"Turn left 1620! Gu Ailing broke through his limit in the final jump of the final! Completed an action I've never done before! Reverse to win! ”
Amid the trembling voices of the narrator, on Tuesday morning, 18-year-old Chinese athlete Gu Ailing won the gold medal in the women's big jump in freestyle skiing at the Winter Olympics. This is not only her first Winter Olympic gold medal, but also China's first women's snow sports Winter Olympic gold medal.
For a time, the three words "Gu Ailing" burst the Chinese Internet, and one person contracted all the topics in the top five of Weibo's hot search. Keywords such as genius girls, Stanford school bullies, and world champions are frequently mentioned, and the life experience of "big heroine Shuangwen" has been watched tens of millions of times. On February 8 alone, Gu Ailing's Douyin account rose by more than 2.4 million fans, and the number of fans is now close to 8 million, and it is still growing at a high speed.
Ice and snow Winter Olympics, the temperature is very cold, the Internet heat is "hot", before Gu Ailing won the championship, "Zhang Yimou and the opening ceremony", "ice pier", "Wang Mengjin sentence commentary" have become the top stream of the whole network. Baidu hot search big data shows that the search popularity of the Beijing Winter Olympics far exceeds the same period of the previous two sessions, 1372% and 558% higher than the Sochi Winter Olympics and the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics respectively, and also exceeds the previous summer Olympic Games after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and is 68% hotter than the postponed Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021.
Among them, the performance of The Olympic athletes and the behind-the-scenes stories have become the focus of netizens' relish. Athletes whose popularity is comparable to that of traffic stars have also made the outside world begin to examine the commercial value of Olympic athletes again.
Brands are increasingly looking after sports stars
In recent years, with the "collapsed house" storm in the entertainment industry, the brand side has begun to turn its attention to the sports circle and explore the commercial value of sports stars. Since the Tokyo Olympics, the attention of the Chinese people to athletes has exceeded imagination, and athletes such as Ma Long, Quan Hongchan and Su Bingtian have frequently seized hot searches, and the number of athlete endorsements has also risen sharply.
During the Beijing Winter Olympics cycle, 18-year-old Gu Ailing hit the bullseye, and she has become a commercial treasure that can be continuously excavated. The people who most hope that she will achieve good results at the Beijing Winter Olympics are not only the audience, but also the brand side.
In the 2021-2022 FIS World Cup before the start of the Winter Olympics, Gu Ailing won 6 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze medal in 37 days, and was evaluated by the ISU as "the first person in history". At that time, many brands bet on The Valley Ailing in advance, including ANTA, Estée Lauder, Mengniu, Yuanqi Forest, Kohler, Victoria's Secret, Cadillac, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, IWC, etc., covering skin care products, beverages, kitchen and bathroom, automobiles, luxury goods and many other fields. According to incomplete statistics, the number of commercial endorsement brands in Gu Ailing currently exceeds 20, far exceeding the number of first-line entertainment stars.
For the audience, even if you don't know which ice and snow project this girl is participating in, you can't even call her name. But in the streets and alleys of the city, posters of coffee shops, advertisements on subway electronic screens, pop-up windows of major apps... You can definitely see ads related to Gu Ailing everywhere.
According to the first financial report, before 2021, Gu Ailing's endorsement fee was around $1 million, and now this figure has soared to about $2.5 million after tax (about 15.89 million yuan), with more than 20 endorsements in hand to make it easily earn more than 100 million yuan.
After Gu Ailing won the Winter Olympics, a large number of brands that bet on Gu Ailing early finally waited for this moment, and naturally it was impossible to let go of this wave of traffic.
Luckin Coffee also launched Gu Ailing limited cup covers and paper bags in order to celebrate Gu Ailing's victory; Mengniu placed a push advertisement in the WeChat circle of friends, inviting all WeChat users to "applaud" Gu Ailing; Xiaohongshu can still see Liu Haoran's figure in yesterday's advertisement, and today can only see Gu Ailing clapping his hands again and again in front of the camera. In addition, 26 brands such as Yuanqi Forest, Bank of China, and ANTA have successively released Weibo congratulating Gu Ailing on winning the championship, and many of them have chosen to put Gu Ailing's relevant Weibo to the top to show their close relationship with the champion.
