Text|Lin Yuan. After burning 95.5 million yuan at the beginning of the year to dominate the "Super Bowl", Pinduoduo may return to the "American Spring Festival Gala" in order to seize more market share from Amazon.
Recently, a number of ** reports said that sources revealed that Temu, a cross-border e-commerce platform under Pinduoduo, wants to launch multiple ad units in the next Super Bowl, and the ** range of 30-second ads is about $6 million - $7.2 million.
As major sporting events become a "must-have" for e-commerce giants, what are the highlights and lessons to learn from?This article will focus and analyze.
In the second half of the Super Bowl, the number of American users exceeded 100 million, and Pinduoduo aimed at "entertainment inflation".
At the last Super Bowl, Pinduoduo spent $14 million (95.5 million yuan) to buy two 30-second advertising slots and used them to make the same film.
The film ended up being the second-to-last Super Bowl ad for USA Today (50th out of 51 ads).
It has been argued that the commercials "were good, but they didn't surprise fans, they didn't have dazzling special effects, and they didn't have athletes or celebrities." There is also a view that this ad is in stark contrast to the traditional Super Bowl advertisement, and Pinduoduo is taking the mass line.
Pinduoduo's mass line has proven to be equally effective in the U.S. market. Before the last Super Bowl, temu had 19 million installs. There were more than 42 in the race weekend60,000 people applied, and in the following month, TEMU accumulated 50 million times worldwide.
Faced with the worst cost-of-living crisis in the 21st century, young consumers around the world have begun to love discounts and low prices, and these young people are more sensitive to ** and want to buy a variety of goods at ultra-low discounted prices.
Generous rewards for attracting new users, as well as pixel-level replication of domestic sharing invitations to "cut a knife" gameplay, make consumers on the other side of the ocean want to stop. It is said that the fighting spirit of foreign young people is not inferior to that of Chinese people, and in order to be able to "cut a knife", many people even go directly to social platforms to ask strangers for help. And this Xi of wool picking will be difficult to "break" once addicted. The two major problems that other platforms are most worried about are attracting new users and retention, which have been solved by Pinduoduo, which has made its stock price and market value soar.
In the second half of the Super Bowl, the number of TEMU users in the United States exceeded 100 million. As of now, the platform has become the fourth most visited retail e-commerce in the United States.
Determined to advertise at the Super Bowl again, Pinduoduo may see a new opportunity in the entertainment inflation.
Super Bowl Halftime Show guest presenter
In the fall of 2023, across the ocean in the United States, sports-related spending such as football tickets became the latest area to be affected by "entertainment inflation" (a term economists use to explain live events).
According to the U.S. Consumer Index (CPI), in October 2023, U.S. sports tickets were 25 year-over-year1%。
This shows that fans are returning to their home stadiums and are willing to pay a fortune for it. Sales platforms, including ticketing, are increasingly using dynamic pricing models to price each ticket based on the event-specific milestone and fan demand for the event.
In 2023, NFL ticket sales roughly doubled from the previous year, according to ticketing platform Stubhub. The NBA's ticket sales at the start of the season were also up nearly 60 percent from last season.
Some industry insiders believe that even if the economy is sluggish, the interest of some consumers** in the competition remains stable. Insight into the human nature behind it, as a hedonistic and social form of consumption, in the post-epidemic world, live entertainment such as sports events has been given new meanings, and people are eager to feel a unique sense of atmosphere and cohesion through events.
As an example, just yesterday Miami International announced that the team's 2024 MLS regular season tickets (floor price of $884, 80% from last season's) have all been sold out.
The 58th Super Bowl will be held in Las Vegas, the "casino" on February 11, 2024 local time. This will be the first time Nevada has hosted the event, and the economic impact of the event will also exceed $1 billion, and sports consumer demand is likely to reach new highs.
Temu aims to double its GMV to $30 billion by 2024, according to LatePost. To achieve this goal, it is not enough to just launch the Super Bowl, but also to use the event as an entry point to reach out to the fan community and break into the lives and minds of more fans.
In the fierce battle of "Black Five", Chinese-funded cross-border e-commerce is staking to explore demand.
Like Pinduoduo, domestic e-commerce giants have not limited themselves to resources in the domestic sports market, but are actively setting sail to seize overseas core resources and actively expand the market.
Data shows that online sales in the United States during this year's "Black Friday" increased by 7% year-on-year5% to US$9.8 billion (about 70 billion yuan), and Chinese cross-border e-commerce was active.
According to the data of the Douyin e-commerce overseas version of TikTok Shop's fully managed Black Friday promotion, the overall payment GMV of the US market increased by 215% month-on-month, the GMV of Black Friday increased by 4 times, and the number of payment SKUs increased by 1212% month-on-monthOverall payment GMV in the UK market increased by 191% QoQ, GMV increased by 368% on Black Friday, and *GMV increased by 237% QoQ.
temu has been the first to open the 42-day "Black Friday Early Purchase" since October 20, including 7% off the first order, free shipping returns within 90 days and other preferential activities.
Shein has taken out the largest ** strength in history, with discounts as high as 85%, and some limited-time snapped-up items are even only 001 USD. In addition, Shein is also working social **, and has teamed up with KOLs to attract traffic from many mainstream platforms.
Overseas sellers have achieved performance that exceeds industry expectations and growth rates in overseas markets.
