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Olympic Marketing: Adidas Wins But Loses.

2008/8/19 12:28:00 41880

In January 24, 2005, Adidas beat Lining to become the seventh partner of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

This means that all the staff members, volunteers, technical officials of the 2008 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in Beijing, as well as members of the Chinese Olympic delegation of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will be wearing Adidas logo clothes. This means that Chinese athletes wearing Lining sportswear on the podium from 1992 will not be able to wear their own brands at their doorstep.

However, in the face of Lining's "secret war", Nike's "surrendering", seemingly victorious Adidas, did not become the biggest winner of the Beijing Olympic Games because of the 1 billion 300 million yuan.

Encountering Lining's "secret war"

Lining immediately co operated with CCTV after bidding for the failure of Olympic sponsorship, and put the Crystal Logo with Lining logo on the Olympic Channel host and the reporter.

Although the marketing strategy was stopped before the start of the Olympic Games, the effect he wanted had been achieved.

A survey shows that in the sports apparel industry, up to 37.4% of respondents believe that Lining is a sponsor of the Beijing Olympic Games, while the real Olympic sponsor Adidas has a cognitive rate of only 22.8%.

This marketing strategy is also cited by Harvard Business School as a classic case.

Lining, as the torch bearer, virtually advertised the brand of Lining, which was not expected by Adidas, the official Olympic partner.

As the main torch bearer of the 2008 Olympic Games, while Lining was soaring, all the audience remembered Lining, and at the same time condense a kind of national pride, because Lining once was the prince of gymnastics, once representing a spirit of Chinese sports. This appearance promoted Lining's brand recognition and reputation to a new level.

Sales of Lining's sporting goods also rose.

After Lining's ignition, shares of the company surged, and global investors began buying shares of Li Ning Co Ltd listed in Hongkong, hoping that his performance could help improve the global recognition of the company's brand.

A few years later, when people refer to the Beijing Olympic Games again, they may not think of Adidas's originality and beautifully packaged "2008 together, no impossible" advertisement. It may not be imagined that all the athletes on the podium will wear Adidas sportswear, but some people will never forget that it is a great Chinese athlete and a successful Chinese local sports brand founder who ignited the torch of the Beijing Olympic Games. His name is Lining.

Trapped Nike's "surround"

Nike has sponsored tennis superstar Federer, the US men's basketball team "dream eight", and even the German men's basketball team.

For the Chinese delegation, Nike provides competition suits (shoes) for Liu Xiang, Zheng Jie, Yan Zi, Li Na and China basketball team.

It also sponsored 22 teams representing 28 major events in China, all of them wearing sportswear and sports shoes with Nike logo.

The problem facing Adidas is that Nike has more spokesmen for top athletes.

Adidas spends a lot of money on the right to partner. Nike is taking another route. The core is sponsoring a specific athlete.

What worries Adidas most is that at the Beijing Olympic Games, 22 of the 28 major Chinese teams will compete in the sportswear and sports shoes with Nike logo and will be broadcast frequently on TV.

While almost all of Adidas's energy is devoted to the qualification of the partners, Nike has signed an agreement with the 22 Chinese sports teams to provide their match costumes and sports shoes.

Data show that the total number of sponsors sponsored by Nike is higher than that of Adidas, Lining and other four sporting goods providers.

Of the 22 teams, whichever athlete wins the gold medal, his Nike logo will be replayed.

For most of the athletes in the Adidas camp who participated in the Beijing Olympic Games, they could only be equipped with Adidas equipment on the podium.

In the competition, they will be equipped with Nike equipment.

The appearance rate of Nike is much higher than that of Adidas.

Adidas "stumble"

Hu Jia, Zheng Zhi, Sui Feifei and the Chinese women's volleyball team, led by Adidas, are the Olympic Games' theme ads with "2008 together, no impossible". They are the largest marketing activities launched in single market in Adidas history, even more than two years ago in the German World Cup.

The Olympic advertisement, which costs a lot of money, is covered by the subway in Beijing and Shanghai, and won the Golden Lion Award in the outdoor advertising festival of Cannes. But its overall grey tone has always been mixed by the audience.

What's more, Adidas's selection of a series of Chinese athletes spokesmen has left people's sight due to poor performance or injury.

For example, Hu Jia, the champion of the men's ten meter diving platform at the last Olympic Games, has almost missed the Olympic Games.

With the Chinese football team stopping the world cup again, everyone's enthusiasm for Zheng Zhi, another spokesman for Adidas, will also be affected.

Female soccer player Ma Xiaoxu did not play very well in the women's World Cup in 2007 because of his poor performance, and this year's women's Asian Cup is also a miss.

To sum up, it can be seen that Adidas spent 1 billion 300 million yuan on Olympic sponsorship, but failed to get the biggest benefit.

In the war without gunpowder, who will be the biggest winner, the answer is clear.