The belated European Cup, the sluggish gold digger

There is not much time left for the capital.

In the 1/8 final of the European Cup that ended in the early morning of June 28, the Netherlands was upset 0:2 and lost to the Czech Republic. As the ambassador of the team, the Dutch star Sneijder also appeared on the sidelines. Sneijder has just been on the hot search because of his serious stature and fatness if two people are "fat".

If there were no epidemics, Bai Qiang would have been sitting next to Sneijder and witnessed the darkest moment when the Orange Corps stopped in the quarterfinals. But now, he can only stay in Japan and watch the European Cup in front of the TV. After the release of the State Council’s “Document No. 46” to accelerate the development of the sports industry in 2014, Bai Qiang and well-known commentators Huang Jianxiang and Sneijder joined forces to establish Dongba Sports.

Bai Qiang told the author that after the company's business model has been adjusted several times over the years, 2020 will finally catch up with the sports year, and the European Cup is an excellent business opportunity for them. Originally, they wanted to transform into a cross-border e-commerce business by grafting Sneijder and other football stars and club fan influence, but this idea was blocked by the epidemic in one fell swoop.

As the world's top sports IP second only to the Olympics and the World Cup, the copyrighted content of the European Cup itself, advertising sponsorship, tickets for watching games and other peripheral products are the core gold absorbing tools, relying on tourism, hotels, transportation, catering, etc., driven by the competition This is especially true for surrounding industries.

Affected by the global epidemic, events such as the European Cup and the Tokyo Olympics have been postponed to 2021, and they are even fluctuating between whether they will be held or not. Today, the European Cup in 2020 has finally returned after a one-year delay. This can be regarded as the first test of the top sports IP after the global epidemic has improved. From event organization to epidemic prevention and control, to commercial competition results, it has become the focus of attention from the outside world.

In this European Cup, a total of 4 Chinese-backed companies have become official sponsors, accounting for 1/3 of the total, including Hisense, Alipay, Vivo and TikTok. European Cup-related topics are often seen in hot search lists. However, a grim fact is that the impact of the epidemic on sports events, including the European Cup, is still lingering.

Focusing on the increasingly high participation in the Chinese market, the economy around this European Cup is relatively quiet, more Chinese companies are less interested in brand marketing with the help of European Cup IP, and the distribution income of copyright owners is also difficult to achieve. expected.

Like Bai Qiang, Chinese gold prospectors who longed to share the economic pie of the European Cup had to regret it.

"This is the first time I didn't go to the scene during the competition in more than 10 years. I had to go three weeks in advance for previous editions, and leave for another week after the competition." Feng Tao, CEO of Blooming Sports, told the author in the Beijing office.

In the 2016 European Cup, with the support and assistance of Bloom Sports, the home appliance company Hisense became the first official top sponsor in China in the 56 years since the event was established. After experiencing the sweetness of binding top sports IPs for marketing, Hisense is eager to explore overseas markets. , Immediately sponsored the 2018 World Cup and the 2020 European Cup; in 2018, Alipay also became the official sponsor of the 2020 and 2024 European Cups with the assistance of blooming.

In this European Cup, judging from the signing time of official domestic sponsors, except for TikTok which was signed in February 2021, the other three have signed contracts before the epidemic.

"The closer you leave the game, the shorter the time for the company to activate its rights, and the cheaper the price." A domestic sports marketing professional told the author that the more competitive the category, the more expensive the price, such as Coca-Cola for beverages. The category, Alipay, and VISA compete in payment categories, while Hisense and Vivo in the 3C category with relatively flat competition, and TikTok, which is a new category of technology entertainment media, have relatively low sponsorship fees.

Hisense France sales director previously revealed that in 2016 the company signed a two-year contract with UEFA, and the sponsorship fee was 40 million to 60 million euros; and according to the Associated Press, Alipay signed a contract with UEFA for 8 years in 2018, costing 200 million. EUR.

Another sports marketing veteran told the author that UEFA generally binds and sells the most core European Cup and European World Cup qualifiers and other events. Each event has an increase of about 20%. Now the total sponsorship fee is Usually more than 70 million-80 million euros, depending on the category, the general company will complete the contract at least one year before the start of the game, "If you do not sign early, such as the European Cup qualifiers, group draws, new jersey ball releases, etc. The rights and interests of a series of brand exposures can't keep up."

