Why is this the most anticipated European Cup?

After the longest five-year wait in history, the 2020 European Cup has finally arrived.

This is destined to be an extraordinary event.

To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the birth of UEFA, for the first time in history, there is no single host country, but 1 10 countries, including London, Munich, St. Petersburg and Rome.

On the court, stories such as revenge, curtain call, youth storm and the return of the king are on the verge, and suspense is waiting to be revealed one by one.

..... All this is exciting to think about.

But the significance of this competition goes far beyond this.

At the beginning of 2020, the sudden COVID-19 epidemic swept the world. So far, more than 654.38 billion people have been diagnosed and 3.6 million people have died. However, after nearly 1 year and a half, the global epidemic (except China) has not been completely controlled. If this European Cup can be successfully and safely completed together with the Olympic Games, it will undoubtedly greatly boost the confidence of people all over the world in fighting the epidemic, and further explain why sports have the power to change the world with vivid cases.

In addition, this is another top football feast for leaders to lead the way under the background that enterprises from all walks of life in China collectively go to sea.

In the 20 16 European Cup, Hisense became the first top sponsor from China in the 56-year history of UEFA, and many of them were alone.

Five years ago, in the Russian World Cup, China occupied four seats (Wanda, Hisense, vivo and Mengniu) in the highest double-tier sponsorship system, and tied with the United States (VISA, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Budweiser) as the largest sponsor exporter.

In this European Cup, China has become the largest exporter of top sponsors alongside the Netherlands-besides Hisense's contract renewal, there are also Alipay and vivo.

In the commercial battlefield of Euro 2020, China enterprises have become the absolute protagonists.

From green to mature

China enterprises sponsored top international sports events as early as 17 years ago.

In March 2004, Lenovo became the sixth Olympic Global Partner (TOP) of the International Olympic Committee with a total price of US$ 65 million. As the first China enterprise to join the TOP program, Lenovo provided exclusive computer equipment and financial technical support for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which started the journey of brand globalization.

In 65438+February this year, Lenovo acquired IBM's global PC business for 1.25 billion US dollars, which truly put the business globalization strategy into practice.

Four years later, with the global attention, Beijing presented an "unparalleled" Olympic Games. At this grand event, the China delegation won 5 1 gold, 2 1 silver and 28 bronze with super dominance, setting a new record. As a sponsor of TOP, Lenovo naturally won the world's attention through the Olympic Games.

Following Lenovo, Yingli Energy from Baoding, Hebei Province, China sponsored two World Cups, 20 10 South Africa and 20 14 Brazil.

The top resources of sports industry have a long history, exclusive scarcity, strong irreplaceability and high strategic value. But sports is also a slow industry. The Olympic Games has been held for more than 100 years, the World Cup is nearly 90 years, and the European Cup has gone through 60 years. These top-level IPS have lasted for a long time in Mika.

Therefore, the success of sports marketing can not be separated from the long-term and continuous locking operation of top-level ip-only in this way can we improve the marketing threshold and competition barriers, strengthen the connection between brands and sports IP, and even their sports, and finally realize the development goals of brands, businesses and even enterprises.

However, in the early years, China enterprises did not have a deep understanding of sports marketing, lacked long-term thinking and overall awareness, and did not know how to use sports marketing to promote business growth and brand building.

After the Beijing Olympic Games, Lenovo hastily bid farewell to the high-level plan of the International Olympic Committee, and countless people lamented it. After the World Cup in Brazil, Yingli failed to keep up with the pace of top international sports events, which also left a deep regret for the domestic sports marketing community.

Since 20 15, with the gradual peak of China's demographic dividend, China's large enterprises, which have achieved a leading position in the local market, have begun to look overseas. At the same time, the publication of the State Council Document No.46 further promoted the breakthrough of China's sports industry.

In the process of going to sea, more and more domestic leading enterprises began to use sports as a powerful weapon for international expansion, so a new round of event marketing fever was set off-in 2065438+06, Hisense became the first top sponsor from Chinese mainland in the history of UEFA; In 20 17, Alibaba became the top sponsor of the international Olympic Committee; 20 18 Russian World Cup, Wanda, Hisense, vivo and Mengniu were among the top two sponsors. In this European Cup, China enterprises such as Hisense, Alipay and vivo are among the global sponsors; In addition, Mengniu also joined the top sponsorship program of the International Olympic Committee.

