yournovel Chapter 78 Motorola Press Conference
Chapter 78 Motorola Press Conference
Wednesday, September 18th.
At seven o'clock in the morning, Li Si'an's phone rang.
"Are you up yet?" Zhou Weidong's voice came through the receiver, half a octave higher than usual.
"Get up."
"Wait at home, I'll come pick you up."
After hanging up the phone, Li Si'an took a shower, changed into a white shirt and dark pants. She combed her hair in front of the mirror, then felt it was too deliberate, so she tousled it a little with her hand.
Tang Yun is right, there's nothing to be nervous about.
But my heart was still beating a little faster.
At 8:30, Zhou Weidong's Santana was parked in front of the store.
Li Si'an opened the car door and got in. Zhou Weidong was wearing a dark blue suit and tie, and his hair was neatly styled. He looked much more energetic than usual.
"Uncle, you look great in that outfit."
"Stop being so cheeky." Zhou Weidong started the car. "There are quite a few media people here today, so don't embarrass me."
Don't worry.
The car drove towards Jianguomen. In September, Beijing's sky was a clear, bright blue early in the morning, and the sunlight shining from the east made the locust tree leaves on both sides of Chang'an Avenue gleam.
Li Si'an leaned back in the passenger seat, watching the street scene recede outside the window. She mentally reviewed the few sentences she had prepared for the press release—it wouldn't be long, less than two minutes in total.
When I arrived at the Motorola building, I gave my name to the receptionist and received my name tag.
The elevator went up to the twelfth floor. Zhao Hongyu's assistant was already waiting at the elevator entrance and led them into a small lounge next door.
"Mr. Zhao is on the phone with the Asia-Pacific region and would like you to wait here for a moment. The press conference starts at 10:00 AM, and I will come to call you five minutes early."
Li Si'an nodded. The lounge was small, with a sofa, a coffee table, several bottles of mineral water, and a plate of snacks on it.
Zhou Weidong sat down, took out his cigarette case, looked at the "No Smoking" sign on the wall, and then put it back.
"You're... unable to sit still or stand still?" Li Si'an chuckled.
"Stop talking to me like that. Look at yourself, what are you doing, crossing your legs and shaking them like that?"
Li Si'an looked down—his legs were indeed shaking. He straightened his feet and took a deep breath.
At 9:55, the assistant knocked on the door. "Mr. Li, Mr. Zhou, the press conference is about to begin. I'll take you there."
They followed their assistant out of the lounge, turned a corner, and pushed open a glass door.
The press conference hall was quite large, and the audience was packed with people, with several cameras set up in the back. On the stage stood a dark blue backdrop, printed with the Motorola logo and the words "Motorola, bringing hearts closer."
The assistant led them to seats on the side of the first row. Several people were sitting nearby, dressed in suits, and judging from their name tags, they were from the Asia-Pacific region. He nodded to them, and they nodded back.
At 10:00 AM sharp, Zhao Hongyu took the stage.
He was wearing a suit today, and his hair was neatly combed. He stood in front of the microphone, tested his voice, and then spoke.
"Good afternoon, friends from the media. Thank you all for attending the launch of Motorola's new global slogan today."
He paused for a moment.
"Motorola has always been committed to making communication easier and more efficient. But the slogan we're releasing today isn't about communication itself, but about the purpose of communication."
He glanced at the audience.
The slogan is: "Motorola, bringing hearts closer."
A series of camera shutter clicks rang out from the audience.
"The creator of this slogan is eighteen years old this year. He is a freshman college student, a musician, and also the director and lead actor of one of Motorola's 'GG' films."
Zhao Hongyu glanced to the side of the stage.
"Let's welcome Li Si'an."
Li Si'an stood up and walked onto the stage.
The spotlight shone on him, a little dazzling. He walked to the microphone; the audience was a sea of dark figures, their faces obscured, only the red light on the camera lens was visible.
He took a breath.
"Hello everyone, I'm Li Si'an."
There was a moment of silence in the audience.
"I am very grateful to Motorola for the invitation, which gave me the opportunity to participate in the creation of this global slogan. As an 18-year-old, I feel very honored to be able to contribute my creativity to a top international telecommunications company like Motorola."
He paused.
"Motorola has always been committed to making communication easier and freer for people. I believe that good communication tools not only deliver information, but also emotions. This is also the idea behind my slogan."
"Thanks."
He bowed and stepped off the stage.