Relying on the influence of top foreign sports IPs, breaking cultural barriers, enhancing corporate brand power, and ultimately boosting product sales are the reasons why Chinese companies are actively becoming official sponsors. Although affected by the epidemic, the influence of the European Cup is relatively lower than expected before the epidemic, but under the high sponsorship fees, companies are still working hard to release the brand influence of the European Cup IP.

As an official sponsor, the scrolling enclosure advertisements on the sidelines of the competition and the score pop-up window on the broadcast screen are the core rights and interests resources. In addition to the sponsorship rights granted by UEFA, sponsors often invest more funds to activate their peripheral rights, such as through a series of advertising brand marketing and landing activities, to maximize their rights.

"Before the 2019 epidemic, the blooming helped Hisense made a lot of marketing and promotion plans, repeatedly making plans and being overthrown." Feng Tao told the author that by the 1:1 or 1:2 ratio of sports marketing, he invested a dollar to become a sponsor. Business, you have to spend two dollars to activate the rights. Finally, because of the epidemic, all offline activities planned by them were forced to cancel, and they could only go online, and the investment in activating rights and interests of enterprises was relatively small.

Earlier, there were market rumors that the enclosure advertisements that Chinese audiences saw through the screen were virtual advertisements specially tailored for Chinese people, which was not consistent with the content of the advertisements seen by the live audience. In fact, according to the information, the author has learned, official sponsors have brand exposure and dissemination rights in about 120 countries and regions around the world, and the European Cup official has not adopted virtual advertising technology.

On June 26, half a month after the opening of the European Cup, Hisense announced that the global sales of its two TV products in the first half of the year increased by 143% year-on-year. In Europe, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Western Europe, cumulative sales increased by 205% year-on-year.

Limited by the high cost of official sponsors of the European Cup, choosing to cooperate with C Ronaldo, Mbappe, Benzema and other stars, or with favorite teams such as France, Portugal, and England to win the championship, is also the past Chinese companies "crushing" to the European Cup Method of heat. But in this competition, this phenomenon almost disappeared.

"Sponsorships of this kind are short and flat. Signs were signed half a year before the start of the competition. There were a lot of contracts in the past. This year, they have almost shrunk to a small percentage." Sports events are highly planned and require a long period of preparation and planning to form a complete set of sports events, said Zhang Peng, vice president of Tiao Power. Marketing strategy, but the epidemic has disrupted the rhythm of the event, and factors such as whether it can be held or which country will be hosted are uncertain. The rhythm of corporate sponsorship has also been disrupted. It is difficult for brands to have the time and courage to try. , The investment in the early stage has been overwhelmed, so they are all in a wait-and-see state."

The author understands that in the current market, the top players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi usually have a signing price of more than 3 million euros, while well-known national teams are around 2 million euros. In March 2021, a domestic electric vehicle brand officially announced the signing of Ronaldo, but as far as the eyes can be seen, this is almost the only case in which a Chinese company has participated in such sponsorship.

Zhu Xiaodong, CEO of Lizan Sports, who has many years of experience in sports marketing, told the author that due to the impact of the epidemic, sports event IP has been shrinking in the past two years. It does not often appear in the public eye, and its influence will naturally weaken. In addition, sports marketing is still more focused on user viewing data and the value binding that occupies the user’s mind. It is expected that the love for the game will be transformed into the love for the company’s products. But now the brand is more pursuing effective communication, from watching the game to Data on product conversion is difficult to provide.

"C Ronaldo has the largest number of fans in the global cultural and sports field, but among the domestic young people, the popularity may not be as popular as Wang Yibo, Xiao Zhan and other traffic stars." Zhu Xiaodong told the author that many brands are now more willing to use traffic to entertain celebrities, despite Ronaldo's these. The fighting spirit embodied by sports stars may be more helpful to brand building. "Sports marketing still needs more data to prove this."

In the layout of the live broadcast of the European Cup 2020 in Mainland China, CCTV continues to own the TV rights, while Xinying Sports, a subsidiary of Contemporary Style (600136.SH), owns the exclusive rights and distribution rights for new media.

According to the author's understanding, before the epidemic, Xinying Sports entrusted the new media copyright to CCTV for distribution. Eventually, China Mobile's Migu Video obtained the new media copyright and the distribution rights in the field of telecom operators from CCTV.