However, this time is different. After years of business internationalization, these head enterprises also realize that sports are an indispensable way of life for people in developed countries in Europe and America. Marketing with the help of sports is the fast lane of brand internationalization, and the most important thing for successful sports marketing is to be a friend of time.

Therefore, this round of marketing of China Enterprise Competition is obviously different from the last round.

In the brand marketing of international sports events such as the European Cup, Hisense can be said to be the most worthwhile specimen.

The first thing is to be more patient and persistent. As mentioned above, Lenovo sponsored the Olympic Games and Yingli sponsored the World Cup, both of which lasted only two sessions.

Hisense has achieved full attendance in the European Cup 20 16, the World Cup 20 18 and the European Cup 2020, and has also become a global sponsor of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Alibaba's cooperation with the International Olympic Committee lasted for 12 years (20 17 to 2028), and Alipay and UEFA signed a global cooperation agreement for national team events for 8 years (20 18 to 2026). Mengniu's top-level contract with the International Olympic Committee also reached 10 (2022-2032).

"From the 20 16 European Cup to the 20 18 World Cup to the 2020 European Cup, it is unprecedented for China enterprises to continuously sponsor the world's top sports events. This attitude of insisting on sponsoring the world's top events to the end expresses Hisense's firm determination to be an independent brand and a world-class brand. " Jia Shaoqian, president of Hisense Group, said.

Secondly, it is more closely integrated with the business.

In 2006, Zhou Houjian, Chairman of Hisense Group, formally put forward the internationalization strategy of "Hisense's future development, with its big head overseas", and in that year formally established an international marketing company, which was incorporated into Kelon's overseas refrigerator and air conditioning business to build a powerful overseas sales platform.

Before 20 16 sponsored the European Cup, Hisense was the first in China's color TV market, and going to sea meant incremental expansion.

Take Russia as an example. Hisense entered the Russian market in 2002 and has been selling Hisense products by distributors for more than ten years. On April 20 17, Hisense officially became the official sponsor of the World Cup in Russia. Three months later, Hisense established a Russian branch. June 5438+February of the same year, Hisense TV products entered the local high-end channel Technopark. 20 18 1 TV products successfully entered DNS, the second largest federal channel in Russia.

At the same time, Hisense has also reached cooperation with Technopark, DNS and other channels on Hisense refrigerators, washing machines, freezers and other products.

From the formal establishment of the Russian branch to May 20 18, the brand sales of Hisense TV in Russia increased by 140.8% year-on-year, and the brand sales increased by 453.0% year-on-year. Sponsoring the World Cup helped Hisense to open up its brand awareness. Combined with the expansion of direct sales channels, Hisense achieved rapid sales growth in the Russian market. This is a typical representative of the combination of sports sponsorship and business.

Third, the supporting activation scheme is more perfect.

The World Cup and the European Cup are carnivals for people all over the world. Generally speaking, it is easier for consumer enterprises to promote business growth through sports sponsorship, but this does not mean that ToB enterprises cannot achieve the same effect, just need a more complete and comprehensive plan.

As a photovoltaic energy enterprise, Yingli sponsored two World Cups in South Africa and Brazil. In addition to a certain popularity, there are not many related activation plans, and the volume of sound has not been improved.

In contrast, Hisense, as a veteran of sports marketing who has successively named the Australian Open Stadium and sponsored Schalke 04, is more familiar with this aspect. After sponsoring the Russian World Cup, Hisense offered a series of activities, such as inviting Diego Forlan, winner of the Golden Globe Award of the 20 10 World Cup, as the chief experience officer of U7 series ULED TV, a customized product of the 20 18 World Cup; Invite Benedict "Fu Juan"? Cumberbatch became the image ambassador of Hisense TV in China.

In addition, Hisense has put a lot of advertisements on CCTV, and carried out many marketing activities on overseas social media and other channels. Therefore, Hisense successfully sponsored the 20 18 World Cup, and then continued to sponsor the 2020 European Cup and the 2022 World Cup.

In this European Cup, despite the epidemic, only a few fans from the host country can enter, including those from China. Hisense can still enjoy an "immersive" European Cup through its products, technologies and related activities.

Before the European Cup, Hisense released the U7 champion series of customized TV for the 60th anniversary of the European Cup, which was equipped with a brand-new letter core U+ ultra-picture quality chip independently developed by Hisense and an enhanced version of 100 full-array dynamic backlight. The color reproduction, brightness and transparency of the picture have reached a new level. The color gamut of ordinary LCD TV can only reach 80% of DCI-P3, while Hisense U7G-Pro reaches 97%. Moreover, Hisense U7G-Pro's 144Hz fast screen is the top level in the current high-end TV market, which solves the problem of image jitter and tailing, and can be said to be "seeing every goal clearly".

