Adidas Was Injured In 30 Years.

At the end of last year, when Nike signed a 12 year 1 billion yuan shirt sponsorship to sign the national football team, it was ridiculed that the level of national football was rotten.

However, when the National Games in the group games were won repeatedly, and the exposure rate of Nike's LOGO rose sharply, some people shouted: the value of the national football is far more than 1 billion yuan, Nike is simply "making a profit".

However, in January 22nd the Chinese team lost the 0:2 to Australia in the 1/4 finals.

But breaking into the knockout tournament is the best result of the last three Asian cups.

That's the end of the exposure.

But as the country attaches great importance to football, all sectors of society are investing more in the development of Chinese football. It is conceivable that Chinese football will soon usher in a new period of development.

One detail is that CCTV even took prime time to relay amateur football league matches in China.

At this time, people can not help but recall that Nike was "regain" sponsorship from the old rival Adidas.

Just as the spring of Chinese football is approaching, Adidas has ended up 30 years of cooperation with the national football team, giving the sponsorship of the national team to the old rival Nike. Is this a step in the dark, or is it a blessing in disguise?

National football is the commanding point.

"It's unthinkable."

The key road sports consulting company CEO Zhang Qing has made such a deep impression on Adidas's no longer extending the contract with the national football team.

At the end of last year, the contract between Adidas and the national football club was about to expire, and the news that Adidas hopes to reduce the sponsorship amount and renew the contract is coming out.

At this point, Nike, the old rival, has stepped in and become a new partner.

Zhang Qing said that the national team represents the highest level of a national football. Adidas's genes are rooted in football and lose this market. For Adidas, it has lost a strategic commanding height.

Correspondingly, Nike, an old rival, is taking steps in the Chinese market.

"Learning Nike's good example" has become a slogan of sports brand.

Statistics show that, apart from sponsoring the national team, Nike also owns the rights and interests of all the clubs in the Chinese Super League, which makes the layout of Nike football in the Chinese market very complete.

Adidas is very calm about all kinds of gossip.

Gao Jiali, the managing director of Greater China in Adidas group, replied to the reporter's mail: "there is always a deadline for the contract to expire, so there will always be new negotiations."

Every brand wants its assets to be maintained or increased.

However, it is also important to assess whether a team or player is in line with the brand, and the sponsorship agreement is also in line with commercial interests. "

The implication is that sponsorship of Chinese football is no longer in line with the business logic of maximizing corporate interests.

Obviously, there is something in it.

Many journalists who interviewed the industry believed that the contribution made by Adidas to Chinese football should not be denied because of this rescission, and the influence on the company could not be covered.

Those who are familiar with the hidden rules of Chinese football also understand that in the long thirty years of cooperation with Chinese football, Adidas is actually "very hurt".

Zhang Qing disclosed that, for example, in 2011, before the opening of the top 20 in the world cup, the Chinese Football Association replaced the local coach Gao Hongbo with the so-called Spanish coach Camacho. Gao Hongbo took the lead in the running in period and was in good condition.

As a sponsor of Adidas, he knew that before the competition, he changed his guard to be a big soldier. So he did not agree to change coach before the 20 finals.

It was this hastily changed team that led the Chinese team to advance the World Cup early in November 2011 in the Asian qualifying stage, which led the sponsors to lose their brand promotion opportunities in the preliminaries.

"Heavy investment, but harvest bitter fruit.

This is definitely a blow to ADI. "

Moreover, Camacho, whose annual salary is as high as 7 million, has not only failed to lead the country to a higher level. Even during his term of office, there has been an international scandal such as 1:5 losing to Thailand two.

When the Chinese national team wearing Adidas LOGO was repeatedly humiliated by the passing back and forth of a group of Thailand youth teams, it could be imagined that Adidas might hate to rush out to cover the LOGO of the Jersey.

This is not all.

As a fan and an industry insider, Feng Tao, chairman and co founder of the sports industry, has gone back to Adidas's thirty years in the Chinese market. "These thirty years of commercial investment have not been plated into corresponding sales.

This may make him die. "

The bigger reason may come from the pressure of performance.

Adidas's performance in the first three quarters of 2014 showed that net profit fell by 21% compared with the same period last year.

At the same time, it abandoned the 2015 performance target set in 2011.

