The Dead｜The Conflict Life of Madman Ye Maozhong: From Melatonin to Fu Baoshi
"Mad Men" Ye Maozhong is gone.
"The person who makes the most money in the advertising planning industry", "the person with the most controversy in the circle", and "the person with the most works in the industry", these three labels all come from the evaluation of Ye Maozhong in the advertising planning industry.
"No gifts for Chinese New Year this year, only Melatonin for gifts", "Everyone on earth knows it", "Visit Hailan House twice a year", these familiar advertising slogans came from Ye Maozhong.
On January 14, Shanghai Ye Maozhong Marketing Planning Co., Ltd.'s WeChat account "Ye Maozhong Planning" announced that Ye Maozhong, the founder of Ye Maozhong Marketing Planning Agency, died of illness in Shanghai on January 13 at the age of 54.
"According to Mr. Ye Maozhong's last wish, everything is kept simple. Mr. Ye Maozhong's family hereby expresses its gratitude to all sectors of society for their concern."
On January 14, Ye Maozhong's disciple Wang Yugang said in an interview with The Paper, "He (Ye Maozhong) is a guiding light for practitioners and has influenced many people, and I am one of them."
Wang Yugang sighed many times in the conversation with the surging journalists, but finally said, "(Ye Maozhong) is so open-minded, we should also inherit (his open-mindedness)."
Before the interview, Wang Yugang went to Ye Maozhong's company to lay flowers in his memory.
Wang Yugang recalled that Ye Maozhong said that his favorite song was "Farmers (Mandarin Version)" by the Chinese Hong Kong rock band Beyond.
"What kind of heart is formed, what kind of relationship is formed, a blood and sweat receive a field, do not believe that human feelings have already become weak, do not be afraid to treat people with sincerity and not retain", the lyrics' sighs of hard work and sincere human feelings also take care of Ye Maozhong's life.
"Maybe (lyrics) are what he wants to say." Wang Yugang said that Ye Maozhong named the company's hall Juyi Hall, and employees have always been brothers.
"I don't think many people can compare the splendid level of his life." In the eyes of his disciple Wang Yugang, Ye Maozhong is a person with a temperament, emphasizing affection, righteousness, and sincerity. He is also a very controversial figure, and even more so. A person who has won dignity and established rules in China's advertising industry.
"The Pioneer of China's Advertising Industry"
Ye Maozhong's position in the advertising circle is "similar to the benchmarking figure who founded the school." An advertising industry practitioner who had been in contact with Ye Maozhong told The Paper that, in his opinion, Ye Maozhong was "a commercial genius emerging in the advertising industry". .
Hua Shan, founder of Hua Yuhua, a well-known planning company in the industry, left a message under the mourning message of Ye Maozhong's official WeChat account, saying that the company learned about Ye Maozhong's death during the annual meeting. Known as "the pioneer of China's advertising industry".
The above-mentioned practitioners in the advertising industry believe that "in terms of the scale of operation and development of advertising companies, Ye Maozhong's company is not very large; in terms of the influence of local planning companies' personal IP out of the circle, Ye Maozhong can indeed rank in the forefront."
"No competition, one-off price, and one-time full payment to start work", Ye Maozhong is not like Party B in the eyes of many people in the circle, "he is Party A's Party A".
Wang Yugang emphasized that this rule has been set since Ye Maozhong was not big.
Ye Maozhong has launched a number of successful advertising planning cases with a short and powerful planning style, creating conflicts, and grasping the memory points.
In 1989, Ye Maozhong used only a budget of 50,000 yuan to shoot an advertisement of "one shot and six goals" for the Taizhou company Chunlan Air Conditioning, which was broadcast on CCTV.
Since then, he has officially entered the advertising industry.
In 1997, Ye Maozhong founded his own advertising company in Beijing, and successively served many brands such as Arctic fleece thermal underwear, real kung fu fast food, Qi brand men's clothing, etc., which greatly improved the popularity and sales performance of these brands.
He created advertising slogans that are familiar to the public, such as Arctic Velvet's "Everyone on Earth Knows", Ganji.com's "Ganji.com, everything is available", Fu Yanjie's "washing is healthier", Hengyuanxiang's "Hengyuanxiang, Yangyangyang" "etc.
Among them, "real kung fu" is one of the classic cases regarded by industry insiders.
"True Kung Fu" was formerly a "Double Seed" company founded in Dongguan. Under the planning services of Ye Maozhong, it has transformed into "Chinese fast food" and focused on Chinese nutritious fast food.
"Real Kung Fu" has developed rapidly after its successful transformation. In 6 years, it has expanded from a few small stores in Dongguan to 464 directly-operated stores across the country, becoming the first brand of Chinese fast food chain in the country, and launched the name of Chinese nutritious fast food.
Ye Maozhong has a number of industry honors.
From 1997 to 2000, Ye Maozhong was rated as one of the top ten planners of Chinese enterprises; in 2001, he was rated as one of the top ten most influential people in Chinese marketing; Named as China's top ten advertising company managers; in 2004, he was selected as one of the 25 influential figures in China's marketing process, and was selected as "China's top 50 creative people"; in 2005, he was selected as one of China's top ten marketing experts.
According to the recollection of his disciple Wang Yugang, Ye Maozhong publishes books almost every year.
Ye Maozhong has been in the industry for many years, and has successively published many books such as "16 Key Words of Marketing", "12 Methodologies of Marketing", "Conflict", summed up his more than 20 years of practical experience in local planning, and discussed the methods of local marketing. .
not afraid of controversy
Ye Maozhong's characteristic advertising style also aroused heated discussions for a time.
During the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the "brainwashing advertisements" planned by Ye Maozhong's team - Mafengwo advertising "Why should you launch Mafengwo first before traveling", as well as "Do you know", "Do you really know?", " Are you sure you know?", "Are you really sure you know?" in prime-time spots.
