Will HK’s success in sports see more marketing dollars for emerging athletes?

Yesterday marked the tip of the Paralympic video games. Over the final month, information round Paralympics and Olympics dominated our native information shops. In truth, in line with knowledge from Meltwater this 12 months we noticed 560,000 mentions of Hong Kong athletes throughout the Olympic video games. Largely this may be attributed to the exceptional efficiency or different incidents of Hong Kong athletes. For instance, Edgar Cheung Ka-long has made historical past taking house the gold in the lads’s particular person foil occasion on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics; whereas Siobhan Haughey gained two silvers as she made Hong Kong’s swimming group’s historical past in the 200m freestyle race and 100 freestyle race.Leung Yuk-wing gained a bronze medal on the Boccia Mixed Individual BC4 occasion on the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games too. The controversy round Hong Kong badminton participant Angus Ng being closely criticised by a pro-Beijing lawmaker and a few netizens for carrying a black jersey that was lacking Hong Kong’s Bauhinia emblem in a Tokyo Olympics match, additionally garnered some consideration.
Upon the return of the athletes, many native manufacturers additionally celebrated their success. While manufacturers supporting athletes who’ve obtained worldwide glory is comprehensible, this help needs to be achieved in a sustainable method, with a steady effort – somewhat than a flash in the pan.
Some manufacturers reminiscent of VISA Hong Kong, have led the way in which, supporting the likes of Edgar Cheung, and naming him model ambassador of VISA Hong Kong since 2019.
Speaking to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE on the necessity for model help no matter win or unfastened, is Jonathan Cummings, APAC president of Landor & Fitch.
“Brand advocacy is a two-way road,” he mentioned. Just as manufacturers work with profitable athletes to boost their profiles, manufacturers too have the power to boost the profile of rising sports stars. “The uncooked star energy of many athletes is an instantaneous approach to resonate with and entice customers.” Cummings added that what’s essential in any sponsorship is sustainability – be it by way of marketing or advocacy.
One type of sustained and steady effort is by supporting a rising star all the way in which until he turns into a mature athlete in his area. However, too typically, manufacturers clamour round famous person athletes, somewhat that up and coming ones.
How can working with athletes profit manufacturers?
Cummings added that there are some advantages that athletes can supply. For instance, the momentous and ephemeral nature of watching reside sports is commonly adopted by a sustained fandom for athletes off the pitch. “Sports are common, it’s not sure by any cultural or linguistic boundaries and the followers of the athletes are from all over the place. That’s why footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has probably the most followers on Instagram, whereas Nike, adidas and Under Armour are among the many highest worth attire manufacturers. It’s as a result of they leverage the common enchantment of sports in their very own model expression.”
When it involves forming a partnership, each manufacturers and athletes have to fastidiously contemplate the deserves of the partnership. “To be really worthwhile, athletes have to be clear on the goals of the model, and types will need to have an consciousness and empathy for the profession of the athletes,” mentioned Holly Millward, regional managing director for APAC at CSM Sport & Entertainment.
Moreover, prospects at the moment are anticipating more from manufacturers from an ethical duty perspective. Millward defined, “Of course, there may be an elevated significance positioned on manufacturers for ‘behaving’ in the appropriate means, with a highlight on defending the psychological well being of athletes the place competitors and company obligations are mixed.”
The rise of content material marketing in sports
The sustenance of fame an athlete acquires right this moment additionally has a shelf life. This is the place content material marketing performs an enormous position. Millward defined, “Athletes are creators. When they provide a compelling narrative, it would develop into price efficient and genuine.”
Such content material is just not solely a means for an athlete to stay related, but in addition creates a strong values for manufacturers who help these athletes. Brands are additionally now making use of profitable knowledge methods to promotional content material, providing the chance to higher perceive and develop audiences and loyalty, defined Millward.
But after all, when working with an athlete, manufacturers have to additionally make ample room for the athletes common regimes, apply and preparations – which makes working with them somewhat bumpy for some manufacturers.
Getting observed by way of a world sporting occasion
This 12 months’s Olympics additionally noticed a good variety of Chinese manufacturers making their presence felt. For instance, in line with Global Times, Alibaba launched services associated to the Tokyo Olympics, unveiling the Alibaba Cloud Pin, a cloud-based digital pin for broadcasting and media professionals on the Tokyo Olympics. The digital wearable permits customers to trade day by day exercise updates, whereas sustaining social distancing.
Also, Alibaba introduced that considered one of its main initiatives for the Tokyo Olympics can be the growth of the Olympic Broadcasting Services Cloud, as it could use Alibaba Cloud’s applied sciences to remodel the media expertise associated to the video games. It additionally labored with Intel to host AI-powered 3D Athlete Tracking Technology by way of Alibaba Cloud, which makes use of AI to analyse movies of athletes and generate 3D fashions of them to assist their coaching.
Erica Kerner, SVP, marketing technique and partnerships, ONE Championship, mentioned Chinese manufacturers’ participation on the Olympic Games has modified rather a lot since 2008 – which was the 12 months China hosted the Olympic Games for the primary time and gave many Chinese manufacturers an viewers on the worldwide stage. 
“At that point, a lot of the Chinese home or International Olympic Committee (IOC) prime associate manufacturers had been largely centered on the Chinese market and Chinese followers. Today, though the Chinese market should be on the core of their causes for sponsoring the Olympic Games, it’s now additionally about opening up worldwide gross sales channels and a approach to take market share away from their international opponents,” she mentioned.
In 2017, Alibaba introduced a long-term partnership with IOC by way of 2028. Alibaba Group joined The Olympic Partner (TOP) worldwide sponsorship programme, turning into the official cloud companies and e-commerce platform companies associate, in addition to a founding associate of the Olympic Channel.
Meanwhile, Kuaishou gained broadcasting rights to the following two Olympic Games too, planning to arrange a channel to broadcast more than 600 matches. These matches are anticipated to be seen more than 60 billion instances, in line with the identical report from Global Times. 
Ashley Dudarenok, founding father of ChoZan and Alarice, mentioned this 12 months’s dialogue in regards to the Olympics was unprecedented. “Increased digitalisation has made the dissemination of the Olympic Games info quicker on Chinese social media. Livestreaming and quick movies had been additionally making it simpler for folks to get info rapidly too,” she mentioned. 
Apart from on-line presence, Chinese firms had been taking note of the viewing expertise. Dudarenok mentioned Migu Video, an app that was not common earlier than the Olympics, obtained a variety of consideration as a result of it provided free but real-time broadcasts of the Olympic Games, and it ended up topping the App Store obtain checklist due to this. 
Speaking to a world viewers
According to Kerner, being a part of the Olympics additionally resulted many Chinese manufacturers  taking over an internationalised stature and picture. Kerner cited an instance of Samsung when Seoul hosted the Olympic Games in 1988. She defined that when Samsung first joined the Olympic Games, the corporate was seen as a “very Korean model” however now they’re a real international powerhouse recognised by followers everywhere in the world. Possibly, the identical destiny will await many Chinese manufacturers.
“As followers develop into more aware of these manufacturers on the Olympic Games and different main sporting occasions, they’ll regard them as prime worldwide manufacturers. This is already true for Alibaba and different non-Olympic manufacturers reminiscent of Vivo, Hisense and Oppo, who’re all making vital worldwide sporting investments,” she mentioned. “Also, let’s not overlook that these worldwide sponsorships additionally work effectively at house in China, and spark sturdy patriotism and nationalism among the many Chinese followers.”

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