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For more information on CIC white papers, please visit our website at http://www.cicdata.com/en/iwom_whitepaper.php
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© 2008 CIC
Tuning into Sports IWOM, 2007 Q4
An overview of Internet Word of Mouth around sports on Chinese online social media (BBS and Blog)
May 8, 2008
Study Background and Quick Takeaways
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 3© 2008 CIC
STUDY BACKGROUND
• The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) for the mainland China sports industry with a categorical focus on basketball and football.
• The systematic online sports industry analysis used in this study is based on 4,311,758 BBS (online message board) messages from mainland China related to sports written by 296,017 unique user names from October 1 to December 31, 2007.
• The scope of sports industry study covers 14 sports brands, 597 basketball and football athletes, and 187 basketball and football teams.
• The messages were collected and mined using CIC’s patent pending data collection & text mining tools and methodology with analysis by CIC’s Sports IWOM analyst team.
* This study was conducted independently and not sponsored by any manufacturer or any organization.
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 4© 2008 CIC
KEY FINDINGS
• Nike led Q4 buzz among the 14 tracked brands with over 42% share of voice. New product and campaign launches had a noticeable impact on buzz volume for several brands including Nike, Adidas and Reebok. For example, the launch of Nike’s new basketball sneakers and the launch of Adidas’ and Reebok’s campaigns in Q4 drove the high buzz volumes around these three brands.
• Basketball and football dominate the sports category buzz. Yao Ming and Houston Rockets topped the basketball player and team buzz, with 7.7% and 13.0% share of voice respectively. Football star Kaka and football team AC Milan occupied the top positions for football players and teams.
• Compared to those on larger portals or sports vertical communities, online fan club community members are over 2 times more active in creating content. Administrators of these fan clubs are not only among the most active content creators, but also possess rich knowledge of the forum discussions and utilize a number of tactics to influence others’ messages.
• Sports net culture is filled with a number of unique elements and serve as both media and communication platforms. E-zines (e-magazines) are created and/or supported by brands, websites and fans, rivaling traditional magazines in terms of content and overall quality. “Group reporting” of live matches on BBS is similar to recent development of Twitter “sports groups” (i.e. “Twitter Super Bowl”) in the West (though predates Twitter by many years). Cartoon blogs are finding new ways to communicate and represent fans’ passion and love of sports.
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 5© 2008 CIC
• The systematic analysis of over 4 million BBS sports related postings demonstrates not only the popularity and passion of netizens toward sports and sports-related culture and brands, but also serves as a window to consumer and youth culture that can provide insight for more effective marketing communications.
• Chinese net culture is extremely developed, if not more developed than the West and other markets. For example, the recent development of Twitter groups in the United States to “group” watch events like the Super Bowl and Boston Red Sox games are predated by group reporting of NBA games and football games on Chinese BBS.
• The recent launch of “Nike iD” in China is an example of how a product can “ride the wave” of consumer net culture. Chinese “sneaker heads” and other fans of sneakers have long posted pictures of their DIY (do it yourself) personalization of sports shoes. Brands can learn from their consumers and leverage the learning with more effective product design, campaign development and campaign targeting.
KEY IMPLICATIONS
An Introduction to Chinese Sports IWOM
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 7© 2008 CIC
Definition: Text and multimedia content related to companies, products or services shared by netizens, including brands and consumers, via online community platforms such as BBS (online message boards), blogs and video sites.
BBS Blog Video-Sharing
WHAT IS INTERNET WORD OF MOUTH (IWOM)?
Any information of the sports world you want to Know?! Just come to join us !
For more on this definition, see our blogs here (EN) and here (CN)
Provide up-to-date information on tennis world.
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 8© 2008 CIC
IWOM HAS MASSIVE REACH
3.311.2 15.0
19.6
46.2 50.6
74.6
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
15.8
34.7
49.4
2005 2006 2007
*Data Source: The 21st Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China by CNNIC, January 2008
• 210 million Internet users in China*
• 74.6 million regular BBS users (35.5%)*
• 49.4 million Chinese bloggers (23.5%)* 1 2 9
23 3459
8094
111137
210
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Internet User in China (Unit-million)
Regular BBS User Online (Unit-million) Regular Blog User Online (Unit-million)
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 9© 2008 CIC
IWOM BRINGS COMPLEXITY TO COMMUNICATIONS: Consumers are gaining influenceConsumers have their own media in blogs, BBS and other community platforms that can both amplify and influence traditional media as well as reflect and influence consumers themselves.