This marketing method has caused controversy. Some people questioned that the lines are brainwashed shouting and PPT-style repetition, which lacks artistic beauty.
Screenshot of the official website of "Ye Maozhong Conflict Marketing"
In response, Ye Maozhong once responded: "When advertising is put into the stage of the World Cup, the most feared thing is perfectionism without any conflict and waves."
In an interview with the media, he said: "In front of the World Cup hotspot that has been seen in 4 years, we must distract people's attention and let them remember us and our products. We can't be content with just doing normal advertising. Support the brand. The key to the reputation is the product strength. The stronger the product's ability to resolve consumer conflicts, the higher the consumer's reputation and viscosity for the brand. On the contrary, if the product is not good, the more touching and beautiful the advertisement is, the better the brand will be. An overdraft, isn't it?"
"It is understandable to use the most effective method to achieve commercial purposes." His understanding of advertising, in addition to the information conveyed by the advertisement itself, pays more attention to the change of information on user behavior.
After the advertisement was launched, Mafengwo's daily activity and downloads surged, which he believes is a sign of a successful advertisement.
"The president of Zhihu, Mafengwo, and investor Xu Xin are very satisfied with the results. Judging from the Baidu index, downloads and other data, as well as the phenomenon of online disputes, we have already made a huge splash in the World Cup traffic pool." Ye Maozhong once said in a media interview.
"From the day he (Ye Maozhong) advertised, there was controversy because he challenged the entire Western-style advertising system by himself." Wang Yugang believes that Ye Maozhong is not afraid of controversy, on the contrary, Ye Maozhong hopes that "the bigger the controversy, the better." Hopefully the storm will come more violently."
Conflict and Calm in Ye Maozhong
The last two years of Ye Maozhong's life, according to Wang Yugang's understanding, were spent in landscape painting and calligraphy.
"Throughout these years, I have been doing marketing planning, painting, and sketching in famous mountains and rivers in most of the world. At the same time, I am constantly collecting the works of ancient and modern masters. "Ye Maozhong once wrote in a self-report on the public account of "Ye Maozhong Planning" in 2020.
At the age of four, Ye Maozhong's father's casual painting in his childhood influenced Ye Maozhong's life.
The love for painting runs through the two stages of primary school and junior high school. At the age of 18, he was admitted to the Jiangsu Provincial Drama School for the stage art major. The painting and calligraphy teacher is Tai Qiyou, a student of Fu Baoshi.
"I do collections, and the first collection I bought was Fu Baoshi's paintings. When I painted landscapes, I also liked to use boulders, which shows the profound influence of the two teachers on me." Ye Maozhong wrote in his autobiography.
Ye Maozhong said that when a person lives in the world and has something he really likes, it is really interesting to live.
The interesting things in the world, such as poetry, pictures, and philosophy, are often useless.
Reciting useless poems, making useless paintings, reading useless books, but because of this, life is more enjoyable.
"It's not for useless things, so why send a lifetime of life".
I am grateful for the paintings, and have reserved an open mind space for myself.
Gain an inner calm and leisure.
Artist Tang Zheming once wrote, "Lao Ye (Ye Maozhong)'s collection is mainly composed of modern masters such as Fu Baoshi, Xu Beihong, Huang Binhong, etc., and is very well-known in the circle. Many years ago, a famous auction company in the north auctioned a famous work by Huang Binhong with a sky-high price. "Small Scenery of the South Peak", he once captured the fierce battle, which made him famous for a while."
In October last year, the "Ye Maozhong Painting Exhibition" was held at the Long Museum (West Bund), the curator Liu Yiqian, the founder of the Long Museum, once wrote, "I have interacted more, and I found that he (Ye Maozhong) is a person who is not good at expressing himself. All the thoughts of expressing and communicating are used in planning enterprises or giving lessons to enterprises. From then on, I know that he is a simple person besides liking art.”
According to the public account of "Ye Maozhong Planning", on December 8, 2021, Ye Maozhong made his first appearance at the auction as an artist in the special department of "Grateful for Painting, Ye Maozhong's Ink and Wash World".
The 16 works auctioned were finally sold for 2,386,250 yuan, of which the highest-priced work "Hengling Cangsong Renjia" sold for 448,500 yuan. The final auction proceeds were also donated to public welfare projects.
After being diagnosed with advanced cancer, Ye Maozhong's family "obeyed the doctor's advice" and prevented Ye Maozhong from continuing to work.
During this period, Ye Maozhong often copied Buddhist scriptures and traveled abroad to sketch.
"He (Ye Maozhong) is a very conflicted person and needs inner peace." Wang Yugang explained that in the past two years, Ye Maozhong "put his love between landscape painting and calligraphy to find inner peace."
Wang Yugang recalled that in the past two years, Ye Maozhong had said that he did not plan to advertise any more, and would dedicate the rest of his life to calligraphy and painting.
Wang Yugang recalled that in 2020, when Ye Maozhong was organizing the "Ye Maozhong Painting Exhibition", he often interacted with friends and disciples on WeChat to promote the exhibition.
At that time, the doctor advised Ye Maozhong's family not to let him use his mobile phone excessively, "(the family) asked him to delete everyone's WeChat."
But Ye Maozhong still can't let go of his advertising career.
"How can you stop?" Wang Yugang asked rhetorically.
For every case (project), "he (Ye Maozhong) has to do it himself," Wang Yugang said, from receiving customers, to running the market, and sharing creative ideas, to the final planning of the case, Ye Maozhong will participate.
Wang Yugang recalled, "(Ye Maozhong) said something like, 'Today Ye Maozhong's company is still opening, so my banner will be planted on this land, and I will continue to light this beacon for the industry'. "