Business Promotion Wizard in Shenzhen

By Cheng Cheng

Ding Shiyuan, a 19-year-old boy, is now recognized as a genius for business promotion and show organization. His father runs a medical device company with assets of more than 10 million in Shenzhen and his mother has high taste for aesthetics. The blueprint for his life drawn by his parents was conventional enough: good education through a top senior high school and a top college and then a decent job.

But the junior did not follow the blueprint. His performance at school before he was 12 could be summarized as naughty and rebellious. One night he came home at one oclock am and faced the music of his father. The junior explained that he had planned a birthday party for a classmate. His father asked, “If you know how to make plans, why dont you make a good plan for your life?” the junior did not know how to answer this question.

Two days later, his mother accidentally saw a stack of pictures of the birthday party on the desk in his room while tidying up the room. She was deeply impressed by the pictures. The mother became aware of the sons talent in promotion and organization. She had a discussion with her husband over the matter. A few days later they learned that their son directed his class in a singing performance and helped the class win the first prize at a school competition.

During the summer, Ding Shiyuan enrolled himself into a training course of business promotion and fashion. He was the youngest student at the adult training center.

His first success came after he watched a beach show. Some of the audiences left early. Ding thought the show was really dull, but he did not depart. He found the boss of the show and analyzed why the show was a failure and made a few suggestions. The boss was impressed and invited him to help direct the show for the next week.

The young planner worked three nights and came up with a business plan. The show was a success and he got paid 500 yuan.

Ding Shiyuan began to receive calls and he helped in all the ways he could imagine. He never mentioned payment but he got paid anyway. One month his payments surpassed 2,000 yuan. But he felt that his biggest reward was not money, but experience and business friends.

In November 2005, he handed his resume in to China Fashion, a newspaper which was recruiting journalists in Shenzhen. The employment officials sized the tall teenager up suspiciously and asked how old he was actually. He said he was 14, but his qualifications surprised them all. He was recruited to sell advertisement space in the newspaper in his spare time. Ding Shiyuan began to make calls. By the end of the year, a garment business in Zhejiang expressed intention to buy some advertisement space for its upcoming spring collection. Ding sold more than a newspaper space for advertisement. He tried his promotion ideas. With the garment manufacturers authorization, Ding organized and staged a fashion show. The garment boss came all the way from Zhejiang to attend the gala and was surprised and delighted to see models from Hong Kong. After the show, the boss promised to buy 300,000 worth advertisements in the newspaper. The garment business later informed Ding that thanks to the promotion show and the subsequent advertisement, the garment business got better than expected orders for the spring garments.

With the commission, Ding Shiyuan visited Hong Kong. With the recommendation of some friends, he was able to study with some experienced masters in Hong Kong. The study tour opened his eyes. He made up his mind about his future: he wanted to work as a broker in the entertainment market, organize big events, and develop creative business. After back to Shenzhen, he participated in some influential events. He became better known.

One May morning in 2007, he received a call from a Hong Kong-based entertainment company which asked if he would organize a singing show in Shenzhen. Ding thought fast: “Are you talking about the singing show of Jacky Cheung?” The answer was affirmative. Ding was very excited. He tapped into resources, negotiated about venues, found sponsors and presented a 13-page event plan.The show was staged on the evening of November 29, 2007 and attended by more than 30,000 enthusiasts. It was a huge success.

Ding became a business star. He was much sought after by big entertainment businesses. And he planned some very successful shows on television. In September 2008, he became a student at the Shenzhen Institute of Information Technology. Shortly after he was in college, he was commissioned to find 1,000 models from foreign countries to attend the 20th Miss Model of the World Contest in China. Ding Shiyuan realized that it was a golden opportunity to establish himself firmly as a top organizer in entertainment business. He registered a company and began to work. He attended classes in daytime and worked at night. In order to save time, he slept in the office.

In October, Ding Shiyuan was worried about the absence of 16 models. He knew these supermodels meant huge amount of appearance money. If they did not attend the occasion, the whole event would lack luster. Ding wrote to Mr. Suha Aupayli, the founder of the event, for help. A few days later, Mr. Suha Aupayli replied that all the models invited had agreed to appear.

A few days later, a teacher at the college asked Ding why he was so busy. Ding explained what he was doing. The teacher urged Ding to promote the academy in the production. This gave Ding an idea about the ideal venue. The academy would be an ideal venue for the contest. The venue cost could be minimized and fellow students could serve as volunteers, which would bring a lot of favorite attention to the academy. Pretty soon, he enlisted more than 100 volunteers.

On November 18, 1,000 models came to the academy. For three days, students and models interacted and models presence added color to the academy.

After the event, students at the academy grew more enthusiastic about art. A student organization came into being with Ding Shiyuan as its organizer. The group aimed to help Shenzhen 26th Summer Universiade. Ding Shiyuan is as busy as ever. Nowadays, he is busy planning for two more events. In order to be efficient, he has bought himself a new car, which enables him to run between classrooms and his office.□