Heytea is competing for the Paris market, Yili is “buying shares in advance”…are these “fancy ways” of Olympic marketing?

The 2024 Paris Olympics is about to kick off. Its unprecedented opening ceremony outside the stadium combines literature, drama and film art, and is expected to be the most romantic and free feast. With the world's attention focused, the Olympic marketing war is about to start. 79 sponsors are working together, and the sponsorship income is expected to exceed the 1.3 billion US dollar mark. How will Chinese brands shine on this international stage? Let us wait and see the brilliant opening of this marketing feast!

In the early morning of July 27th, Beijing time, the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games was staged on the Seine River. As the first opening ceremony held outside a stadium in history, it set off a carnival that swept the entire Internet.

Accompanied by the music of "The Phantom of the Opera", from "The Little Prince", "Les Miserables", "La Reine de Guerre", "Liberty Leading the People" to "The Arrival of a Train", "Joe and James" and "Assassin's Creed", literary, dramatic and film elements were fully utilized, and Paris was transformed into a "movable feast". It was the most free, romantic, artistic, "craziest" and controversial opening ceremony.

The world has entered the "Olympic time", and Olympic marketing is in full swing. It is reported that this Olympics has attracted 79 Olympic sponsors, and the sponsorship income is expected to reach a total of 1.3 billion US dollars. It is estimated that the sponsorship income of 7 senior partners accounts for more than half of the domestic sponsorship income of the 2024 Paris Olympics. LVMH, the world's largest luxury group, has provided 150 million euros in sponsorship for this Olympics, making a considerable presence in the opening ceremony, and "LV hard advertising" has become a hot search.

"2024 Sports Marketing Value Insights" shows that the viewing penetration rate of the Paris Olympics will reach 62%. According to official information, the sponsors of this Olympics are divided into four categories: global partners, senior partners, official partners and official suppliers. Among domestic brands, Alibaba and Mengniu are among the highest level of "global partners". Alibaba provides AI services for the Paris Olympics, and Mengniu co-sponsors with Coca-Cola.

This year is a big year for sports and marketing: the heat of the European Cup is still there, the popularity of the Olympics is soaring, and hot topics such as "Shatou wins gold" continue to test various brands. However, even if they are not official partners, Chinese companies will obviously not miss this top marketing event that attracts global attention, and have participated in it in various ways.

1. New tea drinks battle in Paris

Taking advantage of the influence of top events, at this critical time point in July, the two new tea brands, Heytea and Bawang Chaji, directly "went to the scene and went overseas" through local pop-up stores, using "localized" operation and marketing strategies to shape a global brand image. This is the unanimous choice of Heytea and Bawang Chaji.

HEYTEA launched a "combination punch" of celebrity store visits + logo projection. On July 5, HEYTEA's pop-up store "HEYTEA Paris Games Tea Room" in the 11th district on the right bank of the Seine officially opened. The location is located in a residential area with the highest concentration of young people and rich nightlife. It focuses on highlighting the sense of relaxation and down-to-earth, and specially designed a running HEYTEA figurine to highlight the Olympic theme.

In addition, Heytea also invited many French stars, as well as Chinese athletes such as Bao Chunlai, Zhao Lina, Wei Qiuyue, and Liu Xiang to taste the tea in the store. Its logo was also projected on famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and Galeries Lafayette. On the first day of the opening of the "Heytea Paris Watching Tea Room", more than 1,000 cups of tea were sold, with a total sales amount of over 10,000 euros, and two limited edition sports badge peripherals were also sold out in a short time.

Also opening a pop-up store, the new Chinese tea brand Bawang Chaji emphasizes the export of Chinese culture and adopts the strategy of sports star endorsement. On July 22, Bawang Chaji's offline pop-up store in Paris TEA BAR was unveiled at the Saint-Lazare railway station, the third busiest railway station in Europe. It distributed tea drinks for free and launched interactive games such as "smell the tea", pitching pots, and kicking balls, attracting a large number of foreign users to experience it. "Chinese students studying in France" have already posted photos on social media.

Previously, Bawang Tea announced Liu Xiang as the brand's global health ambassador, and then officially announced that Liu Xiang, Wang Shun, Zheng Qinwen, Chen Qingchen, Jia Yifan, Liu Qingyi, and Wang Ruimiao, seven world-class athletes, formed the "Health Ambassador Group". This "new and old" lineup not only played the sentimental card with veterans, but also bet on many new generation popular players in different fields. In addition, Bawang Tea also launched limited Olympic-themed refrigerator magnets in China, combining sports elements with tea elements.

Those new tea and fast-moving coffee brands that did not "go to Paris" either signed up athletes or played the sentimental card. For example, Cha Baidao signed female basketball players Yang Liwei and Yang Shuyu as its brand ambassadors; Shanghai Auntie invited Chinese women's volleyball player Zhang Changning to serve as the light fruit tea recommendation officer; and Nova Coffee appointed Olympic athlete Wu Yanni as its "low-calorie" health ambassador.

Luckin Coffee announced a collaboration with the classic animation "Journey to the West" to create a limited edition new product series "Triumph McMahon", using Olympic elements such as PARIS and the Arc de Triomphe in product design, takeout bags, stickers, coasters and other derivative peripherals; Starbucks China announced its first cross-border collaboration with a sports brand, teaming up with badminton brand YONEX to launch two new coffee drinks and co-branded rackets, sports towels and other peripherals. At the event at Taikoo Li Sanlitun, Starbucks used dreamy purple as the main color to echo the Paris Olympics.