The cross-border e-commerce that has gone further in the field of sports is AliExpress. Unlike SHEIN and Temu, which vigorously promote "cost performance", AliExpress seizes the market based on the advantages of many categories and early efforts, and further boosts sales.
Shopee, a leading e-commerce company in Southeast Asia, has also performed well, and the investor behind it is Tencent. In 2022, the total GMV of the Southeast Asian e-commerce market was US$99.5 billion. Among them, Shopee ranked first with $47.9 billion in GMV, accounting for nearly half of the total GMV.
Temu and TikTok Shop, two cutting-edge soldiers, plus AliExpress, Shopee and Shein, which is planning an IPO, the Chinese-funded cross-border e-commerce platform relies on the joint efforts of China's strong first-chain capabilities to optimize the intermediate links of goods going overseas. The customer group attracted by cross-border e-commerce allows the platform recommendation algorithm to play a role, provides convenience for users to buy their favorite goods, and also provides a direction for the manufacturing industry belt.
It is reported that TEMU has penetrated into more than 100 manufacturing industrial belts in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong and other parts of the country. More than 400,000 parcels are exported every day, with an average daily cargo weight of 600 tons, which naturally includes a large number of sports equipment.
Who can stand on the podium in the "National Games" in the e-commerce industry?
Domestic e-commerce platforms have a wide audience base and diversified marketing tools and strategies, which can be said to be naturally suitable for sports marketing. In recent years, major e-commerce platforms have also put heavy weight on the sports marketing position, and have sacrificed their own unique knowledge, striving to compete for consumers' minds through differentiated marketing.
Major international sports events have the characteristics of high degree, strong cohesion and strong sustained effect. At the level of IP linkage, the depth of cooperation between giants and head sports IPs has been continuously strengthened, and the brand strategies of both parties have been further expanded.
In January 2017, Alibaba joined hands with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) with no less than US$800 million to become a top Olympic partner. Now halfway through this 12-year partnership, which will continue to play a vital role in the digitalization of the Olympic Games, it will continue to play a vital role in the digitalization of the Olympic Games, with a view to Paris 2024, Milan 2026 and Los Angeles 2028.
In addition, taking advantage of the "detonation" effect of large-scale events to extend marketing to holiday consumption has gradually become an important strategy for e-commerce to improve consumer stickiness and expand sales performance.
Previously, during the Beijing Winter Olympics, the official Olympic Tmall and consumers jointly created a new record for the daily sales of licensed goods in the history of the 100-year Olympic Games, and became the "Olympic champion" of the daily sales amount and number of licensed goods.
Since then, the "Bingdundun Universe" has continued to refresh the records of the Olympic mascot, showing a strong appeal. Taking "Rabbit Dundun" and "Longdun Dun" as examples, their development momentum is strong, indicating that "Dundun IP" will fill the 12 zodiac signs and continue to occupy the Spring Festival shopping cart of domestic consumers.
By integrating synergies, e-commerce platforms can join forces with sports IP across industries and try new ways to communicate with consumers in depth.
For example, during the Asian event in Hangzhou, Douyin e-commerce teamed up with Huang Jianxiang to create a variety show throughout the event, and Fan Zhiyi, Xie Sicheng and celebrities appeared in the live broadcast room, making the live broadcast more convincing. According to statistics, the GMV paid by the participating merchants in the event increased by 87% month-on-month, of which the sports and outdoor category increased by 176% month-on-monthThe GMV of new product payments increased by 200% quarter-on-quarter.
Domestic leagues have higher fan loyalty and longer time with them. This partnership model allows brands to increase the frequency of their daily lives and provide fans with more localized services and content.
In this regard, Liu Qiangdong's JD.com has been ahead of the curve this season. In April this year, JD.com became the chest advertiser of Beijing Guoan jerseys, and the two sides signed a three-year contract, and this season the two sides have launched in-depth cooperation in many fields such as event marketing, online official *** member benefits, derivatives development, and brand pop-up stores.
Xu Lei, the former CEO of JD.com, said in an interview that he has watched football since the first year of the 94 Professional League and the second half semester of his freshman year, and if he has time, he will definitely go to the Gongti and other sites to watch the game. "What hobbies bring you is not necessarily always happy, but emotional ups and downs, loss, happiness, and madness."
The attendance rate of the new Gongti confirms JD.com's precise card position. According to the "Big Data Report of the 2023 Season of the Emperor of the Chinese Super League", in the 2023 season, the number of attendance in the Super League hit a new high since the special period. Among them, the total number of on-site spectators of Beijing Guoan this season reached 656522, with an average of 43,768 per game.
The new Gongti and social **brand information**, which lasted for the whole season, allowed JD.com to establish close contact and interaction with core fans without competitors in the same industry.
Interestingly, even the recent equity transfer of Dalian Zhixing, a Chinese league promotion, has chosen to "go" to JD.com and seek equity transfer through JD.com's auction. The side reflects the deepening influence of JD.com in football.
In general, Pinduoduo, which has tasted the sweetness of sports layout, may go deeper into the sports field in the future to further expand its brand influence and improve performance. However, in the case of more and more entrants, e-commerce platforms also need to base themselves on platform positioning, delve into differentiated marketing strategies, and play their own rhythm, so as to establish brand advantages and maintain customer loyalty.
Note: The ** used in this article is from osports, Paris Olympics and the Internet.