In-depth｜Born to be competitive, Mengniu sports marketing has reached the next level

Mengniu Group and director Zhang Yimou's team jointly released the Paris Olympic Games theme advertisement "Opening" with the theme of "Strive to Be Strong". It successfully broke through the circle and dominated the hot search list as soon as it was released. The number of Weibo readings exceeded 24.59 million and the discussion was heated. This is not only a display of brand power, but also a transmission of Chinese sports spirit. In the Olympic arena, Chinese athletes fought bravely, and in the battlefield of brand marketing, Mengniu also demonstrated extraordinary competitiveness and creativity.

Inside the Olympic arena, Chinese athletes spread their wings and flew high to win glory for the country. Outside the arena, brand marketing also flourished in various ways.

On July 26, Mengniu Group and director Zhang Yimou's team officially released the Paris Olympic Games theme commercial "Opening". Once this television commercial (TVC) with the theme of "Being Strong" was launched, it dominated the hot search list for 2 hours and broke through the circle of discussions. On the same day, the number of readings on Weibo exceeded 24.59 million and the number of discussions exceeded 40,000.

1. TVC breaks the circle, and the "behind the scenes" is more exciting than the "opening"

Morketing believes that the TVC’s success in breaking the circle is related to Mengniu’s “creative investment” and “long-term investment”.

In fact, Mengniu's TVC "Opening" has received high praise from well-known advertising professionals in the industry. According to Zhang Fengrong, CEO of Beijing Sky and Space, the creativity of Mengniu's commercial has surpassed the brand itself.

"First of all, I admire Mengniu's financial strength to find a 'double Olympic director' and his team to cooperate with. Zhang Yimou himself carries the Olympic sentiments and memories of the Chinese people. In addition, Mengniu is this year's 'Olympic Global Partner', which is a perfect match. I believe it will definitely bring a lot of positive value to brand communication.

"As for the creativity itself, this TVC uses a curtain, a visual symbol with great tension, which reflects the combination of Director Zhang's strong visual imagination and the Olympic theme. The athletes appear on the curtain in the form of shadows, starting from the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, crossing the Great Wall, snow-capped peaks, deserts, and oceans, and finally arriving in Paris, flowing between the Arc de Triomphe, the Seine River, the Eiffel Tower and other city landmarks - this is a curtain of the Paris Olympics waiting to be unveiled, bringing the dreams of countless Chinese strong people to Paris, thus opening the prelude to the Olympics. It can be said that Mengniu's creativity this time has surpassed the brand itself."

Of course, good ideas are the result of continuous improvement.

As Shiqu SVP Mu Dao said, "If you have learned about the nearly 10 rounds of competitions behind this film, the 8-month execution cycle, the cross-national and cross-channel organizational collaboration and technology application of more than 100 people, you will find that the 'behind the scenes' is far more exciting than the 'opening'!

"According to creative thinking, it is not difficult to think of the "curtain" as the core element from the proposition of "opening". Following the clues, we can think of using white cloth to present the silky texture of milk, floating all the way from Inner Mongolia to the banks of the Seine to greet the opening. However, how to visualize this idea under such high standards will be the first mountain in front of the execution. What is amazing is that the production team used drones, slides, and even the photographer holding a Steadicam and wearing roller skates to shoot, and with the help of post-production special effects, they made the possible suffocating feeling of covering the sky and the sun appear very stylized. The interaction between the shadows on the white curtain and the characters in the real scene is like a competitive dialogue in a parallel time and space. The silky combination of shadow movements and scenes, the extreme details of light and shadow, and light sources, in addition to these core elements that constitute the visual subject, you can even hear the elegance and romance of the French nation from the magnificent Mongolian long tune.

"This masterpiece needs no further explanation. I would like to pay tribute to the master for the opening ceremony and to every advertiser behind the scenes," said Mu Dao .

In addition to creativity, Mengniu's continued heavy investment in sports marketing has further promoted the breakthrough of TVC to a large extent. Taking 2020 to 2023 as an example, Mengniu Dairy's sales and distribution expenses were more than 20 billion yuan, and the overall trend was upward, an increase of 17% in four years. Correspondingly, operating income increased by 30% in four years, and net profit attributable to the parent company also increased by 36%.

