Scrambling for Olympic stars: Xiaomi spent 5 million to sign Su Bingtian, and the Chinese women's volleyball team's commercial endorsement met with the cold how to distribute the income of brand players who were frustrated by the Olympic stars

Written by | AI Finance and Economics Agency Li Wen

Editor| You Yong

The Tokyo Olympics are over, but the commercial battle over stars at the Olympics has only just begun.

According to ai finance and economics statistics, after the Tokyo Olympics, at least 4 celebrities clearly received new brand endorsements, and popular athletes like Su Bingtian and Sun Yiwen, there was more than one brand endorsement. But some people are happy and some are sad, and the big hit of commercial endorsements in previous years - the Chinese women's volleyball team is quite cold in commercial activities and commercial publicity because of its poor performance.

However, whether hot or cold, these benefits are not exclusive to athletes, and there is a rather complex interest distribution mechanism behind this.

<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > compete for Olympic stars</h1>

On August 1, the highly anticipated Olympic men's 100m semi-finals kicked off. The most talked about track and field event has traditionally been the domain of whites and blacks, but this evening a yellow-skinned face appeared, and China's Su Bingtian crossed the finish line with a time of 9.83 seconds and reached the final. Although Su Bingtian did not win a medal in the end, he enjoyed the honor of a champion because he broke the Asian record.

As soon as the Tokyo Olympics ended, the brand owner had already broken the phone of Su Bingtian's agent. According to AI Finance and Economics, Xiaomi Group found a brite entertainment agent to help negotiate cooperation, "big brand, top sports star, both sides hit it off, very fast." ”

On August 10, Su Bingtian officially "took up his post" and became a spokesperson for Xiaomi. Su Bingtian, wearing red short sleeves with the word "China" printed on his chest, recorded a video with his mobile phone in the quarantine hotel after returning from Tokyo to cheer for Xiaomi. At the same time, he warmed up for Lei Jun's "My Dream, My Choice" speech that night.

In addition to Xiaomi, Seven Wolves also announced the signing of Su Bingtian on August 18.

AI Finance and Economics learned from a number of sports agents that as the top star of this Olympic Games, Su Bingtian's signing fee is not cheap. A person close to Brite Entertainment said that the 1st year speech fee given by Xiaomi was about 5.2 million yuan. In contrast, Olympic gymnastics champion Liu Yang has negotiated cooperation with a medical device company in Shandong and will serve as an epidemic prevention ambassador, at a cost of about 400,000 yuan.

Fencing champion Sun Yiwen, who has a good personal image and temperament, has also been chased by various brands. On August 16, Sun Yiwen became the sports ambassador of the KAPPA brand. In addition to the Kappa brand, Sun Yiwen is also the brand ambassador of Gujia Mattress for the 8th Anniversary of Deep Sleep.

The 14-year-old diving champion who became famous in the Olympic Games, Quan Hongchan, became popular overnight. The domestic brand Xtep immediately announced that it would invite Quan Hongchan to endorse the Xtep children's series. And Quan Hongchan also specially served as a Baidu AI coach on Weibo, suspected of receiving Baidu advertisements.

In addition to competing for the Olympic stars themselves, there are also some companies that have specifically targeted the names of athletes and preemptively registered them as trademarks. AI Finance and Economics found in the Tianyancha App that 21 companies applied for the trademark "QuanhongChan" in August, which is currently showing that they are all in the application for registration. Most of the applicants are companies in the food, alcohol, daily necessities and other industries that have a high degree of closeness with the public.

In addition to Quan Hongchan, shooting champion Yang Qian and table tennis champion Chen Meng, there are also cases of trademark squatting by merchants. In response, the Chinese Olympic Committee responded that if the athlete himself or the guardian of the minor athlete is not authorized, he shall not preemptively register the trademark in bad faith in the name of the Olympic athlete or other acts that infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of the athletes such as the right to a name.

<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="86" > frustrated brands</h1>

Compared with these Olympic stars who signed after the Game, many businesses have invested heavily in the Olympic Games before the Olympic Games, betting that these athletes can achieve good results.

For example, a year ago, Yili, Nike, GAC Trumpchi, Sealy China and other brands sponsored Su Bingtian. Alibaba also chose climber Zhong Qixin as a brand spokesperson early.

But more businesses choose to sponsor an entire team than to choose an athlete. Before the Tokyo Olympics, more than 20 companies provided sponsorship or training financial support for the Chinese women's volleyball team, including Pacific Insurance, Lenovo, Tencent Sports, Tencent News, Hongqi and more than a dozen sponsors and suppliers. In April this year, JD.com signed an exclusive clause and became a partner of the national swimming team. In May, ANTA announced that it had officially become a sponsor of the swimming team.

"Unlike competing for Olympic stars after the game, merchants prefer to sponsor the entire team, because the results of the whole team are easier to predict, and the individual results are difficult to evaluate." Therefore, basically they choose to directly sponsor a team, and there are fewer merchants who choose personal endorsements. Li Zetao, an agent who won sports under Tencent, told AI Finance and Economics. Win Sports bought out the business development rights of the Chinese women's volleyball team in August 2017, and they are fully responsible for the subsequent commercial value management of the women's volleyball team.

