Editor's introduction: Since the opening of the Winter Olympic Games, the ice pier has become hot, not only the Chinese people like the cute and loveable ice pier, there are many people abroad like it, it can be said that the ice pier has caused a global boom. This article fully writes about the love of ice piers at home and abroad, let's take a look at it.
On February 4, the 24th Winter Olympic Games opened in Beijing.
Since Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in 2015, the chinese people's attention to ice and snow sports has continued to rise, and the popularity of related sports has also been rising.
During the Winter Olympics, xiaguang society specially launched the special topic of "Xiaguang Looking at the Winter Olympics" to record the social hotspots driven by the Winter Olympics from multiple dimensions.
This article is the second in the series, focusing on the global boom triggered by the "ice pier" of the Winter Olympic mascot.
With the opening of the Winter Olympics, the mascot "Ice Pier" sat on the roller coaster of popularity and became the "top of the world" overnight. "The ice pier is so cute!" Netizens around the world have launched "heart eyes" at the ice pier on social media. Soon, both online stores and offline stores have been "difficult to find".
Overseas netizens: "Love the ice pier!" Is it possible to buy outside of China? ”
Overseas netizens: "I want to know if I can find an ice pier in Australia"
Not only was it hot at home, but the boom in ice piers also swept overseas. Foreign journalists and athletes in the Winter Olympic Village uploaded their photos of themselves with the ice piers to social networks.
Many foreign netizens left a message after the post: "So cute! "I want it too, how can I buy an ice pier?"
On Amazon's website in the United States, the ice pier key chain jumped to the top of the women's key chain hot list; while on the online auction platform eBay and the Japanese second-hand website mercari, the price of some ice pier peripheral products that showed "sold" has increased by more than ten times.
First, the price of overseas explosions has increased by 16 times
Japanese television reporter Yoshido Tsujioka was obsessed with chasing stars on ice piers, and a fire broke out on Chinese social networks. In various short videos, Tsujioka Yoshido does not hide his love for the ice pier, as soon as he sees the ice pier, he will take a photo, and all kinds of peripherals can not be stopped.
"No matter how hard and tired you are, every time you see an ice pier, you will feel a surge of energy."
"Today I actually broadcast it in the state of 6 piers."
"Did [the ice pier] really fly to Mars?" I also want to go to Mars. ”
Nowadays, he has "14 piers" in hand, and he simply takes "righteous piers" as his alias.
Long before the Start of the Winter Olympics, Tsujioka Yoshido was already an avid fan of Ice Dundon. In a live TELEVISION connection, when he introduced the Winter Olympic mascot to the Japanese audience, he held the ice pier he had just bought and said that after the ice pier, "it will definitely sell big, it will be sold short!" ”
This soon became a reality, and the popularity of the ice pier in Japan may have exceeded Tsujioka's expectations, and various ice pier peripheral products were quickly sold out on second-hand Japanese websites.
On the Japanese second-hand platform mercari, the original price of 192 yuan 20cm ice pier plush toys, the highest price reached 50,300 yen (about 2884 yuan), which is 15 times the original price.
Some netizens left a message to the seller under this product: "Brother, I can't buy an ice pier in Japan, can I sell it for 9,000 yen (about 515 yuan)?" Come on. And the seller replied: Now China's 540 yuan can not buy.
Another popular ice pier 10cm handmade, the price on the mercari platform, has also been speculated from the original price of 88 yuan to about 502 yuan. On the Japanese Amazon website, the price of this handmade is as high as about 1445 yuan, which is 16 times the original price.
"My phone is about to explode these days." Tsujioka said that his friends asked him to buy ice piers to return to Japan, and he joked that when he returned, he might have to throw away his clothes and fill the ice piers with suitcases.
Not only in Japan, the boom in ice piers has spread around the world.
On amazon's latest sales rankings, the ice pier keychain jumped to the top of the list of women's novelty keychains, and the seller's sales exceeded 13,000 pieces.
On the online auction shopping platform Ebay, the plush ice pier toys with a price of $320 (about 2,034 yuan) are sold out; while the ice piers and snow melting key chains with an original price of less than 100 yuan are listed for more than 1,000 yuan.
Second, everyone loves ice piers
The rapid popularity of Ice Dundun on social media has made its veteran fan Tsujioka Yoshido also become an Internet celebrity. Tsujioka Yoshido said that he was horrified and happy to be kept talking in the Winter Olympic Village recently, and then he solemnly announced to the camera: "The 'Yidundun' bubble is about to start." ”
In addition to Tsujioka Yoshido, There are many star fans in Ice Dundun.
Christopher Dolby, executive director of the IOC's Olympic Division, also couldn't hide his love for the ice piers: "The ice piers are lively, fun, witty and full of positive energy. It is my baby, it is your baby, it is the baby of children all over the world. ”
French ice dance coach Romain Haguenauer recently uploaded a photo of himself and the ice pier on Instagram, and the caption said: "I am very happy after practicing with the ice pier. ”
His fans also expressed their love for the ice pier in the reply to the post: "This mascot is great" and "it looks so cute".
