How Can Nike Bet On Liu Xiang?

In the early morning of August 28, 2004, when Liu Xiang crossed the last hurdle, Gu Yue, a Chinese beauty from Malaysia who was in front of the TV set, threw away the lady's demeanor.

Gu Yue min is the customer director of JWT, and is responsible for a Nike service team in the 4A advertising company.

She only remembered that she was trying to dial the customer phone at the time, and finally found that the other side was desperately calling her: everyone had to share the surprise for the first time.

"It's like a gamble."

In September 7th, Gu Yuemin recalled the scene of the day, still unable to suppress excitement.

Of course, not only is Liu Xiang winning, but in the high-profile men's 110 meter hurdles final runway, her customer Nike laughs last.

Three versions of "No. 28, lucky day", at 10 a.m. on September 8th, the marketing staff of Nike China company are lifting several advertising panels with Liu Xiang classic hurdles to the conference room. These special panels will be sent to Liu Xiang at once.

At the same time, Liu Xiang's big poster with "28, lucky day" has covered all the shop windows in Shanghai where Nike products are sold.

These posters came from JWT's print ad campaign designed for Nike.

Gu Yue min revealed that the "lucky day" actually designed three versions: the gold medal version, the silver, the bronze version and the unlicensed version.

At the end of the finals, the media that was responsible for the JWT media buying business immediately informed the 5 newspaper advertising department selected in the three big cities of Beijing and Shanghai.

"This market integration marketing is perfect!"

Zhu Hailiang, creative director of copywriting, said JWT.

Hu Zhu and another creative director of art, Hu Gang, have worked for Nike Team for eight or nine years, the longest partner of JWT.

Nike Team is the most exciting Team for JWT, because Nike usually gives the most creativity and space.

From the initial launch of advertising in the Chinese market, Nike chose JWT, but JWT is only responsible for Nike's advertising business in mainland China and Hongkong. Nike is the agent of Nike's global advertising WiedenKennedy, which is said to have recently entered an office in China.

WiedenKennedy for Nike during the Athens Olympic Games advertising originality is Yundi Li version "you can be faster than you".

This is also a unified version of Nike TV advertised globally.

Gu Yue has been discussing with her clients how to make use of Athens Olympic Games to win in China's marketing.

At this time Liu Xiang gradually entered the field of vision.

In mid July, under the recommendation and instruction of Nike China, the ancient and her partners began to formally do Liu Xiang's plan.

The starting point of the idea is "you can be faster than you".

Considering that Liu Xiang has been running very well in Japan and Europe, he should have no problem entering the top 8, but Gu Yue Min said frankly that at the time, he thought it would be better to run a newspaper manuscript.

When looking for the characteristics of Liu Xiang, they found that this person is not very simple. He pcends all his own idols. He represents breakthroughs and can not be done by Asians, which is exactly the same as Nike's global advertising appeal.

When she got excited, she found many videos of Liu Xiang. He said, "he is very real. You really will be moved by him."

Liu Xiang's strong desire to win and personality shown in JWT's Nike Team seems to be the real example of Nike's global marketing theme, "you can be faster than you."

Then he began to travel at night and went through 4 major motions.

Every time there were three or four new ideas for discussion, and finally 2 advertising creative scripts were screened and sent to Nike headquarters for final decision.

"Nike believes that there is no need to add too many elements in advertising. Nike's appeal is pure, that is, sports, as long as we fully display athletes, that spirit is reflected."

Hu Gang said.

"The spirit advocated by Nike can be seen seamlessly in Liu Xiang."

JWT's creative team decided to use the definition of Asians, because Liu Xiang is not only the glory of the Chinese, but the glory of the Chinese helping the Asians in the international arena.

Nike's operation is quite standard, and the advertisement creation script should notify the Chinese Olympic Committee and International Olympic Committee. The latter should avoid talking about the color of skin, so "who said that there are only black and white two levels on the sprint?"

The copy was abandoned. When the final plan was confirmed in early August, there was only two weeks' operation time.

Zhu Hailiang called Li Yuran, a new generation of Chinese director who had had many pleasant cooperation with Nike and JWT, so that he could not take other films at that time and set aside time for this advertising film.

From shooting to editing and dubbing, all the work was completed in August 16th.

Under normal circumstances, it takes 4 to 6 weeks to make such an advertising film.

Hu Gang called the whole team a "passionate investment" at that time.

Through his own international network analysis, Nike has realized that Liu Xiang may be the first person to change the track and field history in Asia.

Thus, the "breaking the law" of the final TV advertisement is the picture: the starting line, the preparatory action, the calf muscles of Asian complexion...

With a series of starting action, the subtitle is played out: Rule 1, Asians' muscle explosive power is not enough?

Law 2, Asians can't become sprinter in the world?

Law 3, Asians lack the momentum to win?

The lens opened and Liu Xiang led the way, leaving his opponent behind.

The subtitle is played out: the law is used to be broken. The day before the preliminaries in August 24th, the above advertisements began to play in the whole country, and they were evenly matched with the Nike international editions in the time period. On the 27 day, Nike changed all the ads to Liu Xiang.

In from August 27th to 29th, Nike asked relevant companies to conduct market research on 1500 consumer samples in three big cities. The results showed that among the sports brands, the respondents were most impressed by Liu Xiang's advertisement.