Brands that sign contracts with athletes or sports teams in advance must have their considerations. For example, merchants can warm up around related promotional activities. When the competition is carried out, the topic and hot spots of the athletes have reached their peak, and the effect of the merchants can use it to publicize it will be more obvious. If the sponsored athlete achieves a championship or a good result, it can also release secondary marketing opportunities and leverage greater benefits with the least amount of money.

Typical is Su Bingtian. On August 1, on the day of Su Bingtian's semi-finals, GAC Trumpchi launched a new product. Subsequently, Su Bingtian also filmed a video at the Olympic Stadium to celebrate the listing of GAC Trumpchi's new products.

But the sponsors of the Chinese women's volleyball team are not so active. The Originally the most optimistic Chinese women's volleyball team this year,losing 3 consecutive defeats in the group stage, missing the quarterfinals in two rounds in advance, but also playing the most tragic result in history. More than 20 brands have missed a wave of opportunities to attract traffic with the help of women's volleyball girls.

Pacific Insurance, the largest sponsor of the women's volleyball team, sent a number of microblogs to cheer for the women's volleyball team before the Olympic Games, but chose to be silent when the women's volleyball team did not perform well in the Olympic Games. The official microblog of the second largest sponsor, Hongqi Automobile, can not find the promotional copy of the women's volleyball girls.

Li Zetao once helped the Chinese women's volleyball team attract business, and he told every customer who wanted to invest in the women's volleyball team about the risk, "If you want to win the Olympic Games this year, the possibility is very small." ”

"Whether or not you can win the championship requires a cross-sectional comparison of the participating countries." Li Zetao said that in the 2019 Women's Volleyball World Cup, the Chinese women's volleyball team won the championship for a timely reason, when the Serbian team did not send the main force, the Italian team did not participate, the American team was training new people, and the two main forces of the Brazilian team did not arrive; but 2 years later, looking around the Participants of the Tokyo Olympic Games, the strong teams were ready to go.

But at that time, the Chinese women's volleyball team was in the limelight, and no one believed him at all. The Chinese women's volleyball team has just won 10 consecutive victories from the 2019 World Women's Volleyball Cup, directly defending the championship, attracting countless fans, and dominating the hot event rankings of major social platforms for a long time. The Baidu search index of the Chinese women's volleyball team also doubled in just 7 days. Seconds System and ECO Krypton specially released the "2020 SCSI China Post-90s Active Sports Star Commercial Value List TOP 20", which is considered to have the hottest high-quality endorsement resources of the top three, there are two women's volleyball girls, Zhu Ting and Zhang Changning. The Chinese women's volleyball team is also the most selected national team.

However, the results of the Olympic Games have disappointed many merchants, and ultimately affected the commercial value of the women's volleyball team.

<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="88" > how athletes' income is distributed</h1>

Athletes who became famous in world war I, various commercial activities and endorsements came pouring in. However, this does not mean that all income can be included in the pockets of individual athletes.

"In 2012, active sports stars received income from external endorsements, and the management center had to take 50% away." Wang Hui worked for several years at a sports agency. Today, she is managing the brokerage business for retired champions.

It is reported that the State General Administration of Sport issued a 505 document in 1996, which clearly stated that "the intangible assets of active athletes belong to the state." Therefore, in-service athletes must be approved by the organization before they can carry out business activities such as advertising." However, the new 2006 regulations erased expressions such as "owned by the state" but still did not recognize the autonomy of athletes in their commercial activities.

There have also been many clashes between athletes and their units during this period. Diving Prince Tian Liang was forced to retire because he took over the endorsement privately, clashed with the management, and even could not participate in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games; and Ning Zetao, who was called a gem star with swimming champion Sun Yang, was also forced to retire because he privately accepted the endorsement brand, which was a competitor of the swimming team's signed brand, resulting in a conflict of commercial interests, and finally forced to retire.

In August 2019, the General Administration of Sport explicitly opened up the commercial endorsement autonomy of athletes. The specific requirement is that "under the premise of not affecting the training competition, with the consent of the unit, athletes and coaches may engage in commercial development activities in their own or by hiring professional brokerage agencies and agents in their own name".

Su Bingtian is a beneficiary of the policy. Li Zetao told AI Finance and Economics that Su Bingtian signed a contract to win sports as an agency with the consent of the Athletics Association.

As long as the brand signed by the individual athlete does not have a competitive relationship or other conflicts with the brand signed by the national team, more and more athletes are allowed to sign directly with the brand owner privately.

"The commercial income of active athletes, at present, there is no unified normative standard for the General Administration of Sports. Some project teams are more open, allowing individual athletes to sign contracts directly with commercial brands, at which time the income is usually owned by individuals, while some project teams not only strictly prohibit athletes from signing privately with brands, but also require athletes and commercial signing income to be handed over. Li Zetao said that he has been dealing with the National Sports Bureau and various associations for many years.

Li Zetao told AI Finance and Economics that the State General Administration of Sport has no clear document provisions, and for some association management centers that require sharing, even if the share belongs to the association, there is no clear explanation for the use of this part of the funds, and there are many problems.

However, regardless of the distribution of benefits, the Olympic Games are an extremely important stage for athletes. Many athletes gain attention and commercial monetization through a competition, and the pursuit of Olympic stars by commercial brands is inversely motivating athletes to get better results. In a way, this is also a positive cycle.

(Wang Hui and Li Zetao are pseudonyms in the text)

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