Yao Ming gets in on Shanghai Auto Show hype
Wednesday, 20th April 2011 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Yao Ming made a surprise appearance at the 14th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition yesterday, to shill BMW's new models. Pictures and a brief account of Yao's appearance can be found in this Detroit Free Press blog post by Chrissie Thompson. Thompson, a Free Press business reporter and apparently a frequent visitor to auto shows, has an interesting perspective on one difference between shows in China and elsewhere in the world—a strong preference for hoopla in the form of celebrities, dancing girls and pop music:Western reporters often view too much hoopla or production during auto show reveals as distraction from good product. Just let us see the car, maybe after unveiling it in a short, dramatic fashion. Don't put a rock star in front of it. One set of dancers might be acceptable. More than one dance? We might start wondering whether the automaker is compensating for a lack of product.
Not in China. Here, automakers say, reporters and bystanders alike expect a show – and the bigger, the better."
Read the rest of Thompson's post and see her photos here.
Tags: cars, Shanghai, sports marketing, Yao Ming
Li Na fills a void at top of Chinese sports world
Friday, 28th January 2011 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Li and coach/husband Jiang Shan. After her semifinal win, she complained that his snoring had kept her up the night before and said he'd be banished to their hotel room's bathtub.
Li has already made history; her comeback win over world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in Melbourne Thursday made her the first Chinese tennis player to reach a Grand Slam final. Interviewed post-match, Li said her motivation in the final set was "prize money," and local news stories have focused heavily on the purse—$2.2 million AUD ($2.175 USD, or more than 14 million RMB) if she wins, and half that if she loses.
Although China's 51-gold medal performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics showed that it has its share of world-class athletes, few of these athletes have the chance to compete for millions. Yao Ming is among the NBA's 10 best-paid players, but Liu Xiang can only compete for a few dozen thousand dollars at the IAAF World Championships.
But there's a lot more than $2 million USD at stake here. If Li Na can win Saturday, and follow that up with a strong season, she should be able to rack up the endorsements from now through the 2012 Olympics in London.
Li's big moment coincides with a void at the top of the Chinese sports world, a lack of active elites. Yao Ming played limited minutes in five games, before injuring himself yet again and announcing he would sit out the 2010-11 season (though that didn't stop Chinese fans from voting him into the starting lineup at the All-Star game). Yi Jianlian is averaging about 6 points and 3 rebounds for the Washington Wizards, who have not won a road game all season. Liu Xiang was back in form en route to his Asian Games gold in November, but has yet to prove he has recovered his ability to beat the world's best. And although diver Guo Jingjing will stay in the limelight, a retired athlete makes a much less compelling pitchwoman.
IMG has handled Li's commercial activities since 2009, about a year after she struck out on her own when China's tennis federation extended to top players the freedom to set their own training schedules, handle their own business deals, and keep more of their winnings. Li has been an outspoken advocate of expanding this policy to other sports, saying last year, "It is very important for us to have the right to choose. I really mean it."
Related: All-China Australian Open final? Making history and a case for reform
Li Na to kick out snoring husband in bid to break China's duck
Li Na and husband/coach image: PClady.com
Tags: IMG, Li Na, sports marketing, tennis
Guo Jingjing to retire
Tuesday, 25th January 2011 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
"Diving Princes" Guo Jingjing is retiring at 29, several news outlets announced Monday. With four Olympic golds and 10 world titles, the 3-meter springboard diver is one of the most dominant ever in her sport, one of just four divers with four Olympic golds. Her retirement comes as no surpise – Guo has not competed since the 2009 National Games – but it marks the end of a groundbreaking career.Along with Liu Xiang and Yao Ming, Guo is head and shoulders above her fellow Chinese athletes in terms of star power. And she puts that to work with a host of endorsements — shilling everything from swimsuits to yogurt to laundry detergent. Both
Coca-Cola and McDonald's featured her prominently in their pre-Olympic ad blitzes.
Diving officials haven't always been supportive of Guo's career out of the pool. After the 2004 Olympics in Athens, she was suspended from the team for putting too much energy into commercial activities, and had to make a public self-criticism to get back on the team.
Four years later, her popularity and two-gold medal performance in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing helped Guo move from 28th to 4th on Forbes China's annual celebrity rankings.
Guo is unlikely to disappear quietly back to her home province of Hebei, or even nearby Beijing. She appears just as frequently in the tabloids as she does in the sports media, and is rumored to be getting married later this year to long-time boyfriend Kenneth Fok, son of tycoon Timothy Tsun-Ting Fok, who also happens to be president of the Hong Kong Olympic Committee.
