Winter Economy: Launch Your Own Snowballing Marketing Campaign!

The ongoing Beijing Winter Olympics has definitely brought a lot of attention and enthusiasm in China around winter sportsand what is more broadly referred to as the “ice and snow industry” or the “winter economy”, which includes also infrastructure, tourism and education.

正在进行的北京冬奥会无疑给中国的冰雪运动,以及广义的“冰雪产业”(其中包括基础设施、旅游和教育),带来了大量的关注和热情。
❅ A Strategic National Development Plan

   国家战略发展计划

This growing trend is the result of a decade-long plan at the national level, namely the Ice and Snow Sports Development Program (2016-2025), that has set China’s ice and snow industry to reach 100 billion yuan (USD 157 billion) by 2025, thus accounting for 20 percent of the global sports industry’s gross output.

这一增长趋势是国家层面长达十年的规划,即《2016-2025冰雪运动发展规划》的硕果,该规划使中国的冰雪产业在2025年前达到 1000 亿元人民币(1570 亿美元),从而使中国的冰雪产业占全球体育产业总产值的20%。


In an effort to bring more people and especially younger generations to familiarize themselves with winter sports, local governments across the country, have started introducing several policies, including public ski classes and the integration of winter sports into the physical education curriculum of almost 3,000 primary and secondary schools. The result thus far is that, since winning the 2015 bid to hold the Winter Olympics, 346 million people have already taken part in winter sports in China, surpassing the initial goal of 300 million people, according to a report released last month by the State Sports Administration.

为了让更多的人,尤其是年轻一代熟悉冰雪运动,全国各地的地方政府已经开始出台多项政策,包括公共滑雪班和将冰雪运动纳入近 3000 名中小学生的体育课程。据国家体育管理局上月发布的一份报告显示,截至目前,自2015年获得冬奥会举办权以来,中国已有3.46亿人参加了冰雪运动,超过了最初设定的3亿人的目标。



 Women and Gen Z drive consumption

    女性和 Z 世代的消费正在上升

It is clear that the more people participate in winter sports, the more consumption related to the whole ice and snow industry will grow.

显然,随着越来越多的人参与冰雪运动,整体冰雪产业的相关消费也会随之增加。

As for winter tourism, the trend is young and female! Women account for about 68 percent of the total tourists in the winter season, while "generation Z" (post-00s and post-90s) represent 60% of total winter tourists, with an increase of 2 percentage points compared with 2020-2021.
至于冰雪旅游,年轻人和女性是未来的趋势!冰雪游客总量中女性约占68%,“Z世代”(00后、90后)占冰雪游客总量的60%,较2020-2021年增长2个百分点。

Looking at recent consumption stats, during last month’s regular press conference, the Ministry of Commerce announced that in 2021, sales of skiing equipment increased 57 percent year-on-year.

从近期消费数据看,在上个月的例行发布会上,商务部宣布:2021年滑雪装备销量同比增长57%。


E-commerce platforms are enjoying the benefits of this booming sector, too. In its report released just after the Spring Festival, the e-commerce giant JD.com registered a remarkable growth in consumption during the Spring Festival period with ski equipment turnover increasing by 107 percent compared to last year and winter sportswear rising by 99 percent.

电子商务平台也正在享受这个蓬勃发展的行业带来的红利。春节过后刚发布的报告中显示,电商巨头京东在春节期间消费增长显著,滑雪装备成交量同去年增长107%,冬季运动服装同比增长99%。

❅ Plan ahead for your ice and snow marketing strategy!
    提前制定您的冰雪营销策略!

Although the Beijing Winter Olympics are a great marketing opportunity for companies, the potential of China’s ice and snow industry goes far beyond that. Companies should adopt a more forward-looking attitude if they want to position themselves in China’s fast-growing but also highly competitive ice and snow industry.

虽然北京冬奥会对企业来说是一个很好的营销机会,但中国冰雪产业的潜力远不止于此。如果企业要想在快速发展、竞争激烈的中国冰雪行业中定位自己,就应该采取更加前瞻的态度

Below are three easy tips to start your winning ice and snow marketing in China!
以下是三个简单的技巧,让你在中国成功的开始冰雪营销

No. 1 - Watch Your Words!

            注意你的用词!

