The weather is getting warmer, and it's busy season again for long-distance runners. In their spare time, they travel from city to city to race their favorite marathons. In recent years, the marathon has attracted more and more attention as a participatory event that can be compatible with popular sports and professional sports. According to the "2023 Chinese Athletics Association Road Running Work Report", in the first half of 2023, there will be 133 registered marathons alone. In 2024, marathons continue to be popular, with 40 marathons even running in a week. According to incomplete statistics, there were nearly 100 marathons in March in China, of which more than 20 were held on March 24 and March 31.
Last year's Beijing Marathon attracted 20,000 participants. And this weekend, the 2024 Beijing Marathon will come as scheduled.
The marathon is not only a festival for long-distance runners, but also an entry point for local governments to create a city's business card and IP image. Marathons are mostly named after cities, so no city is going to pass up on a good opportunity to market itself. After all, the marathon is a sporting event, and at the same time, it is also a huge economic account.
Last year, the Wuxi Marathon, the Lihu Lake Half Marathon and the Taihu Women's Half Marathon held in Wuxi Binhu District alone brought direct consumption of 300 million yuan.
Statistics show that if a marathon enthusiast participates in more than 10 races a year, it will cost about 3-50,000 yuan. For the city, transportation, accommodation, catering and other aspects of consumption will be driven.
And in this huge economic account, there is one group that cannot be ignored, and that is the brand sponsors who sponsor the event. Over the years, more and more brands have begun to pay attention to this event whose commercial potential has not yet been fully unleashed.
The most direct entry point for sponsors is in the marathon, from street signs to clothing to supplies, which are mainly operated by sponsors. It is an interesting topic to revisit this economic account from the perspective of commercial sponsorship.
Who sponsors the fanatical marathon?
With the popularity of the event, the overall number of sponsorship partners for the marathon has been increasing year by year.
Taking the Beijing Marathon (hereinafter referred to as the Beijing Marathon) and the Shanghai Marathon (hereinafter referred to as the Shanghai Marathon) as examples, the partners of the Beijing Marathon are now divided into: title sponsor, top partner, official sponsor, event supporter and official cooperation platform for the online race. Judging from the data of previous years, the number of cooperative brands in North Malaysia has increased from 6 in 2010, 13 in 2014, and more than 20 in 2018.
There are currently four levels of sponsors, the first level is the founding sponsor, the supreme sponsor, the second level is the honorary sponsor, the third level is the official sponsor, and the fourth level is the event supporter. Starting from 2020, new logistics service providers, insurance service providers, officially designated energy gel partners and officially designated photography service providers have been added. The 2023 Shanghai Marathon has also attracted more than 20 sponsors and cooperative service providers.
Titanium Media APP learned that the main sponsors of the marathon are mostly large enterprises such as car companies, financial institutions, well-known FMCG, and sports brands.
Some marathon operation practitioners told Titanium Media APP that the sponsorship amount of first-class sponsors and title sponsors is more than 10 million, and the enterprises are mainly automobiles, banks, and real estate enterprises, and some are local leading enterprises. The official partners of the second level are many sports brands and financial real estate, such as Adidas, ASICS, Xtep, etc. The third level of official sponsors are mostly large FMCG brands such as food and beverage, such as Cestbon and Master Kong. Level 4 official suppliers, mainly enterprises with related services and products, including local restaurants, hotels, etc. The sponsorship fee is not necessarily pure cash sponsorship, and many will include physical items. For example, buy running shoes and get a quota.
The Beijing Marathon is the highest level and most influential marathon in China. In 2024, the title sponsor of the Beijing Half Marathon will be Mengniu, the event partners will be Xtep, China UnionPay and Kohler, and Huaxia Fund and Jiajiakang will be the event sponsors. In terms of event supporters, a total of 16 companies supported the event, including Baisuishan, Beijing United Family Hospital, Joyvio, Shokin, Grainke, Combit, JD Logistics, and Jihu Automobile.
In the recent Chongqing Marathon, Chongqing Pharmaceutical (Group) Co., Ltd. was the official sponsor of the Wuhan Marathon, which had 18 sponsors this year, with Bank of China being the main title sponsor, followed by Xtep as a top partner, and BYD. Other brands include marathon veteran sponsor Cestbon, as well as Snow Brave Beer, Zhongbai Lawson and Jiajiakang Pork.
Sports brands have always been the target objects of sports sponsors who have more room to exert and are more likely to obtain good marketing results. New Balance, a running shoe family and the first brand to research running shoes, is the official sponsor of the London Marathon and the New York Marathon, six major events, and has always been an important strategy for New Balance to cooperate with international marathon events.
In marathons, running shoes and the brands behind them usually occupy a higher "voice", so they will invest a large amount of sponsorship in marathon running events. The boots worn by top runners are also an important part of the brand's battle for exposure. On the other hand, it is also a way to prove the strength of your product with the results of professional runners.
For example, when it comes to marathons, Adidas launched with the first pair of BOOST tech running shoes in 2013. In the 2023 Shanghai Half Marathon, the champions, runners-up in the men's and women's races wore the adidas ADIZERO ADIOS PRO series to participate in the race, and won and set a new record.
The "marketing protagonist" of the domestic marathon venue has changed
Marathons have a long history, objectively speaking, different types of brands have different perceptions of marathons, and the earliest beneficiaries are undoubtedly sports brands. In recent years, the marketing role of domestic marathon venues has also changed. The competition for spot among sponsors is getting fierce.
The sponsorship position of popular marathon events in first-tier cities has always been a hot spot for major brands. In the last two or three years, more and more brands want to become "part of the marathon".
