Yao-Mania: Hoop Star's Visit To China Evokes Beatles, 1964
SHANGHAI -- Sports is a big business. China is a big market. But it has taken a big Chinese basketball star to bring the two together.
Yao Ming's return to China this week for two preseason National Basketball Association games has put on full display the nation's frenzied embrace of the Houston Rockets' towering center. His reception explains why multinationals are eager to use sports to court the estimated 300 million young Chinese consumers, who are emerging as a critical audience for global marketing campaigns.
Tickets sold out in within hours to games pitting Houston against the Sacramento Kings, played yesterday in Shanghai and set for Beijing on Sunday. A courtside seat went for $2,500, more than twice the annual income of an average Chinese. Some of Mr. Yao's public appearances weren't disclosed in advance to keep crowds in check.
At an event to launch Reebok's new Yao Ming signature shoe Wednesday night, dozens of fans broke through a police barricade and pounded Mr. Yao's departing van. Among them was a reed-thin lady in librarian glasses, who pursued the vehicle through Shanghai's rush-hour traffic.
Advertisers paid some $10 million to sponsor two games and ally themselves with Yao Ming.
"It's like the Beatles on tour," says NBA Commissioner David Stern , who has led a China expansion that is now the cornerstone of the league's global marketing strategy. "We are bringing the favorite son home for two concerts."
Despite its well-oiled marketing machine, the NBA experienced some glitches with the visit. Shanghai officials were unhappy that the Reebok shoe launch was held on a patchy concrete basketball court that is set to be demolished. Scalpers, who snapped up many of the tickets to the Shanghai game, paid migrant workers to stand in line for hours to buy the maximum four per person; the street sales inflated already-expensive ticket prices.
But a local hero is a powerful draw. Mr. Yao, who started in last year's NBA All-Star Game, embodies the hopes of many Chinese for a positive image overseas. Mr. Yao, in turn, says he hopes his commercial appeal can be used to stoke business interest in his home country. "We can use the NBA to promote the China market," he says, once his van had outpaced the last sprinting autograph seeker. "The [sponsors] are helping me and I am helping them. It's mutually beneficial."
In return for sponsoring the two NBA games -- at a price tag of nearly $10 million -- companies such as Eastman Kodak Co., Coca-Cola Co., McDonald's Corp., Reebok International Ltd. and Anheuser-Busch Cos. are conducting sales blitzes, often accompanied by Mr. Yao's image. Some are reporting immediate dividends: Kodak says its China stores have seen a 30% rise in digital-printing volume since its Yao Ming promotion began Sept. 10.
But most have longer-term goals in mind. Reebok, which signed Mr. Yao last year to a multimillion-dollar shoe deal, recently has been opening a new store in China every other day in a race to catch up to Nike Inc. After missteps in the 1980s, Reebok says it aims to grab a 25% share of what will become a $1.5 billion market for sports apparel in the next five years.
"With Yao and our partnership with the NBA, we wanted to come back to China," says Reebok Chairman and Chief Executive Paul Fireman. "It's the No. 1 frontier for growth and, ultimately, China could become the world's biggest market in terms of consumption."
Until Mr. Yao, sports were an iffy commercial bet in China. Chinese athletes weren't well-known abroad, nor were they attuned to corporate needs. Shoe executives would complain that athletes would show up at events wearing gear manufactured by their rivals.
Much has changed with the approach of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Chinese officials are encouraging teams and athletes to solicit sponsorships and abide by the terms. They have stepped aside during legal tussles, as when Mr. Yao, who has a contract with PepsiCo Inc., sued Coca-Cola last year for unauthorized use of his picture on a bottle. (Mr. Yao dropped the suit after Coke apologized.)
"Sports officials for the longest time only paid attention to sports inside the lines," says Terry Rhoads, co-general manager of Zou Marketing, a Shanghai firm that stages sports promotions. "Now they are interested in what goes on outside the lines, the business of sports."
The new awareness coincides with global marketing campaigns from professional sports leagues. The NBA had been cultivating ties to China for decades, but only after Mr. Yao joined the league in 2002 did interest here explode. This season, the NBA plans to broadcast eight games a week over 14 networks in China. Last season, a deal with 13 networks reached 314 million Chinese households.
Yesterday, in a packed Shanghai stadium, the Rockets defeated the Kings 88-86, with Yao Ming scoring 14 points. Fans banged plastic "thunder sticks," cheered the dancers and chanted "Yao Ming! Yao Ming!" at the end of the game.
Heavy emphasis on a single player concerns some executives, who have seen injuries and scandals ruin marriages between companies and athletes. "You can't discount that Yao Ming brings a load of media attention, but it has to be the game at the end of the day," says Tony Ponturo, vice president of global media and sports marketing for Anheuser-Busch. On a Budweiser promotional basketball court outside the Shanghai stadium, Mr. Yao's image shared space with other players.
Still, for now, Mr. Yao is one of the few athletes offering marketers access to China's free-spending young urbanites, who are quick to embrace global trends. Even with his help, Reebok doesn't expect to be profitable in China anytime soon, Mr. Fireman says. Just as in the U.S., the China market demands top-line products and the hottest pitchmen. Yao Ming is only one big step, Mr. Fireman says. "We now have to find the athletes of the future."
