China is now one of the world’s most powerful sports market, with a rapidly growing domestic sports market and high aspirations on the international stage. The Chinese Super League and Chinese Basketball Association are becoming professional, the 2022 Winter Olympics was won by Beijing and the Chinese Government is investing the equivalent of US $813 billion in the sports industry up to 2025. Football is now on the curriculum at every Chinese school and there is a push to attract foreign investment and sports sponsorship, to drive up everything from grassroots participation through to professional sports and talent development programmes.

For Western sports brands – including clubs, football merchandise, FMCG products such as soft drinks and snacks, football experiences and other associated products – this means that the Chinese sports fan market is one to target. Furthermore, PP Sports is a platform to know when seeking to engage with a motivated, football-loving Chinese audience of sophisticated, high-earning young digital natives!

About PP Sports

PP Sports is part of PPTV Group and owned by the Suning Group. It is China’s home of digital world-class football content. With a young, educated and highly-engaged audience, it is the fastest-growing sports platform in China and expanding its reach, with a highly-innovative, tech-driven proposition that includes Augmented and Virtual Reality, High-Definition streaming, top commentators and real-time data updates. The breadth of its sports programming offer is also second to none, including live broadcasts, highlights of Premier League football matches – including UEFA and the FA Cup – all presented by excellent commentators, including a talented and influential team of female presenters (an attractive proposition for female-targeted advertising placement.)

Key facts about PP Sports

The platform boasts:

– Over 50 media rights
– More than 8,000 live sporting broadcasts
– Around 35 million viewers every day
– Growing faster than other leading Chinese sports platforms, including Tencent Sports, Dong Qiudi, Hupu Sports and Sina Sports.
– Young consumers, with the typical user being male, possessing a degree at Masters level or above, aged between 20-35 years old and earning more than 8K a month RMB.

Advertising on PP Sports

PP Sports works with its parent organisation, Suning, to offer a compelling promotional proposition. In a three-pronged offer, it provides:

1. a high degree of connection with the brand, building brand awareness and popularity
2. branded content and marketing promotion to attract fans, with brand exposure boosted by appearing in combination with, and alongside, relevant football club content.
3. Direct online conversions.

Western advertisers can connect with specific football clubs and reach target fans by choosing to promote their offers with advertising promoted in the live broadcast and highlights. PP Sports research shows that its Chinese football fans care most about the live broadcast, match result and clips/highlights.

Variety of advertising methods

The platform works with its potential advertisers to create bespoke programmes that meet their needs. AI and big data provide precise targeting and the rich ecosystem of content offers diversity of promotional placement. For example, Western brands might choose to:

– Own the pre-match 15-second advertising slot (or similar long and short-form adverts of different durations)
– Sponsor offline events and/or competitions
– Advertise on one of the many interactive sports-themed games – including ‘guess the results’ and lucky draws
– Provide branded special emojis for viewers to customise their emotional responses to content
– Create a partnership with one of PP Sports’ authorised KOLs for online and offline promotion (such as one of the Super Game Offline Viewing Parties.)
– POS advertising at Suning’s offline retail sites.
– Logo displays in the studio – such as on commentator laptop and LED presentation screens.
– Commission floating brand displays or logo drop-downs on the live and playback football stream for brand exposure.
– Mobile App advertisement, such as app opening page, pop-up advert or first page ad placement.
– Host a brand customised live viewing party or similar event in conjunction with PP Sports.

There is also the opportunity to further tap into the Suning business’s advertising platforms, which span eight industrial sectors including Media & Entertainment, Real Estate, Retail and Financial Services; further leveraging advertising span and reach. Suning explains that it offers a closed sports marketing loop, from online to offline, and from watch through to purchase.

Advertising packages can be crafted around bespoke brand needs, incorporating multiple streams and marketing activities, and there are discounts available where multiple options are booked as part of a full advertising programme.

Moving ahead with PP Sports advertising

The bespoke nature of the advertising offer on PP Sports means that Western brands must engage with the promotions team in order to craft the right programme of activities for their objectives. This tends to be far easier with the support of a Chinese marketing agency who can assist with practical challenges such as language and cultural considerations.

At Market Me China, we can help you to:

– Engage with PP Sports to register an interest in advertising your brand and offer on their platform and the Suning estate of marketing assets.
– Liaise with PP Sports promotions team to devise the right activities to achieve your goals
– Negotiate on prices for the best possible deal.
– Make the practical arrangements to put the advertising in place, including creating Chinese-targeted adverts and ensuring that your brand’s landing pages are fully optimised and localised for leads.
– Ensure that advertising campaigns are optimised and fully reported against for ROI measurement.
– Integrate PP sports marketing activity with your brand’s other Chinese marketing channels (such as Chinese social media) for maximum leverage of your advertising investment and branded content shares.

Contact us today

We work with Western brands across all industries, whether they are new to the lucrative Chinese market or seeking to grow their market penetration and reach new customers. Chinese sports fans are young, often affluent, digitally-savvy and big fans of quality Western brands – and the opportunities are endless if you can correctly position your brand and your marketing efforts for the Chinese audience. For a no-obligation chat about how we might assist you, please contact us today and we will be delighted to help.

(Source / Image Source: PP Sports)