On February 10, at the Capital Gymnasium, figure skating men's single skating ended the medal competition. Although the much-anticipated Yusuke Yusuke failed to reach the podium of the Winter Olympics again as desired, he is still the most high-profile "top stream" in the commercial country of figure skating.
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.
Text / Liu Xueting
Editor / Yin Haonan
SPORTS DREAM
On February 10, in the men's singles free skating competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics, Yu Yusuke, who made a slight mistake in the short program, appeared in Group 3 in 4th place. In the music of "With Heaven and Earth", he challenged his first Axel Four-Way Jump (4A) in an international competition. In the end, he finished fourth with a total score of 283.21 points, and did not qualify for the podium.
After the game, public opinion also listened to his discussion. It can be said that even people who have never paid attention to sports have more or less heard the name of Yu yushin. At this year's Winter Olympics, although Yu yu string did not win the medal, outside the arena, Yu Yu knot string is still the top in the eyes of the majority of sponsors.
01
The commercial value of the feathered knot
Long before the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Japan's Asahi Shimbun said: "After Pyeongchang defends his title, it is expected that the value of Yu yushin will not double, but will rise by at least 1.5 times." After Pyeongchang, Yusei yushin did show good results in the field of commercial sponsorship.
As an athlete in a relatively niche event, he was included in ESPN's 2019 Top 100 Athletes list, ESPN gave an endorsement amount of $13.41 million, and Yu yu became the only figure skater selected that year.
In 2020, Yusuke Yusuke surpassed Kei Nishikori and Shohei Otani in the athlete image business survey of Hakuhodo, Japan's second largest advertising agency, to rank first among both active players and future players worth looking forward to this year.
2021 is the year of the Tokyo Olympics, but Yusuke Yusuke has not been silent as a winter sports athlete. In the top 15 of the 2021 Japanese male artist advertising endorsement fee list, it is reported that his total endorsement cost has exceeded 100 million yen in 2021.
In his business income, it is inseparable from the support of these companies:
◾ANA ANA
Company Profile: Founded in 1952, All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. is undoubtedly the largest airline in Japan in terms of revenue and number of passengers.
Yusei is currently the only athlete under the ANA umbrella. ANA is also one of the largest sponsors of Yusheng Yusuke, and has been sponsoring Yusheng Yusuke since 2013 to fully guarantee his travel.
ANA official website Hanyu Knot String Introduction Page
▋Ajinomoto
Company Profile: Founded in 1909, Ajinomoto Co., Ltd. is one of the world's top ten food companies. Yusei Yushin signed a contract with Ajinomoto in 2014, and Misosuke is also responsible for The diet of Habu Yushin.
Ajinomoto Habu knots are associated with the surroundings
◾Nishikawa Co., Ltd.
Company Profile: Tokyo Nishikawa Co., Ltd. was established in 1947 with a long history and is a Japanese bedding manufacturer. Its main business is duvets and mattresses, and ANA also uses Nishikawa products in its first class cabin.
In March 2015, Nishikawa signed a contract with Yusei, and many of the cooperation between the two sides included a service to promote private customization of pillows, and the official website shows that private customization of a pillow for Nishikawa will also cost at least 25,000 yen (about 1,500 yuan).
◾Phiten Co., Ltd.
Company Profile: ファイテン Co., Ltd. (Phiten) was founded in 1983 and has four main businesses: underwear (for women), beauty and hair care, sports health, and health food.
Yusei signed a contract with Phiten in 2014 to endorse the products of the sports accessories line. The Phiton collar uses water-soluble titanium to relieve fatigue and muscle pain.
▋ P&G Procter & Gamble
Company Profile: Founded in 1837, Procter & Gamble is one of the world's giants of consumer goods companies, covering shampoo, hair care, skin care products, cosmetics, medicine and other fields.
Yusei and Procter & Gamble have been working together since 2014, with their first contract expiring in 2019. In 2021, the new product line, the BOLD Laundry Detergent Series, announced another cooperation with Yusei Yushin, which has already been active on the official website.
▋KOSE snow muscle essence
Company Profile: Kosai is a Japanese cosmetics company founded in 1946 by founder Konzaburo Kobayashi, who combined chemistry and pharmacy. Initially, it was mainly based on other beauty makeup brands, and began to develop its own brand in 1948. KOSE is also a sponsor of the International Skating Federation and the Japan Ice Association, and has also sponsored several figure skating events.
Since 2019, Yusei Yusuke has been the spokesperson for KOSE's Snow Muscle Essence Imperial Ya series. In addition to Yusuke Habu, KOSE also sponsors a number of figure skaters, including Kihei Ewha and Miyahara Tomoko.
▋LOTTE Rakuten
Company Profile: LOTTE Co., Ltd. is a confectionery manufacturer. Founded in Japan in 1948, it is the third largest confectionery manufacturer in Japan in terms of sales revenue, after Meiji and Glico. It and Lotte Group in South Korea are two companies that are actually completely different except for the same name.
Yusei has worked with Lotte for many years, and he has been the spokesperson for Lotte Ghana Chocolate since 2014, and later endorsed a number of product lines such as chewing gum.
Lotte gum previously endorsed by Yusei
▋CITIZEN Citizen (China)
Company Profile: Founded in 1918, Citizen is a famous watch brand. As an official sponsor of ISU for 38 consecutive years, Citizen has also sponsored several figure skating events and the Japan Ice Association.
In 2019, Nishitetsu City of Japan officially announced that Yu yushin became the spokesperson for China.
