Mengniu, FIFA’s official ice cream and yogurt sponsor, teamed up with Lionel Messi for the centrepiece of its 2018 World Cup activation in the form of rendering the five-time Ballon d’Or winner in CGIed milk form and via a short film which debuted in the minutes prior to the tournament kick-off.
The hero piece of the Chinese dairy giant’s activation programme, which was first aired when host nation Russia kicked-off the tournament against Saudi Arabia in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium on 14 June, was an in-stadium seven-minute film for the brand’s Mongolian milk and drinkable yoghurt brand.
This spearhead spot then aired in-stadium during each of the 64 games of Russia 2018.
The Argentina super star’s spot also ran across Chinese TV networks – before kick-offs, during half times and after games – through the tournament.
The creative sees Messi lying face-up on a football field with a hard-to-read expression on his face: is he tired, or fulfilled, sad, confused or satisfied?
The voiceover says: “I was not born to be strong. I have been fighting to be strong”.
As well as this spearhead film, Messi also featured across the supporting social media and web based content (http://www.mengniu.com.cn/)
http://t.cn/RrSWlOx?m=4255441283783355&u=1653196740
and the brand continued to reference the soccer star and the theme of ‘spirit’ in its other marketing too.
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http://t.cn/RdWkLBX?m=4260173625899616&u=1653196740
Other elements of the dairy brand’s activation ranged from print and OOH initiatives, as well as a stands and booths outside the venue and appearing across FIFA’s physical and digital platforms.
While Messi’s fee for the endorsement deal was not disclosed, late in 2017 Mengniu confirmed that it would invest around two billion yuan ($311.6m) on marketing its World Cup campaign.
Mengniu’s wider campaign centered around the idea that playing football can make you stronger and, according to the brand, it chose Messi as its principle ambassador because of his ‘spirit’.
“This is not only because of his superb skills, but also because of his football spirit which he describes as ‘fighting to be strong’,” said Mengniu president Lu Minfang.
Indeed, Minfang’s campaign objective was to demonstrate and support the Chinese spirit of ‘fighting to be strong’ and boost the brand’s image in China and around the world through ‘positive social interaction’ and to leverage ‘the aura of a champion’.
Comment:
Mengniu was just one of several brands to feature Messi as a primary campaign spokesperson during Russia 2018: others ranged from Gatorade’s ‘Heart Of A Lio’ (see case study) and ‘Everything Changes’ (see case study), to Ooredoo ‘Enjoy The Internet’ (see case study), Pepsi’s ‘Love It, Live It, Football‘, Adidas’ World Cup activation too (see case study) and Huawei.
This might have led to the globally little known brand getting lost in all the World Cup campaign clutter.
But the commercial’s prominent positioning was a major reason this didn’t happen.
In China, the dairy brand’s videos and images were widely streamed and watched through the tournament: with the brand claiming 10s of millions of views and millions of social media shares – including with high profile young Chinese influencers such as beauty blogger Niu/Nyu.
Indeed, Niu/Nyu released a video during the FIFA World Cup telling her fans that Mengniu had brought the young children with football dreams from the disadvantaged areas of China to Russia to see the World Cup and it generated 94,196 views and 4.5K likes in 48 hours.
Dairy group Mengniu is providing the official milk of the tournament, as well as the official ice cream and yogurt drinks – all exclusively on sale to fans at every stadium and in all the fan zones.
Meaning football fans from around the world visiting Russia for the tournament were faced with an array of unfamili9ar products – including ice cream such as Mood for Green, Ice+ and Suibian SuiXinGuo.
The Chinese dairy behemoth, which is one of the biggest dairy sector conglomerates in a region spanning China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, is one of several Chinese companies to have signed up as a sponsor of Russia 2018 – alongside the likes of Hisense (see case study), Vivo (see case study) and Wanda (see case study).
Links:
Mengniu
http://www.mengniuir.com/c/index.php
http://e.weibo.com/mengniu1999