Liu Xiang's story for Nike not only resonates widely in the field of sports.

A special service for Liu Xiang, Liu Xiang's blockbuster, made many people admire Nike's success.

"This is definitely not an accident," said Pan Jianhua, marketing director of Nike Greater China. "Any perfect marketing is not a coincidence."

As a professional sports company, Nike has a professional experience in various sports fields.

"We can identify who is tomorrow's star. Before he lights up, Nike will explore and provide him with the best equipment to help him improve his performance."

"Nike's success today largely depends on taking athletes as partners.

Therefore, we must personification of Nike in our work. As long as Nike is a good signing athlete, it will assign special services and provide any possible assistance to athletes.

Pan pointed out.

Nike China has two marketing departments, one is the brand marketing department, the other is the sports marketing department, the former is responsible for advertising public relations affairs, the latter is mainly serving the contracted athletes, including ordering monthly to headquarters to meet the equipment requirements of athletes throughout the year, and is responsible for communicating with domestic sports circles.

Li Tong, 190CM of height, is such a Nike employee. He is now the manager of Nike marketing department, which is responsible for the association between the company and the national track and Field Association.

Nike initially signed Liu Xiang and opened it as an advertising spokesperson. It is to worship Li Tong and appreciate the Pearl and strongly recommend it.

Reality is often more dramatic. Li Tongzheng is Liu Xiang's former 110 year long Asian record holder.

Li Tong was the first athlete to sign Nike in China in 1981, and joined Nike in 2002 from overseas study.

In those days, Nike also began to renew its close cooperation with China Athletic Association.

With Li's extraordinary experience, he knows the situation of the track and field team very well.

When Liu Xiang joined the National Games and the world university games at the age of 18, he caught the attention of Li. At that time, Liu Xiang's score was 13 seconds 34. He firmly believed that the boy had great potential to reach a higher level.

Under the recommendation of Li Tong, Nike headquarters sent special personnel to Liu Xiang's entry hall for several field visits, and concluded that Liu Xiang is definitely the star of tomorrow.

Nike China signed a contract with Liu Xiang that year.

Li Tong still clearly remembers that when Liu Xiang won the gold medal in the Universiade in 2001, he had a pair of blue gold hooks on his feet and 97 Nike running shoes with 8 nails. Those shoes were provided by the Nike company to the Chinese track and field team at that time. Li Tong could even guess which veteran Liu Xiang's shoes were left behind.

The next year, Liu Xiang wore a pair of white Nike running shoes in Lausanne, breaking the Asian record for the first time.

Li Tong accompanied Liu Xiang to the World Cup championships in Paris. Liu Xiang also put on the new shoes provided by Nike.

After the game, Li Tong passed on Liu Xiang's advice to the company: the soles do not need so many nails, and the zippers are changed into laces.

Mr. Li Tong began to tell the company how to help Liu Xiang from a professional point of view, and constantly help to make corresponding requests to the head office, and provide some professional advice for Liu Xiang from the macro perspective.

In 2003, Nike set up a small stove for Liu Xiang to help as far as possible within the scope of Nike's assistance, including arranging for some activities to meet clothing, equipment and special requirements, especially when Liu Xiang was going abroad to compete, he would escort someone to accompany him to help him deal with all kinds of affairs that interfere with his competition.

It's almost half the role of a broker.

Li Tong also accompanied him to the Athens Olympics.

Li Li's sports marketing department now has more than 20 employees and needs to continue to increase manpower because more and more signers need additional services.

"The players we are picking now have great potential, many of which are new tomorrow stars."

Pan Jianhua said.

How much is Liu Xiang worth?

In Li Tong's view, Liu Xiang, who is 21, should still have ten years to maintain a high level of athletics. If he is well maintained, his sports life can last until he is 34~35 years old.

How much is Liu Xiang worth?

This is a question that the media are keen to discuss after August 28th.

A Beijing company said Liu Xiang's current advertising contract price was 2 million yuan, and some advertisers interviewed by reporters said that at least it should be over 3 million yuan.

So far, there are only three Liu Xiang endorsements in TV Commercials: Nike, Coca-Cola, and maxima.

The three companies at the beginning of the little act seemed to be a stroke of inspiration now.

In February, Liu Xiang signed the contract.

Liu Xiang's recommendation to the maxima is its advertising agency Shanghai Advertising Limited.

The business director of the company said that Liu Xiang felt very young at that time and was in a rising period. Some achievements had been very difficult. Besides hurting the speed of the hurdle race, it needed considerable technical and explosive power, which was very consistent with the brand appeal of the horse.

He refused to disclose the amount of the contract, but rumor has it that the comprehensive agreement is only a few hundred thousand dollars.

The other family also does not spend much money.

It is said that the first thing to find is Pepsi Cola. The price is 100 thousand yuan a year. After Liu Xiang won the bronze medal in Paris World Athletics Championships, rival Coca-Cola quickly increased the value of the contract from 250 thousand to 350 thousand yuan, and won the advertising contract of Liu Xiang in 2004.

Nike, according to unofficial sources, has just renewed its contract with Liu Xiang.

A widely circulated argument is that Nike's contract is about 4 million yuan / year.

Nike marketing director Pan Jianhua told the newspaper that there was not much.

Unlike the former two,