What should be the structure of Olympic marketing?

The Paris Olympics is not only a major sporting event, but also a golden stage for brand marketing. Let's see how Mengniu takes advantage of this global focus to carry out effective communication and become a hot topic through personalized creation.

There are always hot topics, but the most popular one in recent times is the Paris Olympics. IOC President Bach once said during the Tokyo Olympics: "The meaning of the Olympics is to bring the world together." This sentence also reveals the essence of the marketing value of the Olympics: centralized content that attracts global attention.

In the era of fragmented attention, centralized content is extremely scarce, and all brands want to get a piece of the pie. However, not all brands have such an opportunity. Only powerful super brands can get at the table.

Of course, even if you have the opportunity to sit down and play cards, you may not necessarily win. On such a high-profile and exposed stage, the attitude with which you present yourself is an all-round test of your brand's pattern, depth, cultural accumulation and social responsibility.

1. It belongs to Mengniu, China and the world

In this Paris Olympics, only two Chinese companies appeared among the global partners, namely Alibaba and Mengniu.

Among them, Mengniu is the only consumer brand from China, ranking alongside giants such as Procter & Gamble and Intel. This marks the International Olympic Committee's recognition of Mengniu in all aspects.

Some people may ask, why does a super brand like Mengniu, which already has enough popularity, spend the most money to sponsor the Olympics?

It's very simple. Because super brands are well-known, small communications can easily fall into circle repetition. Through super-centralized resources like the Olympics, almost all target consumer groups can be covered at once. For Mengniu, this is definitely a scarce communication opportunity worthy of heavy investment.

In addition, the purpose of big exposure is not just to expand the brand's popularity, but also to keep the brand vibrant at the public level, shape a positive brand mindset, and prove that the brand is still young, still keeping pace with the times, and still worth choosing.

In order to maximize the use of this top sponsorship, Mengniu invited many of its well-known spokespersons, including actors Tang Wei, Gu Ailing, Zhao Lusi, Jin Dong, Yang Zi and Wang Yibo, to participate in the Olympic torch relay, and carried out large-scale publicity through social networks before the start of the Olympics to increase brand exposure and influence.

In addition, the biggest highlight of Mengniu's Olympic communication is the theme film "Opening" co-produced with the internationally renowned director Zhang Yimou.

The film uses a unique perspective and emotional expression to showcase the Olympic spirit and sentiment, and conveys the core value of the Mengniu brand of "being strong". The white curtain floats all the way from the grassland to Paris. As the scene changes, the silhouettes of athletes participating in various sports appear on the curtain, showing their "being strong" spirit, which fits the Olympic theme of "faster, higher, stronger - more united".

I have to say that this short film was shot very well. Although it is only 60 seconds long, it took the creative team more than half a year of hard work.

Since we are going to shoot it, we must present the best. Only the highest quality content can match the Olympic stage - this is Mengniu's attitude towards this promotional video. For this purpose, Mengniu also invited the man who knows the most about "opening" in the world, which shows its courage and ambition.

The high-level of this short film lies first in its implicitness and metaphor. Using a huge milky white curtain, a metaphor for flowing milk, it can not only reflect the category and brand role of Mengniu in form, but also use light and shadow to present the figure of each strong person on the milk-like curtain.

Finally, the white cloth was erected on the banks of the Seine, reflecting thousands of strong figures in motion, paying tribute to the opening of the Paris Olympics. The curtain representing Mengniu overlapped with the silhouettes of the actors showing "strength", echoing each other and achieving a perfect harmony in both form and spirit.

Flying from the grassland to Paris also implies that Mengniu has stepped onto the world stage from its place of origin because of its "striving to be strong" and pursuit of excellence. Its corporate vision of "nourishing the world for everyone to be strong" is also flowing into the public mind.

It is too easy to be ostentatious. Zhang Yimou has also planned many grand opening ceremonies. But whether for budget or uniqueness, Mengniu wants to do something different this time.

"The Opening" is very restrained in expression. No athlete shows their face in the entire video, and Zhang Yimou's most adept human sea performance tactics are not used. However, in fact, all athletes from ancient times to the present, both at home and abroad, have become the spokespersons for Mengniu.

The silhouettes behind the curtain are a summary of every "strong" individual, which makes "strong" not a grand, unmanned "narrative of the times", but a great national spirit that is presented in every Chinese and is composed of tiny individuals.

This "small-to-big" expression method makes Mengniu's communication with the public not empty and top-down, but digs out brand resonance from the strong stories and spiritual world of each "person". This is the only way for the brand to truly reach and touch everyone.

For a visual blockbuster, not only the pictures should be exquisite, but the background music is also very important. "Opening" uses the ancient Mongolian Humming as the main theme of the entire film music, and adds Mongolian long tunes, allowing the low male voice and the high-pitched female voice to interweave with each other, and the mysterious and magnificent power emerges, making the whole film full of "expedition" momentum and epic feeling, which makes people feel excited after watching it.

If Inner Mongolia is the "hometown" of Mengniu, then Mongolian is the local accent of Mengniu. The Mongolian soundtrack makes this film tell not only the story of Mengniu, but also the story of the nation and the world.

2. Grasp the marketing rhythm and undertake mass communication

The release of "Opening" gave Mengniu an extremely high starting point. The next step is how to take over the traffic and further enrich the connotation and extension of the slogan "Be Strong" to enhance its memory in the minds of the public.

If "Opening" is a relatively abstract, conceptual work that makes people look up to it, then Mengniu's next series of actions are to make this expression concrete and story-like, so that more people can find resonance in it.

