The Asian Games athletes with the most commercial potential are likely to exceed your expectations|Lazy Bear Value List

The Hangzhou Asian Games will open on September 23, less than 100 days ago. In 2023, the sports industry lacks top competitions such as the Olympic Games and the World Cup, and the Asian Games held in China have become the most likely sports event to ignite public enthusiasm.

Of course, the intensity and influence of the Asian Games competition is a certain gap from the Olympic Games, at least for now, companies inside and outside the industry are relatively limited in the marketing budget of the Asian Games. But this does not prevent the Hangzhou Asian Games from becoming the birthplace of new sports stars, new stars, and also means new business opportunities. Tapping into some potential athletes in advance is always a must-do in the sports marketing arena.

As social media has increasingly become a camp for athletes to spread influence and implement commercial rights, the influence of athletes' social media accounts has become one of the criteria for judging their commercial value in sports competitions in recent years. On this basis, Lazy Bear Sports and MarTech, a MarTech company that focuses on sports scene marketing services, monitored the social media accounts of Chinese athletes who are expected to participate in the Asian Games.

The data covers four platforms: Weibo, Douyin, Kuaishou and Xiaohongshu, and includes posts from January 1 to June 17 this year. The list of athletes screened out is arranged according to the latest lineup of national teams/training teams in their respective projects, and finally sorted by the number of interactions (sum of comments and likes). The top 40 athletes are as follows.

E-sports "entering the hall", but also the "spring" of the glory of the king?

The influence of e-sports no longer needs to be repeated, after the national carnival after EDG won the S11 finals, I believe that no one underestimates the commercial value of e-sports. The Hangzhou Asian Games will be the first time that e-sports will be used as an official competition to "enter the hall" in an international comprehensive sports event. If nothing else, esports will be the most discussed event during the Asian Games.

League of Legends is undoubtedly the most influential e-sports project in China, but at the level of social media accounts, King Glory may be the biggest winner among all projects. Among the top 10 athletes on the list, there are as many as 7 King Glory athletes.

However, due to the quota limit, only 6 players will be selected for the Chinese team of King Glory, but considering the strong dominance of the Chinese team in this event, the final 6 players will most likely become stars on and off the Asian Games. Of course, the most worthy of analysis and learning is the long-term star-making ability of the Glory of Kings project.

In contrast, League of Legends' China-South Korea battle is also sure to attract attention, and the long-standing sports feud between the two countries will extend to the Asian Games esports competition. Although Uzi has announced his comeback, it may be difficult to catch the Asian Games, otherwise it is likely to become the most anticipated story in the Asian Games.

In any case, at the moment when esports first became an official sport at the Asian Games, there was no reason for any brand that valued young consumers to miss this opportunity.

Women's Big Three, Business Peaks and Lows

2022 can be described as the year of the explosion of women's sports in China, and the commercial influence of many female athletes has reached a peak, and whether this trend can continue through the opportunity of the Asian Games is an important touchstone for the development of women's sports.

Fast forward to the eve of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and the commercial value of the women's triathlon is a world of difference from what it is now. At that time, the Chinese women's volleyball team was the defending Olympic champion and had the cooperation of more than 20 sponsors, while the women's football team still had a certain voice, and the women's basketball team had very little commercial cooperation.

Now the situation seems to be reversed, and the commercial value of the Chinese women's basketball team has blossomed more after winning the World Cup runner-up. Han Xu, Yang Liwei, Li Meng, Wang Siyu have all received a lot of brand attention, Yang Shuyu will also add new highlights to the Chinese women's basketball team after returning to the futsal court, and their influence is also reflected in social media platforms.

The Chinese women's football team is also one of the most watched sports teams this year, but due to account operation reasons, only Li Jiayue, a player who stayed in the ocean, is currently at the top of the list. However, considering that the new generation of players represented by Zhang Linyan has received sponsorship from brands such as Umbro, Chinese female footballers must also be a group of athletes worthy of long-term attention of the brand.

In terms of women's volleyball, although the number of fans of women's volleyball is still not small, the attention has fallen compared with before. In the case that Zhu Ting hardly updates social media, only Zhang Changning ranks at the top of the list. However, it should be noted that the golden signboard of the Chinese women's volleyball team will not fade due to the poor results of a tournament, and it may now be a good opportunity to "dig the bottom" to sponsor women's volleyball players.

The Asian Games lack "business superstars"

Unfortunately, this Asian Games is likely to be the weakest star of the Chinese delegation in recent years, at least from a commercial point of view. At present, the most brand-appealing Chinese athletes, Gu Ailing, Su Yiming, Zhang Weili, are not Asian Games events, and Su Bingtian also confirmed not long ago that he will not participate in the Hangzhou Asian Games.

In Jakarta in 2018, there are "previous generation" sports superstars such as Sun Yang and Lin Dan, and at present, among the athletes on this list, only Guo Allen, Ma Long, Zhou Qi and others have been famous for a long time. Among athletes in traditional sports, there are not many options other than them who can get stable exposure.

Who will be the next Yang Qian and Ahinar?

In the era of mobile Internet, unexpected stars will appear in every competition. In Tokyo, Yang Qian attracted national attention, and speed skater Ahinar gained countless fans on short video platforms during the Beijing Winter Olympics.

By analyzing the athletes' social media lists, we can also identify athletes with certain star potential. For example, women's 100m hurdles athlete Xia Sining, with her image advantages and good strength, she has now become a well-known "Internet celebrity athlete" on the short video platform. With the championship results in the national athletics sub-competitions many times this year, Xia Sining also has great hopes to stand on the Asian Games venue.

Among the traditional sports of the Asian Games, men's basketball and men's football are expected to remain the teams with the most core fans, and several players who have made breakthroughs in the past two CBA seasons, such as Xu Jie and Cui Yongxi, are also likely to get more attention at the Asian Games; The men's team is subject to U23 rules, and the most commercially valuable athlete in the team is Dai Weijun, who has become the face of Under Armour, and if he can resume playing as soon as possible, he should be able to become the star player of the Chinese men's Asian Games team.

In addition, social media data is also one of the criteria to prove the personal charm of athletes, weightlifter Li Wenwen, Xinco Sudirman Cup champion Wang Chang and other athletes, have also proved their "popularity" on social media, in the Asian Games, their popularity may also rise to another order.

In short, when sports marketing inevitably uses data and technology to judge marketing effectiveness, athletes' social media accounts will become an important channel. While staying competitively focused, the power of social media cannot be ignored. As the Asian Games approach, brands still have the opportunity to tap into potential athletes through these dimensions.

Disclaimer: This article is original by Lazy Bear Sports and may not be reproduced without authorization.