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After the Paris Olympics, the most commercially valuable athletes of the new generation emerged.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the veterans and young players of the Chinese team won medals, and the commercial value once again reached a new peak. In fact, as early as before the Paris Olympics, major brands have begun to bet on signing and cooperating with athletes in various fields, aiming to seize the marketing opportunities of the Olympics.

Tennis players have the highest commercial value.Zheng QinwenThis year's endorsement income may exceed 100 million yuan

The most sensational thing is the bet of various brands on "Rocket Girl" Zheng Qinwen.

On August 4, 21-year-old Zheng Qinwen won the first Olympic singles gold medal in the history of Chinese tennis, creating history for Chinese tennis. According to a review by The Paper, before the Paris Olympics, Zheng Qinwen had already secured cooperation with nearly 10 major brands, covering sports, luxury goods, high-end beauty, technology and financial companies, and catering. These include Nike, Wilson, Lancome, Yili, Swish, McDonald's, Bawang Chaji, Rolex and other brands.

In the 2023 annual income list of female athletes released by Forbes magazine in December last year, Zheng Qinwen ranked 15th with a total income of 7.2 million US dollars, including 1.7 million US dollars in tournament prize money and 5.5 million US dollars in endorsement sponsorship income (approximately RMB 40 million). Together with Gu Ailing, she became the only two Chinese athletes in the top 20 and the first Chinese tennis player to be included in the list after Li Na. In the 2023 annual income list of female athletes published by Forbes, 9 of the top 10 are tennis players, which shows the commercial recognition of tennis.

In addition to Zheng Qinwen who won the women's singles tennis championship,Zhang ZhizhenandWang XinyuThe temporarily formed tennis mixed doubles team also performed very well, winning the silver medal in their first match. According to the reporter of The Paper, Zhang Zhizhen signed contracts with Bright Dairy, Le Power, Cathay Pacific, Hublot, Geox, TUMI and other brands before the Olympics. The brands he endorsed covered a variety of fields, including food and beverage, luxury luggage, high-end sportswear, and travel.

It is foreseeable that Zheng Qinwen's commercial value will "skyrocket" after winning the championship. The sports agency behind Zheng Qinwen is IMG, which also has Chinese athletes such as Gu Ailing, Su Yiming, and Li Na under its umbrella and is very good at commercial operations. Endeavor, the parent company of IMG, is the world's largest agency.

Some media have also reported that Li Na's annual income after winning the Australian Open was as high as 140 million yuan, and Gu Ailing's income last year also exceeded 150 million yuan. Based on this calculation, Zheng Qinwen, whose bonus and endorsement sponsorship income exceeded 51 million yuan last year, is not impossible to earn over 100 million yuan this year.

"The commercial value of athletes is mainly reflected in some endorsement cooperation and event fees. If they want to gain further commercial value, they need to continuously refresh their performance during their active stage to maintain their presence." Internet industry analyst Zhang Shule told the Paper that due to the high global attention of the Olympics and the fact that it is a comprehensive international sports event, winning a gold medal may be noticed by other audiences, such as fans of non-single sports, and it is easy to break the circle and become globally famous. This makes its commercial value exponentially different compared to special events such as the World Cup, or regional comprehensive events such as the Asian Games.

Established consumer companies are keen to sponsor Olympic stars, and the rise of post-00 athletes is favored by brands

In previous Olympic Games, athletes from national teams such as table tennis, swimming, diving, gymnastics, and shooting are generally favored by brands.

The reporter of The Paper combed through the sponsorship and endorsement of multiple events and found that in addition to sports-related brands, well-known consumer companies are the main force in sponsoring Olympic athletes. Among them, Yili is the official dairy partner of the Chinese sports delegation at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Before the Olympics, it signed sponsorship agreements with athletes in table tennis, swimming, diving, shooting, tennis, badminton, track and field and other events. Travel platform Ctrip also bet on signing cooperation before the game and it was successful. In addition, some mid-to-high-end luxury brands also started endorsement cooperation with sports stars before this game.

Specifically, table tennis has been a dominant sport for the Chinese team over the years. Whether it is "Little Devil" Sun Yingsha, "Big Head" Wang Chuqin or "Little Fatty" Fan Zhendong, each of them is a hot bet for major brands. Before the Olympics, the brands that signed contracts with many players of the national table tennis team covered multiple fields such as food and beverage, clothing, beauty and daily chemicals, daily necessities, and digital products. Among them, Chinese sports brand Li Ning chose to directly carry out overall cooperation with the national table tennis team.

The Chinese swimming team ended the Olympic journey with 2 golds, 3 silvers, 7 bronzes and a world record, which is also the most Olympic medals in history. Among them, the "model worker veteran" born in 1998Zhang YufeiIn this event, she won 1 silver and 5 bronze medals, a total of 6 medals, and her personal career Olympic medals reached 10, becoming the athlete with the most medals in the history of the Chinese team. According to the reporter of The Paper, veteran Zhang Yufei has more than 10 commercial endorsements before this Olympic Games, covering clothing, beauty and daily chemicals, food and beverages, daily necessities, kitchen appliances and other fields. These include Tmall, Pacific Insurance, Yili, Honor, Omega, Colanli, Dior, China Mobile, Nongfu Spring, Super Energy and Senge.

In the men's 4x100m medley relay final on the evening of August 4,Xu Jiayu、Tan Haiyang, Sun Jiajun,Pan ZhanleThe strong reversal and victory broke the 40-year monopoly of the US team in this event. Among them, veteran Xu Jiayu had become the brand spokesperson for the sports and leisure brand Arena before the game, and Qin Haiyang, born in 1999, has cooperated with brands such as LV, Yili, Pacific Insurance, Super Energy, Nongfu Spring, and Anta.