InfluenceShape ReshapeIWOM
Mainstream Media
Video SharingNewspaper & Magazines
BillboardTVC BBS Blog
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 10© 2008 CIC
UNIQUE NETIZEN LANGUAGE: The presence of online culture is represented by a unique lexicon
某蜜/某黑(-- lover/ -- hater):The people who strongly supports certain athletes or teams will be named “-- lover“, e.g. Yao lover (姚蜜). On the contrary, those who frequently criticize certain athletes or teams will be named “-- hater”, e.g. Yao hater (姚黑).
筒子 / (mates):Used to refer to other netizens chatting in the same forums. It is frequently used in sports forums.
小黑屋 (little black house):The name for a netizen who is banned from posting in the forum by BBS administrator.
卡路里 (calorie):In a particular basketball e-community, this term refers to virtual money within the forum (not the heat energy unit).
See more sports net languages on seeiee blog (Chinese)
Selected Net Language on Sports E-community
Alessandro Del Piero
Yao Ming
Selected Athlete and Team Nick Names
Nick Name Interpretation
大姚 Big Yao
胡子明Ming with mustache
明王 King Ming
点球皮Piero for penalty
goal
斑马王子 Prince of zebra
绿衫军The green shirt
army
蚱蜢 The grasshoppers
蚂蚁队 The ants team
枪手 The gunners
我厂 My factory
Boston Celtics
Arsenal
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 11© 2008 CIC
NETIZENS’ GREAT PASSION FOR SPORTS: CIC sports practice collected over 4,300,000 posts generated by netizens in 2007 Q4
Sports practice data for Q4, 2007
4,311,758
296,017 269,390
# of Post # of Poster # of Conversation
Sports Brand IWOM
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 13© 2008 CIC
SPORTS BRAND BUZZ: Nike leads with 42.5% of sports brand buzz in Q4
Portal
Portal
Portal
Vertical
Fans club
0.5%
2.7%
2.9%
3.4%
3.8%
4.0%
5.0%
11.8%
21.9%
42.5%Nike
Anta
Puma
AND1
Kappa
Mizuno
Adidas
Reebok
Lining
Converse
* Notes: Sports brand buzz incidence is the number of brand mention that occurs in all sports brands posts
Base: Total number of sports brands posts in Q4 2007 is 229,087
* Buzz incidence of top 10 mentioned sports brands in Q4, 2007
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 14© 2008 CIC
SPORTS BRAND BUZZ: New product and campaign launch are main brand buzz drivers
Base: Total number of sports brands posts in Q4 2007 is 229,087
Weekly trends for top 3 sports brands buzz in Q4, 2007
Num
ber o
f pos
t
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
10.1-10.7 10.8-10.14
10.15-10.21
10.22-10.28
10.29-11.4
11.5-11.11
11.12-11.18
11.19-11.25
11.26-12.2
12.3-12.9 12.10-12.16
12.17-12.23
12.24-12.31
Nonofficial ZK3 and AJ23 pictures release A series of real AJ23
pictures release
Adidas Olympic campaign launch
Reebok Yao campaign launch
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 15© 2008 CIC
NETIZENS’ PASSION TOWARDS SPORTS: Sports fans use brand assets for creating original content
Original Nike slogan
Original “Where Amazing Happens” TVC
Recreating content among brand fans
“Just over time it!”“Just Nike it!”
Slogan recreating
TVC recreating
Content recreating
Netizens’ recreating drawings
Netizens’ recreating videos
Netizens’ recreating slogans
“Just do it”
Original “My Story” content
Link Link
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 16© 2008 CIC
NETIZENS’ PASSION TOWARDS SPORTS: Brands can ride the wave of sports net culture
Many netizens have begun to show off their unique creativity and personal style through sneaker DIY, especially with graffiti. Brands such as Nike and Mizuno have launched campaigns and products that engage such active netizens.
Hot sneaker DIY culture among sneaker heads
Mizuno’s “Table Tennis Shoes Graffiti” campaign invites netizens to design shoes for China’s table
tennis athletes
Nike iD allows consumer to design his or her own unique sneaker
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 17© 2008 CIC
NETIZENS’ PASSION TOWARDS SPORTS: Brands can ride the wave of sports net culture
“Showing off” is popular among online sports fans
Lining’s “One Team” campaign Inspires netizens to make TVC version
Conversations about Gatorade’s “Crazy Fans” campaign shows netizens’ enthusiasm toward sports
The conversation received over 9,000 replies and 166,087 page views
Enthusiastic sports fans are becoming more open to expressing themselves by “showing off”or “shai-ing” their sports collections via online community platforms like BBS (for more “shai” culture click here). Brands can leverage this trend by initiating campaigns which encourage netizens to show themselves and their sports collections off in front of large online audiences.
