Two months after the end of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Gu Ailing is carrying more items than the box of fire leeks, Su Yiming is further showing her talent in surfing and guitar, and the brand potential of the Winter Olympic stars is still continuing.
For domestic brand owners, the two Olympic Games, which are only half a year apart, have redefined the value of sports marketing, and also allowed brand owners to complete the original accumulation of resources and methods to a certain extent, and many of them will feel regret - "If Gu Ailing and Su Yiming had signed gu Ailing and Su Yiming in advance at that time, how good would it be!" ”
However, the "super sports cycle" in the past, in a short period of time, there is no longer such a large influence in the country like the Olympic Games, "betting" success may bring short-term explosive effects, but in the future, brand owners need to change their thinking and redefine the purpose and realization of sports marketing.
Brand promotion and long-termism are the core of sports marketing, but in China, the fast economy guided by live broadcasting and e-commerce still affects marketing behavior. There is no absolute good or bad distinction between the two lines of thinking, and what is needed is to find a point of convergence with the characteristics of different athletes. In addition, as the individual influence of athletes increases, the influence of personal social accounts even exceeds that of many traditional media. Good athletes need to know how to communicate with their fans, which is also crucial to brand selection – the stronger the connection between athletes and fans, the more opportunities they have to bring commercial value to the brands they work with.
Lazy Bear Sports cooperated with MarTech, a company focusing on sports scene marketing services, to take the actual performance of athletes on major social media (Weibo, Douyin, Kuaishou) (interaction number, fan number, etc.) as an important reference, combined with competitive strength and image temperament, to excavate the following sponsorship targets. In addition to Gu Ailing, Su Yiming, Su Bingtian, which are already well-known and constantly endorsed, it is more cost-effective to explore the target from the value depression.
Brand-enhancing athletes
1. Zhou Guanyu
The sensation caused by Zhou Guanyu's entry into F1 is not as big as the industry imagines. The delay in the landing of F1's new media rights should be the main reason, and the exposure obtained by the "first person in China's F1" is far from being worthy of the breakthrough he has made. Another reason may be that in the eyes of the public, sports stars must be related to "champions". Frankly speaking, Zhou Guanyu is still very far away from this word, and his project cannot appear in the Olympic arena, but his value will be realized.
F1 is a long-term event, which not only has a long-term and close connection with fans, but also a show for the world's top technology and energy companies, and its commercial value is beyond doubt. Zhou Guanyu's performance in the first three races of the season is remarkable, and in the flamboyant motorsport, his personal image can also be regarded as sunny and calm. When the F1 China station returns, Zhou Guanyu's commercial value in China is destined to usher in an outbreak.
At present, Zhou Guanyu is already the brand spokesperson of Ammusi AMX. Yang Yibin, its general manager of Jiushi Sports, whose exclusive partner for business rights in China, once said: "I hope that domestic enterprises and brands that take the international route and want to promote their products in the global market will participate in the sponsorship." ”
2. Yang Shuyu
At the Tokyo Olympic Games, the women's three-person basketball player Yang Shuyu became famous in one battle, in addition to the competitive strength, her image temperament also played a great role, no need to repeat. From the perspective of sports marketing, Yang Shuyu's shortcomings are that the WCBA she most often participates in still lacks stable exposure, but at the level of personal charm, the confidence and vitality she shows are more consistent with Gu Ailing and Su Yiming. When we talk about this new generation of athletes, Yang Shuyu can undoubtedly be among them.
In October last year, Yang Shuyu had signed with Jordan Brand, becoming the brand's first Asian female athlete to sign a contract.
3. Malone
Malone's appearance here may come as a slight surprise, and the near-34-year-old is sure to be in the late stages of his career. However, from the perspective of brand promotion, it is in these years that the value of Malone has really been excavated.
Among China's top male athletes in the past, there are many domineering athletes, and in this male hormone-dominated field, it may be difficult to find a second one in addition to Ma Long, who can be described as low-key and elegant. With a glorious resume, a character story, and a unique temperament among athletes, it is not surprising that Malone has become more and more popular with luxury brands in recent years.
