adidas:::Rejuvenating Chinese Volleyball: Bringing the Game Closer to China’s Youth

Category Entered:Specialist & Technique: New Media
Title of Project: Rejuvenating Chinese Volleyball: Bringing the Game Closer to China’s Youth
Client’s name:Adidas (Suzhou) Co., Ltd
Budget: US$362,500


With 2008 fast on our heels, Beijing Olympic partner and Chinese Volleyball Association partner—Adidas, was faced with several immediate challenges: The national Chinese women’s volleyball team’s (CWVT) image and the sport of volleyball itself had lost its “coolness” factor among Chinese youth. This posed as a discrepancy from Adidas overall brand persona of Young, Energetic, Fashionable, Confident and Cool.
It wasn’t always this way. Most Chinese will recall CWVT’s golden victory at the 1984 Olympics; the team had catapulted to national heroes. However thereafter, CWVT gave dismal performances which caused the team’s popularity and the sport of volleyball to decline; volleyball was perceived by youth as a game primarily for “older people.” Meanwhile, China was catching on to “the two big balls,” basketball and football, which were perceived as entertaining, star-studded and key players in shaping youth culture—exactly where Adidas aspired volleyball to be in China.
OBJECTIVES/BRIEF FROM THE CLIENT
The goals of the campaign:

• To rejuvenate CWVT image and the game of volleyball among the target audience (14-24 years old)
• Create and maintain excitement among China’s youth for CWVT as a gold contender of the 2008 Olympics
  
• Strengthen Adidas association with CWVT, 2008 Beijing Olympics and overall brand ownership of volleyball

STRATEGY
Get youth involved. Speak their language. Drive youth participation while giving the game and the team an image makeover. Research by All China Strategic Research (ACSR) focused on the target audience, both male and female. From qualitative research findings, ACSR found that:

• China’ youth culture is heavily influenced by star players, sports icons and celebrities. We need to create star power for the team.
• Though the old Olympic glory of CWVT impressed China’s youth, the team and the sport’s coolness factor was low. In the sports arena, coolness was described by adjectives such as agile, powerful, fierce, intense and exciting. We need to showcase the power of the game.
• The target audience preference was driven by a sense of ownership and participation. We need to drive youth involvement.
  

Furthermore, the 2006 China Internet Network Development Statistic Report points out that New Media channels are an effective medium to increase youth participation and attention.

METHOD DEPLOYED

Build team celebrity status: Drive PR through blogging and glamour shots
The initial phase of the campaign was to increase the profile of CWVT. Up to this point, the general audience had little knowledge of the players’ personalities. We sought to open a dialogue and close the distance between the team and their fans by creating their own blog, which is also the first Chinese Olympic team blog in history. That fact alone drove media coverage and generated traffic to the site.

Each player was given a professional makeover and photo shoot to capture fashionable shots which debuted on the blog; the photos were picked up instantaneously by major print media.

Make the game cool: Volleyball stunts through viral films:
The next phase was to shift perceptions of volleyball as a “tougher, faster, scarier” sport than previously thought. We focused on promoting six entertaining viral films via BBS and many more youth-targeted websites. The viral films were created by Adidas’ advertising agency to portray the volleyball game as edgy, dangerous and exciting. They sought to manifest the high speed of volleyball movements through creative stunts demonstrated by youth, such as:

• Digging (defensive save) in 2.5 seconds was demonstrated through flying off the roof of a racing car or from a speeding skateboard.
• Spiking at 92 km/h was illustrated through a water-gushing fire hydrant that hits a pedestrian and a coconut flying from a slingshot that hits a bystander
  

Increase fun factor: Youth call-to-action through the volleyball chant competition
Similar to popular cheers for basketball and football, we sought to create a national chant, cheer or jingle that volleyball can own. This was an opportunity for youth participation, thus Adidas launched the nation’s first chant competition (still going on now). The competition allowed for entry of a broad range of cheering forms, such as the creation of cheering slogans, chant themes, fans’ T-shirts, hand motions, dance moves related to volleyball moves. Participants can upload their cheering ideas and creations to the CWVT mini site and also rate other entries.

Incentive to participate includes selection into CWVT’s official cheering squad. Rules and registration of the competition were promoted through schools, retail stories, a press and video news release and media editorials.
OUTCOME
The campaign created new icons:

On attitudinal parameters, there was a clear positive shift of CWVT being perceived as “cooler,” sexier and more fashionable than ever.

• Post-launch research revealed that in some cities, within several months there was an increase of as much as 16% of the target audience who defined CWVT as “cool” (source: ACSR). Shanghai Times noted that fans were impressed with the team’s “never-seen-before sexiness” and their “excellent skin tone,” even drawing comparisons to professional models. One fan’s comment on the blog stated, ”I never knew the girls were so fashionable and cool!”
• CWVT extended their presence beyond the usual sports pages and made a leap towards various lifestyle media, such as popular youth magazines Easy and Touch.
  

The campaign generated tremendous hits and buzz:
The campaign was effective in stimulating buzz about CWVT and activating an attitudinal shift on volleyball.

• The blog attracted 160,865 unique visits and nearly 400,000 unique visits to the chant competition site in the first three months of its debut (source: From Zero). Oriental Sports Daily commented, “Without any prior announcement or promotion, visits to CWVT’s blog on the first day of its launch exceeded more than 20,000 page views!”
• 73% of viewers found the viral films “innovative” and “stimulating,” further describing volleyball as technique-driven, “passionate” and “powerful;” 78% of viewers also forwarded the viral films to friends.
• Within three months of the release of the viral films, more than 5.5 million visitors have clicked and viewed the films; in fact, the viewing rate was double that of the market average (source: ACSR).
  

The campaign fuelled youth energy for the team and the game:
For the first time, a channel was opened up for direct dialogue between CWVT and their fans, which gave the team an extra morale boost.
Chen Zhonghe, Chief Coach of CWVT, commented, “Adidas brought the girls closer to their fans, which is helping to boost the team’s morale and their performance! I am confident about the team’s performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.”
RELATION TO OBJECTIVES and COST EFFECTIVENESS
The campaign activated an attitudinal shift:
The blog established a radical facelift for CWVT, the viral films channelled a positive perception shift on volleyball, the chant competition called on China’s youth to infuse passion for the team, and the overall campaign is effectively strengthening Adidas brand association with CWVT.
Within six months of launch, research by ACSR revealed that nationally, awareness of Adidas and CWVT partnership increased by 5%, awareness of Adidas partnership with 2008 Olympics increased by 7%, and awareness of CWVT increased by 6%.
The campaign stretched the communications renminbi:
The total media coverage of the campaign to date is worth an equivalent ad spending of US$1.3 million USD (print media value source: Sinofile). To date, the estimated return of investment is more than 3 fold.
CREATIVITY AND ORIGINALITY
The New Media targeted campaign heralded a new era for Chinese Women’s Volleyball. For the first time, the Olympic hopefuls had their first collection of glamour shots with heightened celebrity status, their first blog which was also the first Olympic team blog in China (as opposed to an individual’s blog), the assembly of the first CWVT cheering squad and unprecedented media buzz.
OUTSIDE PARTNERS
TBWA (viral films)
From Zero (blog)
Sohu (viral films and blog)
ACSR (research)
Cinsos (BBS)
BUDGETS
Approximately US$362,500
CATEGORY-SPECIFIC INFORMATION
The 2006 China Internet Network Development Statistic Report points out that more than 18 million Chinese high school students surf the internet. The rate of netizens among China’s youth is increasing at rapid speed.