With revenue of 535 million yuan in 11 years since his debut, Liu Xiang, the flying man who once held 17 endorsements, is becoming popular again?
2024-08-18
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This time, the nostalgic trend has spread from the entertainment industry to the sports world.
Liu Xiang, the "Asian Flying Man" who had retired from the competition "without warning" for many years, returned to the public eye during this year's Paris Olympics. Before the Olympics, Yili, a major Olympic sponsor, brought Liu Xiang together with former "sports legends" Xu Haifeng, Liu Guoliang, and Li Na to shoot an advertisement titled "Salute to the Pioneers of Chinese Sports".
Yili and Liu Xiang can be said to have rekindled their old relationship. In 2004, Liu Xiang won the Athens Olympics and signed a contract with Yili two years later. Yili advertisements endorsed by him are all over the streets. His opponent, American track and field star David Oliver, once said, "When I arrived in China, Liu Xiang was smiling at me everywhere."
Yili is not the only company involved. Liu Xiang's business fortune has exploded this year, winning the favor of many advertisers. According to currently public information statistics, he also endorsed JD.com's Miaosong and Bawang Chaji, and filmed an advertisement for Xiaohongshu with French football superstar Mbappe.
As early as July 11, Liu Xiang joined Xiaohongshu to create an Olympic atmosphere. Why this day? Because on this day in 2006, Liu Xiang broke the world record for the men's 110-meter hurdles with a time of 12.88 seconds. At 8 pm that day, Liu Xiang posted a video on the social platform Xiaohongshu to officially announce his entry into the platform, and said that he would share his life on the platform in the future.
From only two partners when he first emerged, to 17 partners before the London Olympics, Liu Xiang was a hot commodity for advertisers during his career peak.
The media once reported on Liu Xiang's commercial value at that time. In 2000, Nike had already discovered the huge potential of Liu Xiang. At that time, the brand signed the future superstar for only 300,000 yuan. But after winning the gold medal in the Athens Olympics, Liu Xiang's value soared, and his endorsement fee broke through from millions to tens of millions. In 2007, Amway Group spent 20 million yuan, and Liu Xiang became Amway's first global brand spokesperson in Asia. Although the endorsement fee has increased by dozens of times, there are still many brands that favor Xiang Feiren: Coca-Cola, Yili, VISA, Baisha, Nutrilite, Cadillac, Maxima Automobile...
According to the Forbes Chinese Celebrity List, in 2007, Liu Xiang ranked in the top three with an income of 163 million yuan. Yao Ming, who ranked first, had a total income of 387 million yuan. Although Liu Xiang withdrew from the 2008 Beijing Olympics due to injury and his reputation was greatly reduced, his annual income was still as high as 130 million yuan, supported by endorsements in the first half of the year. In 2009, his income was "halved" to 64.6 million yuan; in 2010, it dropped to 18.25 million yuan. In 2011, Liu Xiang's form recovered and he won medals in many international competitions. In addition to the expectation of the 2012 London Olympics, his annual income rebounded to 28.8 million yuan. However, it is no longer the same as his peak.
As the most dazzling star in the history of Chinese track and field, Liu Xiang returned to the 2012 London Olympics. However, in the preliminaries, Liu Xiang made a mistake when attacking the first hurdle, fell heavily to the ground and withdrew from the competition. In 2012, his income dropped to 21.6 million yuan.
In 2013, Liu Xiang disappeared from the Forbes list. According to staff from Liu Xiang's team at the time, the above contract expired at the end of 2013, and Liu Xiang did not sign any commercial endorsements in 2014.
In 2015, 33-year-old Liu Xiang announced his retirement.
According to the Forbes list, Liu Xiang's income in the 11 years from 2003 to 2014 when he debuted reached 535 million yuan (Note: Forbes China Celebrity Income List includes celebrities' pre-tax income from film and television works, advertising endorsements, sports competitions, book publishing and other cultural and entertainment industry activities, excluding the share with brokerage companies and supervisory units).
The passage of time has made the story of this former hero even more legendary. The record he set has never been broken. At this year's Paris Olympics, American athlete Holloway successfully ran under the 13-second mark and won the gold medal with a time of 12.99 seconds, but Holloway failed to break the Olympic record set by Liu Xiang in 2004 as expected.
Based on the experience of mature markets, when the sports industry grows faster and becomes more diversified, athletes will be involved in larger and more complex relationships. But this also means that these athletes begin to have more choices.
In 2024, Liu Xiang, who had been silent for many years, returned to the public eye again. In fact, not only Liu Xiang, but many top retired athletes also reaped great rewards in this Olympic year.
Since the beginning of this year, diving queen Guo Jingjing has newly signed endorsements with brands such as Yuexianhuo, Quanmianshidai, and KFC. Former international football player Fan Zhiyi has reached a commercial cooperation with Skechers. National table tennis star Xu Xin, who has not been active in international competitions for a long time, has also won endorsements with brands such as Six Walnuts and Subway.
Lin Zongyuan, general manager of Ruilan Sports China, believes that this may be another trend in future sports marketing. "Many active athletes are backed by relevant units or large brokerage companies, which greatly increases the cost of cooperating with them. Retired athletes may be backed by their own company team or an MCN agency, which makes the operation much smaller, faster and more flexible."
In Lin Zongyuan's view, active athletes are subject to more restrictions, and their value is also linked to their performance fluctuations. "They will operate their social media very seriously, but they can't be too active on social media because they have many factors to consider. Retired athletes don't have this problem. They have enough time and energy, and there are not so many restrictions."
In an interview with the media, Gu Shuhang, CEO of sports agency CAA China, mentioned that the reality is that athletes have ups and downs in their competitive state, but the public always expects them to be victorious. A single success can bring huge commercial value, and it is understandable to grab traffic at the peak, but the other side of traffic can also lay stumbling blocks for the future. However, traffic and professionalism are not contradictory. "When athletes have made considerable achievements in their professional fields, influence is a natural thing."
Industry insiders believe that behind top athletes are efforts that ordinary people cannot understand. Once they become popular due to their outstanding performance, "interaction with the public" naturally becomes an indispensable part of their career and an important bridge for their cross-field development. Although athletes with outstanding performance have many options after retirement, whether developing in the business field or entering the system, they need long-term career planning.
(This article comes from China Business Network)
