Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 121 Live Voting

   Watching advertisements and voting on the spot 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, Hudson, the advertising director of the other party, was a man 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. Love the way you shoot. Miss Maguire is right, if you had the same resources, you probably wouldn't have done worse than me."

   Come and sympathize with the losers now? It may be too early. Ronald had experience dealing with Britons and knew that they were not necessarily as polite as they seemed.

   "Not necessarily worse than you now, Mr. Hudson." Ronald replied.

  Hugh Hudson showed a helpless smile, as if he had nothing to do with the blind courage of his young children and nephews, "Okay, let's wait and see the results of the judges' votes."

The    trial rating was hosted by a less senior female manager who announced the following ad for two versions of Chewels chewing gum, which would loop twice. After reading it, please mark your own score on the questionnaire, and the staff will collect their questionnaire later.

  The video recorder marked the advertisement on the large-screen color TV placed on the end of the conference table, and the female judges watched it intently.

   Soon two commercials played on a loop twice. Ronald's uneven bars version is called Ad No. 1, and Hudson's version is called No. 2.

  35 female employees rated the two advertisements respectively on the questionnaire.

   The host asked the judges to hand over the questionnaires to their own hands, and a special person started 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 and leave until the results are calculated." Darcy Maguire asked them to stay for a while.

  Darcy Maguire got a box of Chewels chewing gum and sent one to each employee who scored, asking them to taste the product first.

When   Dan saw this, he immediately ordered his men to bring a few boxes of Coca-Cola and distributed a bottle to the female employees. Ronald smiled at him, this guy thought he was bribing the judges and didn't know the situation very well.

  The judges began to hand in the questionnaires they had completed, and then they all started eating chewing gum, each of them showing an unexpected look. The center 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 can of Coke on the spot, drank it, and the sound of opening the can came, which made the gray-haired old partner very dissatisfied and gave Dan a sideways glance. This time Dan asked his men to dissuade the ladies from drinking for now, making the meeting room a mess.

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

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

  The white-haired partner motioned to the host to calm everyone down and announce the result. All senior executives present, as well as the 35 judges, heard the results. The judges didn't know who shot which, and looked at everyone's faces to deduce the outcome.

   Ronald was a little surprised, although the questionnaire questions were obviously biased towards each other, the final score did not widen a big gap.

   This is better.

  Darcy Maguire was the first to attack, "The difference between the scores is not big. We still go back to the original plan and let the test results decide which idea to use in the end."

Dan sneered, but seeing that there were still many female judges present, there was no malicious talk, "Version 1 scored 3.6, and version 2 was 4.2, with different numbers in single digits, a 12% gap, no need to waste resources anymore. On A/B testing."

The grey-haired old partner stood up, "Questionnaires are scientific, and are a scientific method of using statistics to reflect public opinion. You all cast your vote. This is the tradition of America's 200-year history. We This tradition should be respected. No more time-consuming, labor-intensive testing of actual market sales.”

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

   The old man's eyes widened, as if he didn't believe that anyone would dare to refute him face to face.

Ronald quickly distributed the 35 ballots in his hand to all the judges, "Each ballot has two columns, 1 and 2, which represent the uneven bars and the artist's two advertisements. Please write down what you remember. Two advertising selling points, I will wait and receive."

   Ronald actually had more than 35 tickets in his hand, all of which were prepared by Darcy Maguire before. On the left is written 1 - uneven bars, on the right is 2 - painter. Below is a blank, without a single question, for the judges to write down the ad selling points they remember.

   Ronald also gave the old one 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 Donkey Party candidate or the Elephant Party candidate, 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, there is no need for correct answers, just write what you remember, and leave blank if you don't remember. Anonymous voting, we will not use it to check. your memory."

  The beauties were amused and laughed, picked up the pen and wrote the advertising selling points they remembered in the blank space.

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

   The results were very one-sided, with all 35 judges remembering that Ronald's advertising selling point was "Chewels taste better."

   And remember Hudson's ad selling "Because Chewels tastes so good, I forgot he's sugar-free" 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, "The questionnaire is a more scientific design. Your vote is just the tyranny of the majority. The opinions of the people can't explain much. The business world still depends on the elites to run."

   "Why, you accuse the election of the chief commander of being unscientific? Is it the tyranny of the majority?" Ronald said.

   "Humph!" The old man was silent, just slapped the ballot paper in his hand on the table.

  Dan seemed to have found an excuse at that time, "Yes, this is not a scientific design, we should adopt the scores of the first questionnaire, that is the result of science."

   "Instead of doing your 'science', why not ask the consumers?" 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 is like candy. It's delicious. The sugar-free chewing gum is really tasteless. After chewing it twice, I feel like vomiting."

   "But this Chewels chewing gum is also sugar-free? A 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 he doesn't know why his version lost.

  The blond secretary also said, "Director Dan, we just want to eat something delicious, this sugar-free gum tastes better, we'll remember that."

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

   "Yes, I remember that the gymnast in the advertisement turned out that Chewels chewing gum is thick, not the same as ordinary thin chewing gum."

  Everyone, you expressed your own opinions.

   "How is it? Did we win this review?" Darcy Maguire asked the three partners.

  The old man recovered from Ronald's offense, "You may have the support of 35 secretaries, but what we have is the result of science."

Seeing 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 at all except his seniority, "Then let's 1:1, we still follow the original plan, let Sales results in Cincinnati and Cleveland."

   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 partner 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 as well.

  …

  Ronald stood at the door, saying goodbye to the 35 female judges, and each of them gave a few pieces of Chewels chewing gum to express their gratitude.

   In the end, the partners agreed to restore the original arrangement. The two advertisements are now being launched in two cities. After one month, the sales will determine the outcome, and then they will be launched on the national TV network.

  Dan did not achieve the goal of killing Darcy's creative advertisement before the test, and spent a lot of resources to get the old man back to the company, which cost a lot of money. He took his men and left first. It is estimated that in the tests of the two cities, he still has to think of some ways to try to influence the results.

  Hugh Hudson was so thoughtful that he didn't leave with Dan. He waited for Ronald to finish sending the female judges, and came up to congratulate them, "Congratulations, Ronald, Darcy."

   "Thank you, we have another test to play."

"No, the next thing has nothing to do with me. After the filming is completed, it is handed over to BBDO. As for whether to use it for national release, that is Dan's work." Hugh Hudson still prefers Rhona to the judges collectively. Germany's version is somewhat confusing.

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

  Ronald smiled. These artists wanted to make the film aesthetically pleasing, being a "writer-director" and forgetting common sense.

   "They all work as secretaries, front desks, and artists. They are busy every day, and there are so many things waiting for them to deal with. How can they have the brains to remember such complex ideas? Mr. Hudson?"

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

"A thing 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 escaped from a prison in Turkey. 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 at the Olympics as my first directorial work…”

   (end of this chapter)