On the 27th, following up on the theme film "Opening", the short film "Everyone's Struggle in the Nutritional World" was released, further explaining the meaning of "strength" and further inheriting and concretizing the spirit that Mengniu has continuously demonstrated during the warm-up period of the Paris Olympics.

Through the short film, Mengniu combined the new events of the Paris Olympic Games with people's daily sports scenes, starting from activities such as dog walking, running, weightlifting, yoga, etc., to convey the concept of "being a global partner of the Olympics and also a partner of your sports."

Olympic champion Gu Ailing, Jia Ling who wanted to win once, Liao Zhi who lost both legs in the Wenchuan earthquake but still used dance to convey persistence, resilience and love... In this short film, Mengniu not only focused on the glory of the champions, but also spent a lot of space to pay tribute to the strong spirit of every ordinary person.

The fact that ordinary people refuse to admit defeat again and again in real life shows the "strong-willed" nature of the Chinese people, which is the soul of our national culture. In this way, Mengniu has transformed the heavyweight international trust endorsement into the deepest humanistic care, allowing people to not only pay attention to Mengniu's authority and trust as a partner, but also feel the intimacy of Mengniu as a "sports partner."

This shows that the higher Mengniu stands on the world stage, the lower it bends, the more it cares about the national spirit, and the more it maintains the most sincere connection with the general public.

In the era of short video communication, every time a brand is exposed to the public, it needs to be accompanied by the construction of a position on social media. This is a combination of punches.

Throw the darts out with public exposure, and then retrieve them on your own social media. In marketing terms, it means finding the target audience from public domain traffic, and then conducting centralized communication on the brand traffic front.

From the grand scheme of "Opening" to the subtle humanistic care of "Everyone's Struggle in the Nutritional World", Mengniu has also launched a series of activities such as "I'll Score Big Points for My Hometown Athletes" and "China Night" in Paris.

On the banks of the Seine, actors dressed in costumes from 56 ethnic groups walked onto the stage and presented a fashion show full of the charm of Chinese culture to the audience. This not only showcased Chinese culture to the world, but also demonstrated the powerful power of sports to transcend national boundaries and promote cultural integration.

After the opening of the Olympics, Mengniu announced the latest event schedule on its official Weibo every day, closely followed the performance of Chinese athletes, and released gold medal congratulations videos as soon as possible. It also cooperated with Heytea, Miniso, White Elephant Foods, etc. to cheer for the Olympic athletes.

Through capillaries such as social media, Mengniu absorbs the echoes of influence and reflects them again, maximizing the long-tail value of influence.

3. The long-termism of Olympic marketing has achieved a purer consensus on value

At present, domestic marketing has fallen into another extreme. Everyone is pursuing results and conversions, focusing on short-term profits. Many brands have even laid off their brand marketing departments, leaving only e-commerce and conversion departments.

But in fact, brand marketing is still very important and is the core asset of the brand. High-quality brands have strong vitality and can go through cycles and deeply plant grass in the hearts of consumers. Only by deeply planting grass and pursuing long-term marketing can the brand grow into a towering tree in the future.

Every time the seeds are sown and then harvested immediately, the weeds are pulled out immediately, leaving consumers with a barren heart and nothing left, making it impossible to form the long-term value of the brand.

Therefore, for such a scarce centralized marketing opportunity as Olympic marketing, brands must treat it with a higher level and a broader vision, and launch a marketing combination that is memorable, recognizable, and effective.

Marketing with high memorability, recognition and acceptance needs to establish connections with all social classes and groups to reach a wider consensus. Because the essence of mass communication is to reach consensus, consensus on products, consensus on brands, and consensus on values.

There are many great advertisements in Olympic marketing, such as Nike’s “Find Your Greatness” and Alibaba’s “Believe in Small Greatness”. The reason why these slogans are still fresh in people’s memory today is that they embody a purer Olympic spirit and spread a broader consensus, so they can inspire everyone.

In addition, in the Olympic arena, a brand not only represents itself, but also represents the image of a country. Under the narrative of the rise of a great power, Chinese brands such as Mengniu need to pay more attention to the tone and temperament of their appearance and not take shortcuts.

Some brands have misunderstood the true meaning of Olympic marketing, thinking that exposure and sparking discussion are successful marketing. If you only want to attract discussion for a short time, you can try to catch the hot spots and try to use a small amount to achieve a big result. However, if you want to build a deep consensus, embody the spirit of a great country, and focus on long-termism, you must carry out some seemingly "heavy" communication, because only this kind of thick and heavy communication can build a broad consensus.

Therefore, better Olympic marketing must be able to promote a purer consensus on values ​​and embody a purer Olympic spirit.

If the first level of Olympic marketing is to achieve exposure for one’s own brand products, and the second level is to demonstrate brand values, then the highest level should be to promote social consensus through more connections and sharing, with brand consensus.

This is the great significance of marketing.

IV. Conclusion

On the field, athletes are fighting for gold medals, and off the field, the marketing war between brands has become fierce. In this war without gunpowder, everyone is striving to win their own "gold medal".

However, unlike the gold medals of the Olympics, the success or failure of a brand does not depend on the few days of the Olympics, but on a long-term race that will affect the company for several years or even more than ten years in the future. In this case, brands must open up their horizons, focus on the long term, deeply understand the essence of Olympic communication, and establish a wider range of connections through good creativity and works:

Promote social consensus through brand consensus.

Use brand spirit to reflect national spirit.