American bobsleigh team player Kesha Love also posted an intimate photo of herself and the ice pier in the Winter Olympic Village on Instagram, with the caption: "With my good friend Ice Pier." Wait patiently in China for the opening ceremony, the glide, the race and create memories. ”
In a short video released by the US Winter Olympic delegation a few days ago, the picture was finally switched from the interior of the Winter Olympic Village to the ice pier. The video caption reads: "Now this is a hardcore fan account of the ice pier."
Czech figure skater Natalie Tashkrelova recently released a VLOG photographed in the Beijing Winter Olympic Village. It showcases the various gifts and souvenirs she received at the Winter Olympic Village – backpacks printed with the Beijing Winter Olympic logo, red-wrapped Gift Packs, and more. But her favorite is the "ice pier" doll.
"I've been waiting for this little guy!" In an interview with the Global Times, Tashkrelova excitedly said that she almost cried when she received the ice pier dolls because they were so cute. She told reporters that she and her teammates had previously discussed buying key chains and pillows on the ice piers.
Australian snow sports athlete Kate Bremen also posted a group photo of several teammates and ice piers in the Winter Olympic Village on Instagram.
Brazilian steel frame snowmobile athlete Nicole Silvera is also a fan of ice piers. She said in an interview with the media that the stars in the Olympic village during the ice pier, many athletes liked it, "because the way it looks is so cute."
Silveira posted a photo on Instagram mimicking the skating pose of an ice pier, playfully captioning: "Did I do it right?" Some fans left a warm reminder after the post: "The ice pier has been sold out in China, if you see it in the Winter Olympic Village, buy it quickly!" ”
According to the latest news, the ice piers in the Beijing Winter Olympic Village were also sold out a few days ago. Hungarian short track speed skater Liu Shaolin said in a short video recently uploaded that the ice piers in the Olympic Village have been sold out, and he took the last one when he received the award, and those who want the ice piers can go to him to grab them.
At this Winter Olympics, every athlete who wins a medal will receive a collector's edition of the golden ice pier. Liu Shaolin had previously won a bronze medal in the short track speed skating mixed relay competition, so he received a golden ice pier. In a post-match interview, he said he would give it to his three-year-old sister if he won another ice pier.
Swiss skier Nicholas Huber also plans to bring the ice pier back to Switzerland to give to his grandmother. "Who doesn't like pandas? They're so cute! "Although Huber has come to China to play before, he has never seen a panda in person." The next time I come back to China, I must see the pandas with my own eyes. ”
Third, from being snubbed to being sought after by the whole people
As early as 2019, the beijing winter olympic mascot ice pier and the winter paralympic mascot snow melted, and officially appeared to the public. Among them, the design of the ice pier is inspired by the sugar gourd, which combines the image of the juvenile panda with the shell of the ice crystal, while the design of the snow rongrong is based on the red lantern.
Liu Yang, a Beijing resident, said that in 2020, you can often see various souvenirs of the Winter Olympics, including ice piers, various toys shaped by snow rongrong, blind boxes and commemorative badges, but not many people bought them at that time. "I didn't get to the ice pier before. At that time, there were not many people who went to the store, and even fewer people actually bought it, and it felt that the supply of goods in the store was sufficient. ”
With the opening of the Winter Olympics, the ice pier has become a traffic star, and Liu Yang's attitude has also undergone a miraculous change. "Recently, I was brushed by the cute videos and memes of various ice piers, and I also ate a wave of crazy Amway of 'righteous piers', and it was really cute to look at the ice piers."
In Liu Yang's many WeChat groups, "how to buy ice piers" has become one of the topics that group members discuss every day. Liu Yang said that a friend dropped the ice pier on the roof last year and did not deal with it, and now that he sees that everyone can't buy it in line, he plans to get the ice pier off the roof as soon as the snow melts.
According to media reports, since February 3, the Olympic Licensed Commodity Store of Gongmei Building, located on Wangfujing Street in Beijing, has received nearly 10,000 customers every day.
On the opening day of the Beijing Winter Olympics on February 4, a video circulating on the Internet showed people lining up hundreds of meters in front of the gongmei mall, waiting for two or three hours in the cold wind, just to buy "ice pier" souvenirs.
After the opening of the Winter Olympic Games, the fiery degree of offline "one pier is difficult to find" is still escalating.
On February 7, the first working day after the Spring Festival, there was a breathtaking long line outside the Gate of the Gongmei Building.
An online photo shows the "pomp and circumstance" of queuing – meandering queues winding around long streets and buildings along the streets, visually measuring more than a kilometer in length.
According to media reports, many of them have been waiting outside the store since the evening of the 6th, and most of them have come to the "ice pier".
Due to the large number of queues and the limited number of ice piers arriving every day, the store had to take measures to restrict the flow, and it takes about 1 hour for every hundred people to enter the store, and currently each person is limited to buying one ice pier.
The offline queue is deserted, and the online ice pier has remained "sold out".
Tmall data shows that the official flagship store of Olympic Tmall received more than 1 million visits on February 3.
On the 4th, 5,000 pieces of ice piers were sold out within 15 minutes of the launch.
Since February, the highest-selling ice pier snow melting blind box in Tmall's flagship store has sold more than 90,000 pieces.
