2024 is the big year for sports events. Rethink sports marketing from these five trends

This article mainly discusses the five trends in 2024, the big year for sports events. The way brands and events cooperate is undergoing constant changes.

All the advertisements I saw at the European Cup were in Chinese. What’s going on?

The recent European Cup held in Germany is in full swing, but netizens have discovered that the advertisements on the field have all turned into Chinese characters, giving them the feeling of watching a Chinese Super League match.

It even makes people feel that "I may have stayed up too late and my eyes are blurry."

But Morketing learned that this is a virtual advertising technology, a new attempt in the European Cup. This technology can virtualize the billboards in the live broadcast and allow viewers in different regions to see different advertising content.

Strictly speaking, this attempt at virtual advertising technology is just one manifestation of the trend of digitalization in sports marketing. Now, as "brand sponsors" allocate more budget to sports marketing, we find that sports marketing trends have gradually undergone many new changes.

Recently, we have reviewed the five major trends in current sports marketing, and will talk about how brands can leverage sports events and play with target users in 2024, the big year for sports events.

1. Trend 1: Event cooperation is no longer large-scale and comprehensive, and title placement is segmented

When it comes to sports marketing, many people probably think of brand advertisements that scroll in a loop on the screens on the fences of football fields, or scenes of award-winning athletes draped in national flags and wearing brand products.

These two are of course the most classic ways for brands in sports marketing, but in fact, the way brands and events cooperate is also undergoing constant changes.

Event sponsorship is the most important and common marketing method for brands. Becoming an official sponsor of an event allows the brand to obtain the best display position. At the same time, it can use the various resources provided by the event to increase exposure and achieve the goal of traffic conversion. The effect is even more obvious in large-scale global sporting events.

Brands like Hisense, Alipay, and Vivo are happy to show up in international events, and Hisense has been the main sponsor of the European Cup for three consecutive times. This year, in addition to continuing the brand display in the advertising position of the fence, Hisense also provided display technology support for VAR (Video Assistant Referee) equipment for the European Cup. When millions of viewers of the European Cup online and offline were holding their breath waiting for the referee to watch the VAR replay to decide the result of the game, the Hisense brand was once again widely exposed.

However, consistent with people's impression, large-scale sports events require a very high budget for sponsorship or title sponsorship, and not every brand can afford hundreds of millions of dollars. Therefore, in recent years, many large-scale events no longer give all rights to the same brand, but split the sponsorship rights very finely according to the scene, so that some brands that could not participate in large-scale events in the past also have the opportunity to carry out brand implantation.

For example, about 175 brands participated in the sponsorship cooperation of the Hangzhou Asian Games. While well-known brands such as Geely Auto and 361° obtained core scenes and large exposure points, small and medium-sized brands such as Kaadas Smart Locks and Xianfeng Fruits were also able to find vertical scenes for their brands in terms of house door locks and fruit supply. This is naturally a kind of refined marketing.

Of course, the segmentation of brand sponsorship rights for sports events does not mean a reduction in the total amount of event sponsorship. Data shows that the number of corporate sponsors for the Hangzhou Asian Games increased by 238% compared to the Guangzhou Asian Games, and the total sponsorship amount increased by 47%. It can be seen that after the segmentation of sponsorship rights, the lowering of sponsorship thresholds not only reduces the budget pressure of brands, but also gives both large and small brands the opportunity to leverage events and create sports marketing.

2. Trend 2: Sports trends are segmented and niche sports are on the rise

When it comes to sports, people are most likely to focus on the three well-known ball sports of football, basketball and volleyball, or the relatively strong domestic sports such as table tennis and badminton. In fact, with the rapid development of the sports industry, many niche sports such as tennis, racing, baseball, etc. are also experiencing rapid popularity, and the number of people paying attention to these sports has increased significantly.

In the past few years, niche sports have been gaining popularity, and some new events have even surpassed major mass events such as the NBA and the World Cup in attracting more consumers of sports content. Online discussions about niche sports have also increased, with online discussions about tennis and racing increasing by 51% and 38% respectively.

Image source: Tencent Marketing Insights & Miaozhen & Krypton Sports "2024 Sports Marketing Value Insights"

More importantly, among the content consumers attracted by the expansion of niche sports, the main group is high-income men in first-tier and new first-tier cities. They not only pay close attention to sports content, but also have a high willingness to pay and a tendency to participate in sports. They are willing to invest energy and money in niche sports, which is a rare high-quality user group for brands.

Take the F1 Chinese Grand Prix, which returned for the first time after five years, as an example. This top F1 racing event held in China attracted a breakthrough of more than 200,000 people to watch the game on site. All tickets were sold out at the speed of light and even crashed the ticketing platform, which is enough to prove that niche sports such as racing also have the potential to become top-level traffic.