At the same time, Hisense TV U7 series focuses on AI stadium, AI ball watching, multi-angle ball watching, picture-in-picture undisturbed ball watching and other functions, giving China fans a subsidy of over 65,438+billion yuan to stay up late to watch the ball, so that hundreds of millions of fans around the world, including China, can enjoy the "immersive experience" and get back their long-awaited passion for watching the ball.

Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China's market economy has grown from scratch, China's enterprises have grown from weak to strong, and more and more enterprises have gone abroad from home, and the road to globalization has become more and more firm. From 2004 to today, the competitive marketing of China enterprises has also moved from green to mature.

thermometer

Sports is the universal language in the world, and football is the first sport in the world. No matter where in the world, a small football can arouse the most sunny and positive side of human nature, release some spirit belonging to all mankind, and quickly break the ice in cross-language, cross-nation, cross-race and transnational interpersonal relationships.

The top football match represented by the European Cup is one of the most watched programs in the world: the European Cup in 20/KOOC-0/6, and 2 billion people watched the game on TV all over the world-more than the European Cup in Poland and Ukraine in 20/KOOC-0/2/0/100 million, and the final attracted 600 million people.

Because of this, on the one hand, enterprises from all over the world flock to the European Cup, on the other hand, the sponsorship threshold of global partners is extremely high, and each category is completely exclusive. Those who can enter the game must be the top leading enterprises in all walks of life around the world.

It is not only a grand feast, but also a barometer of the changes in the global regional economy and industrial structure.

From the 1980s to the beginning of this century, Japan occupied the position of the second largest economy in the world for a long time. During this period, the Japanese Consumer Electronics Corps dominated the global market, making Japan one of the main source countries of European Cup sponsors.

From 1992 to 2004, there were at least three sponsors from Japan in each World Cup, including as many as four sponsors from 1992, and JVC was never absent.

However, with the advent of the era of smart phones and mobile Internet, Japan's consumer electronics industry has gradually declined, and the number of Japanese companies in the European Cup has gradually decreased. In 2008 and 20 12, only two companies remained. Before the 20 16 European Cup, Sharp withdrew, and Japanese companies were insulated from the European Cup.

After 40 years of reform and opening-up, China's economy has developed rapidly, surpassing Japan to become the second largest economy in the world, and more and more China enterprises have entered the World Cup Top 500 list.

Subsequently, China enterprises began to March into the sponsor camp of European Cup and World Cup. In 20 16, Hisense became the first top global sponsor from Chinese mainland in the 56-year history of UEFA. By the European Cup in 2020, Hisense will no longer be lonely, and Alipay and vivo will be listed one after another.

Not only the changes of countries or regions, but also the types of European Cup sponsors are evolving.

Since the beginning of this century, the new economic industry has risen strongly, and Internet information technology has penetrated almost every corner of the world, changing all walks of life. Therefore, we also clearly see that after automobiles, aviation, beverages and home appliances, new economic enterprises began to sponsor large-scale sports events intensively.

In 20 17, Alibaba became the first top sponsor of cloud computing and e-commerce in the history of the international Olympic Committee; On 20 18, AliPay signed a contract to become the first global partner of mobile payment and digital finance in UEFA history; In addition to Alipay, the European Cup also signed three new economic enterprises, namely booking.com, takeaway.com and Tik Tok.

Among them, Tik Tok represents UEFA's determination to embrace the Z generation. After all, most of the former's monthly activities around the world are Z generation. Hisense will also bring high-quality viewing enjoyment to fans around the world, especially those of generation Z who emphasize the viewing experience through U7 series TV.

Head enterprises from all walks of life in various countries compete to sponsor the European Cup. Is this business worthwhile?

Is it worth it?

Although there are four sponsors from Chinese mainland in this European Cup, except Hisense, the other three are recruits. The reason why they are willing to spend huge sums of money to sponsor the European Cup is precisely because Hisense achieved a comprehensive harvest of international and domestic sales and brands five years ago.

20 1665438+1October 14, UEFA and Hisense both announced in Beijing that Hisense will become the top sponsor of the 2016 European Cup.

Although Hisense has previously sponsored the Australian Open, F 1 Red Bull Racing, nascar Racing, Schalke 04 and other sports IP, it is the first time that Hisense has sponsored such a high-standard world-class event, and the time is very short-only five months before the opening of the European Cup.