At present, the most popular ice piers, snow melting key chains and handmade ones have all shown to be sold out of shelves. Although the flagship store will release 6,000 key chain pre-sale places in batches every day, and each ID is limited to 2 pieces, netizens still reflect that they can't grab it. "I cried, I didn't grab it for three or four days in a row, and I robbed it a dozen times."
In the face of the "pier fever" that is in short supply, netizens around the world are asking: "Where can I buy ice piers?" ”
In this regard, Zhao Weidong, spokesman for the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, said that due to the Spring Festival holiday, some factories were on vacation, which led to the current shortage of ice piers.
At present, the manufacturer has been contacted to actively allocate the source of goods, and there will be a steady supply of ice piers to the market.
The police also called on everyone to consume rationally and not to buy from the hands of "scalpers" at high prices, resulting in economic losses.
Fourth, I couldn't buy an ice pier, so I had to make one myself
The continuous "one pier is difficult to find" also made netizens who love ice piers open their minds, and simply made their own "orange piers", "ice cream piers", "tangyuan piers" and "egg piers" to solve the pain of acacia.
Yu Yun and her boyfriend, who work in Beijing, are very fond of the ice piers, and although they have participated in the offline queues and online rushes, they have not yet successfully bought one.
One night, Yu Yun saw the tutorial of making "orange piers" with sugar oranges on the social platform, and immediately made one. "I finally owned a 'pier', but I'll keep snapping it up later."
Ice pier dumplings
Source: Little Red Book @ The Slow Life of The Heart Sister
Japanese netizens who could not buy ice piers did not fall behind, and began to use various cuisines to create ice piers.
A Japanese netizen made the image of the ice pier with two flavors of ice cream, which was praised by other netizens on social media: "I did it too!" The ice piers are really cute" "super cute".
Another Japanese netizen made a special "egg pier" for noodles with boiled eggs and seaweed.
Fifth, the "ice pier" effect
An article published by Reuters on Feb. 6 said Olympic mascots rarely sell out in the first few days, let alone become household names so quickly.
Compared with the fiery sales of the ice pier, many previous Olympic mascots are almost unknown even during the competition, such as the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic mascot "Vinicius", and the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic mascot Snowshoe Rabbit Powder, Steppe Wolf Copper and Black Bear Coal.
From the mascot panpan of the 1990 Beijing Asian Games, to the mascot of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Fuwa Jingjing, and then to the mascot ice pier of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the three mascots based on pandas are "becoming more and more rounded", which is jokingly called "three generations of cute grandchildren" by some netizens.
As a national treasure of China, the panda has a cute image and has always been loved by people from all over the world, especially teenagers.
The guangzhou academy of fine arts team that designed the ice piers painted tens of thousands of manuscripts in 10 months, and finally stood out from nearly 6,000 works in 35 countries, achieving the current ice piers.
But even the designers did not expect such a hot sales of the ice pier.
Cao Xue, dean of the School of Visual Arts and Design of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and chief designer of the "Ice Pier", said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that the starting point of mascot design is cultural and artistic, but only commercial success can express and reflect these two.
"Panda is a cultural element itself, how to turn it into a beloved panda is the beginning of a good story, and the ultimate performance is commerciality." Good selling is the last word, and if this mascot is not cute, we will fall into self-talk and self-amusement. ”
According to Park Xuedong, director of the Marketing Department of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, in the past four years, the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee has designed and produced more than 5,000 kinds of licensed goods in 16 categories, and opened more than 190 licensed retail stores across the country. Shanxi Securities expects that throughout the Winter Olympics cycle, the revenue of licensed commodities will exceed 2.5 billion yuan.
According to public data, there are currently 29 licensed manufacturers of the Beijing Winter Olympic Committee and 58 licensed retailers, including LISTED COMPANIES SUCH ASTA SPORTS, YUEN LONG YATU, CULTURAL INVESTMENT HOLDINGS, WANGFUJING, AND CHINA SPORTS INDUSTRY.
The hot sale of peripheral products such as ice piers has also heated the stock prices of related companies. On February 7, the first day of the opening of the market after the Spring Festival, a number of Winter Olympic licensed commodity production and sales enterprises have risen to varying degrees. Among them, Yuanlong Yatu and Cultural Investment Holdings have achieved three consecutive days of one-word limit increases and stops from the 7th to the 9th.
It is reported that the licensed goods of the Beijing Winter Olympics will continue to be sold at least until the end of June this year. Whether the boom in ice piers can continue, Kasumitsusha will continue to pay attention. (Header and cover image source: Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Weibo, internal distribution map source network)
Reference materials:
- Out of the Ring! Japanese journalists are obsessed with China's "top stars", and as a result, they are crazy to buy, buy and buy..., Shanxi Evening News
- How much foreign athletes really like "ice piers"! , Global Times
- 《China to boost supply of Winter Games panda mascot souvenirs》，Reuters
Author: Ma Ji; Public number: Kasumitsu Society
This article was originally published by @Kasumigami as a product manager and is not reprinted without permission.
The title image is from Pexels, based on the CC0 protocol