小巨人带来大市场
体育能带来巨大的商业利益。中国是巨大的市场。但凭借一位中国篮球明星这二者才有机地结合起来。
姚明本周回到中国，参加美国职业篮球联赛(NBA)在中国举行的两场季前赛，他的到来使中国人有机会将对这位身材高大的休斯顿火箭队核心人物的疯狂热爱表现得淋漓尽致，也彰显出跨国公司对通过体育来吸引大约3亿名中国的年轻消费者越来越加重视。
休斯顿火箭队与国王队周四晚在上海和周日在北京的比赛门票几个小时内即被抢购一空。场地边坐席的票价高达每张2,500美元，是中国人均年收入的两倍多。在锐步公司(Reebok International Ltd., RBK)周三晚推出姚明签名的新篮球鞋后，数十名球迷冲破警察的阻拦，追赶著姚明离去的汽车，人群中甚至还包括一位身材非常瘦弱的女性。
NBA的总裁大卫?斯特恩(David Stern)说，这可与当年甲壳虫(Beatles)乐队的巡回演出相媲美。他坚定地认为向中国扩张是NBA全球营销战略的基石。
尽管NBA的营销策略相当完美，但其中也略有缺憾。上海市的官员对锐步鞋的赠送仪式在即将废弃的水泥篮球场上举行感到不快。黄牛党获得了NBA上海赛的大部分球票。他们花钱请外地民工排队几个小时，购买每人限额4张的球票。他们的炒作使得本已不便宜的球票更加昂贵。
但本地的英雄人物具有巨大的感召力。从去年开始参加NBA全明星赛的姚明寄托了许多中国人渴望在海外树立中国人良好形象的期待。而姚明则表示，希望他的商业魅力可用于为中国开拓商业利益。他说：“我们可以用NBA推广中国市场，赞助商帮助了我，我也帮助了他们。”为了从对这两场NBA比赛的赞助中获得回报（赞助费接近1,000万美元），伊士曼-柯达公司(Eastman Kodak Co., EK)、可口可乐(Coca Cola Co.)、麦当劳(McDonald's Corp.)、锐步(Reebok International Ltd.)和安海斯公司(Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., BUD)都开展了营销活动，其中多是借助姚明的形象。部分公司称效果非常显著，柯达说，自姚明的促销广告9月10日开播以来，其中国商店的数码冲洗业务量增长了30%。
但大多数企业都有更加长远的目标，希望与姚明的关系将提升其企业形象，推动企业的扩张。锐步去年与姚明签订了数百万美元的运动鞋协议，该公司现在以每两天新开一家店的速度在中国扩张，以追赶市场领头羊耐克(Nike Inc.)。在经历了二十世纪八十年代时的失利后，锐步现在希望能在这个今后5年中达到15亿美元规模的运动服装市场上夺得25%的占有率。
锐步公司的董事长兼首席执行长保罗?费曼(Paul Fireman)说，正因为有了姚明以及锐步与NBA的合作伙伴关系，该公司才决定重返中国。他说，中国是最具增长潜力的市场，并且最终会成为世界最大的消费市场。
一些外国赞助商已对中国的职业体育联赛感到失望，篮球联赛缺乏观众，足球联赛又被指控存在假球。在姚明出现之前，中国体育明星的商业价值一直是件靠不住的东西。这些运动员要么国际知名度不高，要么常常触犯赞助企业的忌讳。运动鞋制造商的管理人士抱怨说，有些与他们签了约的运动员在体育比赛中穿的却是其竞争对手提供的运动鞋。
但随著2008年北京夏季奥运会的临近，情况已有了很大改观。中国官员们正敦促运动队和运动员们为自己寻找赞助商，并遵守与赞助商签订的条约。姚明去年曾对可口可乐公司(Coca-Cola)提出起诉，称后者未经授权就将他的照片印到了饮料瓶上，而姚明的签约方是百事公司(PepsiCo Inc.)，可口可乐公司后来向姚明公开表示了道歉。而中国的其他运动员在碰到这类事情时往往会选择退让。
上海的体育推广企业前锐公司(Zou Marketing)的总经理钟平滔(Terry Rhoads)说，中国的体育官员一直只关注体育界的事，他们现在也对体育圈外的事情感兴趣了，比如体育商务。
就在中国体育官员的商业意识觉醒的时候，NBA等职业运动协会恰巧开始了其全球营销行动。NBA从上世纪70年代末起就一直试图与中国建立起联系，但只是在姚明于2002年加盟NBA后，中国球迷对NBA赛事的兴趣才开始爆炸性增长。本赛季，NBA计划通过14家电视台每周向中国转播8场比赛。上赛季中国有13家电视台转播了NBA比赛，3.14亿个中国家庭都可收看到这个节目。
然而一些商界人士担心，如此倚重一位球员，如果他因伤病而结束了自己的运动生涯或爆出了个人丑闻，那么赞助商和运动员之间的这种合作关系也将随之终止。安海斯公司负责全球媒体和运动营销的副总裁托尼?庞托若(Tony Ponturo)说，姚明带来的媒体关注不可小视，但归根结底还要靠赛事来吸引人。在上海体育场外一个举行百威啤酒(Budweiser)促销活动的篮球场内，姚明与其他运动员的照片并列在了一起。
不过，姚明目前仍是为数不多几个能对商家垂涎欲滴的目标消费者有吸引力的运动员。这些消费者是些花钱大方的都市年青人，他们对全球流行趋势接受得非常快。赢得这些消费者的心需要付出高昂代价。费曼说，即使有了姚明的帮助，锐步公司也不指望它在中国的业务能够很快盈利。他说，就像在美国一样，中国市场目前也需要顶级的产品和最热门的产品促销员；姚明只是在这方面迈出的一大步而已。
费曼说，现在需要为未来寻找运动员。
