The World Cup is coming, here are all the tips for brand marketing!

The World Cup is a dream stage for corporate brand marketing competition!

As one of the world's most watched international events, the FIFA World Cup has always been a stronghold for top brands . The World Cup produces passion, carnival, idols, but it can also generate attention, sales, popularity and reputation for corporate brands! It costs a company $20 million in advertising to increase brand awareness worldwide by 1%, but with the help of major sporting events, the same amount can be increased by 10%.

Sports events, which are seen as a new weapon for gathering popularity, have become an arena for brands. In fact, this cake looks tempting, but it is very difficult to chew. So, how can brands maximize ROI in sports marketing ? What trends should we focus on? What are your marketing strategies?

2018 Sports Events Panorama: A Comprehensive List of Marketing Resources

For Chinese companies that aspire to win a larger market share through sports marketing, the sports sector in 2018 will be a battlefield filled with lucrative spoils. In addition to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics which was held in February, what other major events in sports marketing in 2018 are worth paying attention to?

2018 Russia World Cup

The 2018 FIFA World Cup, which will open in Russia next month, can be said to be the hottest sports event resource this summer. The World Cup offers three levels of sponsorship: the top eight "partners" are granted global promotion rights at a cost of approximately £100 million; six "sponsors" at a cost of approximately £50 million; and 32 regional "supporters" at approximately £8 million.

Currently participating Chinese brands include Wanda , Hisense, vivo , and Mengniu. All four companies have purchased sponsorship rights for the Russia World Cup, obtaining the right to jointly use the FIFA World Cup logo and their own brand logo, fieldside LED advertising, media exposure, a large number of tickets, off-site exhibition areas, and product customization rights.

In addition, with the help of the "name" of the World Cup, a large number of brand marketing resources and projects will be derived to take advantage of the marketing boom of this World Cup.

2018 Jakarta Asian Games

Chinese sports brand 361° has been confirmed as the official partner of the 18th Jakarta Asian Games in 2018. 361° will provide the Olympic Council of Asia with a full set of sports equipment, including sportswear, various functional sports shoes, and convenient and practical sports accessories.

Canon (China) has decided to sponsor the 2018 Asian Games. In addition to image input devices such as cameras, lenses, camcorders, broadcasting equipment, and webcams, it has also obtained sponsorship qualifications for image output devices such as copiers, MFPs, printers, and medical equipment, and will fully support the operation of the conference through products and solutions.

It is worth mentioning that e-sports will be shortlisted as a demonstration event for the first time in the Jakarta Asian Games.

2018 Chinese Super League

The 2018 Chinese Super League kicked off on March 2. In order to "make way" for the World Cup, the Chinese Super League entered a hiatus on May 20, resumed on July 18, and ended on November 11.

The 2018 season will see an influx of more superstar coaches, and the arms race among teams will be dazzling. What is even more dazzling is the overall commercial development achievements of the Chinese Super League. Ping An of China continues to be the title sponsor of the Chinese Super League with a five-year investment of 1 billion yuan, and new brands such as Yanghe and Baishuishan have joined the game one after another. In the overseas copyright market, the number of broadcasting platforms has increased to more than 20, and the coverage has grown from 71 countries and regions to 96. The IP of this top Chinese event is accelerating its internationalization process.

2018 Men's and Women's Volleyball World Championships

The 2018 World Men's Volleyball Championship was held jointly in Italy and Bulgaria, with 24 teams participating. This is the first time that the World Championships are held in two countries. The Chinese men's volleyball team will participate in the Asian qualifying tournament in Tehran, Iran from August 10 to 14, 2017.

The 2018 World Women's Volleyball Championship will be held in Japan from September 29 to October 20. This is the first major test for the Chinese women's volleyball team after the Rio Olympics. The Chinese women's volleyball team won the World Women's Volleyball Championship twice in 1982 and 1986 respectively.

In addition, in 2018 there will be a regular new round of CBA, NBA basketball league, and other major global sporting events that are watched by the audience.

