How to be a Born Survivor in Business with Bear Grylls

Text by Tang Bolun, Wu Chenpiao 唐博倫 吳晨飄

Translation by Zhu Yaguang 朱亞光

How to be a Born Survivor in Business with Bear Grylls

跟著貝爾商海求生

Text by Tang Bolun, Wu Chenpiao 唐博倫 吳晨飄

Translation by Zhu Yaguang 朱亞光

After being discovered in 2006, Bear Grylls1began to set out on a prestigious broadcasting journey. On his program Man vs. Wild, he ran headlong into all sorts of harsh environments pushing him to the limit, and he survived by virtue of his resourcefulness and some simple tools like a dagger, a string of rope, a piece of flint and the like. The show helped him gain over one billion fans worldwide. In fact, there are certain reasons behind his success.

Outdoor Survival Skills

It is the nature-driven mentality that contributes to the boom of the outdoor recreation industry. Yet, not everyone is a guru of the outdoors, most are merely an amateur of the outdoors.

In Man vs. Wild, the ever intrepid Bear taught the audience how to find food, drink water and stay safe in the wild, for example, how to save energy and find water and food in the desert, and how to obtain edible foods and how to navigate through a forest.

The show virtually satisfied the needs of its target audience, and laid a solid foundation for the popularization of outdoor recreation industry.

It brings the bloody battle for survival to the viewer’s living room. Do you find it nauseating to eat animal innards and even maggots?

The audience may not like it, but it doesn’t mean that they don’t like to watch other people do it. Bear was literally the maestro of magnetism. For example, he once skinned an antelope to make a sleeping bag, used its intestine as a rope, and ate its heart raw; he also ate raw weevil larvae, and sucked the bone marrow of a dead deer, and drank the water squeezed from elephant dung.

Scenes that challenge both mind and stomach alike ended up being a real ratings grabber and always fodder for hot debate while expanding the potential of business development. Although the show might have been deliberately designed to be controversial, it was favored by producers, advertisers and sponsors, and particularly by the audience, who even claimed Bear to be the man standing atop the food chain.

Totally unscripted and filled with unexpected mishaps, Bear’s show was lauded as never repetitive nor conventional, and appropriate for sustainable broadcasting.

For example, one episode would be set on a desert island, the next a snowy mountain, and the next a virgin forest. Besides encountering poisonous snakes, piranha, waterfalls and cliffs during shooting, he would narrate his solutions while overcoming every challenge that nature threw at him. It was those unpredictable and unforgettable scenes that shocked the heart and the senses.

The Celebrity Effect

Knowing that, after a while, the audience may find it boring to watch a one-man show, Bear started to make changes. He invited mega-celebs to guest star on the show with the intent of forming a Super IP,2to create a panentertainment market targeting outdoor adventures, and to popularize the outdoor recreation industry.

With all the celebrity, would the mild be preferred to wild? No. Bear kept his “wild” ways.

In Running Wild with Bear Grylls, one-time basketball sensation Shaquille O’Neal was offered a piece of bloody elk placenta as dinner; and the Fast and Furious lead Michelle Rodriquez, was instructed to cook rats in her own urine; and Almost Famous lead Kate Hudson was persuaded to eat ants.

One reason for the popularity of the show is that the audience get to celebrities in every imaginable disgusting or embarrassing scenario, which differs greatly from their usual brave and heroic image.

Meanwhile, the celebrity effect has increased the show’s advertising power exponentially, for example vast numbers of products are placed strategically throughout a single hour-long episode. In 2014, Bear endorses a wellknown outdoor sports equipment brand, Camel, while his endorsement fee reaches into the tens of millions of dollars.

Bear also has deals with Parajet, a British company, in developing a portable aerial vehicle. And subsequently, the product went on to hot sales among many adventurers and travelers who are fond of trying the next big thing.

Moreover, Bear has deals with many tourist attractions.In September 2015, Bear’s show, Survivor Games, on which he invited some Chinese stars such as Cecelia Han and Zhang Wei, was shot in Libo, a scenic spot in Guizhou Province. Right after the show was released, over 50 travel agencies went to Libo County to take scout around, which immediately enhanced the popularity and influence of the Libo tourist destination.

But this was just Bear dipping his toe into the Chinese water.