Within half a year, Malone has continuously become a Prada and Omega brand ambassador, which is also the best example.
Cargo-type athletes
The above three are suitable for long-term investment of large brands to enhance brand reputation, at the same time, there is another demand in the domestic marketing market, hoping that investment can be converted into sales in a short period of time, that is, with goods. In this regard, many top athletes can not achieve good results, and their ability to carry goods is even inferior to that of sports bloggers, and it was only recently that Sun Yang made a precedent. In this part, we mainly rely on the social media data provided by The Pinbo Digital Department to recommend three/group athletes according to the stickiness of fans.
1. Zhang Guowei
Who are the hottest athletes on social media platforms? Most people have a hard time thinking that it is Zhang Guowei. As a "mudslide" in the sports circle, Zhang Guowei announced his comeback in August last year, and the high jumper broke the circle because of the celebration of "Golden Rooster Independence", and then became an "Internet celebrity" because of the style of personal social media.
In the field of Internet celebrities, Zhang Guowei's performance can be called a phenomenon. In March this year's social media data, Zhang Guowei's total interaction number reached 7.15 million, more than 6 times that of second-place Gu Ailing. Although the average of 10 vibrato per day has raised the base, even if you only look at the average of each one, Zhang Guowei is also in the top three.
Some people say that he is "sand sculpture" and "brain problem", but who can refuse an athlete who has both achievements and happiness?
2. Agenar Adak
The Kazakh Chinese speed skater may be the hidden star of the Winter Olympics. During the Winter Olympics, Ahnar, who is still far from the medal, ranked No. 5 in the winter Olympic athletes' social media interaction list, and she was preceded by Gu Ailing, Wu Dajing, Ren Ziwei, and Jin Boyang. In the social ranking of all athletes in March, Ahnal can also rank 13th, and many famous athletes have been left behind by her. At present, its Weibo super talk has about 300,000 fans.
When sports also enter the "era of appearance", Ahnal has become a winner, and there will be many fans willing to pay for her.
3. Liu Xinyu / Wang Shiyue
Similar to Ahhnal, although the pair of Liu Xinyu and Wang Shiyue ranked 12th in the ice dance competition at the Winter Olympics, the duo of Liu Xinyu and Wang Shiyue achieved greater success on Weibo and Douyin, and the two ranked 4th and 5th respectively in the social media interaction list in March.
If you must explain their influence in social media, the appearance, the charm of ice dance, and the contrast of the Northeast dialect are definitely part of the reason, but the most critical thing may be that they meet the needs of fans to "bump CP", after all, this is an era that needs "high sweetness". In any case, a large number of fans, super high stickiness, will bring value.
High-diving young athletes
Compared with the athletes who have become famous, among the young people under the age of 23, the sport, competitive potential, and image temperament should be the most important factors, and they may not have taken care of social media, but these hard powers will lay the foundation for their commercial potential. If you can connect with them early and grow together, the brand side will be able to spend less money to achieve stronger binding, here we recommend 3 U23 athletes.
1. Basketball: Zeng Fanbo
The status of basketball in Chinese sports goes without saying, and 19-year-old Zeng Fanbo has the hope of becoming the next most talked about Chinese men's basketball player. In the 2021-22 season, Zeng Fanbo played for the NBA Development League, and has now decided to participate in this summer's NBA draft, and if successful, he is expected to end the shortage of Chinese players in the NBA.
Zeng Fanbo's current public endorsement is only Li Ning's family, on the one hand, because he has never appeared in the CBA and has limited exposure; in addition, his brokerage company CAA has chosen to "protect" Zeng Fanbo to some extent. Once successfully entering the NBA, the commercial value of Zeng Fanbo, who has a better image, will also surge.
2. Tennis: Zheng Qinwen
The 19-year-old Zheng Qinwen has become the second-highest-ranking Chinese tennis singles player, ranking 70th in the world, behind Zhang Shuai. At the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, Zheng Qinwen scored the Grand Slam regular tournament for the first time. Due to his excellent physical fitness, Zheng Qinwen is considered one of the most promising athletes in the Chinese women's tennis team.