It is worth noting that this is the second gold medal won by Pan Zhanle, a young athlete born in the 2000s, in this Olympic Games. According to the reporter's analysis, Pan Zhanle, a "swimming star" born in the 2000s, had already cooperated with more than 6 brands before the game, covering industries such as nursing, tourism, food, Internet travel and automobiles, including CLEAR, Mentholatum, Nongfu Spring, Ctrip, Zeekr Auto, Didi Chuxing, etc.

Regarding the measurement of the commercial value behind veterans and young players, Wang Peng, an associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told The Paper that in addition to competitive level and professional strength, personal image and public image, social influence and fan base, project popularity and attention, athletes' endorsement experience and commercial potential are also the focus of brand attention. Experienced athletes can better understand brand needs and cooperate with brands in marketing activities; athletes with commercial potential are expected to achieve greater success in the future and bring more long-term benefits to brands.

During this year's Olympics, many new stars born after 2000 emerged and conquered global audiences with their strength. The potential of athletes born after 2000 has also been favored by many brands, including the already popular Zheng Qinwen.

Among them, the "Diving Dream Team", as a team with a large number of post-00s players, currently has cooperation with nearly 10 brands, covering different consumer fields such as beauty, clothing, education, food, cleaning, and home appliances. In gymnastics, the leader of the post-00s Chinese men's gymnastics teamZhang BohengBefore the Games, they had received more than 5 brand endorsement cooperations, covering insurance, food, electrical appliances, travel and sports brands. The shooting team's "post-00" combination Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao won the first gold medal for the Chinese team in the Paris Olympics, and they had also signed a cooperation agreement with Yili before the Games.

The Chinese badminton team won 2 gold medals and 3 silver medals in the Olympics. The two gold medals came from women's doubles and mixed doubles. The "Ya Si" combination of Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong and the "Fan Chen" combination of Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan have endorsed brands covering daily necessities, clothing, food, cars and other fields before the Olympics.

also,Leung Wai HangpartnerWang ChangIn his first Olympic Games, he made it all the way to the men's doubles final and won the silver medal. It is worth noting that in early July this year, Ctrip Travel announced the "Liang Wang" combination among the three spokespersons. In addition to this combination, there are also Chinese swimmer Pan Zhanle and gymnast Zhang Boheng. Interestingly, these four athletes are all "post-00s": Zhang Boheng and Liang Weikeng were born in 2000, Wang Chang was born in 2001, and the youngest Pan Zhanle was born in 2004. The four-member combination became members of Ctrip's gold medal men's group.

A new wave of athlete endorsements is coming? Some companies said they plan to strive for more cooperation opportunities with athletes

After the Olympics, the endorsement trend of athletes will become another important business opportunity. For corporate brands, the post-game heat will provide new marketing opportunities for brands.

Currently, "sports stars" have become one of the main ways for athletes to monetize by becoming brand spokespersons, image ambassadors, etc. to obtain advertising endorsement fees and sponsorship fees. The promotion of cooperation between brands and athletes has gradually become a path for both parties to seek a win-win situation. It not only provides athletes with a broader development platform, but also injects fresh vitality into brands.

Why are companies keen on working with sports stars?

On August 6, Ding Lu, general manager of brand integrated marketing at Ctrip, said in an interview that the biggest feature of sports stars is that they are less likely to be "discredited" and can better represent the normal trend of a country or an industry. Ding Lu further stated that as far as Ctrip is concerned, there are no tiered clauses in contracts with athletes or artists, and prices will not be set by person. "At most, there will be risk clauses, such as if there is a very large-scale negative public opinion, and new fees may be negotiated, but under normal circumstances, prices will not be adjusted according to gold, silver, and bronze medals or according to the external trend."

Regarding the considerations for choosing sports celebrity spokespersons, Ding Lu pointed out that unlike fast-moving consumer goods brands with relatively large Olympic advertising budgets, which may directly choose to sweep a team or anchor a popular gold medal candidate, Ctrip's budget is not high. It will mainly consider the athletes' competition results in the past year, historical medal records, appearance and age, as well as existing commercial endorsements to select cooperative athletes. It is necessary to predict whether the athletes are young, have good results, have high international attention for their projects, and have their own traffic and topicality.

"The brand will consider the long-term value and professionalism of the athletes, as well as whether they are in line with the brand's tone and can shape the brand image with an international attitude." A relevant person in charge of Bawang Cha Ji told the reporter of The Paper that Zheng Qinwen's positive, healthy and international image on the field, as well as his outstanding performance and perseverance and fighting spirit, are highly consistent with the brand spirit. The choice of Zheng Qinwen as a health ambassador is based on the deep recognition of each other's values ​​and concepts. Bawang Cha Ji announced in April this year that Zheng Qinwen became the brand's first "health ambassador." In addition to Zheng Qinwen, Bawang Cha Ji also assembled Liu Xiang, Wang Shun, Zheng Qinwen, Chen Qingchen, Jia Yifan, Liu Qingyi and many other world-class athletes to form the Bawang Cha Ji Health Ambassador Group for the Paris Olympics.

Ding Lu also revealed to reporters that some business cooperation projects will be launched with the signed players in the future. "We plan to put the remaining rights and interests into the project of promoting inbound tourism in China. If there is a chance, Ctrip also wants to strive for more cooperation opportunities."

However, Yin He, head of Asian consumer industry research at JPMorgan Chase, told The Paper that this year is a big year for events, and many sports brands will sponsor different events and increase marketing expenses, which may not have a direct impact on sales, but will be more about medium- and long-term investment in product image, value, and reputation. The return on investment in this part is difficult to clearly quantify in short-term financial reports, especially when it is further refined into the return on investment in different categories and markets.