[Interview/ Observer Network Yan Shanshan Zhou Yuanfang, text/Yan Shanshan] "Of the top 30 Chinese companies go overseas, at least 25 have taken advantage of sports marketing , and some even skipped the country and went directly to the target European and American markets."
sports marketing has become an important step for Chinese companies to move towards internationalization.
2022-2023, China will usher in a sports year. Beijing Winter Olympics , Hangzhou Asian Games , 2023 Asian Cup and the postponed first new version of Club World Cup will not only boost the world's confidence, but also a test of the country and city governance, enterprises and brand image.
Facing with the New Year of sports events, how do leading sports marketing companies face the impact of the epidemic? How to help Chinese companies continue to expand their market through sports sponsorship? How to exert the influence of e-sports, a new sports event? How to deal with the impact of new media on traditional media and marketing models?
On October 19, SPORTFIVE/Lagardale Sports, as the only representative of the international sports and entertainment group in the audience, was invited to attend the " Fortune " Fortune 500 Summit. At the event, Echo Li, managing director and global senior vice president of SPORTFIVE/Lagardale Sports Greater China, accepted an exclusive interview with Observer.com.
As a world-leading sports entertainment group, SPORTFIVE/Lagardale Sports has deeply participated in the commercial expansion of comprehensive sports events and sports IP such as the Olympic Games, World Cup, European Cup , Asian Cup , Asian Champions League, African Cup, F1 (Formula 1), and provides relevant overseas marketing services for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.
In Li Ying's view, if any company wants to develop a strange market, sports IP and sports events are the "best marketing tools" for brands to go overseas. E-sports marketing is a powerful weapon for brands to seize the incremental market in the post-epidemic era. "Esports is not a trend, it is the future."
On October 19, 2021, Hangzhou, Li Ying attended the Fortune World Top 500 Summit
"Sports marketing is the most powerful marketing weapon for Chinese companies to go overseas"
For many Chinese companies, going overseas to enter emerging markets is a key step in the development process. Faced with the differences in political, historical, cultural and consumer behaviors between emerging market countries and regions, it is necessary to explore effective ways of brand communication.
The competitive, participatory, viewing and consumer nature of sports itself helps audiences break cognitive barriers. Sports marketing has become a powerful channel for Chinese companies to expand overseas markets.
Especially in the European Cup, which started this year, Chinese companies occupied 4 seats among the 12 top sponsors, and rumors that Chinese advertisements in the European Cup were "virtual advertisements".
This phenomenon has also triggered heated discussions in European media. The well-known French daily Le Parisien even asked: "What if the big winner of this year's European Cup is not European, but Chinese brands?"
In fact, it is no longer a new thing for Chinese brands to join hands with top international sports events and wealthy clubs.
In 2018, Chinese companies such as Hisense , Changhong, OPPO carried out creative marketing of the Russian World Cup; in 2019, TikTok reached a cooperation with Bundesliga giants Dortmund ; in 2020, OPPO cooperated with Boston Marathon globally, and Kuaishou reached a cooperation with esports t1... Among them, SPORTFIVE/Lagardele Sports is present.
In 2015, Li Ying, who was working in Singapore at the Asia-Pacific headquarters of Lagardale Sports Group, accepted the group's commission to return to China to build a team from scratch. In 2016, Lagardele Sports officially entered the mainland Chinese market and set Shanghai as its headquarters in Greater China.
Li Ying believes that sports marketing may be the most powerful marketing weapon for Chinese companies to go overseas. For enterprises, "sports is not only a blood transfusion tool, but also a hematopoietic tool to support the brand."
"In China, although sports marketing is regarded as a blue ocean market and brands are still in a process of acceptance, we have been doing sports marketing for the past 54 years. From our perspective, not only Chinese companies, but any company has entered a strange market and wants to quickly gain the recognition of new markets, and then patiently cultivate target users to recognize brands to achieve sales conversion. Sports IP and sports events are definitely one of the best marketing tools."