In response to the enthusiasm of racing fans, many brands also used the F1 Chinese Grand Prix to make their presence felt. For example, Mercedes-AMG held a brand night event on the eve of the finals, debuting a new model and delivering the hard-core technology and strength of the new product to high-spending customers who enjoy the thrill of technology in the high-energy field of F1 racing; Heineken beer took on the high traffic of the Grand Prix to promote the popularity of new products, and also made the young and enthusiastic crowd on the field and the product scene of gathering and celebrating form a high degree of fit.

In addition to brands, platforms are also actively exploring the marketing value of niche sports such as F1 racing. For example, in this F1 Chinese Grand Prix, Tencent Sports, as the official broadcasting platform, has well connected brand customization and the audience's viewing experience by combining platform resources with brand characteristics. During the live broadcast of the event, Tencent Sports not only transformed the entire commentary studio into a Mercedes-AMG arena through XR scenes, bringing fans and spectators a unique event viewing and interactive experience, but also created a self-made column "Driver 0.0 Distance" with the Heineken beer brand, allowing drivers, fans and more general audiences to form a 0-distance traffic channel, subtly completing the connection between the brand and high-end events.

At the same time, Morketing learned that customizing sports content programs according to brand needs has also become the focus of Tencent Sports in recent years. Take the road trip documentary "Journey to America" ​​launched by Tencent Sports and Lincoln Motors last year. While following the camera to appreciate the scenery along the way from Phoenix to the end of the journey, Salt Lake City, the audience felt the pure American culture brought by the top American national sports football events, the Super Bowl and the NBA, through the program. The vivid and real program content ultimately made it a good content that sports fans love to watch.

3. Trend 3: Female characters become a rising force in the sports consumption market

In recent years, there has been a very obvious trend that female characters have become more and more involved in sports consumption, and have become an important part of sports marketing that cannot be ignored.

On the one hand, as more and more female athletes appear in the C position of the competition and win gold and silver medals, the participation and commercial value of female athletes are showing a rising trend . Data shows that among the 88 medals won by the Chinese delegation at the Tokyo Olympics, female athletes participated in 53 of them; and among the 431 athletes in the entire Chinese Olympic delegation, there are 298 female athletes, accounting for 69%.

Correspondingly, the performance of female athletes on the field has also brought them more commercial returns outside the field. In the first half of 2022, when the Winter Olympics were held, more than 50 well-known brands signed contracts with female athletes. Among them, Gu Ailing, a Chinese-American skier, was invited to endorse by many brands including Cadillac, Tiffany, Victoria's Secret, Estee Lauder, China Mobile, Bank of China, Anta, and Mengniu, which exceeded the treatment of most celebrity idols.

The reason why female athletes are so popular in the market is that, in addition to their relatively high winning rate in competitions, they also have looks and figures that are not inferior to first-line actresses, as well as influence that is widely reported and recognized by the society, which brings traffic and volume. In addition , according to a report by YouGov, a British data research organization, women prefer brands that sponsor female sports or athletes. For example, during the previous Olympic Games, there were countless examples of hair accessories, jewelry, and nail art that were the same as the champions, which became hot sellers on the Internet.

Netizens not only have no objection to the brands they endorse, but also say that there are too few of them and they want more of these endorsements. One of the key factors is that brand endorsements by female athletes are naturally closer to female consumers and can trigger strong resonance among female consumers for values ​​such as hard work and struggle.

On the other hand, in addition to female athletes in professional competitions, we also find that countless ordinary women in life are increasingly connected with the sports consumer market.

With the improvement of living standards and the enhancement of health awareness, more and more women begin to pay attention to health and exercise. They maintain their health and shape their bodies by participating in various sports such as yoga, running, and fitness. According to Xiaohongshu data, the number of women participating in sports on the platform increased by 57% in 2023. Women with awakened active genes have already integrated exercise into their daily lives through dressing.

At the same time, these "sports-oriented" female consumer groups, which have gathered huge consumption momentum, can even transform the past aesthetic system and even influence the marketing strategies of sports brands. For example, Lululemon, a Canadian brand that started out selling women's yoga clothes, has not only been promoted to the second highest global market value by female consumers through explosive purchases, but has also boldly broken the shackles of the idea that yoga clothes cannot be worn outdoors, giving women more freedom to wear more comfortable and diverse clothes.

