The Sports Brand Returns To The Age Of Competition.

Four years in a row, Chinese enterprises that experienced the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games examination seem to have cooled down a lot in London.

With the help of this London Olympic Games, most Chinese enterprises are still crossing the river by feeling the stones.

Compared with foreign brands that have successfully won the Olympic Games all year round, the local sports marketing still has a long way to go.

Return to the age of competition

At the time of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Chinese enterprises had gone through an unprecedented glorious moment. Not only did they produce the first Chinese TOP sponsor Lenovo in the history of Olympic sponsorship, but also dozens of Chinese enterprises such as Bank of China became Olympic partners at different levels, and participated in sponsorship in different forms.

But in this Olympic Games, apart from crystal stone as a service provider, there is basically no cooperation between Chinese enterprises and International Olympic Committee in real sense.

Wu Lei, general manager of Chang Rong's sports department, worked in CCTV sports station for many years. During the four years after the Beijing Olympics, he and Chang Rong's team have been tracking and monitoring the post Olympic mentality of Chinese enterprises.

"In the past four years, the domestic sports marketing has not increased because of the Beijing Olympic Games, but on the contrary, it is less, which can be seen from the sponsorship of the domestic league matches."

Wu Lei told our reporter that from the consumer market, the Chinese audience's characteristics are that after watching the top events, they have little enthusiasm for other competitions.

Plus, the Olympic Games are thousands of kilometers away from London, and there is jet lag. Watching enthusiasm will be affected.

At the Beijing Olympic Games, most of the Chinese enterprises were in a state of mind. If someone else did Olympic marketing, I would lose if I didn't do it.

But after high investment, it is discovered that the people do not know what their brands are related to the Olympic Games, so many enterprises have experienced some injuries after 2008, and the enthusiasm of sports marketing is no longer blindly rising to a prudent attitude.

For example, Lenovo, who had lost much money in the Beijing Olympics, did not launch this year's Olympic Games. Most of the other sponsors of the 2008 Olympic Games lost their voice in this year's Olympic Games.

From the advertising market, although the number of enterprises involved in the Olympic Games is also numerous, the total amount of money invested is less than that of the Beijing Olympic Games.

Wu Lei said, the reason is that the platform chosen by enterprises in 2008 was dominated by television and supplemented by network marketing. In the Olympic Games, there appeared the situation of the two carriages of TV and network going hand in hand, and the network diverted quite a number of small and medium-sized enterprises.

In addition, because many enterprises in Beijing during the Olympic Games have played the edge ball, International Olympic Committee has more stringent requirements for the Olympic marketing, so it is much more difficult for enterprises to take advantage of the Olympic games than in 2008.

For example, this year Youku and other video sites can not see the Olympic Games, visible from the pressure of copyright parties.

In a more rigorous marketing environment, without the entry of Chinese companies into International Olympic Committee sponsors, the market has returned to the trend of competition.

"But the overall performance is still not mature.

Many enterprises still stay in the traditional hard advertising on sports, lack of understanding of sports, so in advertising design, selection and application of sports events are obviously lacking.

Wu Lei believes that, for example, the Jingdong market this year, the Olympic Games TV put in a lot, but the advertising combination point is far fetched. If we can combine the event to do some SMS interactive gift shopping coupons marketing activities, the effect should be better.

In addition, the response of domestic enterprises to Olympic emergencies is not fast enough, and the processing capacity needs to be improved.

For example, 361 degrees and Sun Yang signed cooperation as early as 2010, and then supported Sun Yang's participation in the Universiade.

The London Olympic Games, which won the first Olympic gold of Chinese men's swimming, became a hot topic. The marketing method adopted by the 361 degree is to launch network activities, mobilize netizens to cheer Sun Yang up, and specially designed the "Sun Yang champion T-shirt", which celebrates Sun Yang's history in 50 stores in 10 cities throughout the country.

But the 361 degree advertising film about Sun Yang has not appeared in the TV station so many people have repeatedly watched Sun Yang's golden moment, but do not know the relationship between Sun Yang and 361 degrees.

In contrast, when Liu Xiang failed in Beijing Olympic Games, Nike's reaction was much more brilliant. Nike broadcast the first time supporting the lonely hero Liu Xiang's advertising film, explaining what is the real Olympic spirit.

Winners are beginning to see.

On the track of Olympic marketing, although the overall performance of Chinese enterprises is also obvious, some enterprises have found some way to move closer to the first camp.

The Olympic Games have been held for a week. Insiders believe that Anta and Lining are more eye-catching.

Anta provided the award dress for the sponsorship of the Chinese sports delegation - "champion dragon clothing". Rather ingeniously, Anta took advantage of champion dress as an opportunity to try a cross-border marketing, and became a "Olympic brand alliance" with International Olympic Committee partners, Procter & Gamble, McDonald's (micro-blog) and the Chinese Olympic Committee's partner, Hilton Hotel and Erie.

