Chapter 214 Sponsorship

Pei Qian was speechless.

Two million in sponsorship wasn't a lot, especially considering that President Pei was giving foreign clubs sponsorship deals worth a million US dollars.

But the key point was that the DGE club wasn't one of those old, established clubs that had been operating for a long time. They couldn't play in competitions and didn't have any exposure. Who would be full enough to sponsor them?

Could you even get that money back?

Pei Qian calmed down slightly and clicked on the picture Zhang Yuan had sent, taking another look to find the keywords: Waiwai Livestream.

"Why would a livestreaming platform sponsor the DGE club?"

"Could it be..."

Pei Qian suddenly realized that the situation was not good.

It was true that the DGE club couldn't play in official competitions, but it wasn't forbidden from livestreaming on platforms!

Livestreaming platforms came with their own exposure!

This was a very dangerous signal that had to be interfered with!

Pei Qian knew very well that in a few months to a year, various domestic capital would enter the market, and livestreaming platforms would spring up like mushrooms after the rain, starting a crazy money-burning war.

Many streamers' status would rise during this period, and there would even be many sky-high contracts!

What if the DGE club had some livestreaming genius?

Pei Qian was a little relieved that Zhang Yuan had exposed this early, and it seemed that there was still room for maneuver.

He quickly took a car to the DGE club.

...

After arriving at the DGE club, Pei Qian carefully read the contract.

Zhang Yuan stood aside, feeling that President Pei was taking it very seriously, and couldn't help but have many thoughts.

"It seems that President Pei attaches great importance to the DGE club's profitability. He rushed over as soon as he heard the news!"

"And he read the contract very carefully. Is he worried that there are any traps in the contract, so he wants to confirm it again?"

"I didn't take a cut from Huang Wang's livestreaming contract for the club. I don't know if President Pei supports my approach."

After a long time, Pei Qian put down the contract.

Zhang Yuan quickly said tentatively, "President Pei, I didn't take a cut from Huang Wang's livestreaming contract, mainly because..."

Pei Qian raised his hand: "Yes, you did the right thing!"

"Are there any other team members who want to sign livestreaming contracts?"

Zhang Yuan shook his head: "No, Waiwai Livestream signed with Huang Wang mainly because they valued his potential as a streamer: he is strong, talkative, and has a good physique and image. Most of our other team members don't have the second point, and they are not very good at creating content in the game, so they don't have as much commercial value in the eyes of the livestreaming platform. Even if they can sign, it won't be as much as two million."

Pei Qian breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Good!

Zhang Yuan's understanding of the Tendai spirit was still somewhat useful.

Since the club didn't get a cut from Huang Wang's two million contract, it had nothing to do with him.

With this precedent, even if other team members signed contracts with livestreaming platforms, it wouldn't affect the club, let alone that other team members would definitely not be able to sign such a big contract.

However, there was still a hidden threat: what if Huang Wang's livestreaming effect was very good, and he accumulated a large number of fans, indirectly gaining a lot of attention for the DGE club?

So, this person was a hidden danger!

Pei Qian silently noted that he had to find a way to properly arrange for this kind of excellent employee, a potential threat.

Not now, there was no opportunity, and the situation was not that urgent yet, so he could take his time.

What was more urgent now was the sponsorship issue of the DGE club!

Since Waiwai Livestream sponsored them, it must have felt that sponsoring the DGE club was profitable, and it was mostly due to the DGE club's identity as Tendai's "favorite son."

When there was a first sponsor, there would be a second, as one of the essence of human nature was to repeat.

Two million was not much, but what if there were several two millions?

That would be very embarrassing.

Pei Qian set up the DGE club to burn money. If the expenses were all offset by sponsorships, wouldn't all his efforts be in vain?

Of course, Pei Qian could also choose to spend money on the DGE club in a bottomless pit, because there were many places to spend money. However, he had to realize that spending money in a bottomless pit would greatly increase external attention and might provide the outside world with wrong signals.

What if everyone raised prices crazily and sponsored blindly at that time?

It wasn't impossible.

Therefore, the sponsorship thing had to be nipped in the bud.

It didn't make sense not to accept sponsorships, but there was nothing wrong with controlling the quantity, right?

Pei Qian thought for a moment and said, "The DGE club can only accept a maximum of three sponsors at the same time."

"On the team uniforms, only three places can be printed with the sponsor's trademark: the right chest and the upper arms of the left and right arms."

"All sponsor logos must be small, and the length and width must not be greater than 15cm."

Pei Qian thought again and added, "And only one sponsorship from the same major industry can be accepted."

The last point was mainly to target the livestreaming industry.

Pei Qian was very worried that since Waiwai Livestream had sponsored the DGE club, would ZZ Livestream want to get involved in the future? After all, it wasn't an exclusive contract.