Back in his seat, Zhou Weidong turned his head and muttered, "Not bad."
Li Si'an didn't reply. His heart was still beating fast, but his hands were no longer trembling.
Zhao Hongyu continued to host the following segment.
The Asia-Pacific representative took the stage and spoke for a few minutes in English, essentially saying that Motorola has always valued innovation, and that choosing an 18-year-old to create a global slogan is a testament to this spirit of innovation.
The translator stood by and translated the sentences into Chinese, while the reporters in the audience took notes.
Zhao Hongyu returned to the stage, added a few words, answered several questions from reporters about Motorola's market strategy, and then announced that it would be time to answer questions from reporters.
Reporters in the audience raised their hands one after another, throwing questions at the Asia Pacific president—about Motorola's future product plans, the progress of the Tianjin factory, and its layout in the Chinese market, among other things.
The Asia-Pacific president answered questions into the microphone one by one, while the translator translated them into Chinese sentence by sentence. Li Si'an sat in the front row, listening to the questions he couldn't get a word in, but he was quite relaxed.
After seven or eight minutes, the topic gradually came to an end. Zhao Hongyu looked at the audience and said, "Does anyone else have a question?"
The first person to stand up was a male reporter wearing glasses, whose name tag read "Beijing Youth Daily".
"I'd like to ask Li Si'an, you're only eighteen years old this year, how did you come up with this slogan?"
Li Si'an took the microphone.
"My inspiration actually came from Nokia's slogan 'Connecting People.' The direct translation of this English phrase is 'Connecting people.'"
He paused for a moment, then continued, "Because I'm a musician myself, I habitually like parallelism and rhyme when I write lyrics. Later, I thought about it, what is the ultimate purpose of communication between people? Isn't it just to bring hearts closer together?"
"Following this line of thought, I came up with a matching phrase: 'Connecting people and bringing hearts closer.' To match the name 'Motorola,' I simplified it to 'Bringing hearts closer.' Nokia focused on connection, while Motorola focused on results and purpose."
A flurry of camera shutters clicked from the audience.
The second reporter stood up; she was a short-haired female reporter with a name tag that read "Beijing Evening News".
"You mentioned in your answer that you're a musician. Do you work on GG creative projects while making music?"
Li Si'an laughed. "You could say that. At the time, I was filming the music video for my album's title track, 'Fairy Tale.' After filming, I realized that this music video was particularly suitable for Motorola to use as a promotional tool, so I thought about whether I could show it to them."
"Since we're going to show this to others, we need a presentable slogan. So I came up with this one from Nokia's slogan 'Connecting people'—'Bringing hearts closer.'"
Some people in the audience were whispering among themselves.
Another reporter stood up; he was a young man, but I couldn't tell which media outlet he was from.
"When will your album be released?"
"This afternoon," Li Si'an said, "it will be available at all major music and audio stores simultaneously. My album will be released whenever Motorola's GG movie airs. If you like the songs after watching GG, just go to the store and buy a copy."
Some people in the audience laughed. Li Si'an smiled inwardly as well; her uncle's media liars were quite good at seizing opportunities.
When the press conference ended, Zhao Hongyu walked over, his eyes filled with admiration, and patted Li Si'an on the shoulder.
"Young man, if Nokia had seen today's press conference, they'd probably be kicking themselves."
Li Si'an was taken aback. "Why?"
"What you just said on stage, 'Connecting People, Bridging Hearts,' isn't that a very complete and beautifully worded slogan?"
He smiled smugly and said, "It's just that we stole the second half of the sentence."
Li Si'an laughed along. "President Zhao, these are the words I came up with after signing the contract with you last time. Since you're willing to help us get the MV onto CCTV, I have to do a good job for you."
Zhao Hongyu looked at him with satisfaction and nodded, then said, "Yes, that's thoughtful of you. You can call me if you need anything. Think about the internship I mentioned last time, please. It doesn't have to be full-time, part-time is fine too."
"Okay, Mr. Zhao, I'll think about it carefully later."
Zhou Weidong walked up from behind, holding a stack of press releases, and whispered to Li Si'an, "Let's go, Xu Zhongming called. He's invited a few radio DJs to dinner tonight, and we have to go and join them."
Li Si'an glanced back at the backdrop on the stage. A deep blue background with white lettering—"Motorola, Bringing Hearts Closer."
He turned around and followed his uncle outside.