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The NBA China Game is the only NBA event in China that has been "landed", and since 2004, Chinese audiences have been able to enjoy the original American professional basketball game in China without having to travel far to the ocean. Last weekend, the 2015 NBA China game officially kicked off in Shenzhen, although the Clippers' number one star Paul was unable to play due to injury, but including Jeremy Lin, Pierce, Griffin, Jordan Jr. and a number of familiar and favorite stars for domestic fans still made people happy. In addition, the appearance of Hornets owner Jordan once pushed the atmosphere to a climax.

Reprint should indicate "This article is transferred from Yutang Sports"

Mr. Zhang, an ordinary salaried man working in Shenzhen, fell in love with the NBA because of the Bulls dynasty, and his favorite basketball was obviously Michael Jordan. Hearing that this year's NBA China Game will be held in Shenzhen for the first time, and his idol will also be present in person, Mr. Zhang is naturally full of expectations. But when he wanted to buy a ticket, he found that the tickets had already been sold out within an hour after the ticket was issued, so he had no choice but to buy tickets through other channels, and the original price of 600 yuan in his hand was also sold to 1,500 yuan because it was too popular.

Although it cost 1,500 yuan, Mr. Zhang told Yu Tang that he did not regret that he could see such an original NBA game at his doorstep and witness the demeanor of his idol Jordan, which was worth the money! Mr. Zhang is just one of the thousands of ordinary viewers at the Universiade Center. Through the NBA China Games, Chinese basketball fans enjoyed the original American professional basketball game that combines superstars, teams, shows, competitions, beauties and other elements.

Among the players on the stage, Jeremy Lin, Griffin, Pierce, Kemba Walker, Jordan Jr. and other big-name fans have long heard of it, and Jeremy Lin is also quite popular in China because of his Asian relationship, but he still seems to be slightly inferior to his boss Jordan. Although he has been retired for many years, when Jordan entered the arena to greet the fans, the scene was boiling, Jordan came to the sidelines to sit in the second quarter, and the fans in the stadium fell into a frenzy again.

This certainly shows that the Flyers still have the same popularity in China as any of the top superstars. In this regard, Jeremy Lin said humorously, "I thought I was more popular in China, but when I saw Jordan appear on the sidelines, I found that he was simply God." In the opinion of Su Qun, who interviewed Jordan, "Kobe, James, every time you come is enough to do everything, but only when Jordan really comes, you can experience the tension up and down, how supreme."

In addition to the characters, the team competition, the wonderful performances in the pause time period and the beautiful cheerleaders, lighting and sound design, on-site MC cooperation and other elements together formed an audio-visual gluttony, which made the fans on the scene addicted and eye-opening. They also have a deeper understanding of the American NBA culture, which was originally located on the other side of the Pacific.

Compared with the fans who watched the game live, the number of fans who watched the game through live video broadcast is undoubtedly larger. For these fans, the most intimate feeling for them is the Chinese elements that can be seen everywhere in the picture. Of course, the arrival of the NBA in China is a happy event for a large number of basketball fans in China.

Naturally, the enthusiasm of the fans has brought about media attention. For the sports pages of major portals, the NBA is an indispensable and important content, so in the past few days, we can see a lot of relevant reports about the NBA China game, and CCTV's broadcast has also brought a lot of exposure. According to the data report of Yutang Sports, this year's NBA China game is second only to the Chinese team and the China Open men's singles final in the weekly ratings of CCTV 5.

Tencent Sports special commentator Ma Jian told Yutang Sports: "In addition to the fact that someone has paid for the commercial value of the China competition, it mainly lies in the brand value. Thanks to the NBA's world-leading brand promotion, packaging and management level, he focuses on brand and media. ”

Once there is an explosion of popularity and a large amount of media exposure, the value of brand sponsorship will naturally be highlighted. If you want to ask the brand that benefited from this NBA China game, the first thing is Air Jordan. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the brand, Jordan himself visited Shenzhen and launched various activities in various cities simultaneously, and invited many celebrities including Liu Xiang and Li Na to participate in it during his stay in Shanghai.