When the livestreaming platforms started a money-burning war, wouldn't it be painful if they all wanted to advertise on the DGE club?

Therefore, Pei Qian forcibly required that only one sponsorship from the same major industry could be accepted, directly passing on all future livestreaming platforms. Even if other livestreaming platforms wanted to bid, it would have to be a year later.

As for other sponsorships, it wasn't that there were none, such as keyboards, mice, other peripherals, motherboards, etc., but they often wouldn't be as generous as livestreaming platforms.

Moreover, they could only accept up to three sponsorships. As long as the quantity didn't go up, they shouldn't earn too much.

What's more, the sponsor's logo was so small, which was also disgusting the sponsors and should also dampen the sponsorship enthusiasm of some sponsors.

Zhang Yuan thought simply for a moment and nodded: "Okay, President Pei."

"I understand, you are afraid that the DGE club will be contaminated with too much commercial atmosphere, which will affect the players' mentality and training."

"In the future, when I accept sponsorships, I will think carefully and strive for perfection!"

Pei Qian: "?"

I'm not asking you to strive for perfection, I'm asking you to accept fewer!

But there was no way, the explanation was weak.

Pei Qian's original intention was that you should accept only a few hundred thousand sponsorships, and stop when the three sponsorship slots were full.

But Zhang Yuan obviously didn't understand it that way. Since there were only three sponsorship slots in total, and now there were only two left, then these two had to be carefully considered and sold at a high price.

Pei Qian couldn't say it clearly, so he could only pray that no more blind sponsors would come to cause trouble.

It would be best if Zhang Yuan asked for exorbitant prices and the sponsors were unwilling to be taken advantage of.

...

...

August 9th, Tuesday.

In the morning, Ye Zhizhou came to Tendai Games to meet with Li Yada, Bao Xu, and Min Jingchao.

He was here to learn from their experience.

Yesterday, President Pei spent a lot of money and directly arranged a budget of more than 40 million US dollars for everyone at Shang Yang Games, but in the end, there were still more than 20 million US dollars left, leaving everyone with a small puzzle.

President Pei said that there was still a big loophole in the current promotion strategy, and asked everyone to find it and fill it.

Everyone at Shang Yang Games thought about it all day, but they had no clue.

President Pei had already arranged most of the mainstream promotion methods.

They did think of some other promotion methods, such as hiring celebrity endorsements, but after thinking about it, there was no essential difference between hiring foreign streamers and sponsoring clubs.

These other promotion methods were not unique enough, and the cost performance would be very poor if they spent more than 20 million US dollars like this, and it would definitely not meet President Pei's requirements.

Therefore, today Shang Yang Games sent Ye Zhizhou to come to Tendai Games to consult everyone.

After all, this group of people at Tendai was the original team that developed GOG, and they had a lot of experience in the process of promoting GOG's national server, so they might be able to think of something.

If time permitted, everyone at Shang Yang Games would like to complete the work independently, but now time did not permit it.

The publicity plan was definitely a unified whole, and no matter where the more than 20 million US dollars was spent, it would definitely affect other publicity plans.

For example, if these 20 million US dollars were used to find a few celebrities, then the endorsements of these celebrities would definitely be placed on Times Square, online advertisements, and subways and buses.

The whereabouts of these 20 million US dollars were not determined, and the materials for other publicity plans definitely could not be finalized, and had to be completed at the same time.

Therefore, Ye Zhizhou could only pin his hopes on the power of the crowd.

In the meeting room, four people brainstormed together.

After learning about President Pei's specific promotion strategy, Min Jingchao and others also fell into deep thought.

They put forward several plans that overlapped with the current promotion strategy, and they were quickly rejected.

Min Jingchao thought about it carefully and said, "I think we should consider this from two major directions."

"First, the destination must be enough to spend most of the money, and it cannot overlap with the existing promotion strategy."

"Second, it should be different from the publicity methods that GOG has already adopted."

"Otherwise, President Pei would not have deliberately left this puzzle."

Ye Zhizhou frowned and said, "From this point of view, hiring big-name foreign celebrities seems to be in line, but the cost performance may be very poor."

Li Yada shook her head: "I think it's almost meaningless."

"The degree of overlap between big-name celebrities and our target group is not high enough. We are not selling luxury goods or daily necessities. How many players can be attracted to the game by using big-name celebrity endorsements? The conversion rate will definitely not be good."

Bao Xu thought about it and said, "I think it doesn't matter if it overlaps with the promotion strategy of the national server."

"The original characteristics of GOG represent President Pei's original ideas, and this approach also seems to be very consistent with the current situation of GOG's international server."

"I mean... IP characters."

The other three all brightened up: "IP characters?"

Bao Xu nodded: "Yes. At the beginning of the establishment of GOG, President Pei set the policy: we must purchase a large number of IP characters as GOG's hero reserve."