Marketing planning scheme of China enterprises using football matches: how to spend money

In the early morning of July 1 1, 2065438, the much-watched European Cup ended. Portugal/KLOC-0-0 defeated France and became the champion of the 20 16 European Cup. Inside and outside the stadium, in the football marketing boom of the European Cup, many enterprises also took advantage of the trend and became winners. How do these enterprises use football marketing to build their own brands on a global scale, and how to avoid the situation of "hot and cold"?

Football marketing is heating up rapidly.

Hisense, a domestic color TV giant, became the first China enterprise to become the top sponsor of the European Cup in decades, which is one of the typical cases of football marketing warming in China enterprises.

Although Hisense has always refused to publicly sponsor the specific price of the 20 16 European Cup, at the end of the European Cup group stage, Hisense announced that the Hisense LED screen brand around the stadium was exposed by CCTV, which translated into an advertising value of more than 300 million yuan, and the cost of sponsoring the European Cup was recovered in advance in China alone. According to industry speculation, the cost for Hisense to become the top sponsor of the 20 16 European Cup is about 50 million euros.

Zhu, brand director of Hisense, told the reporter of China Business News that Hisense co-sponsored the European Cup in order to become the top official sponsor of all UEFA events from 20/KOOC-0/6 to 20/KOOC-0/8, including the 20/KOOC-0/6 European Cup in France, the 20/KOOC-0/7 European World Cup qualifiers and the 20/KOOC.

As a point of interest, Hisense not only plays advertisements on the LED screens around the venues, but also has Hisense's LOGO on the ticket face and official background board of the European Cup, including the big screens of the fans' squares in nine French cities hosting this European Cup. Hisense's 4K TV and 4G mobile phone also serve this competition.

In China, Hisense also held the "Hisense football baby" activity, which was held in Yu Dou. Zhu said that football baby is the standard of international football matches, and other sponsors such as Carlsberg have also organized baby teams. "The purpose of this activity is to amplify the IP of top sponsors and influence the post-90s generation. In China, Hisense's popularity is 80%, and the remaining 20% of non-cognitive people are mainly post-90 s and post-00 s. The' football baby' activity with Tencent this time mainly covers young people. "

Zhu believes that sponsoring the European Cup has become the most successful "brand war" since Hisense was founded 47 years ago, and it is "value-added" from the perspective of input and output. She revealed that Hisense does not rule out sponsoring the 20 18 World Cup in Russia and then continuing the football marketing relationship.

Not only Hisense, but also more and more domestic enterprises "play" football marketing in recent years, which has become a craze. On June 5438+065438+1October last year, Skyworth announced that it had become the official sponsor of China Football Association China Team 20 15~20 19. This year, Chinese culture joined hands with CITIC Capital to take a stake in City Football Group 13%, the parent company of Manchester City Club in England. Then, Suning held 70% of the shares of Italian Inter Milan Football Club with 2 1 100 million yuan, which was even more sensational. Recently, Lehman, which started as an LED lighting company, acquired Newcastle Jet Football Club in Australia.

There are also teams and stars who speak for them. Sanxiong Aurora and Micro Whale became the official sponsors of Manchester City Football Team China; Huawei mobile phone invited Messi, the world footballer, to speak, ZTE Nubian mobile phone invited another football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo to speak, and OPPO cooperated with Barcelona to launch a customized mobile phone. It can be said that what is more popular than the European Cup is the football marketing passion of China enterprises.

Brand internationalization and rejuvenation

Many years ago, Oaks Air Conditioning invited Milu, head coach of China Football Team, to become a dark horse in the air conditioning field. Compared with the past, this new wave of football marketing in China is more international, which meets the needs of brand internationalization and rejuvenation.

Liu Hongxin, president of Hisense Group, said in an interview with the reporter of China Business News in April this year that he would strive to achieve the goal of "big income" overseas within three years. In fact, of the operating income of Hisense Group in 20 15 years, about 1000 billion yuan, overseas income is about 3.2 billion dollars, accounting for nearly one-fifth of Hisense's total income, which is still far from the goal of overseas income accounting for half of the country.

Therefore, this year Hisense continued to exert its strength in overseas markets and sponsored the European Cup as a run-up. On July 7th, Liu Hongxin said in another interview with this newspaper that Hisense's sponsorship of the European Cup was very effective. It has a very good influence not only on the European market, but also on emerging markets such as North and South America, Africa and even China.

