Good News, Bad News in Chinese Sports World
Tuesday, 15th September 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
When China loses to tiny countries in most team sports, it comes as no surprise. But women's volleyball is supposed to be the exception, the team sport that brought China its first team sport gold medal in 1984 and produced one of its most successful sports exports, Jenny Lang Ping, until recently head coach of the U.S. women's team. That history just adds to the sting of China's 3-1 loss to Thailand at the Asian championships over the weekend. Thailand was seeded third in the tournament, so they didn't exactly come out of nowhere, but they have never won an Asian championship before and didn't even qualify for the 2008 Olympics, where China won bronze against a tough field. Xinhua called the final "thrilling,", but Thailand won each of the last two sets by a margin of 25-19.
Image: English.cri.cn
Good news in track and field: Liu Xiang's return
Liu Xiang will compete at next week's Shanghai Golden Grand Prix (September 20), lacing up his racing shoes for the first time since he limped and winced his way out of competition at last year's summer Olympics. Liu, one-time world record holder, world champion and Olympic champion in the 110-meter hurdles, is the only Chinese man to ever win Olympic gold in a track event and by far the country's most visible athlete product endorser. Liu's camp is managing expectations, according to this report from the Wall Street Journal. Liu made his announcement after it became clear that the event's reigning Olympic champ and world record holder, Cuba's Dayron Robles, wouldn't be making the trip to Shanghai. Robles pulled out of World Championships in Berlin last month due to a hamstring injury. The new world champ is Ryan Brathwaite, a 21-year-old Barbadian who ran a 13.14 in Berlin. World runner-up, American Terrence Trammell, is also considered a threat to Liu.
Bad news in track and field: A Bolt-less Grand Prix in Shanghai
Usain Bolt, the hottest name in track and field, won't compete in Shanghai next week, and is also skipping an upcoming competition in South Korea. The Jamaican sprinter says he's suffering from fatigue—too many chicken nuggets? It's disappointing news for Chinese fans, and a little puzzling given that returning to China to compete should only help him sell more Puma shoes here.
Good news in basketball: Sun Yue gets a break
The New York Knicks have signed Chinese guard Sun Yue to a non-guaranteed contract, according to multiple media reports. Sun's had a rough NBA run, though we suspect it's been a smoothed a bit by the fact that he garners a little more attention in China for any team that gets involved with him. The Lakers drafted him in 2007, but he didn't get a contract until after the Beijing Olympics. He played in 10 games for the Los Angeles Lakers last year in his rookie season, averaging less than one point, and was relegated to the D-League in March.
Tags: athletics, basketball, Liu Xiang, Shanghai Golden Grand Prix, Sun Yue, track and field, Usain Bolt, volleyball
Olympic marketing: How did sportswear brands do?
Friday, 29th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
For sports apparel brands, the Olympics are arguably the most important stage for marketing. So how did the sports marketers fare with the Chinese market in these Olympics? Here's a look at how things played out for Adidas, Li-Ning, Nike, Puma and Speedo.Adidas
Adidas reportedly shelled out 70 million euros to be an official Olympic sponsor. Adidas gear was also all over Olympians, great for television. But aside from shoes and uniforms, Adidas wasn't particularly visible in Olympic venues. It had no special presence on the Olympic Green, but its beautiful flagship store in Sanlitun near the Workers' Stadium and Workers' Gymnasium saw lots of foot traffic.
Adidas' Olympic sponsorship allowed it to use the Bird's Nest and Olympic logo.
Its Olympic ad campaign, though beautifully designed and fitting in concept (Together in 2008, Impossible is Nothing), came up short in the personnel categories. That campaign had four primary faces, in sports that are very popular in China--diver Hu Jia, footballer Zheng Zhi, basketball player Sui Feifei and a few women's volleyball players. Hu pulled out due to injury, Zheng and the men's football team had an embarrassing performance and Sui Feifei was only sixth in scoring on Team China. The women's volleyball team played strong in a very tough field, but in the end only came through with the minimum result acceptable to the hometown fans, a bronze medal.
Li-Ning
China's biggest sports apparel brand had the biggest marketing coup of the games—its founder, Li Ning, carrying the Olympic flame on a three-minute slow-motion run to the top of the Bird's Nest, where he lit the Olympic cauldron. The company's stock went up the next day, and Li Ning will always have his stamp on what seems to be an especially important part of the Olympics to Chinese fans.
Li-Ning's storefronts were generic during the games, but there was nothing generic about its opening ceremony product placement.
Li Ning also had its name on the uniforms of China's diving and table tennis teams, who delivered dominant performances, as well as the Spanish national basketball team, which gave Team USA a tough match before losing in the gold medal game.
Nike
Nike's two biggest bets on Chinese athletes were Yi Jianlian and Liu Xiang. Yi was solid but not explosive, averaging 9 points a game. The Chinese national team, wearing Nike jerseys, didn't really exceed expectations, but certainly didn't come up short, making it to the quarterfinals before losing to Lithuania. But Chinese fans were more excited about catching a glimpse of Team USA, who were also sporting Nike's hot new jersey, available in stores all over Beijing.
Nike had to deal with the toughest spin job of any Olympic marketer this year—how to salvage its investment in China's biggest sports star, Liu Xiang, when he didn't even compete in the games. Nike's immediate answer--a full page ad celebrating the love of sport even in defeat--succeeded in becoming part of the stream of catharsis after Liu bowed out. Nike got some negative publicity for its efforts to hunt down netizens who alleged that the shoe company had coerced Liu to drop out rather than lose to Robles.
Nike hedged its big-name bets by backing lesser-known athletes as well.
But Liu and Yi weren't the only athletes that Nike put is name behind. It was all over team China, and ready with full-page ads in China Daily and front-page ads in Titan sports news when any of its athletes won a medal or had a strong performance. Swimmer Zhang Lin (silver medalist), boxer Zou Shiming (gold medalist) and beach volleyball duo Tian Jia and Wang Fei (silver medalists) were just a few of the lower-profile high-achieving athletes that Nike celebrated in its Olympic campaign.
Puma
Dollar for dollar, Puma might have gotten the most of its Olympic investment. Its hopes ran on two spiked shoes-- those of sprinter Usain Bolt, who loped across the finish line to set the 100-meter dash world record. China loves a winner, and Bolt and the dominant Jamaican team were very well-received in Beijing. Jacques Rogge can complain all he wants, but most Chinese don't mind a guy who's willing to revel in his moment.
Speedo
If you weren't wearing a Speedo LZR Racer in this Olympics, you might as well never leave the Water Cube's warm-up pool. Nine out of every 10 swimming gold medals went to LZR wearers. The only complaint that people had about the LZR was that it made swimmers too fast, world records too common. The suit was considered such an integral part of success that Nike agreed to let its swimmers wear LZRs instead of Nike suits. Speedo doesn't have a big presence at Chinese sports retailers—swimwear here tends to be generic instead of branded—but China, along with the rest of the world, has no choice but to see Speedo as the leader in swimwear technology.
Tags: Adidas, athletics, Beijing Olympics, Hu Jia, Li-Ning, Liu Xiang, marketing, Nike, Olympics, Puma, Speedo, Sui Feifei, swimming, Tian Jia, Titan, Usain Bolt, volleyball, Wang Fei, Zhang Lin, Zheng Zhi, Zou Shiming