With Gu Ailing's super level of performance, she won her first gold medal at the Winter Olympics. Even, gu Ailing has 2 projects to win gold, so that he can continue to break through himself and create history.
When we are all cheering for Gu Ailing, these brand sponsors may have already been excited. An athlete's gold grab also means that the treasure is right. Signing a contract with Gu Ailing is more like directly winning the "ice pier of brand marketing" than opening a blind box.
This article was first published in Sports DreamWorks. "Sports DreamWorks" is a cooperative media brand of ECO Krypton, focusing on observing the news and developments in the field of sports marketing, providing high-quality content and in-depth services for brand sponsorship and cooperation.
01
How hot is Gu Ailing?
A game dominates 8 Weibo hot searches, and the 18-year-old "genius ski girl" Gu Ailing has undoubtedly become the most top ski diver today.
In fact, as early as 2016, there were brands that "always believed" in Gu Ailing. As a ski service brand, GOSKI valued gu Ailing's strength at the earliest. Entering 2019, many domestic and international brands such as Austrian Red Bull, Mengniu, ANTA Sports, Oakley, etc., began to throw an olive branch to Gu Ailing.
As the competition approaches, Gu Ailing's endorsement signing is ushering in a big outbreak. According to incomplete statistics, up to now, Gu Ailing's sponsorship list has reached 27, including sports, fashion, automobiles, beverages, home improvement, retail and many other fields.
Data as of February 8, the label "-" is not possible to determine the endorsement time.
When Gu Ailing won the first Olympic gold medal and there are still two competition events to rush the gold opportunity, I believe that the number of endorsed brands will further grow.
In October 2021, Theragun Fascia Gun Creator Therabody announced that Gu Ailing became the brand's global ambassador
Before adulthood, Gu Ailing showed business potential beyond her peers. In 2017, the famous American outdoor brand The North Face officially entered the skiing field, and in the following year, Gu Ailing starred as a skier in the promotional film of The North Face's "Hot Snow To Crazy" fashion ski protection series.
She was just 14 years old.
In 2019, she became the face of The Swiss premium ski label Action Skis and launched the signature skis. That year, she also endorsed brands such as energy drinks Such as Red Bull Austria and Mengniu, and in November of the following year, Gu Ailing appeared on the Forbes Under 30 Elite List, the youngest on the list.
Forbes China Under 30 30 2020
From fashion magazine covers to advertising shoots, brands are scrambling to invite her for endorsements. The domestic sports circle seems to have finally ushered in a new generation of "idol" athletes with international influence.
02
Why do major brands favor Gu Ailing so much?
For brands, the ideal athlete spokesperson probably needs two basic elements: excellent competitive performance "inside the field" and outstanding public image "off the field".
As far as domestic athletes are concerned, although there are many talents with excellent results and outstanding achievements in competition, it is often unattainable to be able to achieve the sports circle and the fashion circle in the public image.
With the outstanding performance of the Tokyo Olympic Games, Su Bingtian, who has attracted much attention from the brand, is already a leader among domestic athletes
At the same time, trapped by many market factors, this has become the norm for many domestic athletes - even if they are Olympic champions, it is not an easy task to monetize their attention and get long-term stable brand endorsement revenue.
Even domestic sports brands with a high degree of compatibility with athletes have been more inclined to open new markets through entertainment stars in their endorsement choices in recent years, which is closely related to the background of the low degree of professionalization of Chinese sports events. In addition, for some objective reasons, athletes signing endorsements are often subject to the unified management and operation of the national team.
However, Gu Ailing, who has both strength and appearance, will hardly be bothered by any of the above problems. It also allowed her to stand out from domestic athletes.
First of all, let's talk about Gu Ailing's "on-field" achievements - Gu Ailing, born in San Francisco, USA, began to contact skiing at the age of 3, began to penetrate into the field of freestyle skiing at the age of 8, and began to emerge in the world arena at the age of 13.
2020 WinterGreen Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland, two golds and one silver;
The 2019-2020 Freestyle Skiing World Cup in Calgary, two gold medals in two days, the first freestyle skier in history to win the championship "back-to-back" in the same venue of the World Cup;
The 2021 X Games World Extreme Games, in less than 24 hours, participated in 3 competitions and won 2 gold and 1 bronze, rewriting the history of Chinese athletes without gold in this traditional event;
At the 2021 Freestyle Ski World Championships, he won 2 gold and one bronze in his first competition, becoming the first freestyle skier in history to win two gold and three medals at a single World Championship.
2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, freestyle women's big jump champion...
It is not difficult to see from the above results that Gu Ailing's competition results are full of gold, including many gold medals in international competitions such as the World Cup and the World Championships. Gu Ailing, who began participating in ski competitions at the age of 9, has won more than fifty gold medals.
In 2019, Gu Ailing made the biggest decision in her life, choosing Chinese nationality, and she regarded filling the gap in China's winter sports as her future mission.
"Every time Gu Ailing appears on the field, he will make history." On the official website, the International Snow Federation did not hesitate to praise Gu Ailing.
What is remarkable is that Gu Ailing is also a "triathlon" player, with excellent results in three events (U-shaped track, slope obstacle course, big jump).
At the beginning of 2021, she locked in the qualifications for the Beijing Winter Olympics. If you can stand on the stage of the Winter Olympics in these three events, whether you can win the championship or not, Gu Ailing has already written a new history of China's snow sports.
For Chinese snow sports, the emergence of Gu Ailing has also filled the gap in freestyle skiing. The freestyle skiing aerial skills event is one of the few gold medals for Chinese snow sports at the Winter Olympics.
After talking about her outstanding performance on the field, let's talk about her "off-court" appearance.