Li Ying said that the team has done statistics. Among the top 30 Chinese companies going overseas, more than 25 have taken advantage of sports marketing to enter overseas markets. Some of them have not even done sports marketing in China, and have directly gone to the European and American markets of the brand's target to carry out activities.
"So I think this (sports marketing) is of great help to improve, or to change the inherent and even wrong impressions of some overseas markets on Chinese brands."
's sports marketing for brands may gain resistance in the target market. Li Ying admitted: "In fact, it is not only local fans who have more or less thoughts after seeing Chinese brands. Even in many marketing, we found that when local fans see local brands sponsoring local events, they will frown, because most iron-feeling fans will have an obsession, that is, 'sports should be pure', which itself will increase the difficulty for any brand that sponsors sports events."
faces this problem, Li Ying said that their role in this process is to help companies face potential hidden dangers. "For example, before we hold a sponsorship conference, we will think about various potential public relations crises and coordinate all marketing activities in multiple dimensions, and achieve a balance between the three things that companies want to tell their products and stories, the games that fans really want to watch, and how sponsors empower fans to watch and experience the game."
Li Ying revealed that the team's service content is not only post-execution and creative presentation, but sometimes it also needs to stand from the perspective of brand demands to help them screen and match the resources that are most suitable for sponsorship.
but reaching a sponsorship cooperation is not enough. To make good use of these sponsor rights, we must adjust the marketing content and rhythm in a timely manner according to changes in the schedule and battle situation, combined with the psychological changes of fans and consumers. After all, achieving brand consumption growth is the ultimate goal.
"I even tell some customers that we may have to suspend investment in sports or sports marketing during the epidemic."
In recent years, large-scale events have been intensive, which should be a good development opportunity for the sports industry, but the variables brought by the epidemic have had a great impact on the marketing and business layout of some companies.
Li Ying revealed that in the whole year of last year, more than 30,000 sports games around the world were cancelled and postponed, causing losses of more than 60 billion US dollars. Many wealthy clubs suffered losses of more than 100 million US dollars last year.
"The suspension of offline events has made many companies temporarily not invest in sports or sports marketing. I personally think it is a pity, because even if offline events are not held, brands can still be promoted and promoted online and offline. However, the epidemic has caused many customers, including Chinese companies, to make choices between long-term investment in brand power and short-term sales growth. Therefore, large investments such as sports marketing that must be considered medium- and long-term, or even decades, have been temporarily abandoned by many companies."
Li Ying admitted that under the internal and external pressure of the epidemic, not all brands are suitable for investing in sports marketing.
"In fact, during this process last year, when my team and I faced many customers, they were based on mutual trust. I even told some customers, 'We may have to suspend investment in sports or sports marketing during the epidemic', because at that time, even if the customer was a CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), what he had to consider was not the brand power investment in 2020."
. For brands that have signed a sponsorship agreement, the team will help the brand strive for the best sponsorship rights and the highest cost-effectiveness, and also make the greatest efforts on the force majeure clause and compensation clauses, and at the same time, they will try to change the marketing form from offline to online.
As for the brand, Li Ying suggested that it is necessary to adapt to the competition situation and the Chinese market according to the time and local conditions.For example, for the Chinese market, the value that the Olympics can give brands is much higher than that of the European Cup, which is completely opposite to the European market, which requires the brand to make corresponding adjustments to the inclination of the event.
On October 19, 2021, Hangzhou, Li Ying attended the Fortune World Top 500 Summit
"E-sports is not a trend, it is the future"
Last year, the suspension of offline events has allowed more brands to turn their sports marketing attention to e-sports.
At present, China has surpassed South Korea and the United States to become the world's largest e-sports market. Li Ying believes that for brands, e-sports marketing is used to seize the incremental market.
SPORTFIVE/Lagardale Sports has been planning e-sports marketing since 2017. In 2021 alone, it has reached e-sports sponsorship cooperation and marketing services for more than 120 brands worldwide.
