China News Service, November 29th (China News Finance reporter Zuo Yukun) In the 2022 Qatar World Cup group stage, especially in the first round of competition, the Asian teams contributed a good performance, and the wonderful scenes of the weak defeating the strong were staged one after another .
In addition to the "Light of Asia" teams on the field, the "Asian Enterprise Teams" outside the field also showed their own special skills, and they have a strong sense of presence.
Ecuador striker Enna Valencia celebrates with his teammates after scoring his first goal of the World Cup.
Chinese enterprises "join" the World Cup heavily
From "China Yingli, photovoltaic home" in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa to "No. 1 in China and No. 2 in the world" in this year's World Cup in Qatar, Chinese companies have also "contested" in the World Cup for 12 years.
It only took 12 years for Chinese companies to participate in the World Cup for the first time to rank first in the total sponsorship of the three World Cups.
According to data from Global Data, a global data analysis and consulting company, Chinese companies sponsored a total of US$1.395 billion in this World Cup in Qatar, surpassing the US$1.1 billion sponsored by the "American Team" including Coca-Cola, McDonald's and other brands, becoming the largest sponsorship in this World Cup. Sponsor.
Among the official sponsors of this World Cup, the "Chinese Enterprise Team" mainly consists of four companies: Wanda, Vivo, Hisense and Mengniu.
Wanda Group has become one of the seven top sponsors of the World Cup in Qatar as a FIFA partner, while Hisense, Mengniu, and vivo are sponsors of the FIFA World Cup.
In addition, Yardi and BOSS Zhipin are sponsors in the Asia-Pacific region.
Several Chinese brands also attracted a lot of attention on the green field.
Faced with the "Oolong Incident" of the upside-down billboards on the side of the training field, Mengniu responded overnight on its official Weibo, and accompanied it with a poster saying "It's good to score a goal, it's awesome anyway"; Hisense "China's No. 1, The advertising banner of "The World's Second" has aroused heated discussions at home and abroad since the opening match.
Whether it is by accident or careful planning, the brand's goal of "letting the world see" has been achieved.
"Football is recognized as the world's largest sport, with a wide audience base. The World Cup is the most famous international event. Whether you are a fan or not, you will pay attention to it due to the influence of the atmosphere. Therefore, the World Cup has high attention and exposure, which is excellent. Communication platform." Wang Peng, a researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences and a researcher at the Research Center for Intelligent Social Governance at Renmin University of China, said.
Behind the World Cup campaign is also the ambition of Chinese companies to speed up going overseas.
According to the prediction of FIFA President Infantino, the World Cup in Qatar is expected to be watched by 5 billion people worldwide, which may become the most watched World Cup in history.
For brands, the attention that the World Cup can bring is certain.
Taking Vantage as an example, during the World Cup in Russia, the successful marketing of "French team wins the championship, Vatti will refund the full amount" is an example. The product generated retail sales of about 29 million yuan, but Vantage said it "belongs to the company's controllable expenses."
Take Hisense, which is also not the first time to participate in the sponsorship of the World Cup, as an example. According to its official data, from 2016 to 2021 European Cup, Hisense's overseas sales revenue increased from 19.6 billion yuan to 72.5 billion yuan, and the proportion of overseas revenue has never been higher. From 20% to 41.3%, Hisense's global popularity rose from 37% to 59%.
On November 25, local time, in the second round of Group A of the World Cup group stage, the host team Qatar played against Senegal.
The picture shows Qatar players celebrating their first goal in the World Cup.
Qatar: Spend the most money, get the hardest "beating"
"Every team is showing off, and only the club is being beaten." After two games, the host Qatar team became the first team to confirm that they would not qualify for the group stage in this World Cup. The game is beaten the hardest.
This is also because when it comes to spending money for the World Cup, one country that has to be mentioned is the host Qatar.
For the World Cup, a city was built, and Qatar spent 229 billion U.S. dollars. I am afraid that everyone knows about it.
What is the concept of 229 billion US dollars?
If counted from the 1994 World Cup, the total investment of previous World Cups is about 43.3 billion US dollars, and the investment of Qatar World Cup is about 5 times the sum of the investment of the previous 7 World Cups.
Qatar spends a lot of money, mainly relying on the huge income from Qatar's export of oil and gas resources, and the important "financial owner" behind it is Qatar Energy Company, which is also one of the seven top sponsors signed for this World Cup.
On November 21, the day when the Qatar World Cup officially kicked off, Sinopec also signed a 27-year long-term purchase and sale agreement for liquefied natural gas (LNG) with Qatar Energy Company.
In addition, when the global aviation industry was hit hard by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Qatar Airways still spent huge sums of money to join the ranks of the seven top sponsors.
The addition of the two also pushed FIFA to an all-time high of $7.5 billion from this World Cup, $1 billion more than in the previous business cycle.
However, compared to the huge investment, Qatar's direct income from the World Cup is "not worth mentioning".
World Cup preparation official Nasser Carter said bluntly that Qatar's hosting of the World Cup is expected to attract about 1.2 million fans from all over the world to visit Qatar, bringing economic benefits of US$17 billion to the country.
In addition to the obvious direct income, the continued positive impact of the World Cup on the national economy is obviously more valued by Qatar.
Hassan Tawadi, secretary-general of the Qatar World Cup Delivery and Inheritance Supreme Committee, once expressed the hope that hosting the World Cup will promote the completion of Qatar's 2030 vision project, and plans to comprehensively develop the country and infrastructure in record time.
On November 27, Beijing time, in the second round of Group E of the World Cup in Qatar, the Japanese team played against Costa Rica. The Costa Rica team defeated the Japanese team 1-0 with Fuller's goal.
The picture shows No. 4 player Fuller (red) of the Costa Rica team running to celebrate the goal.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Tomita
Will Asia become the biggest "cash cow"?
Thanks to the high economic level of their national teams, Japan and South Korea have always been frequent sponsors of the World Cup.
Among the seven top sponsors this year, the only Korean company and the only car manufacturer is Hyundai Motor. This year is also the sixth time that Hyundai Motor has sponsored the World Cup.
In addition, Hyundai also bet on two teams this year. In addition to its own South Korean team, it also sponsored the European Croatian team. Croatia has just staged a wonderful reversal in the second round of the group stage.
However, although the team is also a strong team in Asia, Japanese companies seem to have little interest in sponsoring the World Cup this year, and there are no sponsors.
Toshiba and Fujifilm, which had appeared in the World Cup before, are also hard to see now.
In addition, the only sponsor from Southeast Asia is Singapore's Crypto.com, which is FIFA's official cryptocurrency trading platform; India has also begun to show its willingness to participate, and the country's education startup Byju's is the only Indian sponsor for the World Cup in Qatar. sponsor.
Will the football market, which has been based on Europe for a long time, turn around with the improvement of the competitive level of Asian teams and the development of the economic strength of Asian countries?
The 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico may tell us the answer.
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