Chapter 576: Endorsing So Hard He Became a Shareholder

As a self-proclaimed cultured Chinese person, Zhou Yi had always been quite interested in the art of calligraphy; practicing brush writing was entirely within his capabilities.

For instance, after the farewell dinner last night, he had discussed and researched the four ways to write the character "Kun" with Qin Lan, who was similarly interested in calligraphy.

Qin Lan felt as though she had received a sudden enlightenment, gaining immensely and sharply increasing her knowledge.

Probably due to staying up late studying with such diligence, Qin Lan slept until well into noon the next day before waking leisurely; in her drowsy state, her hand instinctively reached toward the side, and the sensation of her hand brushing against a brush pen sent a jolt through her, instantly dispelling any lingering sleepiness without a trace.

As she turned and rolled over, she met the eyes of the man who had also been woken—

"Morning, big star."

"Although I don't know what time it is now, judging by the sliver of light filtering through the curtains, it must be at least noon." With sleepy eyes squinted into slits and his slightly messy hair hanging down, Zhou Yi possessed a distinct kind of disheveled beauty.

"To use your words: don't sweat the details."

Qin Lan smiled, reached up, and pinched the man's nose: "The number one in the music industry is nothing special; look how tired you are. I thought your stamina was infinite."

"You're only tough-talking now."

Allowing the woman to do as she pleased with her fingers, Zhou Yi reached toward the nightstand, fumbling for quite a while before finally grabbing his phone—

Notifications for unread messages appeared one after another before his eyes.

Apart from his agent Qian Jiang, a message from President Ding of Anta, whom he hadn't contacted in a long time, surprised him slightly; this President Ding was inviting him to a meal.

Obviously, with Zhou Yi still delaying the contract renewal process, this President Ding was becoming somewhat anxious.

The three-year, nine-million-yuan endorsement contract Anta initially signed with Zhou Yi on May 7, 2001, could be called one of the most successful commercial collaborations in the entertainment industry to date; at that time, Anta, having just entered the fast lane of profitability, relied on the increasingly capable Zhou Yi to conquer territories, forcing itself into a position capable of rivaling the colossal entity Li-Ning.

Although Li-Ning still possessed strong first-mover advantages and the bonus buff of its founder, in terms of popularity among the younger generation and market share, Anta, relying on Zhou Yi, was in no way inferior to Li-Ning.

Unfortunately, a problem had now arisen—

The contract between Zhou Yi and Anta would expire on May 7, 2004, and today was already September 21, 2003.

Having witnessed Zhou Yi's terrifying commercial value, Adidas and Nike, who had missed out on Zhou Yi in 2001, and even Li-Ning—these two international giants plus one domestic giant—had all fixed their sights on Zhou Yi, who had only eight months left on his contract with Anta.

According to reliable sources, these three giants had prepared sufficient funds to throw at Zhou Yi, and this was precisely Anta's weakness.

When it came to money, although Anta had currently advanced by leaps and bounds to secure the number two position domestically, it truly did not yet qualify to wrestle with the three giants.

"Adidas and Nike have already made initial contact with me; their first-round offer directly proposed nine million US dollars for three years. Li-Ning hasn't sent anyone to make contact yet, but I estimate that if they want to snatch you, they will definitely offer a bit more."

Merely a shoe endorsement yielding a minimum of nine million US dollars truly shocked Qin Lan, who was still eating lunch—

Converted into RMB... over seventy-four million????

Due to her accounting major's sensitivity, Qin Lan quickly calculated the 1:8.27 exchange rate in her mind, leaving her completely stunned; the noodles she was slurping so enjoyably suddenly lost all their flavor...

Holy crap!

What kind of nuclear-powered money-printing machine is this!

It was rumored that ZTE Mobile was preparing to spend ten million RMB to invite Jet Li to endorse their phones, and negotiations were already nearing success; even so, he was already one of the film and television stars with the highest endorsement fees in the domestic entertainment industry.

Yet Zhou Yi... this was directly seven times higher???

Thinking carefully, the last person in the domestic entertainment industry to have endorsement fees settled in US dollars was still the diva Li Wen, invited by Birdie Mobile—

Signed in the late nineties for only a few hundred thousand US dollars, by the time of her contract renewal in 2001, because she had appeared on the Oscar stage, her endorsement fee converted to RMB had skyrocketed to around forty million...

