2024-08-13
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With the successful conclusion of the half-month Paris Olympics, this sporting event has undoubtedly become the focus of global attention. Its unique "traffic effect" has attracted many brands to compete for this excellent stage to enhance brand exposure and influence.
Both business giants and Yiwu vendors gathered here, each showing off their talents and striving to get a share of the top Olympic traffic.
For this reason, some people spent a fortune, but were scolded and became part of the hot searches, experiencing "reverse endorsement"; on the other hand, some people did not spend a penny, but topped the hot searches, and their sales soared 600 times.
So, in this double carnival of business and sports at the Paris Olympics, who is the most profitable businessman at the Paris Olympics?
Spend a lot of money and go on international catwalks
To judge who is best at making money, one of the first points worth examining is who knows how to spend money best.
When it comes to who donated the most generously to the Paris Olympics, Alibaba and Mengniu are undoubtedly the two most dazzling "sponsors".
According to official information released by the 2024 Paris Olympics, the sponsorship system is divided into four levels: global partners, senior partners, official partners and official sponsors. It is noteworthy that two Chinese corporate giants, Alibaba and Mengniu (jointly sponsored by Coca-Cola), have stood at the pinnacle of the honor of global partners, which is the highest honor among sponsors.
As for the specific sponsorship amount, although it has not been disclosed publicly, we learned from market news that the LV Group spent 150 million euros (equivalent to about 1.181 billion yuan) but only obtained the status of a senior partner. This undoubtedly provides us with a reference point, making it easy for us to speculate on the huge investment of Alibaba and Mengniu in this sponsorship.
LV hard advertisement at the opening ceremony
So why are these companies willing to spend so much money? The reason lies in the unique rights and infinite value brought by sponsoring the Olympics. Among them, one of the key rights enjoyed by TOP sponsors is the exclusive right to products, technologies, and services worldwide in one or more designated industries. This means that in a specific field, there will be only one company in the world that can exist as an Olympic TOP sponsor. This is not only a recognition of the company's strength, but also provides an unparalleled platform and opportunity for companies to shape their brand image, enhance brand awareness and reputation worldwide. In short, this is a deep integration of brand and sports spirit, building a bridge for companies to the world stage.
Historical cases can also prove the remarkable effectiveness of sponsoring the Olympic Games. In 2000, Samsung was a sponsor of the Sydney Olympic Games, and its brand awareness increased dramatically from 5% to 16.2%. This brilliant achievement undoubtedly established confidence and a model for subsequent sponsors.
As one of the top sponsors, Alibaba not only provided advanced cloud services for the Paris Olympics, but also won high praise from IOC President Bach, who publicly stated: "Alibaba's contribution to Olympic artificial intelligence is indispensable."
However, despite the good reputation, whether the sponsorship investment can be transformed into actual economic returns still needs time to test. Investing in the Olympics is a long-term strategy, and its effectiveness is often gradually manifested in the continuous improvement of corporate brand value and the increasing influence of the international market.
As to whether the huge sponsorship from Alibaba and Mengniu is worth the money, it will take time to verify.
Bet on champion traffic
Amid the ever-changing circumstances of the Olympics, major brands have long been well versed in how to plan and have placed bets in advance, betting on potential champions.
If the direct display of sponsoring the Olympics is a competition of financial strength, then accurately betting on the champion is more of a test of the brand's vision and luck.
Luckin Coffee is a typical example. When Luckin Coffee was caught up in a financial fraud scandal and suffered multiple blows such as delisting, legal proceedings, drastic changes in management, and severe penalties from regulators, Luckin Coffee made a brave decision - signing Gu Ailing as its brand spokesperson.
With Gu Ailing's victory, Luckin Coffee responded quickly and launched a series of marketing activities, successfully leveraging Gu Ailing's influence to make the word "Luckin Coffee" jump to the top of Weibo's hot searches. Gu Ailing brought Luckin Coffee back into the public eye.
It can be said that Gu Ailing "saved" Luckin Coffee.