But it was such a hasty sponsorship that Hisense unexpectedly achieved great success.

Before sponsoring the 20 16 European Cup, in France, Hisense not only struggled to expand sales channels, but also failed to recruit people after advertising for three to five months. However, after sponsoring the European Cup, Hisense successfully entered the office of Schultz, CEO of Darty, the largest channel provider in France, and the recruitment was much smoother.

Not only that, the European Cup also directly promoted Hisense's overseas popularity-

The success of the European Cup has also strengthened the marketing determination of Hisense Sports Competition. 20 18 World Cup in Russia, Hisense once again strives to become the first consumer electronics brand from Chinese mainland in the history of the World Cup.

The result is also an increase in sales and brand value. One week before the World Cup (from June 4th to 10), the sales of Hisense TV in the Russian market increased by 239% week on week. In the 24th week of 20 18 (June11-June 17), the weekly sales volume was the highest, nearly three times that of the 22nd week.

Sponsoring the 20 18 World Cup in Russia, Hisense's popularity in China has increased by 12%, and it has increased by 6% globally, with strong performance in the markets of Britain, France, Canada, Russia, Spain and Japan.

With the help of the 20 18 World Cup, in 20 19, Hisense TV's global market sales exceeded 20 million units, and its overseas market sales surpassed that of China, making it a key step towards a global enterprise.

Because of the epidemic prevention requirements, only the events held in Budapest can allow 65,438+000% fans to enter the stadium, and the audience in most other venues will not exceed 50%. However, the hosting mechanism of 10 countries and1cities allows sponsors to go deep into European countries, especially Denmark, the Netherlands, Hungary, Azerbaijan and Romania.

Not only that, today's Hisense is not the Hisense that entered the European Cup for the first time five years ago. It is not only familiar with sports marketing, but also leisurely-it doesn't need to cheer itself up through "Hisense TV, China first", and it also presents a V-shaped multi-brand array.

Compared with the past, in terms of rights and interests, as the global official partners of Euro 2020, Hisense's brands such as Hisense, Rong Sheng, Kelon, gorenje, Toshiba and Regza have all been authorized-this is the largest time in history.

For the first time, Hisense deeply bound the European Cup IP with Hisense's global marketing activities, put a large number of advertisements and communication resources into the channels for drainage, and drove sales by volume to realize the integration of products and sales.

There is no doubt that for Hisense, this will be another top-level sports event with a total victory. In fact, before the start of this European Cup, Hisense has already started to harvest good news one after another.

"In overseas markets, laser tv has shown a rapid growth trend since June 2020, and the cumulative sales volume has increased by 326% by the end of 2020." On June 3rd, Wang Wei, vice president of Hisense Video Technology, revealed in an interview with the media that in the first quarter of 20021,Hisense laser tv once again ushered in rapid growth, and its overseas sales increased more than 9 times year-on-year. Laser tv is becoming the new favorite of overseas big-screen consumption.

Among them, Hisense U7 champion series is the most popular. According to the data of Aowei Cloud, in the comprehensive ranking of new products in the offline retail market in March, three products in a new product series of Hisense U7 entered the top ten of the best-selling list, and Hisense 65U7G ranked first, further confirming that 65 inches is becoming a real trend size.

In the main marketing battlefield of the European Cup, Hisense U7 series is also popular. According to statistics, from June 5438 to May this year, the cumulative sales of U7 and U8 series TVs in six European countries (Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Western Russia) increased by181%year-on-year; Sales revenue increased by 258.0% year on year.

label

After every global crisis, people always instinctively hope to bid farewell to the past quickly, forget the pain and find a sense of control over life.

How can people all over the world regain their sense of control over their lives because of the long-term isolation, limited activities and depressed mood caused by the global crisis of COVID-19 epidemic? There is no doubt that the European Cup, the carnival of the whole world, is the best way.

Despite the withdrawal of Bilbao and Dublin, the replacement of Seville and the play-offs in St. Petersburg, the European Cup in 2020 finally met people all over the world.

24 teams, 5 1 game, are bound to be brilliant, 10 countries, 1 1 cities, each with its own style. The 60th anniversary of UEFA and the "participation" of the four major enterprises in China have given this session more significance.

The European Cup has never been just a European competition, but a festival for people all over the world. Now, this is a strong evidence that the world has returned to the right track in a special period.

The European Cup is back, and the orderly and beautiful life that belongs to the whole world is back.