Hmm, both of them are singers...

"Are singers' endorsement fees all this terrifying? Even Cheng Long isn't this high, right?"

Seeing Zhou Yi hang up the phone, Qin Lan, who had been holding back a belly full of doubts, finally opened her mouth to ask: "Zhou Yi, do you think I have a talent for singing?"

This couldn't be blamed on her; she had truly never seen someone so capable of making money in her entire life, and the shock had ruined her.

If singers' endorsement fees were this awesome, why the hell would she continue being an actor? Wouldn't it be better to cling to Zhou Yi's thigh and become a singer?

"You? You'd better give up on that idea."

Drinking his porridge, Zhou Yi glanced up at her, chuckled lightly, and said: "Unless you genuinely believe from the bottom of your heart that you are a lark."

Qin Lan: "..."

Why did she feel that this little rascal was saying this with a vibe of holding back mischief?

Was it her illusion?

She felt that although her voice couldn't be called exceptionally gifted, at the very least, it couldn't be described as unpleasant, right?

That bastard Zhou Xun with her rough throat could still sing two songs; there was no reason she couldn't.

…………………………

"It must work, whether feasible or not!

"Zhou Yi's popularity and personal image market are extremely vast; we should seize this opportunity to deepen our binding with him rather than sit idly by and let competitors snatch him away. Even Xtep is eagerly stirring; if we lose Zhou Yi, our market share will undoubtedly be suppressed by them."

Inside the conference room, Ding Shizhong, who had previously made the decision to sign this god of wealth Zhou Yi, slammed the table while expressing his views: "In the 21st century, if you want to survive, you must do marketing well, letting everyone know us and remember us."

The entire Anta company was essentially a one-man show by the Ding family; since everyone was an insider, Ding Shizhong spoke quite bluntly—

In short: Prince of Ping Pong Kong Linghui was signed by me, and Zhou Yi was also signed by me; I have contributed effort to the company, I have shed blood for the company, so you all must listen to me now.

"We do not possess the financial strength of Adidas, Nike, or Li-Ning, but we have our own advantage: the company is decided by our own people, by us, the Ding family.

"Therefore, I believe that trading some shares, transferring some shares at a discounted value as endorsement fees to Zhou Yi, is our current optimal solution.

"As for why I would think of doing this, everyone can look at the sales data in your hands. Xtep signed Xie Tingfeng back in the day, creating sales of over one million pairs in a year, yet it still could not compare to the miracle of Zhou Yi's sales of over two million pairs.

"It can even be said that Zhou Yi alone sold over two million pairs of this single shoe style in a year; the future benefits of renewing with him need no elaboration—we could even launch a new series specifically for him..."

To convince his family members and the hired professional managers, Ding Shizhong had truly taken great pains and spoken with earnest sincerity.

He desperately wanted to bind Zhou Yi to his ship, in a way that made jumping off impossible.

Was there any better method of binding than becoming a shareholder?

Of course not.

Anta's overall debt situation was currently not bad, but no one could afford to be complacent; after all, the two domestic brands Li-Ning and Xtep were sandwiching them from above and below, and the slightest carelessness could lead to their demise.

"Zhou Yi's Guiyi or Guiyi's subsidiary, or a new company, can enter to hold 7% to 9% of the shares; individually, according to the proportion, he can hold 0.25% to 0.47% of the shares. This way, it will neither affect our decision-making power nor demonstrate our sincerity to Zhou Yi..."

As for whether Anta's shares were actually worth that much money, Ding Shizhong could only say he didn't know; this market was not short of enterprises that faced imminent closure or had already gone bankrupt after a period of glory.

Anyway, just bluff first and deal with the rest later.

Besides, he believed Zhou Yi was a "gambler" just like himself, the kind of person who loved to "take a gamble and turn a bicycle into a motorcycle."

As long as he could show him this PPT, everything would work out!

However, when Zhou Yi started the phone call with Ding Shizhong, hearing this suggestion nearly made him laugh out loud.

Anta shareholders... hmm, the image is a bit too beautiful.

The Anta of the future won't be this "small fry" of today; it will be one of the top giants in the country.

Becoming a shareholder through an endorsement deal—this endorsement battle was truly a stroke of luck.