August 9, 2008 3:37 PM
The Greatest Free Ad Ever
To understand the enormity of last night's torch lighting ceremony, with potentially billions of eyes watching as former Chinese gymnast Li Ning flew through the Beijing night, consider this:Imagine the year is 1996. Reebok is the official sponsor of the Games. They've spent quite a bit of money trying to convince the world to buy Reebok shoes and clothing. The Atlanta organizing committee is keeping things hush about who will light the torch. And then, imagine this: Nike CEO Phil Knight parachutes into the Opening Ceremonies, torch in hand, and lights the Olympic flame. The next day, everyone's talking about Nike, and nobody's talking about Reebok.
Sound far fetched? Not if you think about what happened last night.
Li Ning isn't just China's most famous gymnast. He's also created the most popular Chinese shoe company, Li-Ning. This year, they're outfitting tons of Olympians, like Argentina's basketball squad, Tanzania's track & field athletes and even China's ping pong players. But they're not an official Olympic sponsor, which means a diminished role for the company in terms of domestic and international advertising during the Games.
Official Olympic sponsors -- like Coca Cola, which has spent more than $70 million just for the right to be a sponsor, and Adidas, the clothing line and shoe of Beijing 2008 -- have everything riding on these Games. They're counting on visibility to boost their market share in a country of 1.3 billion.
So you can imagine how executives at Adidas must have felt when Li Ning stole the biggest moment in the entire Opening Ceremonies. A billion people in China saw him running across the rafters at the Bird's Nest and thought not just of the gymnast but also of his shoes. The exposure alone last night on CCTV, along with the picture of Li Ning that ran on the front page of every national newspaper here, easily makes it the greatest two or three minutes of free advertising in television history.
For those of you who disagree, don't forget: this entire country was tuned into the Opening Ceremonies, and worldwide, millions more saw Li Ning light the torch and learned that he owns a shoe company. Even the best Clydesdale ad at the Super Bowl doesn't reach 100 million people.
One more question people should be asking: seeing as Li Ning represents one of Adidas' biggest competitors, did the moment violate some sort of contract between Adidas and the IOC? I cant imagine so. But if I was over at Adidas, I'd be wondering how exactly one man just sold millions of sneakers without ever spending a penny (well, technically, a yuan).Who knows what kind of profit Li-Ning will reap from the torch lighting, though I can tell you that both of the company's stores in the popular Wangfujing District (see photo, above right) were packed today. At the same hour, just down the street, Adidas and Nike weren't doing nearly as much business.
There is some irony in all of this, though: Li Ning was wearing Adidas clothing while lighting the torch. After all, they're still the official sponsor of the Games.
August 11, 2008
5:45 AM
Charles Frith writes:
Just a subjective point of view because I've wanted to buy some Li Ning for the Olympics at the Wanfujing store but its all such bad taste.
I'm sure there will be sales spike but I believe Li Ning has set back style in China for a decade at least. Life is circular like that.
August 11, 2008
11:14 AM
elinor writes:
to most chinese, li-ning is a national hero rather than a sports biz man, that is why the ceremony director chose him. he completed a fantastic job to hang in the sky and light the final torch, which reminded us how he got the gold metals for China when we were little and watched the teli. from another perspective, this is the most successful olympic marketing champaign, receiving tremendous awareness without paying a penny. please think about the pride he brought to Chinese... he did mean a lot to us.
also wonder how adidas would handle this - actually the raising nationalism is an issue for them
August 11, 2008
7:41 PM
dk writes:
If Adidas' CEO is a Chinese and has won 3 gold medals (or at least 1 gold medal) in an Olympic, he will be considered.
Ops, he has to be physically strong too because running in the air is not going to be easy.
August 12, 2008
4:21 AM
David writes:
He didn't spend a Jiao.
August 19, 2008
8:56 AM
Pavliga writes:
Very nice.
August 19, 2008
7:13 PM
roth writes:
Wait, theres something wrong here: "imagine this: Nike CEO Phil Knight parachutes into the Opening Ceremonies, torch in hand, and lights the Olympic flame"
Did Phil Knight win three Olympic Gold Medals? Im from the Philippines and before these blogs, I only knew Li Ning as an Olympic sports hero. Typically the Olympic host choses one of its most successful sports/Olympic heroes to light the Olympic flame. Li Ning won for a poor country, China three golds in the 1984 LA Olympics. Li Ning exemplifies the American Dream- Olympic Icon morphs into a rich and successful busnessmen. How many American Olympic heros have matched this success? Bob Beamon? Mary Lou Retton? Greg Louganis? Mark Spitz? Oh yeah, maybe Michael Phelps 20 years from now?
August 21, 2008
4:27 AM
Psyche writes:
Free advertising for China is right. But it probably will have no effect in the USA. Li Ning shoes will probably never catch on in the US because the name of the company is a bit weird sounding for American tastes. I don't think the youth of America will really buy into athletic shoes called Li Nings. That hasn't stopped Li Ning from sponsoring some NBA players, though.
October 12, 2008
8:24 PM
Web Hustler writes:
Li Ning sponsors B. Diddy!
October 23, 2008
3:33 AM
Calebc writes:
OMG, this is hillarious!
February 22, 2009
5:55 AM
socialcapitalist writes:
nike/adidas/reebok etc. have done their best to unfairly dominate the market and use globalisation's cruel edge [eg child labor in its shoe factoriee]. nice that a local company set up by a local hero got some pay-back at their local games..