By: Lisa Li, Candy Yang

CYW on Beijing Olympic are a series of reports understanding what’s going on in the minds and life of Chinese youth before, during, and after the Beijing Olympic.

The use of sports stars in marketing activities (including TVC) is more than overwhelming lately. ‘I just remember he acted in some TV ad of [CATEGORY] but I don’t remember the brand exactly.’ This kind of comments is very often heard.

With the shock Liu Xiang gave the world by his pulling-out, the double-edged sword of brands betting on sports stars is much discussed. How much does it matter to youth consumers, if at all? What do youth feel when seeing sports stars in ad? What do the sports stars mean to them?

I still remember how I was impressed last year seeing a data showing that sports stars and business celebrities outperform entertainment celebrities as ‘my biggest idol’ of university students/ young working adults in big cities. I was a bit shocked at the first sight, but after a second thought I found the finding actually consistent with the youth’s value and aspirations.

What’s special about sports celebrities? What make them idols or even heroes? To the youth, athletes are much different from other types of idols, such as entertainment celebrities.

Firstly, sports stars are true people. In youth’s impression, sports stars don’t ‘act’ as most of the entertainment idols would do. ‘I see Guo Wenjun’s spots on her face when she’s under the spotlight. She’s not beautiful at all, but she’s absolutely the loveliest person. She was very unlucky to be abandoned by her father when she was a little girl, but she grown up to be a world champion due to her dedication. What a girl!’ Said Chi, a 20 something in Guangzhou.

Secondly, the self-made success of the sports stars is much aligned with the dreams of the enterprising youth. ‘The artistic gymnastic athletes are really admirable… I couldn’t help my tears when I saw Li Xiaopeng’s tears in his eyes when they got the gold medal for the team. These guys finally made the world No. 1 after eight years of hard work and solitude!’ This is a typical comment we saw on bbs and SNS. Very interestingly, the fact that Chinese basketball team have much more fans than football team is partly because youth believe the football team players are not working hard enough.

Last but not least, sports stars contribute to the collective honor. ‘It’s like a legend! I can never forget the moment Liu Xiang jumped on the podium and the scene of him running joyfully with the five-star flag. He’s really a hero of the nation.’

After Liu Xiang’s pull-out, some brands take out Liu Xiang’s scenes in their advertisement. But does that really matter? We have found in the online discussion of youth that most people still support Liu Xiang and they show sympathy of his injuries (see our earlier post on user-generated opinion polling in SNS). Talking about the persistent spirits of sports is probably a better way to relate to young consumers.

Successful communication would not only use sports stars for the sake of catching eyeballs but for leveraging the spirits and values that the athletes embody. Relating to the young consumers in their values and beliefs would minimize the risk of betting on the performance of the athletes.

Filed under: Beijing Olympic, So What?, Sports, What's Up?, advertisement, idol, Liu Xiang, marketing, Olympic, Olympic sponsorship, Spokesperson, sports celebrities