Sun Yang signed two endorsement deals after his comeback! Did the brand bet on this successfully?
2024-08-27
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Obviously, Sun Yang's traffic has brought sweet benefits to brands.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Lin Yuwei
On August 26, the popularity of Sun Yang's first championship after his comeback continued to rise, and the brands that had signed contracts with him before the victory also received a wave of traffic. As early as May 30, the swimwear brand Fan De An officially announced Sun Yang as its brand ambassador, and updated the homepage pictures of its Tmall flagship store and Xiaohongshu to Sun Yang's championship posters, and the sales of Sun Yang's products were also remarkable.
Industry insiders pointed out that through sports star endorsements, small and medium-sized brands can quickly break out of their circle. At the same time, they must also do a good job of converting championship traffic, conducting in-depth interactions and timely marketing. However, if brands want to gain long-term benefits, they should also start from the product itself.
Betting on success
Leverage Marketing
Along with the former swimming superstar Sun Yang, the brands that have reached cooperation with him have also entered the center of public opinion. On August 26, the Weibo topic #Sun Yang signed two endorsements after his comeback# became a hot search, with over 20 million readings. The two brands mentioned are the swimwear brand Fan De An and Mingren Soda Water. As a brand that mainly sells swimwear, the cooperation between Fan De An and Sun Yang seems reasonable. As early as May 30, Fan De An announced on Weibo that Sun Yang would be the new brand ambassador for 2024. Two days ago, Sun Yang had just ended his 4-year and 3-month suspension.
After Sun Yang won the men's 400m freestyle, various marketing campaigns by Fan De'an began to appear frequently in the public eye. Although the brand's official Xiaohongshu account told Beijing Business Daily that it would not accept interviews for the time being, Fan De'an has already posted posters of Sun Yang's victory in the live broadcast room and various social media. When searching for the above brands on Taobao, the first thing that comes into view is the words "Men's 400m freestyle gold medal" and Sun Yang's image. The main pictures of the store's new products also have Sun Yang's autographed photos printed on them. The brand's official Weibo has launched a "show off Sun Yang's same swimming trunks" event to participate in the lucky draw.
Fan De'an has been active in celebrity collaboration marketing. In 2023, he collaborated with celebrities such as Jike Junyi and Jiang Shuying. In July this year, he also teamed up with Yan Xujia and Peng Chuyue of X玖少年团 to conduct live streaming sales. The Weibo topics #In China, more than 100 celebrities are wearing Fan De'an# and #Fan De'an celebrity-favored fashionable swimsuits# have been read over 10 million times.
Compared with celebrity collaboration, sponsoring sports events and athletes is also a standard for sports brands. The National Fitness Plan points out that by 2025, the total scale of the national sports industry will reach 5 trillion yuan. According to a report by iiMedia Research, the global sports sponsorship market value was estimated to be 57 billion US dollars in 2020, and is expected to grow to nearly 90 billion US dollars by 2027.
Faced with a huge market, many sports brands are eager to get a piece of the pie. In the just-concluded Paris Olympics, Lululemon, one of the "three treasures of the middle class", designed four sets of clothes for the Canadian team: the opening ceremony, closing ceremony, interview, and award-winning clothes; FILA sponsored the uniforms of the Hong Kong delegation of China at the 2024 Paris Olympics. After Zhang Jialang won the gold medal in the fencing competition, the award-winning clothes from FILA were also shrouded in the aura of the gold medal; Uniqlo, as the official sponsor of the Swedish national team at the Paris Olympics, also caused heated discussions because of the technological fabrics of the uniforms of table tennis player Moregaard.
Undertake traffic
Product strength is the key
According to the data from Fan De'an's Tmall flagship store, the second best-selling product is the same style as Sun Yang's swimming goggles, and the product label shows "61 people bought it within 24 hours", and the eighth best-selling product is the same style as Sun Yang's amphibious swimming trunks. Among the top 10 swimming goggles on Tmall, two products are from Fan De'an. Obviously, Sun Yang's traffic has made the brand taste the sweetness.
Zhang Peiying, an expert in the fashion field, pointed out that compared with mass consumer goods, swimwear is a niche category and it is difficult for it to be at the center of public opinion discussion. However, more sports star endorsements can help these brands quickly break out of the circle. "Niche brands are actually closely related to celebrity endorsements, but celebrity endorsements are also a double-edged sword. Brands and spokespersons are deeply bound together. They prosper together and suffer together. Therefore, the ability to resist risks is relatively weak. How to interact with celebrities is crucial."
Cheng Weixiong, an independent fashion industry analyst and founder of Shanghai Liangqi Brand Management Co., Ltd., believes that the traffic boost for winning a championship generally depends on major international events, and the traffic from winning small domestic events is almost negligible. "But as a swimming star who has been suspended for four years, Sun Yang's comeback traffic is still considerable, and the popularity of the Paris Olympics is still there. The combination of a professional swimwear brand and a returning swimming star is a great harvest for the little-known Van De'an."
After gaining a short-term flow of traffic, how to make the brand achieve longer-term development may be the next focus. Cheng Weixiong pointed out that it is necessary to convert the traffic of popularity into sales and quickly use the popularity to cover all channels online and offline. "Especially as swimwear has certain seasonal time restrictions. The current time node is already the off-season for swimwear, but there is still market space for professional swimming pools."
Economist Pan Helin said, "Investing before the game and using traffic after winning the game is a legitimate and reasonable business behavior, but small and medium-sized brands need to take a differentiated marketing path to maximize the value of marketing expenses. As for long-term benefits, they still have to work hard on products and services, because the essence of companies and brands is to sell products and services."
Zhang Peiying pointed out that since small and medium-sized brands are more dependent on celebrity endorsements, they must do a good job in converting championship traffic, conduct in-depth interactions and timely marketing, and accelerate the pace of product research and development innovation to form a multi-dimensional combination punch. However, if a brand wants to obtain long-term benefits, it must ultimately start from the product itself. "No matter how much marketing interaction there is, it ultimately depends on the product. When inviting celebrities to endorse, it is necessary to handle the relationship between short-term benefits and long-term development plans. The traffic conversion of athletes winning championships and the sustainability of subsequent development are huge tests for small and medium-sized brands."
Editor: Lin Qin
Image丨Sina Weibo @Sun Yang, Taobao screenshot