Tags: diving, Guo Jingjing, sports marketing
Li Ning picks up Evan Turner and USA Diving
Wednesday, 1st September 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
When Turner takes the court this fall, he'll be wearing Li Ning shoes.
USA Diving has also inked a contract with Li Ning, making it the team's official apparel sponsor through 2012. The brand's other non-Chinese national team sponsorships include Spain and Argentina's basketball teams, and USA Table Tennis.
Although these signings and Li Ning's opening of an Oregon concept store and R&D center have all lead to speculation that this could be China's first brand to become an international powerhouse, I've always said that these moves are more about creating an appearance for Chinese customers than about seriously competing with Nike and Adidas globally. Quoted in People's Daily, Ben Cavender of China Market Research Group puts it pretty clearly: ""What they don't admit to and what they are being slightly cagey about is that their strategy is to firm their position in China as a domestic brand. They can appeal to a certain Chinese nationalism by playing on being able to compete head-to-head with the major international brands because they have these big-time athletes."
Related: Can China's hottest sportswear brand go global?
Evan Turner image: Hi.baidu.com
Tags: Baron Davis, diving, Evan Turner, Li Ning, Shaq, sports apparel, sports marketing
Gotta be the shoes: Phil Jackson blames Peak for Artest's slump
Tuesday, 26th January 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
The question has crossed my mind more than once after watching a commercial featuring an NBA player pitching Chinese-made basketball shoes: How often does he really wear them? Are they hurting his performance?Now Phil Jackson is asking that question, too. Well, he's not asking it so much as answering it. Jackson recently spoke to the LA Times about Ron Artest, who wears Peak brand basketball shoes, and suggested that Peak may be to blame for the small forward's recent aches and pains:
"I've called his shoes concrete boots for about the last month," Jackson said. "Those shoes look like they are made for the Hudson River. But he stays with them and he gets his feet worked on. But he does not move really quickly. He looks like he's clogging around out there."
Shane Battier (Houston Rockets) and Jason Kidd (Dallas Mavericks) also wear Peak. Here's a commercial they did together and one featuring Battier alone. I've never tried Peaks, but my personal experience with another Chinese basketball shoe had me running back to Nike with aching knees.
Tags: Jason Kidd, NBA, Peak, Ron Artest, Shane Battier, sports marketing
Can China's hottest sportswear brand go global?
Tuesday, 26th January 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (2)
Yelena Isinbayeva with Li Ning, Olympic gold medallist (1984) and founder/CEO of China's top sportswear company.
Li Ning may have surpassed Adidas to become the number two sportswear brand in China, AdAge says, on the strength of 32.4 percent revenue growth in the first half of 2009. In 2008, it opened a design center in Portland. In 2009, it opened a concept store there as well. Along with new stores in Hong Kong and Singapore, and the hiring of more foreign staff in the Beijing headquarters, the Portland activity seems to indicate more interest in international business, and business practices.
If you have spent the last several months in Beijing, it's evident that Li Ning has recently put more into advertising than Adidas or Nike have, with decidedly more ads on television and in public places like subway stations.
Madden's piece highlights some interesting numbers: Li Ning cut ad spending 37 percent in 2009, compared to 75 percent and 65 percent for Nike and Adidas; Li Ning cornered 14.2 percent of the Chinese sportswear market in 2009, to Nike's 16.7 percent and Adidas's 13.9 percent.
One of Li Ning's most visible smart moves has been its work with Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva (伊辛巴耶娃). With a lack of great Chinese track and field athletes to cheer for in the Beijing Olympics, local fans gravitated toward her, and won't soon forget that her remarkable performance took place in the Bird's Nest, with China as host. She was with Adidas during the games, but Li Ning picked her up a year ago in a 5-year, $7.5-million deal. Ads currently airing on Chinese television show her alongside an otherwise unknown Chinese dancer, Zhao Kexin (赵可忻). While Isinbayeva shows off her pole-vaulting skills and incredible physique, Zhao does things that middle class Chinese women are more likely to identify with—jogging, dancing, stretching. She's essentially a stand-in for the target audience in an ad that promotes the beauty of athletic women.
Li Ning has invested more in research and development lately as well, and it shows in the quality and uniqueness of some of its products. And the brand's Olympic sponsorship strategy looked pretty smart to this non-expert, as does the way they use their biggest NBA pitchman, Baron Davis.