Beyond that, Bear also challenged other Chinese celebs, such as Fu Yuanhui (female swimmer), Han Geng (singer & actor), Ivy Chen (actress), Li Yanhong (Internet entrepreneur) and Yao Ming (basketball star). In the show, Fu Yuanhui, who brought home the copper in swimming at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, was led to a raging river where she waded into the water, crossed a single-plank bridge, ate raw snake meat, and drank snake blood, all of which brought out her soft side; Li Yanhong, an engineer and a technical expert, was guided to eat larva and raw yak meat, all of which brought out his wild side; and Fan Zhiyi, a professional football player, ate live marmots with Bear, and was hung under a helicopter that circulated 50 meters over a lake, all of which challenged his psychological mettle.

After the show was released, it immediately went viral on all major social network sites, which was a real win-win for Bear, who landed endorsement deals, and the celebrities got what they were looking for.

The unique charm of Bear’s Super IP format is the“wildness” device, as the program emphasizes the fear factor of famous stars when they take their turn munching on “nature’s treats” in the course of trying to be a survivor.

After working with the celebrities, Bear turned his attention to the education market. He started “Bear Grylls Survival Summer Camp” to target the general public.

In 2012, the Survival Training Camp launched its first course named “Five-day Outdoor Survival Training” in Scotland. The camp setting had all the same geographical environment found in the wild, with various types of courses available, including “24-hour Family Course,” as well as a “Five-day-and-four-night Extreme Course.” All the courses were sorted out by Bear according to his own experience of serving in the army and his adventures on his shows. Moreover, all the group leaders were top-notch professionals, hand-selected by Bear himself.

During one of the training camp courses on a desert island of the coast of Scotland, instructors taught the students how to cross a gorge with a single rope, how to eat the moss usually consumed by a deer, how to set up a shelter by using a discarded fishing net and weeds, how to make a spring trap, how to give first-aid, how to dissect a hare and how to keep yourself warm after drowning.

Afterwards, the Survival Training Camp entered the United States, Australia and other Western countries, setting off a craze in the outdoor recreation industry.

Go Adventuring with Bear in China

After his stellar success in Europe and America, plus the favorable market response of his previous show, Survival Game, Bear plans on continuing the march towards China.

Xu Zheng was the first Chinese entrepreneur to collaborate with Bear. In 2014, Xu Zheng founded “Outing Man,” which mainly focuses on outdoor lifestyle and education.

At present, “Bear Grylls Survival Summer Camp”powered by Outing Man has three major categories–adult course, family course and extreme course, with incremental marketing strategies being employed to advertise to target demographics in China, which center on the mid-to-high end casual users. Still, the courses carry an unusually high price tage. Taking the 24-hour training camp as an example, the cost for an adult course with ten people in a group is 3,280 RMB per person, and the cost for a family course made up of ten families is 3,980 RMB per family (one parent and one child only).

All the activities in the course, such as swimming across the river, making fire, purifying water, rock climbing and prompt drop, not only provide opportunities for the students see what life is like when they are pushed to limit, but also have massive market value.

And it surely means more than just putting the televised Bear Grylls Survival Summer Camp into real life.

First of all, Mr. Grylls and Xu Zheng’s team continued to make deals with tourist attractions, and they independently developed an outdoor travel route full of distinctive local flair and suitable for field survival activities, for example, diving is the theme for Hainan route, and wild life protection is the key for South African route. Up to now, apart from five overseas travel routes, two campsites have been set up in Sinkiang and Hainan.

Secondly, they have reached out to China’s education market, which has the greatest potential for development, and developed an outdoor education system for children, known as the Wildkid Academy. By means of the selection of sites and routes, Wildkid Academy has included 18 subjects, such as astronomy, physics and oceanography in its experimental activities.

Compared with China’s traditional test-oriented education that is all about cramming a kid’s mind with facts, such experimental teaching is more acceptable and favored by the public.

In these programs, Bear provides a complete range of technical services, and he also introduces many suits outfitted with high-end professional equipment, including headlamps, tents and water bottles, from his sponsoring brands. It is worth noting that the annual fee for the outdoor education programs reaches up to approximately 100,000 RMB, yet many Chinese parents still rush to sign up; it looks like Mr. Gyrlls has hit upon a real cash cow.

In addition, a whole outdoor recreation industry chain centering on Bear’s Survival Training Camp has also taken its roots in China. Conceivably, Mr. Gyrlls’ stands to keep the mill running in China long into the future.

(FromJiangsu Commercial News)

Note:

1.Bear Grylls, born on 7 June 1974, is a British adventurer, writer and television presenter from Northern Ireland. He is widely known for his television series Man vs. Wild (2006–2011). Grylls is also involved in a number of wilderness survival television series in the UK, US and China. With his huge popularity across the world, Grylls started his business in outdoor training programs for the public, which turned out to be even more successful.

