Status: 07/09/2021 6:12 p.m.
Many EM viewers these days are amazed at the strong advertising presence of Chinese companies, sometimes even in Chinese characters. What messages do Vivo or Hisense want to convey?
By Thomas Spinnler,
tagesschau.de
The signs pose a puzzle to the viewers of the European Football Championship. European consumers can hardly feel addressed by the perimeter advertising in Chinese that is often shown during the games because they do not understand it: which offer should they buy, which product should they take a closer look at? But even the Chinese companies, which did not “encrypt” their advertising message for Europeans, raised questions among the viewers, as most of them are unlikely to be familiar with them.
UEFA has tried to explain why China is so present with advertising partners. There is no specific strategy behind this, she said at the request of the BBC. One wants to involve a global audience at the EM; This also applies to the brands that advertise during the tournament.
Four out of twelve European Championship sponsors come from China
Of the twelve main sponsors of the current UEFA European Football Championship, four are from China alone. If a general goal of advertising is to increase awareness, then corporations such as the smartphone manufacturer Vivo or the electronics group Hisense really have some catching up to do.
In Europe, both are mostly known to industry experts, even though Vivo has a market share of just over ten percent on the global smartphone market. And Hisense was the first Chinese company to sponsor UEFA at the 2016 European Championship.
“Open new markets”
Alipay is a subsidiary of Alibaba and a Chinese online payment service. According to its own information, it has a billion users worldwide – but by far the most of them, similar to Vivo, in China. In 2018, Alipay signed an eight-year contract with UEFA for around 200 million euros. The European market for payment systems is still determined by US companies such as PayPal, Apple Pay and Mastercard.
The most popular company of the four representatives in Europe is the Tiktok video portal. The digital entertainment platform has long since had over 100 million users and is particularly popular with children and young people. In any case, it is understandable if these companies want to use the stage of the European Football Championship to increase their awareness. The aim is to open up new markets for Chinese products in Europe, says Pierre Justo from the sports and media consultancy Kantar to the US broadcaster CNBC. Of course, Chinese brands also want to sell their products better in China, says Justo.
“Football is becoming more popular”
It is well known that the Chinese are enthusiastic about football. The final of the European Football Championship 2016 between Portugal and France was watched by more than 50 million on TV. A survey carried out shortly before the European Championship by the statistics portal Statista together with the sports marketing agency Sportfive came to the conclusion that 87 percent of the approximately 1.4 billion Chinese are interested in the European Football Championship. In Germany, only 81 percent of those surveyed said they were interested.
“In any case, football seems to be becoming more popular in China, “said Patrick Franke, China expert at Helaba, in an interview tagesschau.de firmly. However, the enthusiasm for football in China is more something imported from outside. The government also supports sport, says the economist. President Xi Jinping once stated the goal that China would be at the top of the world soccer field by 2050. That in turn would be the modern Chinese version of the English EM song from 1996, “Three Lions”, which says: “Football’s coming home”.
Advertising for the world public
Franke doubts whether so many Chinese watch football that the high millions that Hidense and Co. spend on advertising are worthwhile. However, the expert admits: “For the image in China, advertising is nevertheless helpful, because it is often the case that the Chinese prefer products that come from the western industrialized countries. When companies like Vivo or Alipay appear at the EM, they show it in their home country that they offer internationally recognized products. ”
But maybe you don’t really want to address the fans in China? The China expert Franke points out another important aspect: He suspects that the companies advertise so intensely at the European Football Championship for political reasons. After all, the Chinese corporations are often criticized and are seen in European public opinion as close to the state or even controlled by the state. The Helaba expert explains: “The advertising should set positive impulses and convey to the international audience that you are a regular international company, like the other well-known UEFA advertising partners with whom you can do business without hesitation.”
In this respect, marketing is aimed at the entire global public, is his conclusion. It is not yet possible to say whether the concept will work as a result. But advertising has certainly attracted sufficient media attention.