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Why do Chinese companies advertise at the European Football Championship?

These days, Chinese characters are striking in the perimeter advertising at the European Championships. But why are Chinese corporations investing here – and what are they hoping for?

At the Olympics and the World Cup, we have got used to the fact that companies advertise at an international sporting event that we do not know and that in some cases also do little business on the German market. And in the interests of branding, companies can get over the associated wastage. But at the European Football Championship, several companies appear in the perimeter advertising that advertise with Chinese characters. What’s behind it?

The advertising logos in Chinese characters caught the eye of many viewers at the games of the European Football Championship in the last few days. In the stadiums, among others, the payment service provider Alipay, part of the Alibaba group that dominates Chinese e-commerce, but also smartphone manufacturer Vivo. In addition, the consumer electronics manufacturing Hisense Group from China, a company that is known in Western Europe primarily for televisions and household appliances in the lower price segments. In addition, there is the social media platform Tiktok, although its awareness and presence is to be assumed as given, at least in German children’s and youth rooms. Here, perimeter advertising is primarily responsible for creating brand awareness in the older target groups.

Alipay: Controversial as a payment service provider

Perimeter advertising has been nothing unusual for Asian corporations such as Sony, Panasonic or LG since the 1980s – when it comes to corporations of this size that already have larger market shares in European markets. Apart from Tiktok, which could not only say something to younger users in Germany and Europe, the question arises, especially at Alipay, why they undertake such a financial show of strength at a major European sporting event. In fact, the company is primarily aiming at brand awareness – and at the Chinese expats, who can indeed pay with Alipay in many places in Germany. According to industry experts, Alipay is said to have paid around 200 million euros for an eight-year advertising partnership with Uefa.

But Alipay in particular is a thorn in the side of security authorities – both the German intelligence agencies speak in their annual report of possible access by Chinese government agencies as well as the Swiss data protection warns against insufficient protection for domestic data. It is to be feared that personal and transaction information would be shared with Chinese police organizations.

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Vivo wants to be present across Europe by the end of 2021

The case with Vivo looks less serious: with 38.7 million smartphones, the smartphone manufacturer is already one of the top 5 smartphone manufacturers worldwide (behind Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi – and thus ahead of Huawei), but is only present in individual European markets represented with its devices. By the end of the year, however, the plan is to sell the models in all relevant European countries – with a global market share of 10.2 percent, this already looks very promising. Vivo claims to want to score points with lower prices for technical equipment features – and with the growing awareness of the brand, which of course now also works through the investment of EM advertising.

Such a calculation can work, as the Hisense case shows, which are already a few steps further in terms of market development. The company explains that since the first sponsorship for the European championship five years ago, the electronics manufacturer’s level of awareness has almost doubled in the leading countries in Europe – how much of that can be attributed to the sponsorship is of course difficult to quantify. The company, which has existed in China since 1969, has been selling televisions in Germany since 2006, initially through a few electronics chains and in manageable quantities. From 2013 to 2019 the company was even a cooperation partner of the traditional German brand Loewe from Kronach. In 2018, Hisense took over 94 percent of the Slovenian household appliance manufacturer Gorenje.

Perimeter advertising as a status symbol for advancement

But football sponsorship is apparently also a status symbol for companies. “Covid and geopolitics will not prevent our brands from going global,” explains the nationalist party newspaper Global Times – and whoever speaks to the Chinese learns that European (and especially German) football players are known in China, at least by name . Whether it is enough for a national team that can play at world level, given the promotion of young talent in football, remains to be seen. At least the 2022 World Cup, which is currently qualifying, would be the first in 20 years that China has participated. In the all-time table of finalists, China is 76th – out of a total of 79 teams that have each participated in a World Cup.

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