Basketball and Football IWOM
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 19© 2008 CIC
BASKETBALL BUZZ: Yao Ming and Houston Rockets buzz topped basketball player and team buzz respectively
Yao Ming
Kobe Bryant
Tracy McGrady
Yi Jian Lian
Michael Jordan
Houston Rockets
Los Angeles Lakers
Milwaukee Bucks
Phoenix Suns
San Antonio Spurs
*Buzz incidence of top 5 mentioned basketball athletes, Q4 2007
• Base: Total post number of basketball athletes is 1,714,008, Q4 2007• Notes: Basketball athletes include NBA and CBA players.
• Base: Total post number of basketball team is 2,111,352, Q4 2007• Notes: Basketball teams include NBA and CBA teams.
*Buzz incidence of top 5 mentioned basketball teams, Q4 2007
3.3%
3.7%
6.1%
6.7%
7.7%
1.9%
1.9%
3.2%
4.3%
13.0%
Not surprisingly, as one of the most popular athletes in China, Yao and his team Houston Rockets, topped the athlete and team buzz.
*Buzz incidence of basketball athlete/team is the number of athlete/team mention that occurs in all basketball athletes/teams posts
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 20© 2008 CIC
FOOTBALL BUZZ: Kaka and AC Milan buzz topped football player and team buzz
Kaka
Ronaldo
Ronaldinho
Messi
Cristiano Ronaldo
AC Milan
Manchester United
Juventus
Inter Milan
Arsenal
*Buzz incidence of top 5 discussed football athletes, Q4 2007
*Buzz incidence of top 5 discussed football teams, Q4 2007
• Base: Total post number of football team is 2,481,461, Q4 2007• Notes: The football teams include top 5 European football leagues teams and Chinese league teams.
• Base: Total post number of football athletes is 965,225, Q4 2007• Notes: Football athletes include top 5 European football league players and Chinese league players.
1.6%
1.7%
2.0%
2.7%
4.2%
1.7%
2.6%
2.7%
2.7%
4.1%
Kaka’s Golden Ball award win in 2007 and AC Milan’s match against Inter Milan in Q4 triggered high buzz volumes for Q4.
*Buzz incidence of football athlete/team is the number of athlete/team mention that occurs in all football athletes/teams posts
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 21© 2008 CIC
TEAM VS. PLAYER: Football teams dominated total team buzz (7 out of top 10) while basketball athletes dominated total player buzz (8 out of top 10)
Houston Rockets
AC Milan
Manchester United
Juventus
Los Angeles Lakers
Inter Milan
Milwaukee Bucks
Arsenal
Barcelona
Real Madrid
*Buzz incidence of top 10 mentioned sports teams *Buzz incidence of top 10 mentioned athletes
Base: Total number of athlete post is 2,679,223, Q4 2007Total number of team post is 4,592,813 ,Q4 2007
Yao Ming
Tracy McGrady
Kobe Bryant
Michael Jordan
Yi Jian Lian
Lebron James
Kaka
Steve Francis
Allen Iverson
Ronaldo
Basketball related
Football relatedUnderstanding the differences between netizens’ communication habits and focusing on their interests can help brands to create effective campaign/promotion strategies which will be more welcomed by netizens.
6.0%
3.0%
3.0%
2.0%
2.0%
2.0%
1.5%
1.3%
1.2%
1.1%
*Buzz incidence of athlete/team is the number of athlete/team mention that occurs in all athletes/teams posts
0.9%
1.0%
1.1%
1.5%
1.6%
2.1%
2.3%
3.8%
4.3%
4.9%
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 22© 2008 CIC
TEAM VS. PLAYER: Basketball fans discuss players, football fans discuss teams
Quote : That’s why Chelsea is better than Liverpool. We have seen what Liverpool can do, but we haven’t done our best yet.
帖子示例 :切尔西比他本事的地方。昨天利
物浦的本事我们看到了,那就是他的全部。
而我们还没做到最好
Quote : Luther Head is really disappointing. When Yao is at his best, he still needs support from other team members. In the end, basketball is a team sport.
