The Truth Behind All the Chinese Sponsorship and Advertisement in Euro 2020

-
After defeating the Belgium national soccer team with a score of 1-2, the Italy national soccer team will be heading into the semi-final of the UEFA Euro 2020 to take on the Spain national soccer team. During this game, Italy's midfielder Nicolo Barella first broke the deadlock with a smashing shot across the keeper and into the far corner. As the Italian midfielder celebrated with his teammates, the sponsor advertising billboard from Hisense, a Chinese electronics and appliance company, became the background. 

Image Source: Football Italia

Since the kickoff of Euro 2020, the Chinese sponsors continue to draw more attention with its advertising billboard on the sideline as many were displayed using Chinese slogans and logos. In fact, among the 12 sponsors of Euro 2020, 4 are Chinese companies. And these 4 companies are Alipay, Hisense, Vivo, and TikTok, with Alipay and Hisense being UEFA National Team Football Official Sponsors, and Vivo and TikTok being UEFA Euro 2020 Official Sponsors. 

Photo by Reuters Pictures

The domination of the Euro 2020 Sponsorship from these Chinese tech brands and companies not only indicates the strong confidence and economic capability underlying these Chinese enterprises but also reveals an attempt for these rising companies to utilize this global soccer event to expand their brand influence and market overseas. 

Image Source: Eye of Riyadh

For Hisense and Vivo, the main purpose underlying their sponsorship in the Euro 2020 is to find growth in overseas markets so they could make up for the decline in market share caused by excessive domestic competition. For Hisense specifically, it has been accelerating its brand development overseas. This year's Euro 2020 is the second time for Hisense to sponsor the UEFA Euro event. After Hisense sponsored the Euro 2016, the brand was able to double its brand awareness in five countries in Europe (Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain). Having tasted the sweetness of sponsoring global sports events, Hisense is slowly shifting its focus to markets outside of China as the company's overseas revenue in the first quarter this year accounted for more than 42% of the company's total revenue. With Euro 2020 this year, the company aimed to utilize this golden opportunity to further expand its brand awareness worldwide. 

Image Source: SOMAG NEWS

Unlike Hisense and Vivo, the reason behind the Euro 2020 sponsorship from Alipay and TikTok is not due to excessive domestic competition. Instead, they care more about the brand's global development and seek to expand its user base in the world. This is especially true for TikTok. Although Douyin and TikTok have already gathered around 1.2 billion users worldwide, it still trails behind by a big gap to some of their main competitors, such as YouTube and Facebook. As of right now, YouTube has roughly 2.3 billion users worldwide, and Facebook has approximately 2.8 billion users worldwide. With this year's Euro 2020, ByteDance-owned TikTok seeks to utilize the European soccer culture to take the brand to the next level. 


Lured by the potential benefits of sport sponsorship, it is very likely that advertisements from Chinese brands and companies will become a common sight at all of Europe's major soccer events. For those soccer fans who will watch the 2022 FIFA World Cup, don't be surprised to see large-sized Chinese characters appear on the advertising billboard surrounding the soccer field. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Did Michelle Ice City (MiXue BingCheng) become so popular in China?

-
Image
Recently, Michelle Ice City (MiXue BingCheng), a Chinese beverage chain brand that mainly focuses on ice cream and tea, has gone absolutely viral in China. Most of the credit for this sudden popularity goes to the brand's theme song. "I love you, you love me, MiXue Ice Cream & Tea..." With its unique and catchy melody, Michelle Ice City's theme song has become so popular that people were joking you can't stop singing it once you heard it. As I'm writing this blog, the song has been played over 2.5 billion times on the internet. On BiliBili, a popular video streaming platform in China, the song's music video has already reached almost 5 million views for the Chinese version and approximately 17 million views for the Chinese and English bilingual version. No one saw this coming. In fact, the song was created in 2019, but it never caught the public's attention. So what made the brand and its theme song go viral now? Michelle Ice City's theme song ...
Read more

Sportswear Brand Erke Gone Viral in China: What Happened?

-
Image
Erke has gone viral in China in an unexpected way. With many parts of Central China's Henan province suffering from flooding after heavy rainfall, the sports brand Erke donated 50 million yuan (approximately 7.7 million dollars) worth of supplies to provide financial aid and help with the flood relief in the province. After Erke announced the news on its Weibo account, the post had gathered more than 280,000 comments as well as more than 9.45 million likes. Topics, hashtags, and trends related to Erke and its kindness also generated millions of views across various social media platforms. Sales for Erke's products also skyrocketed. According to the statistics provided by JD.com, one of China's largest eCommerce platforms, Erke's sales alone on Friday, July 23rd, 2021, witnessed a 52-fold increase . In offline stores, shoppers were so enthusiastic about Erke's products that the company said it was experiencing a serious lack of inventory due to a surge of demand. A ...
Read more

China's Energy Crisis: Impacts on the Global Economy

-
Image
The soaring prices of thermal coal used to produce electricity caused the second-largest economy in the world, China, to suffer a significant energy crisis  in the past few weeks, leaving many Chinese in the dark. Multiple businesses were forced to be closed, factories were told to reduce output, lifts and traffic lights were not working, many Chinese even complained on various social media platforms about the lack of heating. It was the worst electricity crisis China had faced in a decade. The timing for this energy crisis could not be any worse as China was rebuilding its economy after the COVID-19 pandemic while preparing to host the Winter Olympics game and fighting off the collapse of some of its largest companies .  China's high voltage transmission tower Image Source: Business Standard The origin of China's energy crisis can be traced back to 2020, when China decided to ban coal imports from Australia due to the strained relationship between the two countries.  Aft...
Read more