In addition, this trend of sports among women has also prompted brands to rethink the design of women's sportswear. For example, the Descente brand, by understanding the needs of female consumers, launched the Body Flex jacket, which not only uses a dynamic version to increase body flexibility during exercise, but also uses a slim design to show body lines, thus taking into account consumers' two major needs for practical and good-looking sportswear.

4. Trend 4: Sports and emotional marketing are deeply integrated, and sports are "related to everyone"

As various important events are held in China, sports activities continue to ignite social hot spots, ignite people's enthusiasm, and gradually become an important carrier for the public to express their emotions. During the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, Morketing noticed that on the one hand, sports topics frequently entered the hot search list, which shows that people have a passion for participating in sports events ; on the other hand, only about half of these hot searches are related to the ranking of the event, and many hot searches are topics extended from the athletes themselves.

According to the 2023 Athlete Weibo Report, it is very obvious that the public pays more attention to athletes outside the stadium than inside the stadium, and most of the hot searches about athletes themselves focus on their lives outside the stadium. People no longer only see the competition and ranking of sports events, but also include their daily training, hobbies, living habits, etc. in the scope of observation.

At the same time, thanks to athletes’ self-presentation and voice on social media, it is also more convenient for people to observe the athletes’ lives outside the stadium. Rather than saying that sports events bring the audience the enjoyment of the game process, it is better to say that this is a window for concentrated observation of athletes, allowing the public to find a support for expressing their emotions based on sports.

So is this a good thing for brand marketing? On the positive side, the active presence of athletes in the audience's field of vision has broken the businesslike atmosphere of endorsement cooperation in the past, making the image of athletes more three-dimensional and vivid, and making the brand more humane.

Moreover, when the athletes stepped down from the altar, people's sense of distance from competitive sports gradually shortened. Sports do not necessarily have to win gold and silver medals in professional competitions. Fun and fun with fireworks are enough to become a new sports concept. For example, the "Everyone's Sports Meeting" recently held by the Xiaohongshu platform, with the high popularity of new events such as street dance, skateboarding, and surfing in the Paris Olympics on the community platform, put forward the value proposition of "a little movement makes it more lively" , and the Olympics and the free sports that please oneself are on an equal footing, turning sports into a part of lifestyle.

However, from another perspective, the deep integration of sports and emotional marketing has also added some risks to brand marketing. For example, Wu Yanni, one of the focus players in the Asian Games, accepted commercial endorsements from several brands but did not have enough real results to convince the public, so controversial events such as "celebration actions" and "false starts" became outlets for public emotions, and even the cooperating brands were overshadowed. And when athletes are still watched by the public after leaving the stadium, it is bound to increase the risk of athletes' "collapse" in life and thus affect the brand.

V. Trend 5: National enthusiasm for sports is rising, and sports are becoming more popular

In recent years, the domestic sports industry has shown a momentum of vigorous development. This is not only because the successive holding of major events such as the Winter Olympics, Asian Games, and Universiade have aroused the attention of the whole nation, but also because of the continuous emergence of national events and various hot spots such as Village BA and Village Super League. People have shown long-term attention and long-term investment in the sports market .

The exploration of the reasons behind the popularization of the sports industry involves the promotion of policy guidance, public demand and technology. Simply put, the various policies formulated at the national level to promote the development of sports have laid the foundation for the development of the sports industry; the rapid development of technology has improved the viewing experience of sports events and stimulated people's interest in sports; the health awareness of the whole people has been enhanced, and the demand for sports consumption has continued to increase, thus stimulating sports from the field to the whole people.

Take Kuaishou's layout in sports marketing as an example. While deepening its presence in top professional events, such as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Kuaishou once again won the Olympic rights holder broadcaster status at this year's Paris Olympics. Kuaishou has also set its sights on mass sports with a larger scale and wider coverage, and has embarked on the "mass" route. Data shows that Kuaishou has broadcast more than 1,400 national mass sports events in 2023, and the total number of viewers of the "Kuaishou Village BA" live broadcasts organized by the region has exceeded 1.3 billion, and has received more than 400 online hot searches.

The fierce competition on the field, the lively atmosphere off the field, and the unique cultural performances have made Kuaishou Village BA popular on the Internet, and also provided a new way and possibility for brands to reach new-tier city users. This is because compared to watching the European Cup held far away in Germany, new-tier city users are more likely to watch down-to-earth local games on Kuaishou.

Therefore, for a track like electric vehicles that is competing for the sinking market, the increasingly popular trend of sports marketing is undoubtedly a key direction that needs attention.

As the European Cup final and the Paris Olympics are approaching, the test of brand marketing will also come. In the must-answer question of sports marketing, who will stand out and catch the huge traffic in the 2024 sports year? Let's wait and see.

Author: Lumens

Source: Morketing