Sports Marketing in 2018: Six Key Trends You Must Know

A. The differentiation trend of sports marketing media platforms is intensifying

In terms of advertising in mainland China, CCTV media is still one of the most important sports platforms, occupying a high position in the attention of sports events. At the same time, large-scale comprehensive video websites, large portal sports channels, and social media platforms will undoubtedly become the high ground for brand competition. In addition, news media and information distribution platforms will also become important channels for sports marketing.

Sina Sports video marketing is constantly developing new channels. By leveraging the Sina Weibo social media platform to broadcast live events and develop self-produced programs, it meets users' social video sharing needs, attracts more users to participate, and reflects its "portal + Weibo" integrated marketing value. At the same time, with the rapid growth of mobile Internet , Sina Sports has timely launched the "Sina Sports APP", which integrates more comprehensive sports videos into it to seize the mobile market, allowing users to watch games anytime and anywhere with the help of mobile videos , thereby helping advertisers achieve the "multi-screen viewing, real-time interaction" needs. The expansion of quantity and the integration of multiple platforms will bring about a geometric expansion of influence.

Ali Sports and Baofeng Sports have become the new media live broadcast platforms for the new season of the Chinese Volleyball Super League. Both Ali Sports and Baofeng Sports will obtain the online broadcasting rights for no less than 180 games of the 2017-2018 Chinese Volleyball Super League, including the regular season, playoffs, semi-finals and finals of the Chinese Volleyball League. At the same time, Ali Sports and Baofeng Sports will also launch comprehensive cooperation with the Volleyball Super League in new media promotion, joint sales of digital advertising and other aspects.

In addition, Tencent Sports and Live TV also obtained the event resources of the CBA league and became its new media partners for the next three years.

B. A big year for sports, with a differentiated marketing landscape

In the past, sports marketing was focused on traditional methods such as event sponsorship. Today, with the cross-integration of pan-entertainment marketing and sports marketing, more and more marketing forms are being adopted by advertisers. With sports IP as the core, multiple categories are extended, including:

Content Marketing

【Original column】 In-depth topics, live interaction

【Social Interaction】 Topic interaction, exclusive community

【Video】 Viral videos, short videos

Internet media have always been eyeing the eye-catching effect brought by sports events and have launched relevant marketing platforms based on their own characteristics.

Sina Weibo: It has reached a strategic cooperation with the 2018 World Cup. In addition to helping FIFA to implement its business in China more comprehensively, it will also enhance the dissemination model of the World Cup content in China through extensive cooperation with media, institutions and KOLs .

PP Sports : It has collected copyrights of top football events in 2018, including the five major European leagues, the Chinese Super League, the Champions League, and AFC events, becoming the preferred platform for Chinese football users. In addition, PP Sports also focuses on high-quality events such as UFC and WWE.

Other Internet media that have won event resources include: Penguin Live, Alibaba, and Baofeng Sports have become the new media live broadcast platforms for the 2017-2018 Chinese Volleyball Super League; Toutiao has become the short video partner of the new season of the Chinese Volleyball Super League. Tencent Sports + Live TV will become the new media partner of the CBA League for the next three years. Tencent Sports becomes the exclusive Internet partner of the Chinese Skating Association.

In terms of content marketing, in addition to launching original columns, video dissemination and social interaction, major Internet media also have many innovative means, such as the integrated marketing of Baofeng Sports to create information flows . PP Sports continues to innovate its brand marketing methods. Among them, creative pop-ups, overseas paintings, support indexes, and interactive pop-ups have become new advertising weapons for live content.

——Cross-border marketing——

【Entertainment】【 Games 】【Travel】【Film and Television】

Entertainment stars can deeply participate in sports events, rapidly expand the number of sports audiences, and fully release the intrinsic value of the event’s IP, forming a virtuous interaction between entertainment stars, sports events and brands. For example, in the 2016 NBA All-Star Game in Toronto, Kris Wu appeared as a member of Tencent's NBA All-Star Team. After the game, he became a guest commentator for Tencent Sports for the Slam Dunk Contest and the All-Star Game. The combination of the two greatly increased the popularity of the NBA All-Star Game and provided advertisers with an excellent promotional resource.

