Using Wisdom And Innovation To Carry Out Sports Marketing

Four year old

It is not only a sports feast, but also a time for many sponsors to share the fruits of the Olympic economy.

Thanks to the mature sponsorship system, the Olympic Games not only attracted the sponsorship of many enterprises, but also allowed them to promote their brands.

Although not all enterprises can borrow the "Dongfeng" of the Olympic Games, sports marketing, as an important integrated marketing tool, has attracted more and more enterprises' attention.

Experts pointed out that Chinese enterprises in sports marketing concepts, methods and technologies still need to be improved.

Olympic brand has great commercial value

Corporate sponsorship occupies half of the Olympic Games' revenues.

International Olympic Committee's data show that 45% of Olympic revenue comes from corporate sponsorship.

Even more valuable is that the Olympic Games also have a steady number of sponsors, and many companies have been providing sponsorship for decades.

Coca-Cola has been sponsoring the Olympic Games since 1928, and has been the TOP sponsor of the Olympic Games for many years.

In addition, VISA, Panasonic and other enterprises have also been linked to the Olympic Games for a long time.

Although the sponsorship threshold of every Olympic Games is improving, this does not affect the enthusiasm of sponsorship in the business community. After Lenovo announced its withdrawal from the TOP plan, Acer group immediately filled in.

The reason why the Olympic Games are highly praised by enterprises is not related to its mature sponsor system.

It is understood that the Olympic sponsorship system mainly consists of three levels: the first level is the International Olympic Committee's global partners, that is, the TOP sponsors commonly used, they can use the Olympic five ring logo on the global scale; the second level is the sponsors of the Olympic Organizing Committee, they can use the Olympic Games Organizing Committee and the National Olympic Committee's emblem; the third level is the sponsors of the National Olympic Committee, they can only use the logo of the National Olympic Committee.

Unlike the TOP sponsors, the latter two tier sponsors only enjoy Olympic concession in China.

The TOP plan has been implemented since 1985. Only 20 Chinese companies, Lenovo and Acer, were selected in the past two years.

One of the reasons is that the capital barrier is so difficult.

Publicly available data show that the sponsorship of TOP sponsors has increased continuously in the past 27 years, and the average sponsorship of the 11 TOP sponsors has reached US $87 million.

Once entering the TOP program, it is the only enterprise in the industry that can participate in Olympic activities on a global scale. This is also the reason why many top companies are competing to participate.

As the TOP sponsor of the London Olympic Games, Dow Chemical chairman and chief executive Li Wei Cheng said that the active participation in Olympic related infrastructure construction is expected to bring $1 billion sales to dow.

Although the authorized scope of the latter two tier sponsors is limited, but because of the low capital barrier and the strong brand effect of the Olympic Games, many enterprises are still competing to participate.

Adidas, BMW, CISCO and other 52 enterprises have become local sponsors of London Olympic Games.

Professor Liu Qingzao, Chief Technical Inspector of the fourth national sports conference, introduced the Olympic Games as the first brand of world sports, and built a complete set of brand system, including Olympic spirit and Olympic logo. These brands as intangible assets make the Olympic Games very commercial value.

At the same time, mature sponsorship system and sponsorship distribution mechanism are conducive to the sustainable development of Olympic brand.

On the contrary, many domestic competitions are short of this brand awareness. Many practices of the Olympic Games are worth learning from the major sports events in China.

Sports marketing creativity is more important

As the world's most famous sports event, sponsoring the Olympic Games can be regarded as the most advanced sports marketing.

But the distance between sports marketing and business success is still great.

Even as an Olympic TOP sponsor, it is not always possible to get rid of losses or even bankruptcy.

Kodak, which declared bankruptcy in early 2012, sponsored the Olympic movement from the first modern Olympic Games, and served as a TOP sponsor for 24 years, but this did not change the declining trend of Kodak.

Some experts point out that sponsoring the Olympic Games can be regarded as the most expensive sponsorship in the world. Besides the huge sponsorship fees, sponsors also need to spend a lot of advertising, activities and other funds.

If the company does not sell mass consumer products like Coca-Cola and VISA, sponsoring the Olympic Games is a waste.

Gao Wei, sports marketing director of Ogilvy group, said that not all enterprises can participate in the Olympic Games as top sports events.

Most of the other sports events are relatively short and have regional characteristics, so many enterprises are now developing their businesses in the direction of personalized sports.

Chinese enterprises need to improve their skills

Although the high cost of sponsorship and strict system of the Olympic Games have discouraged many enterprises, this does not affect the growing popularity of sports marketing.

Qiang Wei told reporters that the trend of the combination of mass consumer goods and sports is becoming more and more obvious. The total amount of global sports sponsorship is increasing at an annual rate of 15%.

Many enterprises are paying more and more attention to sports marketing.

However, compared with foreign enterprises who are well versed in sports marketing, Chinese enterprises still need to strengthen their sports marketing.

Qiang Wei pointed out that, relatively speaking, most Chinese enterprises are more speculative in sports marketing psychology, focusing on one-time input and output, while international brands pay more attention to long-term accumulation and can continue to do a project in a few years or more. In terms of methods, Chinese enterprises are not enough to exploit diversified values of sports marketing, and there are few ways to pform sports audiences into consumers. Technically, international brands emphasize the combination of brand experience, emotional experience and sports experience, focusing on the dissemination value of people's hearts, while domestic brands emphasize the importance of exposure.