Teacher Ma Jian told Yu Tang that this shows Jordan's very deployed brand promotion plan. In Jordan's interview with Mr. Su Qun, Nike bought a large LED screen in Lujiazui and replaced it with Jordan Brand to match the interview framing, which shows Nike's meticulous and comprehensive planning and the importance it attaches to Jordan Brand.

For NIKE, the Chinese market is no longer satisfied with buying the NIKE brand, the rapid growth of purchasing power makes people happy to pursue a more high-end than NIKE, Air Jordan has always been an important sub-brand of NIKE, and thanks to the big sales of brand products, Jordan himself, who has the right to share, has also benefited a lot. Between 2000 and 2012 alone, Nike paid Jordan more than $500 million in sneaker sales.

The total number of sponsors of this NBA China game has reached 16, setting a new record for the China game. Among them, the joint presentation of the Master Kong logo and the official NBA logo, including the branding on the sidelines and in the arena, makes it full of presence. In April this year, PepsiCo announced that it would replace Coca-Cola, which has been working with the NBA for 28 years, and won the exclusive sponsorship of the NBA.

On June 17, PepsiCo's partner in China, Master Kong, finally announced that he has officially become the exclusive partner of the NBA in Greater China. And this China game is also the beginning of Master Kong's comprehensive cooperation with the NBA. Master Kong's chief marketing officer, Li Ziqiang, said that the cooperation with the NBA is a big investment. "Master Kong has a long tradition of interacting with Chinese youth, making them an ideal partner for us to help the NBA promote basketball in China," said David Shu, CEO of NBA China. ”

In view of the enthusiastic response to the China game, presumably the sponsors have also achieved the original purpose of sponsorship, so what does it mean for Tencent, as the "exclusive official partner of the NBA China digital media"?

In an interview with the media, NBA China said that although the NBA China Game is only a preseason game, its original intention is to move the original NBA game to China, so the configuration and standards in all aspects are strictly in accordance with the requirements of the NBA game.

For example, during the NBA China game, you need to stay in the hotel to use 4,311 square meters of meeting space; The total number of meals required for leagues and team staff participating in NBA series was 7,185; During the tournament, the cumulative number of days spent by the team and staff in the hotel was 2,395 days, etc. In addition, the Universiade Center and the experience of hosting related events also make Shenzhen not so unfamiliar with the NBA.

However, he may have forgotten to mention Shenzhen, the city where Tencent, which now holds the exclusive rights to the N.B.A. network in China, is headquartered. In fact, the day before the official start of the NBA China game, the Clippers players participated in an internal event of Tencent employees and interacted with them, which can be regarded as a benefit for Tencent employees.

Of course, as Asia's largest Internet company by market capitalization, Tencent has received more than just employee benefits through the NBA China. At least in the next five years, Tencent will further develop the commercial value of the NBA in the Chinese market and form synergies with the NBA, so as to gradually increase the stickiness of users to its products on the basis of the existing huge user base.

After the game between the Hornets and the Clippers, Tencent President Martin Lau and Clippers owner Steve Ballmer met and the two sides were also approached about the possibility of further cooperation. When asked about the significance of the China game for Tencent, Martin Lau said that this is the first live broadcast in their five-year exclusive rights contract, and Tencent will invest more in the NBA in the next five years, and this event is a "rehearsal" for them and various partners.

The implication is that this China game is just the beginning for Tencent, and Tencent's goal is naturally to start the NBA full season soon. Martin Lau also said that in addition to the copyright owner, Tencent will also play the role of a producer of high-quality content. In the next five years, Tencent hopes to show users more and more "personal" content.

So what kind of content is high-quality and relevant? Martin Lau said that Tencent's procurement of sports events is only the first step for them to cut into the whole sport, and will explore more deeply in the future.

In the field of content processing and production, which tests the professionalism of the team, Tencent will show more on-site data, player dynamics, and various stories behind it, and increase the interaction between teams and players. When the content is sufficient to support the experience, Tencent will explore community operations, player team interaction, VR technology presentation, and O2O entry to bring the audience a more comprehensive and personal experience.

After paying Xiao Hua $500 million, Tencent reaped unlimited power to transform the NBA's online world in China. Through the in-depth and comprehensive cooperation with the NBA, Tencent will leverage its huge user base to increase user loyalty, and combine its vast product chain to leverage social media and games to achieve greater impact. Of course, we cannot ignore the synergy effect of the NBA brand on Tencent's corporate image and the driving force to further develop overseas markets and enter the international market.

