In early April, good news also came from the offline promotion of “Plants vs. Zombies Online”.
Coca-Cola selected fifteen of the most popular game characters from "Plants vs. Zombies Online", designed them into brand-new bottle decorations, and printed them on the latest Coca-Cola production.
Since Coca-Cola itself builds factories all over the world, when they started to promote the "Plants vs. Zombies" special edition Coca-Cola products, it was a very powerful hot start. After the head office determined the packaging and provided the production materials to all bottling plants, all The Coca-Cola production lines all started producing newly packaged products at the same time. As soon as the products came off the production line, they were immediately shipped to the markets within the coverage area, and the offline distribution was extremely fast.
Whether it is China, the United States, European countries, or even Southeast Asia and Africa, as long as there is a Coca-Cola production line in the market, the newly packaged Coca-Cola will be put on the shelves immediately.
The new packaging of Coca-Cola, from cans to bottled drinks of various sizes, still uses their unique red color. On the 360-degree circular packaging, about 50% of the area is used to display Coca-Cola’s huge LOGO, and 20% of the area is used. It is used to display the product’s ingredient list, nutritional label and other information, and the remaining 30% is given to the cartoon material of Plants vs. Zombies.
Moreover, it is worth mentioning that the 30% of the space used to display cartoon images is reserved for fifteen different cartoon images, and below the Coca-Cola LOGO, which occupies half of the area, is the most classic one in "Plants vs. Zombies Online" There are two fixed images, one is a pea shooter and the other is an ordinary zombie. These two images are just below the Coca-Cola LOGO. Therefore, this basically ensures that no matter how the bottle is placed, you can see "Plants vs. Zombies Online" 》visual elements.
Nowadays, almost everyone who has come into contact with computers has come into contact with "Plants vs. Zombies Online", so they are very familiar with the various images in the game. However, before, they all saw it on the Internet and through the computer screen. These flat two-dimensional images, but now, these images suddenly appear in their lives, and they are three-dimensional and touchable physical products, so they suddenly stand out among many offline soft drinks.
The cooperation between the image of "Plants vs. Zombies Online" and Coca-Cola has obviously promoted offline consumers. Coca-Cola consumers who do not like this game or have never heard of it will not give up just because Coca-Cola has changed its packaging. Consumption, however, those consumers who rarely drink Coca-Cola or occasionally drink Coca-Cola, because they see the familiar cartoon image of "Plants vs. Zombies Online", are easily affected by the familiar elements and have the desire to purchase.
A lot of actual data supports this.
Because the Coca-Cola packaging uses fifteen different cartoon characters, it triggered a collecting craze as soon as it was launched!
A large number of consumers around the world have begun to collect Coca-Cola unconsciously. Some people buy bottled drinks, and then carefully remove the packaging strips of bottled drinks, lay them out and store them. Some people just buy cans without drinking them and put them at home. In the display window, there are cartoon images collected one after another.
The most interesting thing is that Makino Technology once taught Coca-Cola a little trick. Although it decided to use fifteen cartoon images, the frequency of use of these fifteen cartoon images must not be evenly distributed. It cannot produce 1.5 billion bottles. Each one There are 100 million bottles of cartoon images, which is too mediocre. On the contrary, it is necessary to increase the appearance rate of certain images, and then reduce the appearance rate of some images.
In other words, among the fifteen images, at least two images must be relatively rare. Only in this way can the user's desire to collect be promoted.
This was the inspiration that Li Mu got from a snack in his childhood. That snack randomly contained a cartoon image card of the 108 Water Margin generals. However, several cartoon images are extremely rare. In Li Mu's impression, the most difficult to find is Lin Chong. A pack of snacks costing 50 cents. If Lin Chong is issued, the card alone will sell for at least 50 yuan, or even more. The reason is that many people have a subconscious obsessive-compulsive disorder that forces them to see This kind of series of products will make you want to collect them, but as long as you don’t collect them all, the more you collect, the more obsessed you will be. 108 will collect 10 products, and you will feel that it doesn’t matter, but when you collect 107, you will become obsessed. Huge anxiety and anticipation.
Therefore, Coca-Cola also deliberately controlled the appearance rate of the two cartoon characters and greatly reduced their appearance rate.
Among them, the one with the smallest proportion is the nut wall.
The simple and cute Nut Wall has always been a very popular image in Plants vs. Zombies, especially loved by women. Therefore, many women even spend a lot of money online to buy Coca-Cola packaged in Nut Wall.
When Coca-Cola from the "Plants vs. Zombies Online" series became popular all over the world, a bottle of Coca-Cola packaged in a nut wall on Taobao was already selling for 80 yuan.
The European and American markets are even more frightening, with the United States the most.
I don’t know why, but the United States may be the country with the most collectors in the world. Some people collect dozens of tons of various rocks, some collect thousands of beer bottles around the world, and some collect stickers on various glass bottles. People are desperately collecting all kinds of weird things, not to mention Coca-Cola, a popular drink that almost every American loves to death.