E-sports can be said to be a "new sport" with comprehensive characteristics. In addition to title sponsorship, stadium billboards, celebrity meet-and-greets and other forms derived from traditional sports, it can also carry out brand implantation in games including game maps, equipment, skins and other props. Pringles potato chips once collaborated with CrossFire and became a prop in the game, which was both entertaining and spreadable.

In addition to the games and events themselves, the cooperation between manufacturers and e-sports events can also involve cross-border cooperation in multiple fields such as pan-entertainment variety shows, music, animation, and movies . The cooperation between the movie "The Master" and CFPL is a model. It not only created the history of film and competition linkage, but also connected the e-sports and movie fans under the two IPs to form cross-communication.

--sponsor--

【Technology】【Sports Program】【Athletes】【Events】【Sports Team】【Venue】

The five Chinese brands sponsoring the 2018 Russia World Cup, Wanda, Yingli, Hisense, vivo and Mengniu, are all very strong.

Mengniu's Vice President of Strategy Zhang Yong revealed that Mengniu's future marketing investment in the 2018 World Cup in Russia will reach 2 billion yuan. By sponsoring the Russia World Cup, Mengniu became the fifth sponsor from mainland China in the history of the FIFA World Cup.

In March 2016, Wanda became a FIFA partner (top sponsor) with a contract until 2030, covering all four World Cups during that period; in April 2017, Hisense won the official sponsorship of the 2018 World Cup; in May, vivo became the official sponsor of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Earlier, Yingli sponsored the 2010 South Africa World Cup and the 2014 Brazil World Cup successively.

--advertise--

[Display ads][Mobile][OTT][Video/live streaming][Program placement][ Search engine ]

At present, the main Chinese players in the 2018 Russia World Cup are CCTV, Shengkai Sports, Hangzhou Fude and Double-edged Sword Sports. Advertisers can consider cooperating with them in terms of copyright, channels, ticketing, mascot sales, etc.

CCTV is the holder of all media copyrights for the 2018 Russia World Cup in mainland China.

Double-edged Sword Sports has obtained the exclusive marketing rights for the regional supporter seats for the 2018 Russia World Cup in Asia.

Shengkai Sports is the exclusive ticketing agency for the FIFA Confederations Cup and World Cup in Greater China, and Hangzhou Fude is the production supplier of the 2018 World Cup mascot.

——Self-made IP——

[Self-made events] [Sports and fitness activities] [Self-made stars]

Compared with media such as Tencent Video and Sina Weibo that focus on broadcasting events, Alibaba's sports marketing approach is more inclined to create its own IP. Ali Sports' layout mainly has three paths, namely, cooperating in sports events and organizations, independently creating original IP, and venues and ticketing.

The road running alliance WORA initiated by Ali Sports was announced to be established. The first batch of road running apps to join the alliance include Gudong , Yuepaoquan , Ledongli, Hupu Running, Tengmi Paopao, Forrest Gump Running, HeHa, etc. WORA covers five major sections: road running apps, associations, events, sponsors, and executors. It aims to concentrate advantages, break through industry barriers, and achieve effective integration of resources from all parties.

Launched the original e-sports event WESG (World Electronic Sports Games) and created an open platform for e-sports. In addition, Ali Sports, Healthy Cat and Jet Li jointly announced the launch of the "Fist of Fury" mixed martial arts professional league. "Fist of Fury" is an original top-level MMA event that will officially start in September 2018. This is an original event that Ali Sports has organized in addition to continuously introducing high-quality events.

C. Sports marketing population is younger and more diverse

China's sports industry is entering a high-speed dividend zone. Whether in terms of policy support, number of participants or depth of participation, the potential of sports marketing is very considerable.

With the rapid development of sports, the sports marketing market is no longer a market that only targets male consumers. Consumers have gradually shown a trend of becoming "younger", "higher-end" and "diversified". The most notable feature is the significant increase in the proportion of female participants and young groups. In addition, niche sports are on the rise, and high-income people have become a major follower of niche sports. Niche sports have become an excellent marketing scenario for capturing high-end people.

