Germany wins! The basketball World Cup is over, who is the big winner of Chinese brands?

With the German men's basketball team narrowly defeating Serbia by 6 points, the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup has officially come to an end. For the major brands betting on this event, the Chinese sports brand Peak, which topped the top podium with the German team, has undoubtedly become a big winner.

In fact, to be able to start a "derby battle" on the stage representing the highest level of world basketball, no matter who wins in the end, the iconic triangle will get a super exposure on the championship podium, which will enhance Peak's influence.

Not only Peak, but also many brands from China have also shown their talents in this World Cup journey, with different marketing methods and concepts, once again completed the in-depth development of their own brands in the sports competition scene.

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Text / Dajiang

Edited / Li Jiajun

The final whistle sounded, and with the forgetful celebration of the German players, the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup officially came to an end.

Looking back, the event attracted a lot of attention not only because it was the first time in the history of the basketball World Cup that it was held in multiple countries, but also because the teams that performed well were able to get a direct ticket to the men's basketball team at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The quadrennial World Cup is not only a big test for many teams to test the lineup and compete for honors, but also a must-compete place for global brands to layout basketball tracks, and a high-quality scene for Chinese brands to go international. Following the perspective of krypton, let's take a look at what wonderful moments Chinese brands have in the World Cup.

Half of the global partner Chinese brands,

Leverage the influence of the World Cup to transform the growth of basketball atmosphere

In the 2023 Men's Basketball World Cup cycle, a number of top brands have gathered. Among the 10 FIBA global partner seats, half of the companies from China are Baisuishan, TCL, Tencent, Wanda and Yili.

In addition, Chau Ming Sports is also involved as the official supplier of FIBA LED.

Image screenshot from: FIBA

Since Wanda Group became FIBA's global business partner from 2019 to 2031, it has the right to conduct global marketing in three basketball World Cups in 2023, 2027 and 2031, the Basketball Intercontinental Cup in Asia, Europe and the Americas, and the Youth Basketball World Cup.

Before the start of the competition, Wanda Group joined hands with FIBA to launch the Little Caddy Program again, selecting 12 young players in the U10 category in 12 cities in China to join hands with young players in the opening match of the Chinese team of the Basketball World Cup, encouraging young players to strive for this supreme glory through their own efforts.

With IP in hand and its own offline superior resources, Wanda's cooperation with the World Cup has been reflected in brand activities, event marketing, on-site operations and other all-round services.

Of course, each brand has its own marketing style and communication preferences. For Baisuishan, this is not the first time they stand on the stage of the FIBA Basketball World Cup, and the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup held in China, Baisuishan has helped the basketball World Cup successfully hold as a local brand in the host country.

As a Chinese drinking water brand that goes abroad and goes to the world, Baisuishan has entered the market with high-end and high-quality characteristics since its inception, and the high-quality and high-standard brand supply system has been laid out, which not only fits with the historical tradition and cultural heritage of high-end basketball events, but also highlights Baisuishan's high-end brand positioning and differentiated competitive advantage.

In fact, Baisuishan sponsored the International Unity Cup warm-up match before the World Cup competition, and with the blessing of athletes from China, Italy, New Zealand, Serbia, Brazil and other national teams, it continued to drive brand influence with the event. Cooperate with high-level and wide-ranging events to ensure high-end brand quality and maintain good interaction with consumers in hot sports events.

Source: FIBA official website

As a global partner of FIBA, TCL's sports marketing has already covered basketball, football, e-sports, rugby and other fields around the world, so as to continuously enhance the global influence of its brand and consolidate the localized brand marketing layout. After several years of operation and hard work, the charm and spirit of basketball have become an important label of TCL brand spirit and marketing.

During the World Cup, TCL not only sent a cheering team to Manila to support the Chinese team, but also strengthened interaction with fans through online activities on social media to continue the spirit of basketball.

Yili, which has rich marketing experience in major international sports events such as the Olympics and football, signed this agreement for the first cooperation between Chinese dairy enterprises and FIBA, and it is also another important cross-border cooperation between China's dairy industry facing the world. The cooperation with FIBA also means that the layout of Yili's basketball strategy will be continued and strengthened again.

So far, Yili has not only completed the basketball layout at various levels in China, but also achieved new breakthroughs in the international basketball stage, laying a solid foundation for cooperation with more high-level top-level events. While warming up for game-time marketing through a series of online and offline activities, Yili has always been building a love resonance with the basketball public, conveying the concept of loving basketball, understanding basketball, and accompanying people to adhere to love.

At the same time, as the official yogurt of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup, An Muxi also used online and offline tandem to create an in-depth basketball atmosphere for the audience on and off the court during this tournament.

During the event, An Muxi and Tencent Sports jointly created the "Basketball Storm" program in China, and its finals were also held on the same day as the World Cup finals, using such a high-level public event to show fans the passion and blood of Chinese basketball at the public level.

Tencent, the exclusive partner of FIBA China's digital media, did not choose to share the competition traffic with other brands during this event, but focused on the idea of content as king, focusing on the IP influence of the World Cup to incubate multi-dimensional programs.