Li Ying revealed that e-sports' revenue now accounts for about 30% of the group's total revenue, and has become the group's second largest strategic business segment.
"We have a sports strategy analysis department at our headquarters. At that time, through a series of global and regional market analyses, we could basically draw a conclusion: e-sports is not a trend, it is the future."
Compared with traditional sports, e-sports has a trend of coming from behind. Will this situation affect the essence of sports "strengthening the body" and the pursuit of "faster, higher and stronger"?
Li Ying admitted that in the past five years, this view has been discussed continuously and almost all traditional sports people have been worried about it. However, after the epidemic, all the international sports people she contacted have accepted the situation of the full rise of e-sports.
"For example, European giant clubs or world-class IP events, instead of continuing to worry about the development trend of e-sports, they are now considering how to combine offline traditional events with online e-sports elements, how to retain audiences who like sunshine, healthy, and outdoor sports, while also facing the status quo - people of Generation Z. Many people born in the 1995 and 2000 prefer virtual sports in the Internet world. There is even a greater goal. We will discuss with traditional sports people how to combine e-sports elements in traditional sports, and then bring these young people in the e-sports world back to this offline traditional sports event."
Li Ying gave an example, saying that the EACC autumn game that ended not long ago was a virtual football e-sports event. The contestants were real football clubs. These clubs attracted e-sports teenagers who might not have paid attention to the club before by embracing e-sports. Through this virtual football game, e-sports enthusiasts can see the charm of football.
2021EACC Autumn Tournament, China Lyon Esports advanced to the semi-finals (Photo source: SPORTFIVE/Lagardele Sports)
"I am a die-hard sports fan, but I can spend less and less time on a complete game."
In recent years, new media such as Douyin , Kuaishou, Weibo , and B station have brought impact to traditional media and marketing models. After a sports game, short video highlights on the platform often occupy more traffic than live broadcasts of the complete game, and the way young people watch the game is also changing.
Li Ying's attitude towards this is very optimistic, "In this process, I actually have a lot of experience. Including myself, I am also a hard-core sports fan, but I can really spend less and less time on a complete sports game. Especially if the game is time in Europe and the United States, I will also go and see the highlights of the game the next morning."
In addition, in response to the phenomenon of netizens making short videos of sports events and even playing copyright "border balls", Li Ying believes that from the perspective of sports practitioners, seeing more and more UGC (user original content) appearing on social media platforms is a benign development trend.
"From a long-term perspective, as long as we can think of supervising and regulating such spaces, in fact, more people are willing to pay attention to and embrace sports, which is also a good phenomenon.”
During this year's Tokyo Olympics, many athletes raised their cameras to shoot Vlogs (video diary) in the Olympic village and during quarantine to share exclusive Olympic perspectives. Will this phenomenon that everyone can broadcast the Olympics live by the advancement of technology brings challenges to sports marketing?
Tokyo Olympic diving men's single, double three-meter board double champion Xie Siyi released Olympic Vlog on Weibo
Li Ying believes that short videos include Vlog. Although it is not a big trend like e-sports, it is also a trend that sports companies must embrace.
At present, they are helping some overseas sports football clubs and celebrities with influence in China to plan and open Chinese social platform accounts, and help them operate account content. Their services include La Liga Atletico Madrid Football Club, Belgium national team and Spanish national team.
"The influence of football stars themselves, including their behind-the-scenes stories outside the field, the team recreates these contents and presents them in the direction that Chinese users want to see. I think this is something fans like and will become a good trend. "Li Ying believes that this change will definitely challenge some traditional platforms, but it is also a new empowerment direction.
In the post-epidemic era, sports marketing, e-sports, and new media have shown vigorous development vitality, and also show the world Chinese energy.
Next year, China will usher in the sports New Year. With the successive holding of the Beijing Winter Olympics and the Hangzhou Asian Games, we look forward to more Chinese cities connecting the world with sports, and we also look forward to more Chinese brands going to the world through sports.