However, risks and opportunities coexist. In 2004, Anta voted for Kong Linghui and Wang Hao and placed high hopes on the "power of winning". Unfortunately, the two players were unexpectedly eliminated.
Despite this, brands still insist on the strategy of betting in advance because: intervening before the athlete has emerged can lock in cooperation opportunities at a lower cost. Once the athlete wins the championship, the brand's return on investment will be very considerable; if the brand waits until the athlete becomes famous before signing, the high signing fee will increase the cost sharply. Titanium Media reported that in 2019, Anta signed Gu Ailing for about US$1 million, but as the "Gu Ailing fever" swept the advertising circle, the endorsement fee has more than doubled.
Of course, in order to avoid risks, brands will also choose a more reliable path, such as directly signing with the Chinese team in advantageous events, such as Chando's cooperation with the Chinese diving team, and Li Ning's consolidation of its position as the top sponsor of the Chinese national table tennis team. Such cooperation not only reduces risks, but also can continuously and steadily enhance the brand image.
However, what brands pursue is not only the title of champion, but also the traffic and topic behind the athletes. Although there are many Olympic champions, only a few can become Olympic stars. With their unique personal charm and topic, they have achieved a qualitative leap in commercial value. For example, although Wu Yanni did not win the award, she demonstrated her commercial value with the endorsement of Adidas; and Pan Zhanle, with his superb sense of relaxation, set off a craze on social media and became the darling of many brands vying for cooperation. He holds endorsements from many brands, such as Ctrip, Nongfu Spring, Mentholatum, Clear, Didi, etc.
It is worth noting that when a brand is closely tied to an athlete, every move of the athlete may affect the brand's image and even cause the embarrassment of "reverse sales". In the men's singles final, Fan Zhendong's Li Ning "Dragon Suit" was almost soaked in the fierce competition and stuck to his body. In sharp contrast, his opponent Moregaard also fought for five games, but attracted much attention because his Uniqlo uniform remained fresh. This game was not only a contest of skills between the Chinese and Swedish men's table tennis players, but also an invisible open competition between Chinese and Japanese brands. Li Ning seemed particularly passive in this situation. For a time, Li Ning's "Dragon Suit" became a hot search for its poor sweat absorption.
During the Paris Olympics, marketing veteran Yili also encountered a rare "embarrassing accident". Before the women's singles tennis final and the men's singles table tennis final, Yili congratulated the undecided results on the Sanlitun big screen in advance, including misjudging Zheng Qinwen's silver medal and celebrating Fan Zhendong's men's singles championship and Sun Yingsha's women's singles gold medal in advance. This move was jokingly called "opening champagne at halftime" by netizens. However, the actual results of the game were very different: Zheng Qinwen unexpectedly won China's first Olympic women's singles gold medal, and Chen Meng won the women's singles final. Although Fan Zhendong won the championship as he wished, Yili's early congratulations seemed inappropriate.
Previously, Yili, with its keen market sense, successfully took advantage of the trend of Luyu's face-resemblance with the Paris Olympic Logo and announced Luyu as Yili's Paris ambassador. At the same time, it also ingeniously captured the connection between Sha Seng's clothing and Paris fashion purple and invited Liu Dagang, who played the role of Sha in "Journey to the West Sequel", to be Yili's Paris fashion ambassador. This series of creative and interesting marketing strategies was expected to win Yili wider attention and praise.
However, the "champagne at halftime" blunder was like a bucket of cold water, dousing the marketing boom that Yili had carefully constructed. Although Yili subsequently issued two apology statements, explaining that it was due to careless testing of the large-screen delivery effect in advance, netizens did not buy it. This incident not only plunged Yili into a whirlpool of public opinion, but also caused its stock price to fall for three consecutive days. As of the close of August 7, Yili's stock price had fallen to 24.11 yuan, a drop of 0.82%.
It can be said that Yili’s marketing campaign won traffic but lost reputation.
