The world’s largest athletic brands have been doing everything in their power to reach more consumers in China. And their marketing could get a whole lot easier with the International Olympic Committee today announcing that Beijing has won the bidding to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
For the 2022 games, the Chinese capital edged out a narrow victory over Kazakhstan with a 44-40 vote.
Beijing will also host the Summer Games during the same year.
That’s good news for companies such as Nike and Adidas, both of which shell out large amounts of marketing money around the games, as well as sponsoring national uniforms.
For instance, earlier this week, Adidas said that Stella McCartney will once again design Great Britain’s Adidas gear for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Similarly, Nike signed a sponsorship agreement for next year’s Summer Olympics in hopes of appealing to the fast-growing consumer market in Brazil.
Watch on FN
As with Brazil, athletic companies believe China’s emerging middle class will continue to have substantial buying power.
During the 2008 Summer Olympics, also held in China, the two athletic powerhouses went head to head, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to raise their profiles with Chinese consumers. Reports at the time suggested that each firm coughed up more than $150 million in sponsorship and associated marketing outlays. The companies are expected to amp up their spending even further for 2022.
Let the marketing games begin.
Want to get in the Olympic spirit today? Here’s a look back at an Adidas spot from the 2012 London Games:
