and said, "This is the UK's first broadcast rights. Overseas regions need to contact us separately."

Zhou Buqi asked: "Where's the production budget?"

Gilbert replied: "The budget for the summer transfer film is 300,000-400,000 pounds. The budget for the season documentary is 4.5 million-5 million pounds. In fact, the production cost is very low, mainly because a season is too long. The biggest expense is the salary and travel expenses of the 23-person production team.”

Zhou Buqi then asked: "The BBC's annual first broadcast rights are 3.6 million pounds, and the production cost is 5 million pounds... Can our documentary recover its investment through the TV platform?"

"There is no doubt." Gilbert is very confident about this. "Manchester United is a world-class giant, and our documentary has no worries about sales. Especially in English-speaking countries, as well as South Korea, Southeast Asia, Northern Europe, Hong Kong and Macao, etc., it can be sold A good price. According to our assessment, the global TV revenue of the Manchester United documentary, including first-round, second-round and rebroadcast rights, can reach a minimum of 10 million pounds. In addition, the DVD disc revenue may also exceed 1 million pounds. Hmm , as well as on-demand revenue and additional copyright revenue.”

“What is the additional copyright revenue?”

"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 great prospects?"

Gilbert smiled and said: "It's very big! If you add in the income from possible Internet channels, the rate of return will be even more impressive. The documentary for the next season may be able to increase the profits of Manchester United by 10 million pounds. It's really great I’m surprised, there is such a big market for documentaries, but they have rarely done it in the past few years.”

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

Zhou Buqi had figured it out a long time ago, otherwise there would be no Ziweixing Digital Media.

Gilbert said: "If Manchester United starts this business, many wealthy clubs will learn from us and make season documentaries."

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "This is the industrial significance of Manchester United Commercial. The commercial development of the football industry is too backward. The competitive level may have ups and downs. The risk of the club is too high 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 advertising, to the team’s blind box dolls, to documentaries, Manchester United must be the leader of the football economy.”

"Um."

Gilbert took a deep breath and nodded heavily, feeling that this was really a very challenging and passionate job.

He is indeed a big boss, and his vision is really different.

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

It's such a blessing to be a part of it.

Zhou Buqi continued: "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, and fans can communicate and see the latest news here. The most detailed and richest football news. However, if you want to see in-depth comments and tactical analysis articles, as well as more detailed statistics, you need to become a member. And this membership is integrated with the official website membership..."

Europe and the United States respect intellectual copyright and the labor of creators, so many contents are charged.

This is the membership model.

After the membership model, there is the bundled membership model. That is, Member A’s monthly subscription is US$1, and Member B’s monthly subscription is US$2. It only costs US$2.50 to activate two memberships in a package.

There is a lot of free content on the team's official website, but if you want to see more content, you need to sign up for a membership.

For example, members can watch the Manchester United documentary 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 and official website business can be deeply combined, and the official website business of European teams such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Liverpool, Chelsea, Dortmund, Porto, etc. can be included.

Fans of different teams can sign up for official website membership of their respective clubs. Members of the official website can also watch many 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 on membership fees.

Can be set to 25%.

Currently, there are more than 12 million unique users of Manchester United's official website worldwide, but there are less than 1 million registered users and only 60,000 member users.

How can I add membership users?

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

Zhou Buqi briefly deconstructed the future business design of Ziweixing Digital Media to Gilbert, and then made a suggestion, saying: "I think Manchester United Business can set up an entertainment studio of its own."