帖子示例 :海德让人失望 咳 姚明继续出色的
同时 需要队友们的支持 楼主说的很队正确 毕
竟篮球是一项整体的运动
Football Basketball
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 23© 2008 CIC
BUZZ TREND FOR AC MILAN: AC Milan fans are united in support, especially during important matches against competitors like “Milan Derby”
Quote: The Milan derby will begin soon, is there anyone who is interested in the match? Let’s discuss together.帖子示例:米兰德比开始了,有没有同好?一起吼
起来!!Quote: AC Milan is playing against Boca Junior and the score is 1:1. Let’s go pay attention to it.帖子示例:AC米兰 VS 博卡青年队
目前的比分是1:1去关注下啊
Weekly buzz trend of Ac Milan in Q4, 2007
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
10.1-
10.7
10.8-
10.14
10.15
-10.21
10.22
-10.28
10.29
-11.4
11.5-
11.11
11.12
-11.18
11.19
-11.25
11.26
-12.2
12.3-
12.9
12.10
-12.16
12.17
-12.23
12.24
-12.31
Milan Derby at Dec 23rd
drove Ac Milan buzz
*Keyword frequency: the rank is according to CIC Keyword Frequency Analysis around “AC Milan” in terms of No. of mentions
Discussion Content
Rank Keyword Frequency
1 Inter Milan – 国际米兰 6,922
2 Milan derby – 米兰德比 5,325
3 Juventus – 尤文图斯 3,898
4 Boca – 博卡 2,473
5 Shakhtyor Donetsk Team – 矿工
1,976
*Keyword Frequency Rank for AC Milan Unit post
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 24© 2008 CIC
BUZZ TREND FOR YAO MING: Yao Ming’s fans created articles in preparation for his first match against Yi Jianlian
Subject: have been waiting for a long time, Yao vs. Yi [Authorship]帖子主题: 千年等一回,姚明大战易建联[原创]Subject: [Absolutely Original] Yao Ming VS Yi Jianlian帖子主题:[绝对原创] 姚明VS易建联
Weekly buzz trend of Yao Ming in Q4, 2007
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
10.1-
10.7
10.8-
10.14
10.15
-10.21
10.22
-10.28
10.29
-11.4
11.5-
11.11
11.12
-11.18
11.19
-11.25
11.26
-12.2
12.3-
12.9
12.10
-12.16
12.17
-12.23
12.24
-12.31
Yao Min and Yi Jianlian’s first competition in NBA
drove Yao’s buzz
Discussion Content
Rank Keyword Frequency
1 Rockets – 火箭 18,462
2 McGrady – 麦蒂 3,978
3 Yi Jianlian – 易建联 2,610
4 Kobe – 科比 1,492
5 Adelman – 阿德尔曼 1,294
Keyword Frequency around Yao Ming
*Keyword frequency: the rank is according to CIC Keyword Frequency Analysis around “Yao Ming” in terms of No. of mentions
Unit post
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 25© 2008 CIC
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
Portal Site Vertical Site Fan Club0
50
100
150
200
No. of Poster Avg. post number per poster
ATTRIBUTES OF DIFFERENT SPORTS COMMUNITIES: Online fan club users create over twice the amount of content of users on portal and vertical sports sites
*Selected hottest site from each type of BBS community in terms of the buzz volume in Q4 2007 for data comparison
**Avg. post number per poster: the higher the rate is, the more passionate the netizens are to take part in conversation.
159
6468
Comparison of 3 of the hottest BBS communities*
**
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 26© 2008 CIC
ADMINISTRATOR IN FAN CLUBS: Administrators are among the most active users with the highest prestige
Netizens’ comments on administrator Quote: “The administrator’s resource forum is always the specialty for our fans club.”帖子示例: “斑竹的资源版一直是我们的招牌菜.”Quote: “Support~~, administrator’s decoration design [for sneaker] is beautiful; the article is very professional.”帖子示例: “顶~~,版主装修的很华丽~写的也
灰常的专业。”
Rank Poster Identity No. of Post in Q4 2007
1 Administrator 3,029
2 Administrator 2,134
3 Member 1,993
4 Member 1,598
5 Member 1,514
Top 5 active posters in the hottest fan club
BBS administrators possess rich knowledge of the fields or topics discussed in the forums and possess power within the BBS community. They manage the forum based on their professional knowledge, authority and influence. They are among the most active users.Cooperating with administrators can be one way for brands to connect with e-communities.