As a "new face", new tea drinks are sweeping the Olympic marketing, which is related to the market environment. The "2023 New Tea Drink Research Report" released by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association (CCFA) shows that the growth rate of my country's new tea drink market is expected to drop from 44.3% in 2023 to 12.4% in 2025.

Market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. In addition to increasing influence and strengthening the "healthy" image, new tea brands are also focusing on Olympic marketing. The public's stereotype of traditional milk tea is that it is high in sugar, high in calories, and contains additives, which is easy to make people fat and has health risks. Most new tea drinks offer healthy options such as zero-calorie sugar, low-sugar and low-calorie, but the public still has concerns. For this reason, Heytea previously announced that Pamela became the brand's "health recommendation officer", and Bawang Tea Princess promoted the new product "Xingchunshan" in Liu Genghong's live broadcast room.

The success or failure of the overseas expansion depends not only on the expansion of stores, but also on the success or failure of overseas brand marketing. The implementation of localized marketing and the Olympic marketing strategy have become the key to the success of new tea drinks.

2. Betting on star athletes vs. actively playing memes

In the absence of sufficient budget to become an official partner, betting on star athletes and sponsoring the Chinese national team is a more traditional and safe approach.

There is no shortage of commercial sponsorship space for the national team in all aspects of food, clothing, housing and transportation. For example, Yili announced that it would become the official dairy product of the Chinese sports delegation at the 2024 Olympic Games, and launched the marketing campaigns of "How many gold medals China wins, Yili will give away" and "If China ranks in the top three, Yili will get a free meal", striving for emotional resonance of national honor; Panpan Foods became the official sponsor of the Chinese sports delegation at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, and launched the Panpan Home Paris Experience Store; Chery Automobile became the official partner of the Chinese women's volleyball team; Junlebao Dairy Group announced that it would become the official partner of ten national teams, including the Chinese National Gymnastics Team and the Chinese National Synchronized Swimming Team.

Paris' international image as a "fashion capital" undoubtedly has a certain blessing on the image of clothing brands. For example, Anta, Jomoo, Li Ning, Xtep and many other brands sponsored competition equipment. Anta became the official partner of the Chinese Olympic delegation. In October last year, Anta announced that it would become the official sportswear supplier of the International Olympic Committee for the next four years. Starting from the Paris Olympics, Anta will provide official clothing, shoes and accessories for the Olympic Committee staff in four Olympic Games.

From the first quarter to the second quarter of this year, a group of athletes have already ushered in the endorsement harvest season in advance, mainly concentrated in the diving team, table tennis team, badminton team, swimming team and other Chinese gold medal teams. The factors considered include competitive performance, topic popularity, word-of-mouth performance, personal image, etc. Many brands choose to "put eggs in multiple baskets" and bet on multiple projects. In addition, the number of endorsements for female athletes has increased significantly this year. In addition to betting on former famous players, a group of new generation athletes born after 2000 have become potential stocks with commercial value ready to go.

In June, ANTA signed the top player of the men's table tennis team, Fan Zhendong, as its brand spokesperson. In addition, ANTA also signed the gold medalists of the swimming team, Zhang Yufei and Qin Haiyang. Sun Yingsha, the "Olympic triple gold king", once topped the athlete hot search list with 340 hot searches. She currently has signed cooperation brands such as Coca-Cola, Yili, Vanward Electric, Procter & Gamble (and Tide under Procter & Gamble), Power Dekor Flooring, PICO, and Qin Xiangjian. Wang Chuqin cooperates with Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Yili, Panasonic, Kiehl's, etc. Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan of the "Dream Team" Chinese Diving Team cooperate with brands including Yili, Gaotu, Macro, and Coca-Cola.

It is worth mentioning that the competition of four emerging events, freestyle BMX, skateboarding, breakdancing and rock climbing, in this Olympics may attract a large number of young audiences. The popular contestants of these events represent the new trend of youth, fashion and life, and also have considerable commercial potential. According to incomplete statistics, Liu Qingyi, the popular contestant of the Chinese breakdancing team who is going to win the gold medal, has won endorsement contracts with Coca-Cola, Yili, Visa, Bawang Tea Princess and Adidas.

If buying stocks in advance and predicting the "next Gu Ailing" in time requires luck and vision, timely insight into online hot spots, active participation in netizens' interactions and memes, and applying them to brand marketing requires a strong sense of the Internet, which can achieve twice the result with half the effort if used well.

The design of the Paris Olympics emblem this year combines the Olympic flame, the gold medal and the national symbol "Marianne" representing the French people and revolution. This emblem, which means "the Olympics belong to everyone" and pays tribute to female athletes, sparked heated discussions across the Internet as soon as it was released in 2019, and was ridiculed as resembling the host Lu Yu.

On the morning of July 17, Yili’s official Weibo account released a video, announcing that Chen Luyu will serve as the brand’s Paris Olympics ambassador, and captioned the video with a joke, “Before seeing the Paris logo, Luyu: Is it true? After seeing the Paris logo, Luyu: Not only did I believe it, I was also brainwashed.” Subsequently, Chen Luyu also reposted the video through the social platform and responded, “To be honest, even I have been brainwashed.”

The official "listening to advice" and playing with memes are the most deadly. This kind of interesting and magical connection can greatly ignite users' enthusiasm for secondary creation and dissemination, achieve great results with small efforts, and establish a deep connection with young groups.

New hot spots are still emerging at any time. Who will emerge as the dark horse in this marketing test? We will wait and see.