▋Bathclin
Company Profile: Bathclin is a daily necessities company that originated in 1897 and is the most representative category of bathing agents among the many products sold by the company.
Bathclin, who collaborated with Yusei in 2015, believes that Yusei's philosophy of "single-minded focus" and "honesty" is in line with the company.' I don't know if it was an ulterior motive or a coincidence, the name yuzu is pronounced yuzu, and the first bathing agent they collaborated on was also yuzu incense.
Basque Lin Yusheng limited packaging
◾Towa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Company Profile: Japan's Towa Pharmaceutical was founded in 1951, and on October 4, 2021, Yu Yushin unlocked the new endorsement of Towa Pharmaceutical, and the advertisement was also co-filmed with the famous Japanese host Tetsuko Kuroyanagi.
In addition, Yusei has published a variety of DVDs and photo albums, which have also been widely welcomed, and have repeatedly set sales records.
His personal autobiography Cangyan sold 170,000 copies, Cangyan II Flew sold more than 105,000 copies at the time of its release, and Yusei donated more than 50 million yen in royalties he earned to the Sendai Ice Rink in his hometown.
His debut DVD, Time of Awakening, sold 21,000 copies in its first week of release and topped the Oricon Weekly Chart, the first time since its inception in April 1999 that an athlete has become the Weekly Chart Champion. The Blu-ray disc "Time of Evolution", which was released in 2019, sold 28,000 copies in the first week, breaking the record it held and becoming the highest sales record in the history of sports-related BD first weeks. It should be known that the price of BD is high, and the basic unit price is more than RMB 500, which also reflects the popularity of Yusheng from the side.
02
Why brands favor feathered knots
When we analyze the commercial value of Gu Ailing, we always mention her outstanding performance on the field and her public image outside the arena, which is the same for Yusheng Yushin.
First of all, Yusheng Yushin is also an undisputed excellent idol with both appearance and strength. His achievements "on the field" are enough to go down in history:
He won the men's singles at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics
The World Figure Skating World Championships won a total of 2 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze
ISU Figure Skating Grand Prix Finals 4 Gold 2 Silver
Nineteen times broke world records for short programs, free skating and overall results
......
There is no doubt that he is the "king" on the ice rink. And the results on the field are also the most important for athletes.
Off the field, Yu Yu can also be called a "quality idol". First of all, he was also admitted to the Human Information Science Department of Waseda University, a top university in Japan, on his own merits, and successfully graduated. Secondly, he also has a very handsome appearance, and some people use the phrase "the man on the ice is like a jade, and the prince is unparalleled in the world" to describe him.
In addition, the spiritual power of the Yusheng knot has also become a positive force brought by many people, and countless times the king of healing has returned, and the Yusheng knot with good appearance and strength has become a model for many people.
In 2017, he also appeared on the red and white song contest known as the "Japanese Spring Festival Gala" for the first time, serving as a member of the jury. In addition, he has twice received the Purple Ribbon Medal (designed to reward those who have achieved outstanding achievements in the fields of science and technology, sports, arts and culture) and the National Honorary Award recognized by the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, which are the highest achievements for the Japanese people.
Yusei yusho has also been featured many times on Japan's favorite athlete list. In the 2021 Japan Public Trust List Oricon's favorite athlete voting event, Yusuke Yusuke once again overpowered many athletes who won the Tokyo Olympic Games, ranking second.
In addition to his own popularity, his commercial success is also inseparable from Japan's preference for figure skating.
In Japan, the infrastructure of figure skating is very perfect, there are many indoor ice rinks in Japan, even if the climate is not so suitable for the development of skating projects, you can still find skating venues.
Therefore, figure skating has a good popularity in Japan, and in recent years, many players who can rank among the top in the world have been born. Not only Yu yusei, but also Japan's Masayoshi Asada, Miyahara Tomoko, Daisuke Takahashi, and Masama Uno are all famous players who have won gold and silver in the World Series.
Moreover, in the television broadcast event, figure skating has always been one of the favorite programs for the Japanese people, and the ratings of the figure skating competition of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics were once close to the national program Red and White Song Festival.
From the official sponsor list of the International Skating Federation, it is not difficult to see how much Japan loves figure skating. There are 5 Japanese companies out of a total of 9 official sponsors at ISU, more than half of which are Japanese. In addition to official sponsors, well-known Japanese companies such as Shiseido are also enthusiastic about figure skating and have sponsored a number of figure skating events such as the China Cup.
Japanese audiences are also willing to pay for the sport, and Japanese audiences will be present at commercial performances or competitions around the world.
In the 2017 commercial performance in South Korea, the tickets for the figure skating project reached up to 550,000 won (about 3,300 yuan), and even the tickets for training cost 30,000 won (about 177 yuan), but the crowd still poured into the arena and training ground, and the tickets for the figure skating final were swept away a few months ago. Therefore, many ice fans gave those Japanese audiences a nickname - "Cherry Blossom Lady".
And such an environment is also a fertile land for the development of Japanese figure skating, and it is also the icing on the cake for the development of Yusheng Yushin on the commercial road.
After the game, Yusei Yushin said in an interview that he thought he had done the best he could and hoped that his performance with all his strength could stay in a small corner of people's hearts.
The greatness of Yusheng as an athlete has never been a simple success or failure, not a surprise of a champion superimposed, but an endless struggle and enterprising, which is also the development path of competitive sports that we are looking forward to, no one can always be 18 years old, but the athlete's heart to fight upwards will never change.
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