Author | Yang Dian
Edit | Dong Jie
After a five-year hiatus, the Formula One World (F1) returns to the Shanghai International Circuit, and Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu also makes his home debut.
This event, which represents the advanced level of the global automobile manufacturing industry and is known as the world's top three sports (along with the World Cup and the Olympic Games), has finally ushered in the first Chinese face in history. This not only ignited the enthusiasm of fans, but also made Zhou Guanyu's commercial value soar.
In the history of business, there are many stories of brands and F1. The movie "The Fastest Driver" chronicles the story of Ford's design of the classic GT40 to beat the invincible Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, thus opening up the European market.
Today, F1 is no longer just a carnival for car companies, and more and more consumer brands are also participating in it. Consumer brands such as lululemon, McDonald's, and Ambrosia are all eyeing Zhou Guanyu. This makes people wonder why these consumer brands, which seem to have nothing to do with racing, have taken a fancy to Zhou Guanyu, and what kind of magic does F1 have?
The first person in Chinese F1, the endorsement is soft
Zhou Guanyu, a slightly unfamiliar name to the vast majority of people, has become the marketing password of many consumer brands.
First of all, lululemon, the originator of yoga pants, officially announced that Zhou Guanyu became the brand ambassador, and together launched the home debut special exhibition and limited commemorative models.
The lululemon store at Shanghai's Jing An Kerry Centre has been transformed into an "exhibition hall" with 20 exhibits, such as a ticket for Zhou Guanyu to watch his first F1 Chinese Grand Prix at the age of 5, and the No. 1 go-kart he drove when he won the 2013 Rotax Max British Karting Championship and European Championship.
lululemon also showcased Zhou's 2024 limited edition commemorative collections, including a Cotton Jersey cotton-knit T-shirt, a Sojourn jacket, a Nylon bucket hat, a Everywhere belt bag, and cityverse athleisure shoes. So far, the Sojourn jacket and cityverse athleisure shoes in a variety of colors have been sold out.
For a brand that relies on yoga instructors for community marketing and women's products account for more than 75% of its revenue, Zhou Guanyu released a signal for lululemon's next step: no longer only do yoga as a sport, nor only do women's business.
Immediately afterwards, the fast food giant McDonald's also joined hands with Zhou Guanyu to play "homophonic stalks". McDonald's China officially announced that Zhou Guanyu has become the "McDonald's Chief Beef Officer", and jointly bring the new black truffle flavor Angus Thick Beef Burger.
Subsequently, the "McDonald's 100% Angus Giant Cattle Station" pop-up store event will be launched in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Tianjin, taking the appearance of "gas station" as the prototype, integrating into the racing scene, and creating a check-in point with the theme of "plus cattle station".
In the era when the "poor ghost package" became a popular word, the Angus thick cattle burger is a particularly special product among all the SKUs of McDonald's, relying on the high-quality cattle breed of "Angus cattle" to live into a high-end product, and the unit price of 30-50 yuan is unbeatable in the menu. Interestingly, according to interesting data disclosed by McDonald's, Shanghai is the most popular city for McDonald's Angus Thick Cattle Burger products.
This time, McDonald's and Zhou Guanyu jointly brought a new black truffle flavor Angus Thick Beef Burger, and the price of 29.9 yuan can enjoy a 100% Angus Thick Beef Burger discount package, the main ingredients are upgraded, and the price is downgraded, which is intended to use the popularity of F1 and Zhou Guanyu to bring a wave of new product sales.
In addition, consumer brands including PUMA, Hublot, Hennessy, Dior, Ambrosi, Zeekr Automobile, etc., have entered into business cooperation with Zhou Guanyu.
A closer look reveals that most of them are luxury brands, such as Hublot, Hennessy, and Dior, or high-end lines (upgraded lines) of traditional brands, such as Ambrosia (under Yili Group), Zeekr Automobile (under Geely Group), and McDonald's Angus Houniubao.
The commercial value of sports stars is often determined by factors such as the scale of the event, the degree of commercialization of the event, and the popularity of the star. In 2022, Gu Ailing achieved good results at the Winter Olympics, winning at least 29 brand endorsements in one go, and at that time, industry statistics showed that Gu Ailing's endorsement value was at least 220 million yuan (about 35 million US dollars). As one of the most influential events in the world, Zhou Guanyu's commercial value may not be lower here.
Sports folding and F1 metaphors
Consumer brands are eyeing Zhou Guanyu, perhaps with high-value male fans behind him.
36Kr selected well-known athletes corresponding to multiple sports in the huge arithmetic, analyzed the fan portraits of their Douyin accounts, and from the perspective of geographical distribution and mobile phone price band distribution, Zhou Guanyu's fan group is a group of people with strong consumption power.
Among these fan groups, 25.25% are from new first-tier cities, 21.12% are from first-tier cities, and 20.34% are from second-tier cities, of which Shanghai fans account for 9% and Apple users account for more than 50%.
Similarly, Gu Ailing. 22.47% of her fan base are from new first-tier cities, 20.02% are from second-tier cities, Apple users account for more than 40%, and 48% of Gu Ailing's fans are women who "rank first in spending power", and the commercial value is extremely high.
On the contrary, the higher the national sports, such as table tennis, diving, volleyball, and sprinting, the fan base corresponding to its athletes also sinks.
In the women's volleyball team that once inspired a generation, 22.84% of the fans of athlete Zhu Ting come from third-tier cities, and a large part of them are "elder fans" over 50 years old, while 21.89% of national ball player Ma Long are from third-tier cities, and a large part of his fans are young women aged 18-23.
In a sense, this is a kind of "folding" about the sports world, and the results and fan scale do not necessarily completely determine the commercial value of sports stars, and the most critical question is "who is watching them?"
Zhou Guanyu is an extremely scarce presence in the market at the moment, and the top 20 people in the world can enter the F1 race, and the Chinese face is the only one. For some brands that want to expand the Chinese male market and create a high-end image, Zhou Guanyu is an excellent choice.
The popularity of F1 and Zhou Guanyu has also become a footnote to the story of economic take-off.
Formula 1 Grand Prix and China were linked 20 years ago, when a swamp in Shanghai's Jiading district was designated as the venue for the event, and after 18 months and a cost of 450 million yuan, Shanghai built the most expensive circuit in F1 history. Viewed from above, the track resembles the character "上".
But for a long time, the results of F1 China were not good. After the 2008 financial crisis, F1 China was faced with the dilemma of a lack of title sponsors, declining ticket sales and ratings, and the organizing committee considered canceling the race.
But in 2024, the F1 race, which has been away from the Chinese market for five years, has ushered in unprecedented popularity, with tickets sold out, companies piling up sponsorship, and a Zhou Guanyu with high commercial value.
According to F1-Analysis, citing data from the Chinese Bureau of Statistics, the average salary in China has increased sevenfold since the country first held an F1 event, which has created the conditions for F1 to flourish. By the end of 2022, Jiading has more than 4,300 automobile-related enterprises, and the total industrial output value of the region's automobile scale has exceeded 385.5 billion yuan.
Gu Ailing and Zhou Guanyu walked to the front of the stage, which just shows that skiing and F1 racing, which were considered niche sports and "rich people's games" in the past, are breaking the circle.
As we see more and more people heading to the ski slopes and to the F1 viewing platform, these sports still have great potential in the future.