Let’s start from the basics. A key element in marketing is communication and communication occurs through language.  A proper ice and snow marketing campaign then can’t be missing the Chinese characters 冰 bīng (ice) and 雪 xuě (snow). A precursor of this trend was BMW, launching its ice and snow campaign way back in 2018.


让我们从基础开始。营销的一个关键要素是沟通,而沟通是通过语言来进行的。一个应景的冰雪营销活动不能缺少汉字“冰”和“雪”。宝马是这一趋势的引领者,早在 2018 年就推出了相关的冰雪宣传。

No. 2 - Find Your Athlete: The Case of Eileen Gu

            寻找你的运动员代言人:谷爱凌的案例

The Olympic freestyle skier and model Eileen Gu has become China’s national idol after winning her first gold medal in freestyle skiing. She arrived at the Winter Games sponsored by more than 20 international and domestic brands, covering a wide span of industries ranging from fashion to automotive, food & beverage and furniture.

奥运会自由式滑雪运动员、模特谷爱凌在获得自由式滑雪的首枚金牌后,成为了中国的国民偶像。她参加冬奥会并代言了20多个国际和国内品牌,涵盖了从时尚到汽车、食品饮料到家具的众多行业。

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Eileen is one example of how brands in China are increasingly preferring to be represented by athletes rather than entertainment celebrities. The shift is due not only to the sports fever brought along by the recent success of the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics, but also mainly in response to the frequent scandals faced by entertainment celebrities in recent years. Athletes enjoy enormous exposure and favour by the public as they are celebrated by Chinese media as national heroes and role models. In addition, they embody positive values such as success, high performance, discipline, a healthy and high-quality lifestyle, which perfectly match with what most brands want to communicate about themselves.

爱凌是中国市场中的品牌越来越喜欢由运动员而不是娱乐名人代言的一个例子。这一转变不仅是由于近期东京奥运会和北京奥运会的成功带来的体育热潮,而且主要是为了应对近年来娱乐界名人被频频曝出丑闻的负面效应。运动员被中国媒体誉为民族英雄和楷模,受到公众的广泛关注和青睐。此外,他们还体现了成功、出色表现、纪律性、以及健康和高品质的生活方式等积极的价值观,这与大多数品牌想要传达的品牌价值完美契合。

No. 3 - Launch Your Ice and Snow Contest on Social Media

            在社交媒体上发起您的冰雪活动

Besides the most famous (and expensive) sports celebrities, China’s social media are an incredible pool of outbreak stars. The enthusiasm around the Winter Olympics is spurring the rise of winter sports KOLs and industry-related content.


除了最著名(也是最昂贵)的体育名人之外,中国的社交媒体也是一个令人难以置信的产生新兴明星的平台。关于冬奥会的热情,正在激发冰雪运动KOL(关键意见领袖)和行业相关内容的兴起

In fact, according to Little Red Book, one of the “Top 10 Life Trends in 2022” is skiing tutorials. Search volumes for the term more than doubled over the course of 2021. The platform also launched a campaign calling on users to share skiing tutorial content for the opportunity to win a 500,000 yuan reward.

事实上,根据小红书来看,“2022年十大生活趋势”之一就是滑雪教程。该术语的搜索量在2021 年期间翻了一番多。该平台还发起了一项活动,呼吁用户分享滑雪教程内容,以此获得 50 万元奖励的机会。


Companies could also launch their own ice and snow contest on social media, as a way to encourage users to share their products and increase brand awareness.

公司还可以在社交媒体上发起自己的冰雪活动,以此鼓励用户分享他们的产品并提高品牌知名度。

 Conclusion 

 结论 

China’s winter economy is definitely worthy of attention. Considering the potential of this sector in the following years, it’s important to start working on your brand awareness with a successful marketing strategy to be ahead of your competitors. Speed and farsightedness are the key words to be a winner in the Chinese market!

中国冰雪产业的潜力绝对值得关注。考虑到该行业在接下来几年的潜能,重要的是要开始运用成功的营销策略来提高品牌的知名度,占领竞争先机。速度和远见是中国市场制胜者的关键词!


✦ CONTACT US ✦

Get in contact at info@eastant.it to learn how to build a strong brand image in China’s highly competitive digital market!

联系 info@eastant.it,了解如何在中国竞争激烈的数字市场中建立强大的品牌形象!