Small and medium-sized businesses can also become "rich" without spending money
Major brands and companies have invested heavily in sponsoring the Olympics in order to gain a place in the arena, whether through billboards or athletes' equipment, in an effort to get a share of the top Olympic traffic. However, with the changes in the media ecology and the booming development of the Internet, small and medium-sized businesses have also been able to capture unprecedented opportunities in the Olympic craze.
The unintentional promotion of products by athletes has quietly become the secret to wealth for small and medium-sized businesses. This year, the promotion trend was first sparked by a puppy hairpin.
On July 27, as the topic #黄雨婷头发卡好可爱# quickly became popular on Weibo, the same puppy hairpin as Huang Yuting became a hot-selling item, with 600,000 sold in just three days. Its popularity was staggering.
A small accessories merchant in Jinhua shared his successful experience: "I learned from Yang Qian's lesson in promoting products at the Tokyo Olympics. This time I made arrangements in advance, kept a close eye on the Olympic arena, and paid special attention to the athletes' hair accessories. Once the same style as the champion appears, I will immediately communicate with the factory to prepare stocks." When Huang Yuting's hairpins became the focus, he quickly adjusted his strategy, replaced the store cover with a photo of Huang Yuting wearing hairpins, and marked it "Same style as the champion". In a short period of time, he sold nearly 20,000 pairs of hairpins and successfully seized the business opportunity.
The craze for Olympic-style products continues to grow, from Huang Yuting's hairpins to Quan Hongchan's slippers, Guo Jingjing's shirts, and Wang Chuqin's headbands... young consumers have turned their Olympic enthusiasm into consumption motivation, driving the sales of related products to soar. Small and medium-sized businesses on e-commerce platforms have responded quickly to market changes with their flexibility and speed. It only takes a few minutes from the outbreak of hot spots to the listing of products, demonstrating amazing market acumen and execution.
It is worth mentioning that the Beijing Olympic backpack also unexpectedly became popular during the Olympics. This was not a carefully planned marketing by the brand, but was based on a comment by a Spanish reporter that it was "the strongest backpack in history." Taobao's hot search showed that the number of searches for the backpack increased by 114% in a single day; tens of thousands of netizens flocked to the Douyin live broadcast room, and the sales of Xiangxing Luggage Store soared 600 times. The Douyin account gained nearly 600,000 followers, and the total sales of multiple live broadcasts reached 10 million to 25 million yuan, and many products were quickly sold out.
Although Xiangxing Luggage did not spend a penny on endorsement fees, it was able to take advantage of the Olympic traffic and receive this huge fortune, which once again proved the huge potential and flexible adaptability of small and medium-sized businesses in the Olympic fever.
However, this trend of bringing goods is not limited to Chinese players. Foreign players such as Sweden's Moregaard also became the focus of attention with his unique hexagonal racket. In the men's singles final, he fought hard with this unique racket and finally won the silver medal. This racket also became the focus of everyone's attention because of its unique design and Moregaard's brilliant record.
According to Pinduoduo data, searches for "hexagonal rackets" have increased 60 times in the past week. A Taobao shop owner said to the reporter with emotion: "I had nearly 100 hexagonal rackets in my early years. At that time, they were imitations of high-priced foreign brands, but they couldn't be sold and had to be taken off the shelves. This time, I saw that Moregard became popular again with the same racket, so I quickly put the backlog of rackets back on the shelves and priced them at 20 or 30 yuan. I didn't expect to sell 20 in three days. I was really happy. Even those weird rackets in the store, such as the table tennis racket in the shape of a kitchen knife, sold more than ten!"
Although these "wild peripheral" products from the public do not have the strong resource support of brand owners, they shine in the Olympic fever with their keen market insight and flexible response strategies. However, as the Olympic fever gradually fades, these products that rely on instant traffic bursts will face new challenges. How to avoid becoming a backlog of inventory? How to find the next market hotspot? These will be issues that small and medium-sized businesses need to think deeply about and explore.