The pressure of performance has made Adidas pay close attention to every investment. Considering the success and exposure rate of the national team in recent years, the business has not been cost-effective.

As Gao Jiali responded to this magazine, "as a brand focusing on outstanding performance, we will continue to focus on assets and projects that provide excellent performance and strive to build the largest brand influence."

The importance of football to Adidas is self-evident.

In 1974, with the West Germany winning the world cup, Adidas also officially welcomed its golden age.

From the perspective of global strategy, Adidas still has a leading edge in the field of football. It is not only the annual official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup, but also has the overwhelming advantage in the 8 national teams that have won the World Cup: France, Germany, West band and Argentina choose ADI as a year-round sponsor.

And Nike's biggest bet is five-star Brazil.

In other words, although China is a large market with nearly 1 billion 400 million people, but as a team that has not entered the World Cup finals in the past 14 years, never topped the Asian Cup and even failed to enter the final finals of the Asian finals in the three World Cup, the strategic significance of the Chinese market is not as important as Adidas's global layout.

Feng Tao said that it is not necessary to deliberately enlarge the significance of the Asian Cup group exit for China's brand promotion.

"In 2002, China won the World Cup qualifier, and China won the runner up of the Asian Cup in 2004.

It can be said that ADI has witnessed the prosperity of the Chinese men's football team.

But that does not mean that it can boost sales of ADI in China.

You know, in 2002 years, Adidas's sales in China were even less than 1/7 in the Korean market.

A lot of fake goods and piracy are flooding the Chinese market.

For Nike to take advantage of the situation, the industry said, it depends on the performance of the Chinese team, "in the next two years, once the men's football can not enter the world cup ten Asian Games, the whole football environment will be beaten back to its original form."

Betting the next generation

It is undeniable that

How much the Chinese government's determination to revitalize the country is misjudged.

Nowadays, unlike the history of "one rule and one mess" in the Chinese football era, the bullish market of Chinese football comes from the unprecedented attention of the top government for football.

In November 2014, Yuan Guiren, Minister of education, said that the level of students' football expertise should be included in the evaluation of students' comprehensive quality as part of the reference of the school entrance examination, and the football should be included in the compulsory course of physical education.

In January this year, the Ministry of Education decided that by 2017, there will be about 20 thousand campus football featured schools and about 30 pilot schools in the whole country.

In a typical second tier city like Qingdao, hundreds of football fields have been revised to develop youth football.

The policy is giving birth to an industrial boom.

You know, many giants including real estate, e-commerce, finance and other industries are at this time to bet on the Chinese football industry, but Adidas has given up the highest exposure rate, which has become the biggest reason for Adidas's criticism.

Zhang Qing thought that after thirty years of hard work, it was hard to wait until the spring of the policy, and it was too bad to give up.

"Maybe the decision-making level is not Chinese, so it is too difficult to understand China's national conditions.

The significance of the national team is far more than the sports level and commercial value, but has far-reaching social influence.

Adidas is not doing nothing.

In response to the upcoming school football fever, Gao Jiali replied to reporters: "more attention should be paid to basic youth football.

This year, we will officially launch the Adidas Youth League and other more projects focusing on the long-term development of youth football, including the players' growth League and coach training program.

But in the eyes of the industry, youth football is a sports brand choice.

From the perspective of brand marketing efficiency, its publicity and promotion plan should form a Pyramid structure.

There are both inputs to grass-roots and grassroots, and interaction with consumers in the middle part. Pyramid tip is the deep marketing of top events and sports teams that attract high attention.

Feng Tao analyzed that Adidas's move is to train future consumers for themselves.

"Frankly speaking, today's seventeen to eight year old teenager fans can be regarded as real fans. They will invest in football clothes and tickets.

It's different from sitting in the TV and bar in the past.

Perhaps, thirty years of practice has proved that the eyeball can not be converted into consumption, and Adi can only hope for the next generation.

However, Nike also thought of this.

Statistics show that since 2010, Nike has provided young grassroots players with opportunities to further study in the professional football environment. In Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, hundreds of primary schools have been helping to set up soccer courses in PE classes.

In the field of campus football, Adidas and Nike are still fighting for Chinese teenagers.

Anyway, in this round of competition for Chinese football on the draught, Adidas has adopted a conservative strategy.

This is a trick or a wise move.

"But in the ten years of China's football foundation, Adidas still has opportunities."

Zhang Qing said.