The picture shows the sales and distribution expenses and performance data of Mengniu Dairy in recent years

At the same time, looking at sports marketing cooperation alone, Mengniu has made many moves since it reached a strategic cooperation with the NBA in 2006, and has been a global sponsor of the World Cup for many consecutive years. And just to count its investment in sports marketing in recent years, there are: official sponsorship of the 2022 Qatar World Cup; global official sponsorship of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup; TOP partner of this year's Paris Olympics; signing sports stars such as Gu Ailing, Messi, and Mbappe as brand spokespersons. Going further, Mengniu has even planned sponsorship for sports marketing in the next few years, including the 2026 Mexico City World Cup, the 2027 Women's World Cup, and the 2030 World Cup.

Of course, some netizens may question that large-scale sports events such as the World Cup and the Olympics are often short-term hot spots. Once the games are over, the heat will quickly fade. In addition, one problem with sports marketing is that input and output are difficult to quantify. If Mengniu continues to bet heavily on sports marketing, it may face a mismatch between input and output.

2. What’s behind the TVC?

Therefore, Mengniu is "making every effort" to catch this "huge traffic". Just a TVC is definitely not enough. Morketing analyzes that Mengniu's efforts to "strongly promote" this time are mainly in the following aspects:

1. The theme of the story has changed, from celebrities to the public

In recent years, Mengniu has been adhering to the brand proposition of "Born to be strong" in sports marketing, and has continued to deepen the specific expression of the slogan. In the 2018 Russia World Cup, Mengniu became the first official sponsor from the dairy industry in the history of the World Cup and put forward the brand concept of "Born to be strong". In 2019, Mengniu launched a new brand proposition "Nourish your strength". In the 2022 Qatar World Cup, Mengniu's slogan was upgraded to "World quality, born to be strong".

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Mengniu officially proposed "Nutrition for everyone in the world". This year's slogan not only shows the brand's grand vision, but also reflects the care for every ordinary person, making the brand concept reach a wider audience and have stronger penetration.

In the commercials that have been released, Mengniu has also clearly placed emphasis on caring for ordinary people: Mengniu teamed up with Han Hong to sing the MV "Flowers Along the Way" which embodies the Chinese team's determination to go on the expedition, with the theme focusing on "To the Chinese people who are determined to go on the expedition, and to every one of you on the journey"; Mengniu released 5 creative short films, shifting from the stadium to daily sports scenes, encouraging more people to participate in and cultivate healthy habits of daily exercise; to celebrate the Olympic athletes winning gold medals, Mengniu invited Jia Ling to shoot the MV "At This Moment You and I Deserve a Gold Medal", in which Jia Ling repeatedly emphasized that she is "an ordinary girl who is determined to go on the expedition" and "comes from an ordinary family"... turning the camera from the podium to the audience, aiming at every ordinary person who works hard, further interpreting the essence of the Olympic spirit.

This actually also reflects Mengniu's market penetration strategy from the side. According to data from the International Dairy Federation, compared with Western countries such as the United States, the European Union, and Australia, China's per capita consumption of liquid milk is lower, so Mengniu still has room for development in the Chinese dairy market. Within China, milk consumption also shows a clear imbalance - the per capita milk consumption of rural residents in China is much lower than that of the population in major cities and towns. Therefore, the dairy product sinking market has great potential, and the industry penetration rate still has a lot of room for growth. From promoting Olympic projects to promoting national sports, Mengniu has gradually found a common emotional anchor for the public, and is actually seizing the sinking market in towns and villages.

2. Take the initiative and create your own hot spots

In this year's Paris Olympics, Mengniu appeared as a TOP sponsor for the first time. This was a $3 billion cooperation reached by Mengniu, Coca-Cola and the International Olympic Committee in 2019. Long before the opening of the Olympics, Mengniu had widely publicized its official status as a "TOP sponsor" and "global partner", making full use of the Olympic logo and rights for exposure.

With 100 days left before the Olympics, Mengniu teamed up with well-known athletes such as Deng Yaping and Tian Liang to create a "ticket delivery team" and launched the "Come to Mengniu if you go to Paris to watch the Olympics" live broadcast event, which received more than 980 million readings on Douyin and Weibo, successfully becoming the first brand hotspot in the Paris Olympic marketing arena.

When the Olympic Games opened, the TVC "Opening" was released, and the topic "Zhang Yimou's first opening theme film" immediately received nearly 3 billion views on Weibo. There is no need to say much about Zhang Yimou's influence in China. This is his third time to direct the "opening" after the two Olympic Games, which means the inheritance of the Olympic spirit. Internationally, Zhang Yimou is also a well-known Chinese business card. It can be said that Zhang Yimou's own fame and influence have contributed a lot of popularity to Mengniu's commercials.

