The Paris 2024 Olympic Games were significant not only as the first Olympic Games with live spectators since the pandemic but also for how they engaged audiences in China through digital platforms. In addition to state-owned companies like China Media Group and China Mobile-owned Migu, three major digital platforms - Tencent, Bytedance-owned Douyin, and Kuaishou - secured official media rights for the event, shaping how the Games were experienced and engaged with online.
Team China's performance in previous Olympics, where they secured 91 medals (40 of which were gold), has fostered a strong sense of national pride. This year, over 200 Chinese influencers with a minimum of 50,000 followers each were present at the Games in Paris, the highest number to date.
Digital Battle Ground for Engagement
Douyin - Emerged as a crucial platform for athlete engagement – of the 388 Olympians representing China, 297 posted content during the Games. Furthermore, 57 athletes participated in Douyin livestreams, which collectively received over 4.6 billion views and 140 million likes. This direct connection with fans has resulted in significant follower growth, with athletes like Ni Xianlian gaining over 1.7 million followers - greater than the population of Luxembourg, the country she represents.
Kuaishou - Notable success came from the "Cunao" event – an unofficial amateur grassroots Olympics, held prior to the Olympics, which attracted over 130,000 people offline and garnered more than 500 million online views. This success illustrates Kuaishou's ability to bridge online and offline interactions effectively.
WeChat - Tencent's super-app also played a vital role in the coverage of the Olympics, achieving an 880% increase in viewership compared to the Tokyo 2020 Games. This growth stems from WeChat's extensive distribution channels and ecosystem, including Tencent Video, QQ, and QQ Music, all contributing to a wider digital ecosystem that engages users across various platforms.
Weibo - Even though Weibo did not hold official media rights, it remains a significant platform for discussions around the Olympics. During Paris 2024, there were 5,521 trending hashtags related to the event, reflecting a 59% increase from Tokyo 2020. Notably, August 6 had the highest number of trending topics, with 375 hashtags mainly related to female diver Quan Hongchan and her first gold medal.
Summary:
To be successful in sports marketing in China, the Olympic Games, especially the Summer Olympics is the level 0 tournament that brands should capitalise on and integrate. The attention from all over China with the participation of everyone involved leads to a peak of engagement.
The athletes are important - their golden medal moment in Paris 2024 attracted the most attention on social media, TV and digital channels. Every brand should take this into account for the Olympic campaign in China, especially if the athlete can win gold.
Combining online and offline channels is the key to success – Digital platforms offer strong engagement performance as well as a differentiated strategy against the competition. Offline scenarios provide rich touchpoints with consumers and funnel them back into the digital ecosystem and CRMs to create long-term value for the brand.
Athletes Captivating Audiences
Several athletes captured the attention of online audiences:
Pan Zhanle: The swimmer made headlines by setting a world record in the 100-meter freestyle. He also contributed to China's success in the men’s 4x100 meters medley. His engaging personality generated over 226 trending topics on Weibo and more than 17.67 billion impressions across social media, with 7.3 billion video views on Douyin.
Zheng Qinwen: Dubbed "Queen Wen," she won China’s first-ever Olympic gold in women’s singles tennis, making history and inspiring many. Her victory resulted in over 154 trending hashtags and 13.17 billion impressions on Weibo.
Zhou Yaqin: A heartwarming moment involving Zhou and an Italian gymnast went viral when she humorously participated in the traditional medal-biting gesture. The clip generated significant attention, leading to over 500 million impressions for the hashtag #ZhouYaqin on Weibo.
Quan Hongchan: Winning two gold medals in diving, Quan has captivated audiences with her humble personality and remarkable skill, leading to 248 trending topics and over 21.25 billion impressions on Weibo.
Brand Strategy
Brands in China, such as Yili and Mengniu, adopted innovative marketing strategies during the Olympics.
Yili:
The dairy brand focused on real-time engagement through multi-party content. The campaigns achieved impressive results, garnering over 420 million views and 4.279 million discussions, and 85.3 million views and 541,000 discussions for the promotional video.
A promotional video featuring Olympic athletes, designed to drive engagement and build anticipation for the event.
Nostalgic content celebrating China’s Olympic pioneers, tying in with Yili’s heritage.
A campaign highlighting Yili as the official dairy partner for Team China, generating buzz and fostering solidarity around Chinese athletes.
A Chinese-style bus tour of key Parisian landmarks, including the Place de Mars, Louvre-Carrousel Square, Les Invalides, Champs-Élysées, and the Arc de Triomphe.
Mengniu:
As a global Olympic partner, Mengniu enlisted singer Han Hong as a brand ambassador. Their promotional strategies resonated well, attracting over 1.63 billion views on Weibo and showcasing the determination of athletes.
Mengniu also released a TVC to support Chinese athletes aiming for top performances at the Paris Olympics. Created in collaboration with acclaimed director Zhang Yimou's team, the TVC showcases the determination and spirit of self-improvement that has driven Mengniu's growth from a regional dairy business to one of the top eight global dairy conglomerates
Summary:
Mengniu is an official sponsor of Paris 2024 as part of its cooperation with the Olympic Games, while Yili sponsors Team China and over 40 of Team China's top athletes and legends in various competitions.
The difference in the positioning of the two companies leads to different sponsorship strategies - Yili focuses on Team China and the story of Team China’s athletes’ performance at the Olympics, whilst Mengniu focuses on the Olympics and tries to connect the Chinese audience with Paris 2024.
Both strategies worked and were successful from a digital perspective, thanks to the great performances of the Chinese athletes on the ground. If we look at the WeChat search index as a metric, according to a Sina Finance article, Yili receives 142 million index views, while Mengniu receives 28.2 million if we look at the average index views over 30 days.
If we look at Paris 2024, most of the top brands tend to sign with multiple athletes participating in different competitions to make sure they get the most out of the signings
Most of the athlete signings can’t be individuals and they must be with the team, e.g., the China table tennis team, which means you can’t just sign with one individual
It is important to note that sports fandom can be a double-edged sword.
Overzealous fans can negatively impact both the athletes sponsored by brands and the brands themselves. For example, a promotional campaign by Yili celebrating Sun Yingsha's women’s singles table tennis championship (she won the silver medal in the end) was mistakenly released early, prompting backlash from her fans and neutral sports fans.
Next stop LA28 - Future of Digital Engagement in Sports
As the Paris Olympics concluded, it is clear that digital platforms are integral to connecting fans with athletes and events. Short video platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou play an increasingly important role, especially among younger audiences. Looking forward to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, the importance of influencer partnerships and innovative content strategies will be paramount.
For non-media rights platforms, we have seen a trend towards working with top influencers and creators in Paris who are exploring new ways to engage with the Games. For example, during Paris 2024, Bilibili had more than 50 influencers in Paris, not only in the sports category but also in different categories related to Paris 2024 but also to Olympic life in ParisDespite the time difference between France and China, stories from the Olympics engaged 24/7 audiences. For instance, after Quan Hongchan's gold medal win at 10 PM on August 5, the Weibo community responded the following day, driving engagement with numerous trending hashtags.
The experiences from Paris 2024 will dictate how the upcoming Olympic Games are covered and consumed, emphasizing the need for brands and athletes to adapt to the evolving digital landscape.
*Disclaimer - For Douyin, Kuaishou, WeChat/Tencent, Bilibili and Weibo – all the data is from their end of Paris 2024 campaign PR report which is public data and published by each platform themselves.
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