Xinying Sports President Yu Lingxiao, who has many years of experience in Premier League copyright distribution, explained to the author that in the Chinese market, the sports content business is difficult to do. The company’s cooperation with CCTV in the European Cup is also the first attempt at copyright distribution. The two parties are also discussing various ways of cooperation in advertising management and other aspects.

In the end, in addition to Xinying Sports itself and iqiyi’s joint venture iQiyi Sports (ie Xinai Sports), mainstream sports long video new media platforms such as Tencent, Youku, and Suning PP Sports, as well as short videos such as Douyin and Kuaishou All platforms failed to get the copyright content rights of this European Cup.

In the context of the epidemic, the popularity of Internet platforms for copyright IP has declined, and copyright distribution has been cold. However, for Xinying Sports, the exclusive new media copyright obtained from UEFA at high prices was not due to this force majeure factor. And let the copyright price be discounted.

In fact, as the person in charge of New Ai Sports at the same time, Yu Lingxiao believes that the investment promotion results of the iQiyi Sports platform in the European Cup have "achieved the expected goals", including Volvo, Heineken, Meituan, Volkswagen, JD.com Ten companies including, Durex, etc. became platform advertisers, and the live broadcast traffic of the match also exceeded expectations. However, Xinying Sports, the copyright platform he is responsible for, may eventually differ by 50% from the expected distribution revenue.

Even so, Yu Lingxiao did not separate and sell the European Cup short video rights separately, because "Everyone is willing to buy the European Cup, a good product, but it cannot reach the price that matches its value, so I will not sell it. I believe After the event is broadcast, the outside world will realize the value and status of the European Cup." He firmly believes in the value of the European Cup IP.

"Short video is a very important asset for sports IP. I have never sold short video rights alone for all the copyrights I made." Yu Lingxiao further explained that the entertainment and film industry uses short video platforms to make content announcements. "Long" has a certain business logic, but there is no way to spoil the game. Editing a 90-minute football game into a 3-minute highlight collection will make the heavy users that were originally cultivated will become lighter and lighter, which will harm the value of copyright. , The commercialization of long videos is impossible to talk about.

On the other hand, Douyin and Kuaishou have been actively supplementing the IP content of sports events in recent years. Before this, the two officially announced that they had obtained the rights to live broadcast of America's Cup that started at the same time as the European Cup. On June 23, the Kuaishou official announced that it had obtained the "on-demand + short video" copyright for the Tokyo Olympics and the Beijing Winter Olympics from CCTV.

In Yu Lingxiao’s view, there are hundreds of sports event IPs, but the only real value is the head IP. The IP value below the waist is very weak, so the copyright price is also very different. "For example, compared to the European Cup, America’s Cup is completely absent. The value of the same individual volume level is like the gap between 1 million and 500 million. If you just try with the IP of the tail game and you come to the conclusion that there is no traffic in sports, then the conclusion must be wrong."

Choosing to cooperate with media platforms that have copyrighted content is also a convenient rule for companies to bind event IP. Similarly, from the perspective of the overall scale, the scale of Chinese companies participating in the marketing of the 2020 European Cup through the media platform is difficult to compare with previous competitions.

"Previous sports competitions always have one or two brands that will stand out." The above-mentioned sports marketing veteran told the author. For example, in the 2018 World Cup, the brainwashing advertisements of BOSS direct recruitment, hornet's nest, and shell house search were bombarded every day. I haven't seen a similar event. "Compared with the Winter Olympics in 2021, the risk factor is much smaller. National teams such as women's volleyball and badminton have signed many sponsors.

However, some senior industry insiders told the author that the brand advertisements for the 2018 World Cup were broadcast simultaneously on CCTV, Youku, and Migu, so the advertising effect was very strong. In this competition, the copyright owners attracted their own investment, and the audience’s attention was attracted by many. The decentralization of platforms is not due to the decline in the influence of the event IP. "In the current domestic sports event broadcasting pattern, the influence of the CCTV platform is obviously declining, the new media platform is rising, and the old and new forces are in the process of iterative conversion."