After the games began, Mengniu launched the "Celebrate China's Medal Winning, Mengniu Buys You a Drink" campaign, in which Mengniu gave away 1,000 cartons of milk for every medal won by the Chinese team at the Olympics. Because the campaign lasted a long time and became more and more popular during the Olympics, the campaign made the Olympic audience feel the connection between the Olympic medal list and Mengniu.

In addition, Mengniu also invited IOC President Bach and famous actress Tang Wei to participate in the Olympic torch relay and other activities. Through this series of actions to create hot spots during the Olympics, Mengniu further strengthened the relevance of its brand with the Olympics, allowing its brand spirit of "born to be strong" to be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people through the Olympics' "faster, higher, stronger", demonstrating its brand's international image and further strengthening its position in the global dairy market.

3. Betting on the "athlete + celebrity" spokesperson matrix

Mengniu has always been discerning in choosing athletes as brand ambassadors. From Messi in the 2018 World Cup, Mbappe in the 2022 Qatar World Cup, to Gu Ailing in the 2022 Winter Olympics, the outstanding performances of these internationally renowned athletes have attracted more young consumers to pay attention to Mengniu and increased the international visibility of the Mengniu brand.

Before this year's Paris Olympics, in addition to continuing to sign star athletes such as Mbappe and Gu Ailing as spokespeople, Mengniu also officially announced an unexpected spokesperson - Jia Ling.

Since she successfully lost weight while filming the movie "Hot and Spicy", Jia Ling's appearances have been labeled as inspirational and athletic. On the opening day of the Paris Olympics, Jia Ling appeared at the IOC President's dinner. She was elegant and generous, exuding healthy beauty, and once again "amazed" the public, showing the beauty of oriental women on the international stage. This move also helped Mengniu and Jia Ling's related topics become hot searches.

Mengniu's choice of Jia Ling as its brand spokesperson reflects the diversity and in-depth considerations of its marketing strategy.

In the past, Mengniu mainly relied on sports stars and traffic stars as spokespeople, but this strategy has "turned over" in some cases. Therefore, Mengniu now pays more attention to the fit with the brand value, as well as the positive image and influence among consumers when selecting spokespeople. As a popular actor and director, Jia Ling's experience is highly consistent with the "strong" spirit advocated by Mengniu. Compared with the talents of many champion athletes, Jia Ling's success story is more like a story of an ordinary person's counterattack and success, so her image and story can better infect the public and make the public empathize.

3. What is Mengniu planning to do by leveraging the Olympics to expand overseas?

Mengniu's performance in recent years has been very impressive. According to its 2023 annual performance announcement, the company achieved a revenue of 98.62 billion yuan for the whole year, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%. The operating profit was 6.17 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.8%, and the operating profit margin has also been continuously improved.

In the development of the global market, Mengniu has also demonstrated steady growth and strong market competitiveness, firmly sitting among the top eight in the global dairy industry. However, among Mengniu's nearly 100 billion yuan in revenue, overseas business accounts for only 2%-3% of the total revenue.

Previously, Lu Minfang, former president of Mengniu, said that Mengniu is not only benchmarking against the dairy industry, but is also watching what multinational giants such as Coca-Cola and Budweiser do, and is learning and growing rapidly. As an old domestic brand, Mengniu has already gained a high brand awareness and market recognition through long-term market cultivation, and it is not difficult for it to maintain its leading position in China. However, if it wants to seize market share in overseas markets with internationally renowned dairy companies such as Lactalis, Nestle, and Danone, it needs to take advantage of the opportunity of the Olympics to further increase its brand awareness.

The series of actions in this Olympic marketing may be transformed into the "east wind" that raises the sail of brand internationalization.

As the saying goes, "what is national is also global." Next, Mengniu can learn from the successful experience of TVC breaking the circle, continue to invest in storytelling marketing, and further optimize the overseas communication of the brand. In advertisements released overseas, Mengniu can follow the example of "Opening" and continue to explore the stories of Chinese national culture, such as telling the story of Mengniu and the herdsmen of the Inner Mongolia grasslands, showing the roots and cultural heritage of the brand. Or hold cultural exchange activities overseas, such as tasting Chinese dairy products, Chinese cultural exhibitions, etc., and promote the story of "being strong" in the activities, so that Mengniu can become a bridge for cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, establish emotional connections with overseas consumers, and convey the core values ​​of the brand.

At present, it is still unknown to what extent the traffic brought by the Olympic marketing to Mengniu can be converted into sales, but what is certain is that this huge wave of traffic can accelerate consumers' recognition of the brand, and they will think that Mengniu is associated with nutrition and strength. Perhaps this will implant a trigger button for consumers, making Mengniu the first choice in the next consumption process.