According to the recent research statistics of Tencent Lab's "White Paper on World Cup Marketing in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods Industry", compared with the previous World Cup, the crowd of the 2018 Russia World Cup will be younger, and the post-90s crowd is expected to increase to 20%; the number of female fans is almost equal to that of male fans; at the same time, the Internet has become the most important channel for fans to access information, and the information access is obviously fragmented; and there are more ways to watch the game, with live broadcasts, replays, and highlights to suit everyone's taste.

Then, as the World Cup user group changes and viewing habits shift, brands should combine the characteristics of their industry to provide users with personalized, interactive, valuable content that supports multi-channel coverage, fully understand the preferences of the 2018 World Cup user group in different scenarios such as "content, viewing, socializing, and activities", and build a "full-scenario media ecosystem."

D. E-sports is a valuable area for sports marketing

At present, a fierce e-sports whirlwind is sweeping across China. The popular e-sports games have captured the hearts of a large number of young people and even children, and have become a new lifestyle for young people today. The rise of e-sports has also driven the development of e-sports marketing. In the past two years, many first-line brands have taken the lead in embracing e-sports, a new blue ocean of marketing.

As one of the most watched sporting events in the world, there is no doubt that e-sports marketing surrounding the Russia World Cup will become the top priority of the battle among upstream e-sports manufacturers in 2018, and will also create a lot of value gaps for brand marketing.

Tencent's "FIFAOL4" "Three-step World Cup Plan": On May 3, Tencent held a press conference at the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Center Stadium to restore a 90-minute "real football match". Tencent officially represented two new blockbuster games in the FIFA series, "FIFA World of Football" mobile game and "FIFA Online 4". A series of surprise news such as World Cup authorization, e-sports World Cup, FIFA enthusiast ambassador, etc., can be said to be a "luxury feast" for football game players.

Galaxy Interactive joins hands with Double-edged Sword Sports to "grasp both ends of games and e-sports": Galaxy Interactive and Double-edged Sword Sports, which has obtained the "exclusive marketing agent for the 2018 World Cup in Asia", have reached a cooperation. The two parties will launch new football games and hold football e-sports events around the World Cup.

Sports Window and the IP game of Palm Zongheng: Sports Window and the game company Palm Zongheng jointly held the "Chinese Super League Trilogy" sports game launch conference and released three different types of football mobile games.

Compared to movies and variety shows with shorter life cycles, e-sports not only has a longer-term ecosystem, but if it is done in-depth enough, investing in e-sports also represents a higher cost-effectiveness.

In addition to traditional forms such as title sponsorship, e-sports events have many resources that can be creatively utilized in the entire marketing development, such as brand spirit implantation during the competition, endorsement implantation of star players and commentators, offline interactive activities with audiences, the use of AR technology, and the linkage of film, television and pan-entertainment.

E. Sports + entertainment, culture and sports are inseparable and become the best CP for marketing

There has always been a delicate CP relationship between sports and entertainment. From the recent cross-border CP romance between Jing Tian and Zhang Jike, to sports commentary entering variety shows, we seem to be able to conclude that correctly integrating with entertainment may really enhance the influence and value of sports marketing.

In this era of pan-entertainment, everyone can be entertained. Entertainment is also breaking down barriers in the sports industry, creating national sports idols, and moving towards an interactive entertainment economy.

In the past, we could only see national athletes through competitions such as the Olympics and Asian Games; but now we can interact with them through major social media such as Weibo and WeChat ; athletes can also participate in reality shows and variety shows, making their images more vivid and multifaceted. During the interaction, we learned that they not only have the winning side, but also the hard work and sportsmanship behind them, and even the lovely side.

From young female fans being attracted by the adorable big white poplar Sun Yang; from fans paying attention to the appearance, personality, figure and other aspects of sports stars such as Zhang Jike and Ning Zetao; to Zou Shiming educating his son Xuanxuan in " Where Are We Going, Dad" that he should not give up during a competition... the entertainment of sports has been integrated into our lives unknowingly, and countless people have fallen in love with sports because of sports stars.