"It may indicate that they have no confidence, and the popularity of the scene is not as good as in the past." A CMO of a unicorn company that has just received hundreds of millions of yuan in financing this year told the author that he went to Shanghai to participate in the marketing plan promotion conference held by CCTV in May this year. The three resources of the Tokyo Olympics, the Beijing Winter Olympics and the European Cup were bundled and sold.

The company did not participate in the marketing of the European Cup in the end. The CMO explained to the author that it was only one or two months before the start of the competition in May, and the time was too tight. Companies generally have to make marketing plans six months in advance. At that time, I don’t know how much the epidemic will affect this year’s sports events, so I don’t have this budget."

Another person from the corporate marketing department who had previously participated in World Cup marketing directly stated, "Our focus is on the Olympics."

However, the impact of the epidemic on the Olympic Games is not optimistic. Taking the Tokyo Olympics, which opened on July 23, for example, due to the official decision not to accept overseas spectators, income from tickets and tourism will inevitably be greatly reduced, the excitement of the events will be weakened, and copyright prices will also directly face shrinking problems.

According to UEFA’s official financial report data, its 2016 European Cup event revenue rose 37% year-on-year to 1.916 billion euros, of which copyright revenue rose 22% to 1.024 billion euros, commercial sponsorship rose 54% to 483 million euros, and tickets. Revenue from peripheral products reached 409 million euros.

According to foreign media reports such as Forbes, UEFA originally expected Euro 2020 revenue to grow to 2.5 billion euros and net profit to exceed 1 billion euros, but the postponement of the tournament has caused 300 million euros in losses. Ticket losses bear the brunt. In addition to the 100% attendance rate of Budapest, the capital of Hungary, the epidemic has led to insufficient attendance at other venues. For example, the Wembley Stadium in London, England, which can accommodate up to 90,000 people, only opened 25% of the seats in the group stage.

At the same time, the epidemic has also prevented domestic fans from going to Europe to watch football. For Blooming Sports Tourism, which is the official hospitality ticket partner of this year's European Cup Greater China, this revenue has also dropped directly to the freezing point.

Different from ordinary tickets, except for hospitality tickets to have a better place to watch the game, the package also includes value-added services such as private car, catering, hotel, aviation, city tourism, etc. The price is also more expensive, ranging from three to four thousand yuan to several hundred thousand yuan, and there are many customers For high-end customers such as business owners.

“Before the outbreak of the epidemic at the end of 2019, all the tickets we locked for the European Cup have been sold out. The number of spectators is expected to exceed 20,000, and the sales revenue will exceed 100 million yuan.” Blooming Sports CEO Feng Tao revealed to the author that sports tourism vertical details The sub-markets have been rising in recent years. "The 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the blooming time had 700 people for the first time, and the 2018 World Cup in Russia increased to tens of thousands of people. Together with the work needs of assisting official sponsors such as Hisense, we have The Beijing office is empty. There are hundreds of people on the team going to the front. Only a few people from the European office are in front of this European Cup."

Feng Tao said that the epidemic has caused basically all tickets sold in Europe to be refunded free of charge, but the company's reservations for hotels, private cars and other services cannot be refunded, "huge losses".

The European Cup is the world's top event to test the waters for the first time after the epidemic. Fortunately, half of the game schedule did not cause a new wave of epidemics caused by the gathering of fans, and the attendance rate has also increased. On June 22, the British government announced that London's Wembley Stadium, which has agreed to host the semi-finals and finals, can accommodate 60,000 spectators. This will undoubtedly help the recovery of the event economy and boost the confidence of other sports event participants.

Right now, for more Chinese gold prospectors, as the National Football team enters the top 12 of the Asian World Cup, as well as the upcoming Tokyo Olympics and Beijing Winter Olympics, they are gearing up for the business opportunities contained therein.

After the setbacks in sports tourism and offline events, Bloom Sports is currently focusing on helping its customers Hisense and Alipay to provide marketing services for the European Cup. In 2017, Blooming Sports assisted Alibaba to become the world's top sponsor of the International Olympic Committee, with a contract period of 12 years, spanning the Tokyo Olympics and the Beijing Winter Olympics. A large number of Olympic rights owned by Ali has already begun to activate, and Feng Tao predicts that he will "be busy for a while."

The economy of sports events is also improving. On June 28, two Chinese ceramic tile brands became the official suppliers of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Up to now, the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee has signed up to 45 sponsors.