Therefore, on eBay, a bottle of the American version of Nut Wall Coca-Cola cans can be sold for 60 US dollars, which is almost 500 yuan. The other country’s version ranges from 40 US dollars to 20 US dollars. Apart from the local version, it is the most expensive. It's the Canadian version, and since they're all in English, there's basically not much difference in packaging.
A few days after the "Plants vs. Zombies" version of Coca-Cola was launched, according to global terminal consumption statistics, Coca-Cola's sales in these days increased by 23% compared to usual!
This is a figure that makes Coca-Cola ecstatic and Pepsi-Cola banging its head against the wall.
A globally popular cartoon game can actually burst out with such a powerful vitality in the physical field, which really shocked everyone in the physical industry.
At the same time, McDonald's customized dolls have also begun to be shipped from Chinese OEMs. The exquisite "Plants vs. Zombies & McDonald's" themed dolls also use the same fifteen cartoon characters as Coca-Cola, and also use the same The hunger marketing model.
After these customized dolls pass the factory inspection, they are sent directly to McDonald's branches around the world. Since all dolls are customized from Chinese manufacturers, McDonald's distribution speed is much slower than Coca-Cola.
However, according to McDonald's feedback to Makino Technology, McDonald's branches in various countries have their own raw materials and material partners. From potatoes to ketchup, from chicken to hamburger buns, they are basically supplied locally. In addition, , their display materials and packaging materials are also supplied locally, so although the dolls are not yet available in all stores, all display materials are already in place.
McDonald's, a highly standardized company, has already realized the local supply of all raw materials. Take the Huaxia Market as an example. There are many companies that supply bread and cold and fresh ingredients to McDonald's stores all over the country. Although they Companies are different, but they all strictly implement the supply standards set by McDonald's, so they can ensure that global quality control is basically the same.
Under such premise, all McDonald's display materials and packaging materials in the Chinese market are also provided by local companies, such as boxes and wrapping paper for burgers, French fries, chicken nuggets, etc., as well as light box displays and menus. Display and store display materials.
Based on this standardized chain of local material supply, McDonald's stores around the world have completed new event displays. The "Plants vs. Zombies Online" series of meal packages, event posters for the series of dolls, and other materials have already been launched in major stores. Consumers have already received this news and have an early understanding of the visual effects of the products in this event through the display materials.
Currently, a large number of users in stores around the world ask when the "Plants vs. Zombies Online" themed package will be released every day. Many die-hard McDonald's fans or die-hard "Plants vs. Zombies Online" fans are waiting to collect McDonald's "Plants vs. Zombies Online" series of dolls.
The first offline expansion of "Plants vs. Zombies" achieved great results, and also allowed people in the business field around the world to see the influence of Huaxia Cartoon. For a time, even people in the Chinese animation industry were deeply impressed by "Plants vs. Zombies" Inspired by "Zombies Online", although "Plants vs. Zombies Online" is just a game, there are no comics and no animation.
However, precisely because "Plants vs. Zombies Online" has already had a huge influence on a global scale, many companies in the cartoon industry have begun to communicate with Makino Technology. Almost every Chinese animation company hopes to buy "Plants vs. Zombies Online" "Zombies Online" animation copyright, based on "Plants vs. Zombies Online" to produce comics and animations of the same name, Li Mu rejected all of them without exception.
The roots of Chinese cartoons are bad in Li Mu’s eyes, at least for now. Many animation companies are not making animations with all their heart, but are deceiving state subsidies. Therefore, a lot of junk content has emerged in the domestic cartoon market. Not only does it lack any innovation, it is actually much weaker than the cartoons of more than ten years ago.
After rejecting the domestic animation companies, Japanese and American animation companies have also come forward. They also hope to obtain the copyright of "Plants vs. Zombies Online" and then develop a brand new story based on this.
This time Li Mu did not refuse.
The animation level in Japan and the United States represents the top level in the industry, so Li Mu decided to use a planned bidding method to conduct fair competition for the copyright derivatives in the three directions of "Plants vs. Zombies Online": comics, animated dramas, and animated movies.
The premise of the bidding is that no matter who Makino Technology chooses to cooperate with, it will not license the copyright to the other party. Instead, it will bear all the derivative development costs and then share 20% of the net profit with the other party.
The way of competition is to let them come up with detailed plans. Makino Technology will directly select partners based on the quality of the plan. At the same time, Makino Technology will also sign a confidentiality agreement with them. For all plans, Makino Technology will not It will be leaked and will not be reshaped or used in any form to ensure the fairness of the bidding.
For example, if Pixar wins the bid for the cartoon movie copyright cooperation of "Plants vs. Zombies Online", then the two parties will finalize a production cost, such as $50 million, and all of the $50 million will be borne by Makino Technology. In the future, the film will be produced After completion, 20% of all net profits obtained will be shared with Pixar, but the most important thing is that Pixar only gets 20% of the profit share, but the copyright has nothing to do with him. The copyright will always be in Li Mu's own hands. .
It is extremely popular online and is killing everyone offline. If comics and animations continue to bloom, "Plants vs. Zombies" will definitely become the most popular cartoon IP in the world this year, and even in the next few years!
(End of chapter)