In addition to signing sports stars, beauty brands can play cross-border sports

Beauty brands are not the only way to enter the sports field by signing sports stars. Sponsoring the national team, naming competitions, and deep cooperation with groups is also a benign means to enhance brand image. Brands are often willing to pursue a deeper, more ecological model, long-term deep cultivation in this matter, and the results brought, there may be 99% possibility and surprise.

Text / Yin Hang

Editor / Yin Haonan

This month, beauty brand OLAYA announced women's soccer player Wang Shuang as its brand ambassador. OLAY announced the news on Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Douyin and other platforms. In the advertising video, OLAY focuses on the common point of the brand and Wang Shuang ' confrontation " – Wang Shuang fights against the competition, OLAY fights aging, and integrates its brand with Wang Shuang's athlete identity.

Image source: Little Red Book @OLAY

OLAY's announcement of its new spokesperson at this point in time also has its own topical considerations. Just half a month ago, Wang Shuang just became the winner of the 2021 Chinese Women's Golden Globe Awards, winning his fourth Golden Globe trophy. The personal business value has also been further enhanced.

For a long time, the eyes of the beauty brand's contracted spokespersons have been sharp. Newcomers have emerged, brands have flocked to the era, and in the era when traffic stars contracted beauty endorsements, there was even a situation of "signing 4 endorsements in only 1 month after debut".

The brand's short-term income is significant, but after fans buy this one and buy that, the purchasing power is divided by multiple brands at the same time, which will also leave the suspicion of being questioned about "cutting leeks".

At the same time, Li Jiaqi turned out to be a world, the live streaming industry flourished, and the call for rational consumption became increasingly high. For beauty brands with nearly a century of history, such as OLAYA and Estée Lauder, there is no need to over-pursue short-term gains and affect word of mouth.

And since 2020, international brands have frequently exploded on regional issues, which has greatly affected their credibility in the hearts of Chinese consumers. The brand's act of selecting athletes as image spokespersons is more like "pushing the boat along the water".

In the choice of athlete spokespersons, beauty brands are still sharp-eyed, and set off a wave of signings around the event.

For example, Yang Qian signed Adolf, Estée Lauder and other brands after winning the first gold medal in China at the Tokyo Olympic Games; Sun Yiwen immediately signed OLAYA after winning the gold; the women's football team won the Asian Cup in February, and in March MakeUpForEver announced the cooperation with women's football players Wang Shuang and Zhao Lina; Su Yiming also took the identity of Xiu Like's brand ambassador into his pocket after becoming famous in the Winter Olympics...

Mastering the time node of large-scale events has gradually become part of the homework of beauty brands as spokespersons, and the annual event schedule also affects the rhythm of brand signing and publicity.

In fact, sports stars do not replace traffic stars, but more like joining, so that the spokesperson group is gradually diversified. In addition to athletes, singers and actresses, traffic stars, talk show actors, and even virtual idols are still within the brand's choice of spokespersons.

Vichy signed a virtual idol for her brand's best friend

During the period of traffic star spokespersons, fans will indicate their fan identity in the product evaluation after purchasing in the online store, so as to clarify that their purchase motivation comes from the spokesperson, and will be systematically forwarded and commented under the brand social media, driving the brand's official social media account to surge in popularity. But such "rules" are rare after sports celebrities endorse them. Compared with the sales of the former "visualization", the latter is more like "moisturizing and silent".

Sports stars are difficult to bring short-term sales surge, beauty brands are more interested in its fit with the brand tone, long-term cooperation is far more valuable than a paper contract.

Back in 2014, skincare brand LA MER partnered with surfer Liu Dan to jointly call for the protection of the ocean. This theme is la MER's long-standing public welfare direction, and it is also in line with Liu Dan's identity as a surfer. Cooperation between the two sides will continue until 2021.

Swimmer Liu Xiang also participated in the shooting of SK-II's animated short films. Liu Xiang's identity as a swimmer and the brand slogan "rewrite fate" are integrated, which is very advanced and textured. The transmission of this attitude is different from the simple product exposure and star platform, but more attention is paid to the presentation of the brand story by the athletes.

The same is true of Gong Lijiao's short film for Keyan. The theme of the short film, "How Old Am I", conveys the rebellion against the discipline of age, and the brand speaks to its values through the mouths of sports stars.

Choosing the right spokesperson for sports stars is just the beginning, and using a good spokesperson can really achieve "money is worth it". If you just sign a contract in the heat of the event, it will not only consume the value of both sides, but also easily make the chaos that once signed a contract comeback.

The General Administration of Sport has only been opening up the commercial endorsement autonomy of athletes for only three years, and athlete endorsement has become one of the first choices for brand marketing. But if the policy is tightened, or if the next era of spokesperson preference for beauty brands begins, this situation of "signing every event" may be cooled. For athletes, there is a more simple optimal solution to this matter - after all, performance on the field has always been the only voice for athletes to endorse.

However, even without signing up sports celebrities, beauty brands still have their way to integrate into the field of sports.

Since 1979, Shiseido has established a women's marathon club in Tokyo. The club's current 12 members also include Asao Ilsan, who finished 8th in the women's marathon final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Asao Ichiyama joined the brand running group in March this year and prepared for the Paris Olympic Games.

The close integration of Japanese beauty brands with sports is a widespread phenomenon. GaoSi has been providing beauty support to the Japanese Synchronized Swimming Team since 2006. Since 2007, Polaroid has been providing makeup styling and specially designed makeup items to the Japanese national gymnastics team.

Beauty brands are not the only way to enter the sports field by signing sports stars. Sponsoring the national team, naming competitions, and deep cooperation with groups is also a benign means to enhance brand image. Brands are often willing to pursue a deeper, more ecological model, long-term deep cultivation in this matter, and the results brought, there may be 99% possibility and surprise.