*

Nike's Olympic advertising whitewash

Monday, 28th July 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

There's no Olympic medal for sports apparel marketing, but the race this summer between the category's top two brands is hotly contested. Ahead of the Beijing Olympics, Nike and Adidas are employing very different strategies to court the Chinese market.

One key difference is Adidas' decision to invest in being an official sponsor of the games. This grants advantages like the right to use trademarked images (the rings, the event's logo, the words "Beijing 2008"), access to prime tickets and hotel rooms and the opportunity to set up hospitality areas close to Olympic venues like the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube.
Dongdan subway station, Beijing, June 30
Dongdan subway station, Beijing, June 30

Nike is not an Olympic sponsor, and one of the consequences of that is restriction of its advertising in Beijing during the Olympic period. Until about a week ago, Nike had a large advertising presence around shopping hot spot Wangfujing, but that changed after the restrictions went into effect July 19.

Nike ads that plastered the nearby Dongdan subway station have been covered in white. The athletes whose faces hawk Nike from above the shops at Wangfujing have been replaced with "Beijing 2008" posters bearing the images of the Fuwa (the official mascots of these games) Beijing opera singers and the Great Wall. At the nearby basketball and soccer park that Nike owns rights to, the 15-foot ads that usually hang on the fences have been taken down, though the swooshes that mark half field and center court are still there. Even Nike's ads in Titan sports newspaper now bear only a simple swoosh and the "Just Do It" slogan. Gone are the images of Chinese Olympians.
Dongdan subway station, Beijing, July 23
Dongdan subway station, Beijing, July 23

Along Wangfujing, though, it's hard to see a disadvantage for Nike. All of the billboards, including the Adidas ones featuring the Chinese women's volleyball team, have been replaced with Beijing '08 signage. And Nike has bought up several retail locations in the area, along Chang'An Avenue (which intersects with Wangfujing a short distance east of Tian'anmen and the Forbidden City) and Wangfujing Street. It has two Wangfujing shops, including one with huge windows that afford passersby a good view of the life-size mannequins of hurdler Liu Xiang (刘翔) and basketball player Yi Jianlian (易建联), as well as a montage of several different Chinese Olympians wearing the brand.

The area around Wangfujing will be a favorite place for Beijing's Olympic visitors to spend time between basketball games and swim meets, but when the action starts it will focus around the actual events, where Adidas should have a complete monopoly over its biggest competitor.

Related: A walk down Wangfujing

Link: Advertising fight to the finish ahead of Beijing Olympics (Gulf News)

Tags: Adidas, advertising, marketing, Nike, Olympics, Wangfujing

A Walk Down Wangfujing

Friday, 16th May 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

This one's for the advertising and marketing nerds out there. Wangfujing pedestrian shopping street is, in some sense, the Times Square of Beijing—full of ads, bright lights, flagship stores and tourists. It runs a length equivalent to a couple of city blocks, and right now it's plastered with sports advertising. Here's a full accounting of the ads up right now.

*
Corner of Wangfujing and Dongdan Santiao, outside the entrance to Wangfujing Bookstore. Below a giant TV screen (one of three along Wangfujing) runs a long strip of an ad for China Mobile, a cell phone service provider and one of the domestic Olympic sponsors. Inside the building is a McDonald's and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Flagship store, aka Fuwa heavan.

*
On a building facing a small side street, Adidas puts an ad featuring the Chinese women's volleyball team. Above and behind is an ad for Chinese electronics maker TCL, featuring tennis stars.

*
Kobe Bryant welcomes you to the Nike store. Another official Beijing 2008 shop is next door.

*
Across from Kobe, Tiger Woods stares down from above a Muslim restaurant, hawking TAG Heuer watches.

*
Kobe is with us again, in an ad running across the rooftops, featuring a close-up of his face and a plug for a TV program airing in China May 18-25.

*
Next to Haoyou Emporium, Olympic sponsor Johnson & Johnson advertises waterproof bandages with an image of a swimming youngster.

*
Above the Dan Yao building, in a massive ad for Chinese sports apparel brand Li-Ning 2006 Tokyo Marathon champion Ambesse Tolossa crosses a finish line with the Forbidden City in the backdrop.

*
A little further down… Kobe's back! This time in a three-story-high wrap around the (second) Nike storefront.

*
On the front of a second Li-Ning store, across from Nike, Olympic champion diver Guo Jingjing prepares to dive off of the Great Wall.

*
The Adidas store places the Chinese women's volleyball team above its entrance and…

*
… some everyday people running in front of the Bird's Nest at street level.

*
Finally, at the northern end of the pedestrian street, Kobe marks his territory one last time.

So what's up with Nike's all Kobe, all the time strategy? A couple of weeks ago, it wasn't like that. He shared ads on Wangfujing with other Nike spokes-athletes Liu Xiang (110-meter hurdles world record holder), Roger Federer (tennis star) and Yi Jianlian (forward for the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks). But Kobe just won the NBA's MVP award, he's leading the Los Angeles Lakers' playoff run and will be featured in a show on CCTV next week.

Tags: Adidas, advertising, Guo Jingjing, Kobe, Li-Ning, marketing, Nike, Tiger Woods, volleyball, Wangfujing