On the evening of July 30, Yao Ming joined ROI Festival & CBA Fireside Chat in his capacity as CBA chairman to discuss the grand blueprint of CBA2.0, and provided his own interpretation of the “Innovation and Re-growth” of this year's ROI Festival.

FIBA Basketball World Cup will begin on August 31 in eight cities across China, and 400 million basketball fans will be expecting a great sporting feast.  2020 is also an Olympic year, so the question is how sports marketing should be planned and activated? This ROI Festival & CBA Fireside Chat was attended by Wang Dawei, CBA CEO; Xu Wenwei, President of Huawei Strategic Market; Hong Yuru, Li Ning CPMO; Chen Qi, Mushroom Street CEO; Zhong Ming, President of Philips Health Life, Greater China; Wang Ligang, Vice President of Master Kong; Xu Cong, McDonald's CMO; Yu Wei, Carrefour CMO, Yi Guangxu, Feibo CEO; Fang Yuan, CBO of Jiayin Fin-tech, and Zhang Yongchang, Vice President of Himalaya. Topic 1: How the CBA brand can be upgraded, and how to create cultural self-confidence in Chinese professional sports? Topic 2: How should CBA create a business value system that combines product and efficiency? Topic 3: How sports marketing can stimulate fan community economy? CBA and ROI Festival work together to promote the new ecology of the industry. Topic 4: "Innovation and Re-growth” is absolutely necessary in the economic environment of 2019.

Below are some of the views from the participants of the Fireside Chat:

Yao Ming: Basketball ranks first among young people. That’s because it's convenient to play and enjoyable. I will tell all partners that CBA is a market-oriented and professional body. CBA has been taking a market-oriented approach as early as 1995. We will try to establish more connections in the future. This determination could be seen from the fact I asked David, or Wang Dawei, to be on board.

Wang Dawei: We welcome this opportunity to learn from and cooperate with all our partners for a win-win result. Entertainment marketing is about traffic - how much attention you get - and sports marketing is about how much inventory you have. It’s a heavy-degree community that requires maintenance over time and operation. American sports marketing is successful because it has a complete industry chain. The industry chain of China's sports is still relatively weak, and we need everybody to work together to make it stronger.

On how branding is involved in sports marketing

Xu Wenwei: In sports marketing, Huawei had also inadvertently taken a detour. Based on our own experience, your effort will be rendered useless if you sponsor only one or two events just for sports marketing. It's critical to make sure that sports marketing is a sustained effort and the tonality of brand and product must be relevant to the sports marketing involved.

Fang Yuan: Enterprises are concerned about how sports marketing raises people's attention and how it brings them spotlights and rewards. In sports events, the involvement of celebrities, the fairness of competition and the issue of whether there is geographical discrimination are also among the major considerations for enterprises. In addition, we're concerned about the risks of being a sports sponsor. For example, we also factor in how friction between fans in different regions would affect the brand.

Xu Cong: Sports marketing focuses most on the impact of events and their relevance to the brand's business. If you see it for the perspective of FMCG, there are many vehicles to choose from. I don't have to decide on sports. The key is about whether it has relevance to my products and fits with the brand.

Wang Degang: There is no IP that is perfect. We need something functional to help us grow together with IP. Activation, contents and participation constitute the three major plans of our sports marketing.

Hong Yuru: At Li Ning, we have operations for both marketing and sports. Li Ning and CBA have signed a contract of 10 instead of 5 years. We definitely have an expectation towards Mr. Yao and CBA, hoping that the future CBA and Chinese basketball will be among the best in the world. In China, we are looking for sports marketing that goes hand-in-hand with brand's personality and attitude.

On the issue of how the community of sports marketing should be operated.

Yi Guangxu: In my opinion, from the perspective of Internet thinking, CBA is the most influential sports community in China. Here is my suggestion: you don't want to ignore those people who put on sportswear and pretend they like sports even though they hardly indulge in sporting activities - they like to watch cheering squads. Cheering squad is a good marketing tool. Imagine having a cheering squad of good-looking girls from different locations. It will help draw a wider range of spectators and make the fans’ experience better.

Chen Qi: Sports is actually a professional endeavor, but we see little involvement of sports fans. We should use the Internet to raise the involvement of fans, like expanding the scope and form of league athletes, improving the playability and operating sports in the same way we run a game.

Zhang Yongchang: I’m thinking about how to bring increased volume to CBA, so as to tell a good story about Chinese basketball and basketball players, and create new possibilities, People may use voices and stories to penetrate into the user's soul.

Yu Ying: Retail is an inclusive industry. It's much like sports, which is suitable for people of all ages or sexes. Traditionally, we would give a bucket of cooking oil and a bag of rice to users during promotion. But today, we're more inclined to provide free Internet membership. It’s because we now have more sophisticated demand in consumption. That’s an element we need to factor in.

Zhong Ming: Sports marketing is a particularly excellent experiential marketing, people with common interest find it easier to get together. Before undertaking marketing, you should first figure out how to position your brand. I found an interesting phenomenon. In a workplace, most people are reluctant to add somebody else to their WeChat contacts. However, it you meet a stranger at a concert or a stadium, you’d probably be happy to do that. That’s because similar interest helps increase your mutual trust.

All the guests have a positive and affirmative view on the Fireside Chat and are looking forward to gathering together again at this year's ROI Festival.

Coming soon:

Unveiling Nominee List for ROI Festival 2019, August 16

The 12th ROI Festival, October 14~17