- Zoe Kleinman
- BBC Technology Correspondent
Image source,Getty Images
In the Euro 2020 football match between England and Germany last week, everyone’s eyes followed the ball-the same for me.
However, almost every time I see electronic billboards rolling on the side of Wembley Stadium (Wembley Stadium), it shows a super brand from China.
In the last competition held in 2016, there was only one Chinese sponsor-the TV brand HiSense.
This time, Hisense has added some companions on the billboard, including TikTok, Vivo and Alipay.
On the official list of “partners”, you can’t see any similar brands in the United States-whether it’s Facebook, Google, Amazon or Apple, none of them appear.
UEFA, the organizer of the tournament, told the BBC that they “have no specific strategy” regarding cooperation with China.
“However, we do try to take into account the global audience, as are the brands that participate in our commercial projects,” UEFA said.
Image source,Shaun Botterill – UEFA
England midfielder Declan Rice (Declan Rice) in the game, behind him is the Chinese smartphone brand Vivo (Vivo).
TikTok, which claims that its international platform has been operated separately from its domestic business, only cooperated with UEFA in this tournament and published a lot of promotional content on its platform, including branded augmented reality (AR) special effects, TikTok Live broadcast and challenge events with hashtags.
UEFA even opened its own official account for this purpose, followed by 4.2 million people.
China’s online payment platform Alipay brought its own subsidiary, the blockchain platform Antchain. Both are part of the technology company Ant Group.
Blockchain is a digital ledger that is stored on multiple separate computers, making it more difficult to modify or forge records. It is most commonly used to track virtual currency circulation records, but it can also be used to store other types of information.
You cannot use Alipay without a Chinese ID card. Just last month, AntChain announced a five-year agreement with UEFA-Alipay itself has an eight-year agreement.
Alipay is now the top scorer trophy sponsoring the game, and all goals are recorded on the AntChain.
Image source,UEFA
Alipay’s 2020 European Cup best scorer trophy.
UEFA’s official statement said without hesitation that at the bottom of the trophy, it was marked with a hashtag, “emphasizing that Antchain is committed to ensuring that the best scorer’s performance through blockchain technology has a permanent and indelible record.”
This is a marketing discourse, used to promote…and it is difficult to say what it is. So, what exactly do these brands want from it?
Chen Shushu, a lecturer in sports policy and management at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, said that after the 2016 event sponsorship, Hisense has indeed improved in sales.
However, it may not be a coincidence that Chinese President Xi Jinping is a well-known fan, and at the level of government and regulatory supervision, as the supervision of China’s technology giants tightens, it supports football in such a high-profile way. This “beautiful game” can be seen as a smart PR move.
Matt Bailey, a senior advertising analyst at market research firm Omdia, also agrees that these companies are “feeling pressure” in their home markets.
“For Chinese companies, Europe is becoming an increasingly important market,” he said, referring to the “burst” of TikTok in 2020.
Image source,Getty Images
In 2017, Xi Jinping watched a match between the youth teams of China and Germany during his visit to Berlin, Germany.
In 2014, Xi Jinping included football in the national school education syllabus, and the China Super League (CSL) also entered a period of great concern in 2016. At that time, there were many high-priced acquisitions of foreign aid operations.
One of the largest transactions was the purchase of Brazilian star Oscar from Chelsea (Chelsea), who now plays for Shanghai SIPG. At that time, he signed a contract with a worth of 60 million pounds, and reports stated that his starting weekly salary was 400,000 pounds.
However, despite so many large-scale transactions, there are also signs that these money bags are about to bottom out. In December 2020, the Chinese Super League announced the implementation of a salary cap system for players-the saying at the time was that this was to “boycott Jinyuan football.”
In any case, Chinese fans have already set their sights on the West. England’s Arsenal FC (Arsenal FC, Arsenal/Arsenal) is said to have 200 million Chinese fans-equivalent to three times the total population of the UK.
Image source,Getty Images
An advertisement for the sports brand Adidas, which is the official game ball provider for the 2020 European Cup.
And they are also watching these games-BBC Media Observer analyst Kerry Allen said that on China’s Weibo platform, there are more than 5 million posts with European Cup hashtags.
“Many Chinese financial media have reported that Chinese companies account for one-third of the official sponsors of the European Cup,” she said.
“Because of the popularity of football in this country, Chinese audiences are happy to see it happen.”
Although China is very enthusiastic about football, the Chinese national football team ranks only 75 in the world. The last time they entered the FIFA World Cup (FIFA World Cup) competition was in 2002, which was almost 20 years ago.
If this country wants to shine on the football stage, at most it can only buy advertisements?
Joe de Kwant Stoner, managing director of Big Orange Media, a market research firm based in Tunbridge Wells, said that this is possible, but it doesn’t stop there.
“After all, it’s all about brand awareness,” he said.
“These advertisements don’t really explain the products or services, they are merely mentioning the names repeatedly. Even my eight-year-old children have begun to learn to call them by their names because they often hear them in promotional videos.
He also said that this is evidence of the continued vitality of TV advertising.
“Online advertising and people spend more time online-the media advertising space that enters homes has shrunk a lot in the past 15 months,” he said.
“The European Cup provides an opportunity to reach a market audience. People have not received such a thing for a long time.”
Cindy Gallop, a veteran of the advertising industry and founder of the platform “Make Love Not Porn”, is half of Chinese descent, and she said there is another potential message that is important.
“Under the vision that all countries need to stop their hatred of Asians, I think it is very good for Chinese brands to become part of the familiar international language scene of football.”
“I was shocked when I saw Chinese advertisements-especially those with Chinese… but it is absolutely reasonable.”