Are global brands and talents scoring own goals by turning their backs on Chinese football fans?
Amidst a context of social and economic disruption, there has been a lot of negative sentiment around investing in activities and driving commercial return from China. However, Chinese fan engagement around the FIFA 2022 Qatar World Cup suggests this is premature. Hot Pot’s Adam Sandzer and Adam Doffman have highlighted why shifting focus away from China is a mistake.
For the past 12 months, it’s been consistently reported that football is out of fashion in China. The National team's failure to qualify for the FIFA World Cup once again, as well as the continued poor state of the local league, has meant that domestic football is viewed as ‘shameful’. President Xi’s dream of creating a football superpower looks to be fading fast.
Nonetheless, global brands and talent should not be deterred by this. Positive sentiment around major international leagues and especially tournaments like the FIFA World Cup remains high amongst Chinese football fans. According to Hot Pot’s proprietary insight panel of subject matter experts -, The Cultural Intel Community - passion towards the current tournament is as high as ever.
There is a sense of pride at China’s influence in Qatar with Chinese referees and a number of high profile Chinese brands involved, including Mengniu, Hisense, Wanda and Boss直聘. Moreover, whilst travel restrictions have limited the number of fanatical fans flying to the Middle East, the earlier kick-off times (6pm, 9pm local time) have made viewing a lot more feasible.
Indeed, a look at viewing figures and prominent Chinese social media platforms reinforces the fact that Chinese fans are very much still engaged. According to a pre-tournament survey by Global Web Index, approximately 277 million Chinese football fans planned to follow specific matches at the FIFA World Cup. By comparison, only 9.6 million in the UK and 19.9 million in the US planned to do the same. This is a remarkable scale for a country whose fans are supposedly losing interest in football.
China’s viewing chart is below
Compared with the UK’s chart, which shows a tiny viewing number in comparison:
Additionally, the hashtag 世界杯 (World Cup) has been trending on RED and Weibo with 5.4 million and 76 million searches respectively this month. The hashtag has also amassed 441 million views as of 28th November 2022. Star players like Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar and Mbappe remain a top draw. Messi’s stunning goal against Mexico drew incredible buzz across China’ digital ecosystem with videos linked to the hashtag 梅西, the Chinese characters for Messi, drawing around 1 million views on video platform Bilibili alone. These numbers rival Twitter’s viewing figures, and will only grow as the tournament reaches the latter stages.
Messi’s magic drawing the crowds on Bilibili
Clearly there remains sizable interest in the World Cup and football more generally. So why have so many global brands and talents remained silent in China?
Of course the volume of eyeballs on the FIFA World Cup makes it an attractive property for sponsors. Intriguingly, this year’s official sponsor list includes Chinese brands with limited recognition outside China such as Mengniu Dairy, pictured above. Along with Hisense and others, China is the highest contributor of any country, generating an estimated $1.4 billion of revenue for FIFA. Eagle-eyed football watchers will have noticed Chinese language advertising from these brands strewn across billboards during matches. Evidently, these are not targeting global audiences but those closer to home. This suggests that sponsorship investment is being driven by the scale of interest and therefore commercial opportunity in China itself.
Furthermore, other Chinese brands, such as dairy giant Yili, have also got involved despite not being official sponsors. Their campaign featuring David Beckham and Karim Benzema has driven major traction in China on video platforms like Douyin, Billi Billi and Migu.
Yili’s world cup campaign featuring Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema and British national treasure David Beckham
Given Chinese brands’ strategy, it feels strange that global sponsors or even non-sponsors have declined to followed suit. The creation and amplification of football related content and campaigns in China would have driven major value at this time. It has been interesting to see a few shrewd talent teams launching personalities like David Beckham and Gary Neville on fast growing Chinese platforms like RED. However, there is little evidence of serious strategic thought behind their content, especially with the latter.
Gary Neville’s efforts on Xiaohongshu, not always positively received
As well as brands, more talents and clubs should be engaging with Chinese fans on prominent domestic channels but it must be authentic and localised. Too many have dormant, neglected accounts and others continue to miss the mark and urgently need guidance.
Amidst a sea of negativity, the FIFA World Cup in Qatar is showing the strength of Chinese football fans as a force and opportunity. Global brands and talents should take note and embrace this engaged audience more than ever. With European leagues resuming later this year and EURO 2024 less than 2 years away, it’s the perfect opportunity to reset and get going with building a Chinese digital marketing activation plan.
Hot Pot’s brand and commercial teams have extensive experience in bringing sports brands, tournaments, clubs and talent to China. With a strong cohort of football enthusiasts in our team we have a track record of optimising strategic positioning and marketing execution as well as driving sustainable return for the likes of UEFA, Real Madrid and David Beckham. Get in touch with a member of the Hot Pot team today to find out more about how you can deliver greater commercial return for football and wider sporting opportunities in China.
Please note data was obtained at the group stages of the World Cup, week commencing 21.11.22