Fans of sports stars are leading the development and cross-border of sports marketing. The cross-border integration of sports + entertainment not only expands the sports population from simple sports enthusiasts to the level of star fans, but also more effectively reaches female users . For brands, it can also easily leverage the fan economy and bring in huge profits.

In 2016, at the invitation of the International Olympic Committee and the Rio Olympic Organizing Committee, Mr. Jiang Lizhang, President of desports, brought along "China's No. 1 Professional Sailing Man" Guo Chuan, as well as RIO Cocktail brand spokespersons Yang Yang and Amber Kuo to represent China in relaying the Olympic flame. desports' cross-border marketing to promote the Olympic torch relay is a typical example of the sports industry leveraging entertainment stars to attract extensive participation from sports and entertainment audiences. The event will also leverage the appeal of entertainment stars to attract more audiences. In every Olympic torch relay, entertainment stars from all over the world will actively participate in it and create a popular atmosphere of win-win.

In the 2017 Super Penguin Basketball Celebrity Game, the event will join hands with cultural and sports stars, and the combined attention of multiple fans will boost the popularity of the event. This year's Basketball Celebrity Game not only brought together two NBA stars, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, on the same stage, but also gathered Chinese basketball superstars such as Guo Ailun, Zhao Jiwei, Zhao Shuang, Shao Ting, and other big stars such as Wu Yifan, Jiang Jinfu, Zhang Fengyi, Dapeng and others. The total number of views of the event exceeded 110 million, with the peak of online live broadcast reaching 16.77 million. The number of female users increased to 31.6%, and the topic reading volume of the Super Penguin Basketball Celebrity Game exceeded 700 million. During the competition, an exclusive perspective was opened for Honor mobile phone spokesperson Wu Yifan to maximize the fan economy.

In April 2017, Zhang Jike appeared at the Shanghai Auto Show to support Iconic, attracting a large number of fans and online support. On that day, there were more than 14,700 related comments on social media.

At this point, brands will also find that this change is not only extremely correct in terms of values, but also provides greater room for maneuver in business operations, bringing more room for brand sports marketing.

F. New technologies reshape new sports marketing scenarios

Traditional sports marketing scenarios are nothing more than TV screen advertising and outdoor advertising in sports stadiums. However, with the continuous breakthroughs in new technologies, the forms and scenes of people watching sports games have become more diverse and rich, which has also reconstructed the sports marketing scenarios.

The development of communication technology and the approaching 5G era have made the trend of mobile and video-based sports content consumption increasingly obvious, and the UGC content production model on mobile terminals will become a new favorite in the market.

At the same time, the application of AI and VR technologies in sports broadcasting has also begun to move towards full marketization. Israel's sports technology company WSC uses AI algorithms to automatically generate customized video highlights, greatly improving the efficiency and scale of video production and distribution. VR live broadcast technology is also changing the audience's viewing environment, so brands need to further think about creative forms and communication channels in new sports marketing scenarios.

Faced with competitive pressure from technology companies such as Facebook and Amazon in the field of sports broadcasting, traditional television media are also seeking digital transformation. ESPN, the American sports television network, has launched a new digital streaming service. This will be a new sports content complex that condenses all of ESPN's live events, original programs and customized content into one application, and integrates game results, news, event highlights and other content provided by ESPN's eight American cable TV networks.

It can be seen that with the support of these new technologies, mobile phone screens are grabbing the attention of event spectators, and the value of traditional stadium large-screen advertising needs to be re-evaluated. Brands also need to discover more opportunities in the reconstructed sports marketing scenario.

In conclusion: as of today, “sports marketing” is no longer just about brands spending huge amounts of money on sponsorship of major events and exciting moments of competitions. Nowadays, based on the diversified development of sports events, the diversification of consumers' media contact habits, and the diversification of consumers' mentality and focus on sports events, sports marketing has also shown diversified development, with more and more ways to play. There is still a lot of room and potential for future sports marketing waiting for brands to explore.

The author of this article @传媒360 and the content is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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