Gu Ailing, who was just 18 years old, is a typical academic bully. In 2020, she was admitted to Stanford University with a SAT score of 1580 (out of 1600 points) while completing her full-time high school courses in advance, but in order to prepare for the Beijing Winter Olympics, she chose to take a year off.
At the same time, in addition to the aforementioned endorsements of major brands, Gu Ailing is also the darling of the "fashion circle".
Don't forget – she has another official identity: IMG signed a model, which is also a rare thing for athletes.
For example, she appeared on the cover of "InStyle Illustrated", appeared in the July issue of VOGUE, "ELLE", "Harper's Bazaar" and many other major issues, and also left her shadow. In August 2021, in the promotion of Louis Vuitton's new Dauphin handbag, she also performed this new series together with entertainment stars such as Deng Ziqi and Zhou Dongyu.
Gu Ailing has appeared on the cover of a fashion magazine
Of course, Gu Ailing's popularity, in addition to the factors of personal struggle, naturally has the care of the historical process - that is, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
As the event approaches, the brand side is increasing its efforts, and the ice and snow athletes have naturally become the object of the brand side's competition. Then, how to choose athletes who match the brand image temperament and popularity and reputation, and expand brand awareness and private domain traffic consumption conversion of products through their appeal and influence, has become a common topic for brands.
However, China's ice and snow sports are still in the development stage, and there are relatively few outstanding ice and snow athletes in China. Therefore, the ice and snow environment on the string of the arrow, a large number of brand promotion needs, has become the "external cause" of Gu Ailing's popularity in the market.
Gu Ailing after winning the big jump event at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics.
Ski world champion, 171cm tall, slender and perfect body proportions, three-dimensional exquisite facial features, fluent Mandarin and excellent English ability, youthful and sunny personality, plus excellent expression in front of the camera... Such an excellent sports "potential stock" is difficult not to be pampered by the brand.
03
The "youthful" brand endorsement trend
With Gu Ailing being "robbed" by major brands, there are also some different voices on the Internet, believing that the brand side "bets" on Gu Ailing, which is more like a big gamble - indeed, Gu Ailing's women's freestyle skiing skill project itself has considerable contingency.
Coupled with the fact that Gu Ailing is participating in the Olympic Games for the first time, whether the 18-year-old Gu Ailing can play well in the Olympic arena and bear the pressure inside and outside the arena is unknown.
However, we may not need to worry too much about the behavior of the brand Bet on The Valley Ailing.
First of all, the successful signing of Gu Ailing has achieved the goal for brands that want to take advantage of this event to increase their attention and exposure. Regardless of whether you can win the championship and fulfill everyone's expectations, there seems to be no one more suitable in the current domestic athlete group than Gu Ailing.
Secondly, today's brand-signed athletes as spokespersons, not only to consider the performance on the field, although competitive performance is one of the key factors for brand signing, but it is not the only factor - as mentioned above, the "off-site" value of athletes in online social media and other fields has also begun to receive more attention.
In the eyes of the brand, Gu Ailing is not only a skier - even if she no longer hangs the identity label of freestyle ski champion, she is also a high-quality brand spokesperson. Even if the results are not as desired, it will not have a negative impact on Gu Ailing's commercial value in the absolute sense.
Presumably, this time the gold grab has also strengthened the brand's determination to choose sports athletes as spokespersons.
German track and field athlete Alica Schmidt, who was well known at the Tokyo Olympics, is an interesting contrast - she is known as the "sexiest athlete in the world", she only entered the big list, and did not even participate in the Olympic main event, but this did not stop her from receiving huge attention off the field.
At just 22 years old, she has more than 2.5 million fans on Instagram, and Alica, whose "off-site" commercial value is bursting, still receives brand cooperation and shooting invitations.
German track and field athlete Alica Schmidt
Therefore, rather than saying that major brands have begun to "bet" on Gu Ailing, it is better to say that brands have changed the endorsement thinking of "only achievement theory" - a new generation of athletes with multi-faceted development potential like Gu Ailing are becoming the new darling of brands.
In the current era of fierce competition in consumption, young people have become the main force in the international consumer market. Brand rejuvenation marketing will become the mainstream trend of brand marketing for a long time to come.
In the world sports circle, there is not only one Excellent and young commercial target, there is not only one Gu Ailing. More and more stars of hope are attracting the attention of the whole public.
For example, the 18-year-old women's singles champion Raducannu of the New Kemei Open, whose value soared after winning the Grand Slam, also became the focus of media and brand attention. Some experts believe that she will soon become one of the most marketable athletes in the world in the next few years.
Recently, the famous jewelry brand Tiffany signed the new star to become one of the brand's new spokespersons. It is reported that the endorsement fee will exceed $1 million.
For example, Mbappe, who first appeared at the age of 17, signed an endorsement contract with NIKE early after seeing its potential huge commercial value. At the age of 19 at the 2018 World Cup, his personal advertising revenue has already ranked third in the French team. In 2019, NIKE also released a new co-brand series themed around Mbappe's hometown, making him NIKE's youngest co-player.
As more and more brands began to focus on rising stars such as Gu Ailing and Mbappe. Brand endorsement "rejuvenation" has become an inevitable trend in the era of social media traffic. Then, how to achieve a balance between "inside the field" and "off the field" may also be a compulsory course for the young generation of athletes represented by Gu Ailing to learn at the beginning of their careers.
Gu Ailing's emergence can be said to provide a perfect template for the long-drought Chinese athlete brand endorsement market. Let's also not forget that 2022 is Gu Ailing's first Winter Olympics. And this gold-winning girl has just turned 18 years old.
The time left for her to perform, there is still a long, long time.
(End of full text)
Text / Wang Mengru
Editor / Yin Haonan Pay Energy