In fact, the earliest marathon sponsor participants in the country were Nike and Adidas. Among the top marathon events in China, Nike, Adidas, and ASICS also remain at the top of the wearing rate list.
According to public information, in 1982, Nike sponsored the second Beijing Marathon and provided sportswear, socks and running shoes and other equipment for the event, making a good start for the follow-up marketing strategy. Nike's official entry into the Chinese market is also inseparable from the contribution of the marathon.
In 2010, the sponsor of North Malaysia was replaced by Adidas from Nike. In 2012, Nike began to cooperate with the Shanghai Marathon, which lasted for 12 years and was the highest level of supreme sponsor of the marathon.
However, after entering 2022, domestic footwear and apparel brands have a stronger and stronger presence in domestic marathons, and are increasing brand marketing expenses.
On the one hand, the "2023 Shanghai Marathon Big Data Report" released by Yue Running Circle shows that in 2023, domestic brands in Shanghai will perform well in the wearing rate of running shoes, especially in the third segment, accounting for nearly half of them, far exceeding brands in the United States, Europe, Japan and other brands.
According to the data of the Yue Running Circle, among the runners who will break the top three in 2023, Xtep's wearing rate will surpass Nike to become the first, an increase of 12.5% compared with 2022. In the whole segment, there is also a French-born running shoe brand HOKA, which surpasses Adidas in terms of wearing rate, and ranks among the top five.
Since 2012, Li Ning has sponsored marathon events and hosted its own races, gradually penetrating into the field of running events. Xtep is known as a "marathon marketing expert" by the outside world, and it believes that event service is an important starting point for it to consolidate its market perception of "World Running Shoes China Xtep". Data shows that in 2023 alone, Xtep International has sponsored 24 marathons, including the Xiamen Marathon, a platinum label event in world athletics, which has been sponsored for 16 consecutive years.
Usually before a marathon, the brand also launches some new running shoe products and collections. In the field of marathon events, the Feidian series of Li-Ning running shoes helped athletes set a new record with a time of 2 hours, 03 minutes and 47 seconds in February 2024. At the recently concluded Wuxi Marathon (hereinafter referred to as Xima), Li-Ning's latest Feidian 4ULTRA won the men's and women's podiums in Xima respectively, breaking the record of the race.
First-time sponsors and new entrants continue to pour in
Car companies, financial institutions, well-known FMCG and sports brands have always been the main sponsors of marathon events. And now, the marathon partners are expanding their camp. Some new entrants poured into the tournament in an attempt to use their value advantage to serve the tournament.
For example, Keep cooperated with Huipao Sports, the organizer of the Wuxi Marathon, this year, to provide runners across the country with a more professional sports service experience by virtue of Keep's years of experience in the field of sports content. It is understood that all runners participating in the event can upload the results directly to Keep by binding relevant data recording devices, Keep will form a real-time list of runners' results, and award virtual medals to all finishers, all runners can use the Keep online room group building function, and freely form a team before the race to participate with their favorite "partner", and can view the route trajectory, real-time positioning and race results of teammates in real time.
This year, Xima officially announced that the men's clothing chain brand Heilan Home has become its title sponsor, replacing COLMO, which has participated in the sponsorship for three consecutive years. For Heilan House, this year is its first time to name the Wuxi Marathon. According to reports, in order to increase the participation experience of 33,000 Xima runners, Heilan Home has prepared for the marathon before, during and after the race.
In 2023, Tiffany & Co., a well-known luxury jewelry brand, announced that it will cast new trophies and medals for the top three male and female athletes of the 2023 Shanghai Marathon, becoming the official trophy partner of the Shanghai Marathon, creating new trophies and medals for the top three male and female athletes in the event. It is understood that this is the first time that Tiffany & Co. has reached a cooperation with the Shanghai Marathon, and it is also the third time that Tiffany & Co. has sponsored a homemade trophy after the New York Marathon and the Nagoya Women's Marathon in Japan.
The running shoe market is more diversified. Some of the sports brands that the middle class has been keen on in the past two years have also started to get involved in marathons. Starting in 2023, lululemon's marathon and running-related products and marketing activities have increased significantly. And running shoes are also the next growth point that lululemon is working on.
At the beginning of March this year, lululemon participated in the brand's first women's ultra-marathon FURTHER program, and worked with 10 female ambassadors to create a full set of athletes' equipment to ensure the demand of the track.
Under the joint action of participants, host cities and sponsors, the domestic marathon market is in a blowout state. According to iResearch's estimates, China is becoming the world's second largest running market. There are 100 million core runners and 300 million mass runners in China, and the proportion of core runners is growing.
From the government's point of view, the marathon is also becoming a way for everyone to exercise and fitness. There are already thousands of events across the country every year. Organizing events has become less difficult. The 2024 government work report clearly proposes to cultivate sports events as a new consumption growth point.
A Beijing Marathon enthusiast told Titanium Media APP that he signed up for the Beijing International Marathon in April last year, but did not win the lottery. In the past two years, he has felt that one of the biggest changes in the Beijing Marathon is that there are more and more people running marathons around him, especially the half marathon. Registration for the event is hard to find. More and more marathon players are also starting to play triathlons at the same time, including running, swimming, and cycling.
In the same way, it is conceivable that with the popularity of marathon events, the competition for marathon sponsorship seats will become more and more fierce in the future.
It is foreseeable that in the future, the industry development dividends around the marathon will appear, and the sponsorship will only be much more popular. In addition to the first-tier cities, many third- and fourth-tier cities still have the problem of the overall difficulty of marathon investment. For operators who can get more sponsorship income behind the sponsors, they will also face updated opportunities and competition.
(This article was first published on the Titanium Media APP, author | Liu Dafang, editor - Fang Yu)