• Ensure the user content is appropriate and legal• Recommend and highlight high quality posts• Delete meaningless, rule breaking, and/or commercially seeded posts• Restrict/delete posters who break the rules• Answer questions and educate users
Administrator is powerful
Administrator is respectable
Administrator is activeMain functions of BBS Administrator
Sports Net Culture
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 28© 2008 CIC
SPORTS E-ZINE: E-zine is becoming a communication tool for sites, online fans clubs and brands
E-ZINE (Electronic-magazine) is a magazine/newsletter published online. With the frequent match/athlete updates and demand for information through multi-media channels, E-ZINE is an easy way for netizens to access sports related information. E-ZINE is also used as a promotion tool for commercial sites, online fans clubs and brands.
The E-ZINE can be seen as an alternative platform for brands to deliver information. More importantly, it can be seen as an opportunity for brands to build long term relationship with core netizens or fans communities.
SITE – Sports related sites offer E-zine download
FAN – Athlete fans create and update e-zine for idol
BRAND – Sports brand delivers running information
Music in magazine
• Online running training place
• Fans running MV
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 29© 2008 CIC
GAME ‘GROUP REPORTING’: Netizens passionately and systematically report on and discuss games
During match - Live game discussions
After match- Discussing conclusion and
updating game statistics
Quote: “I applied for a group reporting hotline. I hope I can have the chance to report it.”帖子示例:”我申请 热线 做好
并经过检查,希望给我机会”
Quote: “It is so scary. Rockets are already 8 points behind at Hawks’ court.帖子示例:很凶险啊,在鸟
的主场,落后8分了”
Quote: “Hayes established the game’s tone for Rockets’ win. He is the king of defense.”帖子示例:”海耶斯奠定了火箭
本场赢球的基调 防守之神。”
Before match- Announce group reporting
topic
Group reporting is popular among netizens and is done by a group of passionate and professional sports fans. Brands could acquire useful content by cooperating with these netizens, e.g. NBA has already begun to invite bloggers to write match reports for its official site. (see Chinese blog article here).Moreover, popular activities on E-communities dedicated to sports like “grab floor”, building long conversation threads and match promotion can be leveraged by brands to participate in e- community. (To learn more about these activities, see here)
Topic: Special post for Rockets group reporting
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 30© 2008 CIC
Sports Blogs
SPORTS BLOGOSPHERE: Blogs are another popular media and communication channel for sports fans
Sports writer blog group
Cartoon blog group
Athlete blog group And more…..
Sports apparel blog group
Blogs have become a popular platform for individual netizens to show their passion for sports. Furthermore, individual bloggers are beginning to form “blog groups” to increase communication and the exchange of ideas between bloggers.
Sports fan blog group
Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 31© 2008 CIC
CARTOON BLOG: Cartoon bloggers are well received by sports fans especially when they create new cartoon images
Sports cartoon blogger are a growing trend generating impressive page views.
Brand’s direct or indirect involvements with cartoon bloggers demonstrates a new way to connect to fans for brands.
PV 6,020,539 PV 1,454,755
PV 15,733,672
Cartoon Bloggers in the club
PV 326,344
Netizen adds Pepsi can to the cartoon picture of Beckham drawn by a popular cartoon blogger.
Sports blogger with over 1 million page views
About CIC
33© 2008 CIC Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4
ABOUT CIC
CIC is the leading Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) research and consulting firm in China. Established in 2004 in Shanghai, CIC is the first IWOM research and consulting firm in China and has pioneered and significantly contributed to the growth of the IWOM industry in China.
CIC helps its clients “make sense of the buzz” found on Chinese blogs, BBS, and other IWOM platforms using proprietary and patent pending data harvesting and text mining technology developed for the unique Chinese social media landscape and language. Based on systematic analysis of the buzz, our analysts provide insights with sensitivity towards market research, marketing and campaign strategy, PR and crisis management, R&D, competitive intelligence, and marketing effectiveness measurement to a stable of Fortune 500 clients in China and around the world. CIC also has strong partnerships with leading international PR, advertising and digital media firms.
For more information, please visit www.cicdata.com (CIC website), www.seeisee.com (CIC Company blog in Chinese) and www.seeisee.com/sam (CEO’s company blog in English).
Thank You
OUR BLOGS:www.seeisee.com (Chinese)www.seeisee.com/sam (English)
OUR WEBSITE:www.cicdata.com
CONTACT US:info@cicdata.com
© CIC 2008
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