Sponsoring the European Cup is really in line with our global strategy. Liu Hongxin said that on the one hand, entering the developed markets in Europe and America is the top priority of Hisense, and on the other hand, consolidating Hisense's traditional dominant markets, such as South Africa, Australia and the Middle East. This time, due to Japan's abandonment of Canon and Sharp, Hisense and Turkish Airlines seized the opportunity to squeeze into the top sponsors of the European Cup and appeared in the European Cup with multinational giants such as Coca-Cola, Hyundai Motor and Carlsberg, which undoubtedly enhanced their global image.

Zhang, the chairman of Suning Group, also bluntly said that Suning, which has laid out the football industry for less than a year, has three strategic considerations for holding Centennial Inter Milan in one fell swoop. First of all, the acquisition of Inter Milan is an integral part of Suning's strategy of laying out sports industry and leading healthy consumption. Sports will become the largest industry of healthy consumption in China. It is an inevitable trend for the development of the global football industry to combine football, the world's largest sports event, with China, the future world's largest football market.

Zhang said, secondly, the technical system and operational capability of Suning Football Club will be comprehensively improved. In addition, it is also an important part of Suning's international development. "At the beginning of this year, Suning International Headquarters was established and launched a new round of internationalization. Currently, it is entering the Southeast Asian and European markets." All over the world, the spirit of sports is the same, and the love for football knows no national boundaries. The transmission of sports fighting spirit and football competitive art is Suning's business card to the world.

Zhang Ye, Chairman and General Manager of Sanxiong Aurora, told reporters that Sanxiong hopes to upgrade its brand and accelerate the expansion of overseas markets by becoming the official lighting partner of Manchester City Football Club in China.

"Sports marketing is a way to quickly enhance corporate brand awareness. For example, Evergrande has changed from a regional real estate company to a national well-known enterprise through football marketing. " Liu, vice president of Skyworth Group and president of color TV business headquarters, said that Skyworth joined hands with China Football Association to become an official sponsor for four years, which is one of Skyworth's efforts to build a high-end brand. "Skyworth's main business is TV, and football and TV are the most suitable. It is foreseeable that this sports marketing will bring more exposure. " And Micro Whale TV teamed up with Manchester City, hoping to establish the image that its new Internet TV product is an "artifact of watching the ball".

How to avoid "hot before cold"?

According to Duan Chuanmin, executive chairman of Marketing Innovation Alliance, the football market in China is heating up constantly, and marketing with the help of famous football matches, teams and players can play an eye-catching and drainage role. Therefore, behind this football marketing craze, the first is the competition between traffic and users, from online, offline, mobile phones to places where people focus.

"Secondly, sports culture represents a healthy and active lifestyle, which is very attractive to the post-70 s, post-80 s and post-90 s. Therefore, football marketing can attract the younger generation, which is conducive to the rejuvenation of the brand and the establishment of an enterprising image." Duan Chuanmin said.

Duan Chuanmin believes that the internationalization of Hisense has not been fully developed. The sponsorship of the European Cup is more effective in the domestic market, and the input-output ratio needs further observation. If it is only football marketing, there will be a waste of resources without supporting related products and market expansion measures. Therefore, after the sponsorship, the business and products must follow up.

There are many forms of football marketing, how to choose? Duan Chuanmin believes that holding a team is an investment behavior, and the synergy between marketing resources and their own business should be specifically considered. There are more and more cases of sponsoring international competitions and inviting celebrities to speak for them, which shows that China enterprises have become global financiers, and more and more enterprises have obtained world resources at high prices on the international stage. "If the market is limited to China and emerging markets, such investment is still too expensive and there may be problems of poor marketing."

Therefore, Duan Chuanmin reminded China enterprises to be cautious when choosing international resources, and not to go abroad if they have money. Many companies spend a lot of money abroad, but don't invest enough resources in domestic media and creative companies. In addition, "how to create high-value brands is an urgent need for China enterprises, otherwise they can only sell low-priced products. Therefore, in addition to using football marketing to start the brand, the deep cultivation of channels, technological changes and innovative products must be matched. If you don't match it, it will be easy to get cold after the craze. "