2.Super IP refers to the IP (Intellectual Property) with great exploitable value, which should not only have long-term vitality and commercial value, but should also contain at least four elements – value, universal elements, storyline and presentation.

在2006年被探索頻道挖掘之后，貝爾開啟了更負盛名的演播人生。在《荒野求生》的各種嚴酷生存環(huán)境下，貝爾利用一把匕首、一根繩子、一塊打火石等簡單工具挑戰(zhàn)生存極限，在全球斬獲超過10億粉絲。貝爾如此受歡迎，其實都是有原因的。

狂野霸氣沖擊感

一種向往回歸自然的心理，鑄就一個龐大的戶外產(chǎn)業(yè)。但并不是所有人都是專業(yè)戶外人員，許多人只是剛?cè)刖值膼酆谜摺?/p>

而在節(jié)目《荒野求生》中，貝爾會教觀眾在荒野中如何解決吃飯、喝水、安全問題。比如，在沙漠中如何保持體力、獲取水和食物；在森林中如何找到可食用的食物、辨別方向等。這些節(jié)目無形中滿足了受眾需求，普及了戶外產(chǎn)業(yè)的群眾基礎(chǔ)。

狂野霸氣。吃動物內(nèi)臟、蛆蟲，惡心嗎？

觀眾不喜歡，但不代表他們不喜歡看別人吃。貝爾恰恰抓住他們的獵奇心理。

比如，把羊皮剝下來當睡袋，用腸子當繩子，生吃心臟,生吃象鼻蟲幼蟲,吮吸鹿的尸體骨髓和象糞水等。

這些挑戰(zhàn)心理和胃口雙重極限的東西，增加了收視率和話題感，商業(yè)開發(fā)潛力擴大。雖然有套路的嫌疑，但制片方、廣告商、贊助商喜歡，觀眾更是記憶猶新，稱貝爾為“站在食物鏈頂端的男人”。

沒有劇本，意外特別多。貝爾的節(jié)目特點還在于：不重復，不落俗套，可持續(xù)播出，有IP開發(fā)的空間與時間。比如，這次的拍攝地點在荒島，下次在雪山，下下次在原始森林。而且貝爾還會突然遇到蛇、食人魚、瀑布、懸崖等意外，并在解決問題的過程中講述解決方法。

●Li Yanhong, CEO of Baidu, is eating larva in Bear’s show百度CEO李彥宏節(jié)目中生吃幼蟲

●Han Xue, the Chinese actress,is participating in the show “Go Adventuring with Bear”明星韓雪參加《跟著貝爾去冒險》

這些沒有定數(shù)的環(huán)節(jié)增加了畫面沖擊感，每次都能給觀眾帶來不一樣的感官體驗。

貝爺邀明星下海

在預料到觀眾看久了自己一個人在熒幕上表演，會變得乏味時，貝爾開始轉(zhuǎn)變路線：邀請當紅明星，組成超級IP，打造戶外探險的泛娛樂市場，從小眾變成大眾。

有明星的加盟，是不是要換一種方式呢？不。貝爾的招數(shù)還是那么“野”。

在節(jié)目《越野千里》中，貝爾讓籃球明星奧尼爾拿血淋淋的麋鹿胎盤作為晚餐，讓《速度與激情》女主角飾演者米歇爾·羅德里格茲在節(jié)目中用自己的尿液煮老鼠吃，讓《幾近成名》女主角飾演者凱特·哈德森吃螞蟻。

節(jié)目中明星們的各種形態(tài)，讓觀眾看到他們平時英姿颯爽的另一面, 也讓貝爾備受推崇。

明星大咖帶來的粉絲效應，使得節(jié)目的廣告投放量猛漲，有時一個小時的節(jié)目穿插多條廣告。并且，2014年貝爾簽約著名戶外品牌駱駝，其品牌代言費更是高達數(shù)千萬元人民幣。

貝爾與英國Parajet公司合作開發(fā)便攜式飛行器，不少冒險者和嘗鮮者都成為其忠實的用戶。

貝爾和旅游景點合作。2015年9月，貝爾邀約韓雪、大張偉等明星出演的真人秀節(jié)目《跟著貝爾去冒險》就在貴州荔波風景區(qū)取景拍攝。節(jié)目一經(jīng)播出，便吸引了50余家旅行社到荔波考察，使得荔波風景區(qū)的知名度和影響力得到快速攀升。