Tennis is the most commercially valuable women's sport, and Li Na's group of athletes has paved the way for Zheng Qinwen: tennis is relatively less constrained by the sports bureau' business, and the degree of "solo flight" is relatively high. In addition, like Li Na, the brokerage company behind Zheng Qinwen is also IMG.
3. E-sports: League of Legends Asian Games national team
After last year's EDG brush screen, everyone should recognize the value of e-sports competitions. This year's Hangzhou, e-sports will be the first time as an official asian games event, of which league of legends is of course the most concerned. If the national flag can be raised at home and the national anthem can be played, it will be the most successful name correction in the esports industry.
Of course, due to the existence of the Korean team, the difficulty of winning the championship will not be small. Although the lineup of the Chinese team has not yet been announced, it is not surprising that it will include quite appealing players such as JackeyLove, among which Yu Wenbo himself has already gained cooperation from brands such as Dior and Bulgari with his debut that is the peak of his competitive achievements and the appearance of the idol faction.
In the case of other sports that are not fiercely competitive enough, the Sino-Korean battle of League of Legends may even become the most discussed game at the Asian Games, and this team deserves the early attention of brand owners.
High-value events
In the year that followed, although there were Asian Games and World Cups, the benefits of sponsoring them may not be comparable to the Olympic Games. The sponsors of the Asian Games are currently concentrated in local enterprises in Zhejiang, and there is no larger market breakthrough, and once Chinese athletes have won more than 100 gold medals in the cutting of melons and vegetables, it is even more difficult to gain attention after "winning the hemp". The World Cup is just the opposite, the Chinese men's football team continues to have no chance, but in different sponsorship levels, Chinese brands have Wanda, Hisense, Mengniu, VIVO four, categories and competition have been relatively saturated.
In contrast, the outstanding performance of some long-term events on social media platforms has shown their commercial potential. Similar to the logic of sponsoring athletes, investing in competitions gets short-term explosions, and investing in these events is "long-term" marketing. To our surprise, social media for more well-known events such as the CBA are mediocre, and the following three groups of events have become our recommended options.
1. WTT World Table Tennis Professional League
WTT is perhaps one of the most surprising new events, and although it was only founded by the ITTF in 2019, the tournament has shown its top-notch packaging ability from the beginning. Driven by high prize money, meticulous sponsorship management and operation, WTT has received praise from athletes, brand owners and table tennis spectators.
On the March social media interaction list provided by Pinbo Digital, WTT ranked first in Weibo and Douyin with a total interaction of 5.3 million, and the current sponsors of the event are Shuijingfang, Pisces, China Gold, etc.
2. UFC/ONE Championship
Fighting events in China have always had a lesser-perceived but large audience. The total number of interactions between the UFC and ONE Championships was 2.38 million and 2.01 million, respectively, ranking 2nd and 3rd, higher than F1, La Liga, Uber and other events.
After Zhang Weili broke the circle, athletes such as Song Yadong and Li Jingliang have taken on many new fans, and the personal social media accounts of these athletes are also quite popular. In practice, the sponsorship price of the UFC and ONE Championships may not be low, and the broadcast platform and individual sponsorship of the players are options worth considering.
3、F1
Due to the emergence of Zhou Guanyu, F1 must be one of the most worthy of investment by Chinese brands today, at present, Lenovo and Redmi have officially sponsored F1 events and related teams. Now all parties are waiting for F1 China Station to be re-held next year, after all, the on-site communication with Chinese car fans can stimulate the greatest marketing value.
On the other hand, brand owners can also wait for the official announcement of F1's new media copyright, according to the current situation in the domestic copyright market, the price should be much cheaper than sponsoring events and teams.
Finally, I hope that in the next recommendation list, we will have the confidence to list the names of some domestic competitions. In China's social platforms, the CBA and The Chinese Super League account data can not rank in the top 5 of the event, which is an embarrassing situation. Of course, in the case of normal competitions and home and away games are difficult to recover, a more sound sports business and culture can not be talked about.
Disclaimer: This article is original by Lazy Bear Sports and may not be reproduced without authorization.