For all of its efforts, in my opinion, Li Ning's chances at success as a global brand are slim. Between its logo's resemblance to Nike's swoosh, and the "Anything is Possible" tagline that is often derided for its resemblance to Adidas's more clever "Impossible is Nothing," Li Ning looks, at first glance, like one big knockoff. The explanation that the logo is meant to call to mind the Chinese flag and the letter "L" aren't likely to win over consumers outside of Asia. Nor is the brand's history. It was founded by a 1984 Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast—a distinguished background, for sure, but not one that's going to move sneakers in New York and Los Angeles. I am skeptical as to whether Li Ning truly has its sights set on the U.S. market, or if it just wants to appear to be an international brand, for the sake of the growing domestic consumer market.
A Chinese sportswear brand will go global someday. It won't be Li Ning, but it will owe some of its success to Li Ning's trailblazing ways.
Isinbayeva/Li Ning image: Ce.cn
Tags: Adidas, Baron Davis, Li Ning, Nike, sports marketing, Yelena Isinbayeva
China's 60th: Where was Yao?
Friday, 2nd October 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Liu Xiang (L) and Li Ning (R)
When the sports float paraded past, China's biggest sports star was conspicuously missing. Waving bouquets of yellow and red flowers atop a replica of Beijing's Olympic cauldron were Liu Xiang (China's first gold medalist in track and field), Li Ning (gymnast and triple gold medalist in the 1984 Olympics) and Xu Haifeng (pistol shooter and China's first ever gold medalist). Several other athletes—gymnasts, divers, cyclists, basketball player Wang Zhizhi—also joined in the show. But where was China's one true international sports star, Yao Ming?
The Houston Rockets center is rehabbing a foot fracture and will sit out the 2009-2010 NBA season. He skipped the team's media day, but was spotted on crutches at the Toyota Center. He went under the knife in July, to repair an injury that got the best of him during the playoffs last spring.
It's entirely possible that Yao's doctors advised against him making the trip. Sure, he could be propped up on a parade float for an hour, but he'd also probably have to make a dozen other appearances at state dinners and galas during Golden Week. And if Yao can't stand on his own two feet for more than a few minutes right now, then forget about the parade. China's most recognized face worldwide, sitting in an easy chair on the big day? Not exactly the look the country was going for on a day that tanks rolled past the Forbidden City and jet fighters flew overhead.
But here's another possible reason that's interesting to think about: The big man was getting out of everyone's way. Yao Ming was getting out of the way of Liu Xiang, the 110-meter hurdler who shattered Chinese stereotypes with his Olympic gold medal in 2004, and just launched a legit comeback from last year's very public and painful downfall. Yao Ming was getting out of the way of Li Ning, China's "prince of gymnastics" and the CEO of the leading Chinese sportswear brand (named, what else, Li Ning), which is scrambling to compete with Nike and Adidas for its share of the growing domestic sports apparel market. Yao Ming was getting out of the way of Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin and the rest of the Communist Party leadership, who were lauded yesterday for overseeing China's recent economic rise. Yao—one of the most famous people in the world, who would certainly have appeared in most Western media reports of the parade—was getting out of the way of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, the late leaders whose legacies were unquestioningly celebrated, at least in official events and reports.
Yes, it's possible that Yao was getting out of the way in Beijing, just as he got out of the way in Houston last week, when the guys who will actually play for Houston this year answered the questions and mugged for the cameras. But then again, it's possible he really can't let go of those crutches yet and appearing on national TV all banged up is just as bad for Brand Yao as for Brand China.
Liu Xiang, Li Ning parade image: Sports.scol.com.cn
Tags: Houston Rockets, Li Ning, Liu Xiang, NBA, sports marketing, Xu Haifeng, Yao Ming
Titan Front Page: Golden Guo
Thursday, 23rd July 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
As expected, Guo won the 3-meter springboard competition at the FINA World Championships in Rome, crushing the competition with a total score of 388.20. The runner-up, Emilie Heymans of Canada, was nowhere near Guo with her score of 346.45. The text below goes on to recount some of Guo's career highlights, and crown her as the woman to beat if she decides to compete in the 2012 Olympics in London. A piece on the inside called simply "Guo Jingjing: I want to go to London," answer the question of whether the 28-year-old plans to continue diving.
Guo, one of four Chinese athletes who commands big-time marketing appeal, also occupies the ad space on the page, shilling for a Chinese dairy producer.
Titan Sports is China's leading sports newspaper, putting out issues every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It is published jointly by Hunan Art and Culture Publishing House and Titan Publishing House (Danwei).
Tags: diving, Guo Jingjing, sports marketing, Titan front page
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