In terms of content reporting, a multi-content matrix such as live broadcast, on-demand, programs, and documentaries has been formed, and popular guests such as Wang Shipeng, Zhu Fangyu, Yang Yi, and Su Qun have been invited as guests to output views from a professional perspective and interact with netizens. Fun interactions such as the road to champions, player ratings, and quiz bars have created a high-standard mass basketball event "Basketball Storm" in Suzhou, Shanghai, Xi'an, Xiamen, Beijing and other places, helping everyone to participate in this summer's basketball boom online and offline.

We can see that the five major Chinese brands are taking the World Cup as an incision, investing resources to cover the audience viewing process through all channels, attracting audience attention or participation from on-site viewing, live broadcasting, online interaction, etc., and integrating social communication channels to transform the extensive influence of the Men's Basketball World Cup into a growth force for the domestic basketball atmosphere, while quickly reaching users with the brand concept.

Differentiated sponsorship of signed players, teams, and brands

In addition to the main sponsor covering the whole scene, some brands have also attracted extensive discussion among fans by sponsoring star players and sponsoring national teams. After all, for brands, if they want to have more valuable communication with contemporary young people, they not only need to convey vivid and vivid brand recognition to consumers through the fun of the content of the competition, but also have a concrete and personalized expression.

Before the start of the World Cup, ANTA officially signed Jordan Clarkson, the number one star of the Philippine national team, to provide ANTA equipment for this tournament. Clarkson's performance in the NBA is remarkable, Clarkson on the court is tough and dares to fight, he loves fashion off the court, is very happy to share life, is a well-known male model player in the league, in the hearts of many fans, I believe there is no need to say more.

Such high-quality athletes as spokespersons are based on Clarkson's own characteristics and the deep fit with ANTA's brand concept, and also bring more help to the rejuvenation of ANTA brand IP.

Source: NiceKicks

Another harvest was naturally Peak, who achieved the "derby" in the final final.

Peak frequently appears in top events in the form of sponsoring teams, bringing brand exposure with event traffic and team strength, reaching potential consumers around the world, and successfully expanding overseas markets and user resources.

At the 2023 Basketball World Cup, Peak has signed six national teams, second only to the 14 in the Nike and Jordan camps, and in addition to Serbia and Germany, Latvia, Iran, New Zealand and South Sudan are also members of Peak teams. In addition, Peak has also established cooperative relations with basketball associations in Montenegro, Nigeria and other countries, and professional leagues in France, the Philippines and other countries.

Through the cooperation with a number of national teams, Peak has highlighted the domestic sports brands with differentiated playing styles, promoted the global development of the brand in the cooperation with international basketball high-quality resources, and established the international brand framework of Peak.

After Meibo Group became the official sponsor of the Serbian national men's basketball team, its chairman Yu Fangwen said that Meibo Group has always adhered to the strategic vision of internationalization, through six years of international sports marketing, products are exported to the world, this time together with the Serbian national men's basketball team, but also ushered in a new chapter of Meibo global brand strategic layout, not only an important node on the road of Meibo internationalization, but also a vivid demonstration of the integration of Meibo and sportsmanship.

With the maturity of the FIBA Basketball World Cup, not only big brands with rich market experience join, but also emerging brands in various circles and fields that are eager to develop the market will also join the camp of sports marketing and harvest their own traffic. For the top IP of the basketball World Cup, whether it is a familiar or unfamiliar brand, many brands want to get more attention from it.

However, when the situation, concept, and product information appear at the same time, whether they can stand out and accurately win the minds of consumers is the key to the success of these brands.

But young people's standards for judging brands are different from the past. Young people who are fresh and want to show their individuality and express themselves seem to prefer people or teams that are interesting, playful and have distinctive characteristics. Therefore, choosing players or team sponsorships, for some brands, such differentiated operations may also be able to achieve a small budget to leverage big communication during the competition.

Basketball marketing: brand aggregation and development in the basketball industry

We can see that at the match site of the 2023 FIBA World Cup, Chinese brands are connecting with fans through different strategies and means through professional brand display, whether it is design display or social media interaction, and conveying their brand image and values, all reflecting the brand's intentions and creativity in marketing.

Each brand has made the right use of the platform of the Men's Basketball World Cup, perfectly combining brand image and basketball culture, and demonstrating the competitiveness and influence of each brand in the field of sports.

An emerging trend is that in the past, conventional basketball marketing basically focused on traditional marketing methods such as co-branding or event titles, and the pursuit of hard broad, while the current basketball marketing layout is more like the aggregation and development of a brand at the basketball industry level.

Source: Weibo @中国篮球之队

The audience was impressed by the many wonderful battles of this basketball World Cup, which was not only a competition between competitions, but also a competition between brands, and the advancement of basketball culture and sports industry. As basketball is one of the most popular sports in the world, brands compete in the basketball field not only to expand brand voice and market share, but also to establish a broader and deeper connection with consumers through the basketball platform.

Nowadays, the domestic basketball lifestyle continues to be passed on and continued, and young people continue to devote themselves to the sport of basketball, perfectly interpreting the spirit of basketball "showing themselves, liberating themselves, and not being afraid of challenges". If more people can participate in the game and participate in sports, this is very critical to the development of the sports industry, and only if more people participate in basketball, the basketball industry will continue to have a good user base, and the industry may obtain greater commercial value.

It is hoped that through the 2023 FIBA World Cup, the Chinese men's basketball team can forge ahead, and Chinese brands will also innovate and develop in the process of going global, which can promote the development of China's basketball industry and make greater contributions to the promotion of global basketball culture.