For now, Gu Ailing has undoubtedly become one of the most commercially valuable athletes in China, and the follow-up endorsement fee will inevitably climb to a new level, and many netizens have also ridiculed these brand leaders who signed Gu Ailing early are sliding on their knees in the company to celebrate.
The Winter Olympics staged a brand marketing war
At the Olympic Games, not only the world's best athletes compete, but many large companies also compete, but the goal of companies is not gold medals, but the attention of the audience. This year's Beijing Winter Olympics, around the Olympic athletes who went out for the country, the brands played different combinations of punches. Some people lay out early, some people see stitches, and the Olympic marketing war is not lively.
On October 26, 2021, the 100-day countdown to the Winter Olympics, ANTA took advantage of the opportunity to release three sets of Winter Olympic uniforms, designed by Olympic staff, technical officials and volunteers, inspired by traditional Chinese landscape paintings and winter Great Wall snowscapes. In fact, as early as last year, ANTA signed athletes such as Gu Ailing and Wu Dajing, as well as idol stars such as Wang Yibo and Bai Jingting, from clothing design to star endorsement to brand strategy, it can be said that around the Beijing Winter Olympics, ANTA has completed a full range of marketing layout.
Yili, the well-known Olympic cooperation "professional household", in order to popularize the Winter Olympic project to the public, but also in order to spread the ice and snow culture and Olympic spirit, exclusively titled the first domestic "deep deconstruction of the Winter Olympic Sports Event Variety Show" "Winter Dream 2" launched by the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee and Beijing Satellite TV, and the program invited many former Winter Olympic champions, Summer Olympic champions and star artists to participate in ice and snow sports together.
And Yili also launched an innovative game at this Winter Olympics, entering the digital world and launching the "Champion Shine 2022" digital collection, including 7 special models and 1 hidden model. The special edition is limited to 2022 copies worldwide, and the hidden edition is limited to only 17 copies worldwide, which is an extremely scarce collection. Yili hopes to use these marketing activities to more closely connect young consumers, connect the Olympic Games, and reach more consumers with Yili's spirit of adhering to olympic quality and the concept of "no innovation, no future".
In addition to the medals and ice piers in the award ceremony of this Winter Olympic Games, the innovative award bouquet has also attracted widespread attention. Different from the traditional bouquet of flowers in the past, it is crocheted with haipai velvet weaving technique, which is a velvet flower that never fades, and the supplier of this bouquet is the well-known Hengyuanxiang Group. The groundbreaking awards bouquet has become a hot topic on social media, increasing the exposure of the Hengyuanxiang brand. In order to cooperate with the marketing activities, on the eve of the Winter Olympics, Hengyuanxiang also released the theme song "I Believe in Dreams", joining hands with young musicians to applaud the Winter Olympics with a high melody.
In addition, a series of brands such as Alibaba, Yum, Tsingtao Beer, Xiaohongshu, and Buick have launched a "big war" around the Beijing Winter Olympics to attract attention, including sponsoring variety shows, finding athletes and celebrities to endorse, launching promotional videos and online and offline interactions.
From offline blockbusters to capital carnival
The Beijing Winter Olympics have undoubtedly become a recent blockbuster manufacturing machine. First of all, in the admission of delegations from various countries, many netizens noticed that down jackets in different countries have their own characteristics. They all shouted "Down jackets of the fierce grass planting delegation!" "This is the down jacket fashion award!"
While watching the party, the audience called "planting grass" and speculated about the clothing brands worn by delegations from various countries, two of which frantically swiped the screen on social media, looking for links to the same model on the Internet, one was an ANTA worn by the Chinese delegation, and the other was lululemon worn by the Canadian delegation.
Within 24 hours of the opening ceremony, the topic of down jackets received 250 million reads, the most commented messages were good-looking, and there were a bunch of people urging Anta and lululemon to put the same model on the shelves. On the e-commerce platform, the sales of these two brands have suddenly soared. Some people lamented that this sponsorship is too worthwhile.