As far as copyright owners are concerned, renewing copyright is often an issue that should always be paid attention to, and Tencent is no exception. However, with Tencent's huge financial and technical support, Yutang believes that it will form a comprehensive and in-depth cooperation with the NBA in the next five years.

When it comes to providing reverse services for the NBA, Tencent's capital (not just in terms of capital) is enough to stand out from the crowd, and the funds and services naturally make the NBA happy to cooperate with it for a long time.

Mr. Xie Yuefeng, General Manager of Business Cooperation and Marketing of Tencent's Sports Information Department, said in an interview with Yu Tang that in the new season, Tencent will use multi-channel signals, develop program content during game breaks, invite commentators from more fields, produce programs such as "NBA Miracles", which traces the miracle of NBA history, and "Superstar City", which has been well received in the North American market, and will have more and more in-depth interactions with the audience, and offline activities including campus visits will also be launched one after another.

As for Tencent's specific performance at that time, we can wait for the official start of the regular season in the new season to observe and evaluate.

According to Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft and the current owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, the reason why the Clippers or the NBA choose to cooperate with Tencent is Tencent's huge number of users and in-depth implantation of users. In terms of numbers, QQ has 800 million users, which is >

Ballmer said that people all over the world, at least in tech companies, are amazed by Tencent's huge user base, but in his view, Tencent's real brilliance lies in its deep user implantation. While most messaging tools don't really understand their users, they can't get a huge number of users, and Tencent is approaching its products in a new way. Of course, as the owner of an NBA team, if QQ users can like Paul, Griffin and Jordan Jr., then the whole of China will love them.

Ballmer's words are also largely a reflection of the NBA's consideration in the selection of partners in overseas markets. Legend has it that when the NBA chose a partner, LeEco offered a price of $600 million in five years, but in the end, the NBA didn't just consider the price, it chose to bid $500 million for Tencent, which also valued Tencent's huge number of users and its ability to deeply implant users and even change users' lifestyles.

From the choice of the NBA, we can find that the NBA does not only focus on short-term interests, what they really want is to dig deeper and wider into the Chinese market, and make it another most important battlefield after the United States. In Su Qun's view, Xiao Hua was born as a lawyer like Stern, but he seems to be more willing to listen to players, coaches and business partners than Stern.

In terms of the achievements of this short year, Xiao Hua has appeared to be "better than the blue". He's willing to change and break through the box. As a CEO 20 years younger than Stern, his perception of the digital world is more in line with trends. In China, if you can't break through the TV field, then play big in the online world. Tencent, as the largest Internet company in China and even Asia, is naturally the best choice for the NBA.

At the end of the day, we want to go back and look at our league. Leaving aside the youth leagues, high school leagues, college leagues, community leagues, etc., it is impossible to talk about a top structure as tall as the NBA. China's basketball does not lack a foundation - in fact, the popularity of basketball in China is already quite high, and it is the CBA that really lacks a foundation.

We often fail to understand the true meaning of the so-called "school sports" in the United States - in fact, sports themselves are part of education, and talking about school sports is as meaningless as talking about school mathematics. What we can care about is whether we can achieve an economy like the NCAA through the operation of campus competitions like the United States.

Based on this, we can set up an incentive system such as sports scholarships to feed back sports talents on campus, so that they can use their sports talents to get better education opportunities and have academic knowledge and literacy, and the success of BA is not only the credit of the NBA itself, but also needs to think more and do more in this regard.

The 2015 NBA China Shanghai game will start on the evening of the 14th Beijing time, Clippers coach Rivers revealed in an interview with the media that Paul, who was suspended for the first game, will return, in addition, Rivers Jr., who was injured in the training game, will also appear in the game. This is undoubtedly a major positive news for the majority of fans.

In addition, the new season of the NBA regular season is about to start, what can the NBA bring to the Chinese audience? As the exclusive official partner of NBA China's digital media, what kind of novel experience will Tencent present to basketball fans? How will the cooperation between Tencent and the NBA unfold? We will all be working with you to find answers to these questions in the NBA broadcast of the new season.

(ENDS)

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