不過，這只是貝爾在中國的試水。

貝爾還向傅園慧、韓庚、陳意涵、李彥宏、姚明等明星發(fā)起挑戰(zhàn)。傅園慧在奧運會上征服游泳池，貝爾帶她到湍急的河流，涉水過河，過獨木橋，吃生蛇肉，喝蛇血，展現(xiàn)其柔弱的一面；工程師、技術(shù)男形象的李彥宏，貝爾帶他吃幼蟲和生牦牛肉，展現(xiàn)其野性的一面；而足球職業(yè)運動員范志毅，貝爾和他生吃土撥鼠，懸掛在50米高的直升機下環(huán)湖飛行，挑戰(zhàn)其心理承受能力。

節(jié)目播出后，迅速刷爆各大社交網(wǎng)站。貝爾收獲商業(yè)贊助，明星們也各取所需，通過各自的業(yè)務撈金。

貝爾這種超級重口模式的獨特魅力在于，沿用其“野性”的招數(shù)，強調(diào)的是明星們在求生時吃“荒野快餐”所表現(xiàn)出的恐懼心理。

明星之后，貝爾把目光投向教學市場，創(chuàng)辦“貝爾生存訓練營”，做起普通大眾的生意。

2012年，生存訓練營首期課程“五日戶外生存訓練”在蘇格蘭啟動。生存訓練營保留了荒野的地理環(huán)境，所有課程均是貝爾基于服兵役和節(jié)目探險篩選整理而成，包括“24小時家庭課程”“5天4夜極限課程”等多個課程。此外，所有領(lǐng)隊均由貝爾親自挑選，有著極高的專業(yè)素養(yǎng)。

比如，在蘇格蘭一個荒島的訓練營課程是：教官教學員如何做單根繩索跨越，吃鹿吃的苔蘚，用廢棄漁網(wǎng)和野草搭建防風防雨的庇護所，制作彈簧陷阱，緊急救護，解剖兔子，落水后如何保持體溫等。

之后，生存訓練營入駐美國、澳大利亞等國家，掀起戶外娛樂的一片熱潮。

●Michelle Rodriquez米歇爾·羅德里格茲

跟著貝爾去冒險

火爆了歐美，加上之前《跟著貝爾去冒險》在中國有很好的市場反響，貝爾打算進軍中國。

與貝爾合作的第一位中國創(chuàng)業(yè)者是徐征。徐征2014年創(chuàng)辦戶外星球，主打戶外生活方式和戶外教育。

目前，戶外星球運營的“貝爾生存訓練營”有成人、家庭以及極限課程三大類，瞄準的是國內(nèi)戶外增量市場，以中高端小白用戶為主。而且課程價格不菲，以24小時訓練營為例，十人一組的成人課程每人費用3280元，十個家庭一組的家庭課程“一大一小”3980元。

泅渡、取火、凈化水、攀巖、速降等項目，帶來的是學員在極限考驗下的生命感知，具有很大的市場價值。

不過，只是照搬“貝爾生存訓練營”，這似乎太低能了。

首先，貝爾和徐征團隊延展與旅游景點的合作，獨立開發(fā)出具有野外生存、地方特色的戶外旅游線路。如海南主打潛水，南非以野生動物保護為主。目前，新疆與海南營地已經(jīng)開發(fā)完畢，海外路線也有5條。

其次，向中國發(fā)展?jié)摿ψ顬辇嫶蟮慕逃袌鼍蚪?，開發(fā)兒童戶外品牌猩球?qū)W園的教育體系，并利用場地和路線，把天文、物理、海洋等18個學科知識囊括在體驗中。

比起中國傳統(tǒng)的填鴨式教育，這種體驗式知識傳授的接受度會更高，也更受歡迎。

在這些項目中，貝爾提供全套技術(shù)服務，并植入了其指定贊助合作的高端專業(yè)品牌裝備，包括頭燈、帳篷、水壺等。一個年度的戶外教育項目收費就高達10萬元左右，但中國的家長趨之若鶩，貝爺賺得盆滿缽滿。

此外，圍繞“貝爾生存訓練營”打造的戶外全產(chǎn)業(yè)鏈也在中國生根發(fā)芽?？梢韵胂?，未來貝爺在中國會很忙。

（摘自《江蘇商報》）

●Bear Grylls and Chinese top model He sui (Right)貝爾和中國名模何穗（右）