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Adidas: Can Olympic Marketing Succeed At One Stroke?

2008/8/19 12:24:00 41771

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Now, the Impossible is nothing, which Adidas always believes, has finally helped them achieve the desired success.

The success of the Olympic Games was held in China, so that the Adidas who always accompanied it began to savor the joy of victory.

The Chinese brand has seen the power of future development when Chinese athletes are wearing Adidas costumes again and again on the podium.

Olympic Games bring success opportunities

In China, Adidas, which has been lagging behind the US Nike, hopes to end the role of a catch-up in 2008. After paying the huge sponsorship fee of Beijing Olympic partners, they immediately launched the first comprehensive action.

Adidas is looking for every opportunity to show the identity of the Beijing Olympic Games partner. This is the most important bargaining chip that it won in China.

Apart from the sportsmen award dress, as a Beijing Olympic partner, Adidas also provides clothing for all the staff, volunteers and winners.

The logo of Adidas also appeared in all venues related to the Olympic Games.

Of course, this is not all.

The success of the Olympic Games is just a stage for them to win China, and the other stage is their more valued and long-term goal.

In July, Adidas installed its first global brand center in China and was in Beijing.

They wrapped up a four story independent building on the Sanlitun street in Beijing.

This golden section, once famous for bar street, has gradually become one of the most fashionable shopping centers in Beijing.

The brand new products of Adidas and its clover and Y-3 have all entered this 3300 square meter space.

The sports shoes designed for the Beijing Olympic Games are displayed in a very prominent "Made for Beijing" space. Adidas's 2008 Olympic project director Ke Ruijia said that the Olympic development team of the company has designed 43 different sports shoes for the 28 major Olympic Games.

Adidas is constantly strengthening its official status as an Olympic official, whose identity has been squeezed slightly by competitors' encirclement and competition.

Before that, Adidas often fretted over being repeatedly swept away by rivals Lining and Nike.

Lining immediately co operated with CCTV after bidding for the failure of Olympic sponsorship, and put the Crystal Logo with Lining logo on the Olympic Channel host and the reporter.

Liu Xiang, who held a big star in Nike, even put him on the cover of the company's annual earnings report.

In addition to Liu Xiang and Yi Jianlian, Nike also sponsored 28 large and medium 22 Chinese sports teams.

Lining also has the sponsorship of China's diving team, table tennis team, gymnastics team and shooting team four gold winning teams.

The sports teams sponsored by Adidas are volleyball teams, judo teams and football teams that are not regarded as favourites.

This makes many consumers unable to tell who is the real Olympic sponsor at a time.

Hu Jia, Zheng Zhi, Sui Feifei and Chinese women's volleyball team as the leading role of the "2008 together, no impossible" Olympic theme advertising, is the largest marketing campaign launched in single market in Adidas history, even more than two years ago in the German World Cup.

The Olympic advertisement, which costs a lot of money, has been covered by the subway in Beijing and Shanghai, and has recently won the Golden Lion Award for outdoor advertising in Cannes. However, its overall grey tone has always been mixed by the audience.

Even worse, among a series of Chinese athlete spokesmen selected by Adidas, many of them have gradually left their eyes because of poor performance or injuries.

For example, Hu Jia, the champion of the men's ten meter diving platform at the last Olympic Games, has been missed by this slightly melancholy athlete.

With the Chinese football team stopping the world cup again, everyone's enthusiasm for Zheng Zhi, another spokesman for Adidas, has also been affected.

Female soccer player Ma Xiaoxu did not play very well in the women's World Cup in 2007 because of his poor performance.

These are enough to make Adidas originally want to rely on the Olympic Games to enhance the popularity of the people feel depressed.

It was not until July 1st that a notice was issued by the China Advertising Association to let Adidas regain its pleasure.

The notice stipulates that from August 1st to August 27th, non Olympic sponsors should not be invited to participate in the advertisements as athletes, coaches and officials in the Olympic Games.

Many brands will be affected, including Nike, Anta and 361 degrees.

Prior to the early June, the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee held a special conference to call for the prevention of Olympic stealth marketing. Lining's logo has gradually disappeared from CCTV Olympic Channel hosts, reporters and columns.

"We are very happy," said Ke Ruijia, head of Adidas Olympic Games. "The Olympic Committee has worked hard to protect the rights and interests of the Olympic partners."

Competition from China to the world

What can the Olympic Games bring to the brand?

Especially after the huge sponsorship fee, Adidas global president and CEO Eric.

In cooperation with the Olympic Games, we will always focus on long-term interests and brand promotion.

At this point, the Olympic Games are different from the world cup.

The participation of the world cup is stronger, so the sponsorship of the world cup can directly promote sales, but the promotion of direct sales through Olympic Games will be very rare.

At the just concluded European Cup in 2008, Adidas's two teams defeated Nike sponsored teams to break into the final, and Adidas's luck looked good.

But in the Chinese market, if it wants to defeat Nike by the Olympic Games, it will obviously need more than just luck.

Adidas hopes that the huge sponsorship fee will be more successful, and its plan to expand the store and brand publicity through the Olympic Games is underway.

At the beginning of 2006, Adidas global CEO Herbert Hainer announced that it would open 5000 stores in China at the end of 2010, and now it is very close to the goal of Herbert.

Nike and Adidas have long been reluctant to disclose the number of stores in the Chinese market. When Nike opened the first Chinese direct store in Beijing last August, it was estimated that the 3000 companies had about 3000 stores in China.

According to the information provided by Adidas, by the end of 2007, it had more than 4000 stores in China.

In the same period, the number of Li Ning Co listed in Hongkong was 5233.

"Nike is experiencing more than 50% growth in China". In June 2007, Nike CEO Mark Parke told Reuters that Nike would sell more than $1 billion in China within a year.

In the quarter ended in May 2006, Nike China's sales revenue was only about $600 million.

Of course, Nike also benefited from the continued depreciation of US dollar against the RMB in two years.

Adidas's growth in the Chinese market in 2007 was about 45%, and there was not much difference between the two sides in terms of revenue growth rate.

But in any case, the number of stores is not as good as that of Lining, and the sales volume is hard to compete with Nike. Adidas's 2008 wishes do not seem so easy to achieve.

Ke Ruijia believes that the Olympic Games are the best stage to show Adidas's brand image and spirit of innovation.

After going through the Olympic Games, China will usher in a new sports peak. It is a clearer understanding for Adidas to focus on the future.