Specifically, Procter & Gamble has posted the theme of the "Chinese delegation Champion Award dress" on its official micro-blog, and Anta is responsible for providing prizes.

Online, there are 380 models of Procter & Gamble's WAL-MART Olympic experience center, which display the model of "China's Champion Award dress" during the Olympic Games, taking pictures for consumers.

In McDonald's, store managers and cashiers will dress up in the Anta award dress during the Olympic Games. McDonald's will also send Anta clothing in the "daily champion event" raffle; McDonald's Olympic TV ads, online advertising and newspaper folder will be added to Anta's award dress information.

Lining is regarded as the elder brother of Olympic marketing in China.

In 1992, Lining provided the award equipment for the Chinese Olympic delegation, thus ending the history of Chinese athletes receiving the prize in foreign sports equipment, and the Lining brand became famous in the first World War.

This year's London war, Lining continued to choose the way to provide gold medal matches for the gold medal team. It sponsored five teams of gymnastics, shooting, diving, table tennis and badminton, and basically included the Olympic team, the most popular and most powerful gold medal player.

In addition, Lining has netted a group of top athletes and teams in the world to make the Olympic Games for them.

The equipment includes Powell, Isinbayeva, Thohir Andersson, American diving team and so on.

Lining's personal Olympic connection continues to help push brand formation.

At the London Olympic Games, Lining was the only Chinese to participate in the torch relay at the pan Athens stadium. It was also the only Chinese athlete to participate in the Olympic torch relay for the four time.

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The inspiration of foreign brands

"In fact, sports is a big medium. Domestic enterprises only see the tip of the iceberg. The marketing of Olympic Games is not just about clothing brands."

Wu Lei said that only by digging deep into the natural links between their brands and sports can we smell out business opportunities.

Olympic sponsors such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Samsung (micro-blog), BMW, visa and so on do not produce sports products, but they have become the biggest beneficiaries of the Olympic economy, and the key know-how is intriguing.

In its 84 years of cooperation with the Olympic Games, Coca-Cola has always been able to use special marketing methods to mobilize the Olympic passion of consumers to gurgling like cola.

At the time of the 100 countdown of the London Olympic Games, Coca-Cola launched an activity in China to collect "refueling rhythm". Finally, through the Internet and ground activities, 200 million different kinds of "refueling rhythm" from the people were collected, coupled with Lang Lang's passionate performance and Jacky Cheung's singing, he compiled the song with the largest number of participants in the history of the world.

Before the opening of the Olympic Games, this popular edition of the song was "encapsulated" in Coca-Cola's special Chinese beat bottle to cheer the Chinese Legion far away in London.

Coca-Cola's Olympic medal is also a winner.

During the Olympic Games, a large number of enthusiasts are exchanging Coca-Cola Olympic medals in the vicinity of the venues and Olympic parks. Their collection value is evident.

McDonald's introduced new products related to the British wind and Olympic Games during the London Olympic Games, and chose the ten largest cities in China to do "Olympic Mai Le experience line" activities to serve the consumers who watched the Olympic Games at home.

With it is the selective advertising.

Wu Lei disclosed that the advertising campaign during the McDonald's Olympic Games did not choose such a public platform such as CCTV, but to do Olympic publicity in Beijing sports station and other ground channels, so that new products can reach the target regional market directly.

It is worth mentioning that McDonald's also carried out internal public relations through the Olympic Games.

In the Olympic sponsorship process of more than 30 years, McDonald's will select the best staff from all over the world to enter the Olympic restaurant service in the host area. Before the Olympic Games, the staff will rise in morale and send off for the Olympic staff of their country like a champion.

Samsung is bound up with the Olympic Games and public welfare.

In each Olympic Games, Samsung will select disabled people as the Olympic torch bearer, invite various kinds of aid objects from poor mountain children to watch the Olympic Games.

It can be said that the Olympic marketing of these enterprises is more strategic than propaganda, and its brand appeal is very clear.

Xiao Shuhong, director of the Department of economics and industry teaching, School of management, Beijing Sport University, said that no matter what kind of events to sponsor, it would be difficult to achieve good results if there was lack of concentration and continuity.

Coca-Cola and McDonald's have been exploring the road of success in the process of running in with the Olympic Games for decades.

Wu Lei believes that domestic enterprises only have more than 10 years to do Olympic Games, and the longest Lining has only 20 years.

With the development of China's professional sports, the true charm of sports marketing will be gradually recognized.

"Not only the Olympics, but also other tournaments, including domestic professional leagues, can be valuable choices.

The key is to change the idea of short-term operation, and distribute the strength of events in just a few days to the development of brands over the past decade, and make medium and long-term plans.