After the opening ceremony, the most popular nature is the "ice pier". This giant panda of science and technology that seamlessly integrates cuteness and fashion has ignited national enthusiasm and won the attention and love of the world, and snapping up its peripheral derivative products has become a trend for a while, and the phenomenon of "one pier is difficult to find" has appeared. Behind it, the share price of the franchised producer Yuanlong Yatu has also risen and stopped continuously, and has announced with a high profile that it will enter the meta-universe and launch digital gifts.
In addition, the Tiffany ring worn by Gu Ailing when she participated in the competition this time has also become the current hit, and many netizens have purchased it, bluntly saying that they have got the same model as the champion.
Turning to the capital market, the Winter Olympics have also raised the attention of a number of sports brands, on February 7, Anta Sports (2020.HK) rose 3.23%, Li Ning rose 2.96%, Tao Bo and Bosideng followed suit. Among them, ANTA, as the official partner of the Winter Olympics, has received high attention, in addition to providing champion dragon suits, ANTA sponsored 12 Chinese national teams in 15 major events in this Winter Olympics, becoming the sports brand that sponsors the most equipment for the Chinese national team, and the golden dragon suit worn by Gu Ailing when she won the championship was also customized by ANTA.
ANTA has been sponsoring the Olympic Games for 13 years. In 2009, ANTA cooperated with the Chinese Olympic Committee for the first time, signed a four-year sponsorship contract, and began its own counterattack road. According to the financial report, in 2009, anta sports revenue was only 5.87 billion yuan, while the turnover in 2010 increased by 26.1% year-on-year to 7.41 billion yuan. In 2020, ANTA's revenue exceeded 35.5 billion yuan, and its net profit exceeded that of Adidas. In the first half of 2021, ANTA's total revenue reached 22.8 billion yuan.
It can be said that in recent years, through sponsoring the Olympic Games, ANTA has achieved overtaking in the corners and surpassed Li Ning to become the boss of domestic sports brands. At present, the total market value of ANTA has exceeded HK$350 billion, which is hundreds of billions of Hong Kong dollars higher than Li Ning's market value of about HK$200 billion.
On the commercial map, ANTA has formed a "brand matrix" through mergers and acquisitions, equity participation, etc., and its brands include FILA, Archaeopteryx, descente and so on. These brands are also cooperating with other countries in the Winter Olympics. For example, Desant sponsored the Japanese delegation, while Poland cooperated with FILA.
The full brand matrix participated in the Winter Olympics, and the effect was obvious. According to media reports, after the opening ceremony, Archaeopteryx, which has newly joined the ANTA brand camp, has sold out related products, and Disanter's sales have tripled.
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According to Alibaba's "Year of the Tiger Spring Festival Consumption Trend Report", people's enthusiasm for ice and snow sports was completely ignited this year's Spring Festival. From Chinese New Year's Eve to the fourth day of the first lunar month, Tmall ski equipment increased by more than 180% year-on-year, and the ice sports category increased by more than 300% year-on-year. Jingdong's recently released ice and snow sports consumption report also shows that during the 2022 Jingdong New Year Festival, the turnover of ice and snow sports related categories increased by 135% compared with the same period last year. Among them, the transaction amount of ice and snow equipment increased by 107% year-on-year, ice and snow sports clothing increased by 99% year-on-year, and ice and snow sports protective gear increased by 41% year-on-year.
With the Beijing Winter Olympics, an ice and snow sport is sweeping across China, and a new chapter in China's ice and snow economy has been opened. The development of China's ice and snow industry has also ushered in the best opportunity, in the ice and snow culture tourism, ice and snow sports, ice and snow research and development and manufacturing, ice and snow comprehensive services and other dimensions, new opportunities are being conceived.
Reference Articles:
Gu Ailing made history and won gold! See how ANTA and Yili play the digital marketing of the Winter Olympics - Alimama digital marketing
China's third gold! "Frog Princess" Gu Ailing makes history! More than 20 endorsements in hand - for business reference
The Winter Olympics brought down jackets, and the sales of many brands soared, and Anta may become the biggest "winner" - Ai Finance and Economics