The 45-second TVC uses images of the members of China's national Olympic team, including gymnast Li Xiao Peng, volleyball player Liu Ya-nan, and basketball star Zhang Jing-song. The creative shows the athletes concentrating intensely on their training with a voiceover underlining Chinese pride: 'We share the same dream. Because we are all Made in China'.
"During the Athens Olympics, every Chinese will be watching out for China's Olympic team - the youth in particular," said Abel Wu, marketing director, Li Ning. "Having conducted research we know that this campaign can and will capture young people's hearts, and further build Li Ning's brand image."
The campaign was created by Leo Burnett Beijing. Targeting the youth segment, the campaign aims to build on the brand's positioning as China's premiere sports brand with Li Ning's 'Anything is possible' tagline.
The national campaign will be running on CCTV's sports channels 1 and 5, and also terrestrial channels.
The print campaign will run in sports titles such as Hoop and Slam.
Li Ning's key rivals are multinational sports brands such as Nike, Reebok and Adidas. Li Ning however has chosen to differentiate itself by stressing its made-in-China origins, a platform it underscores in the new TVC. "Li Ning is a Chinese brand. It knows and understands the Chinese," said Veronica Chow, project director for Li Ning at Burnett Beijing.
The sports apparel category has been growing at about 25 per cent a year, according to Li Ning's estimates. Neilsen Media Research figures show that there has been a significant increase in adspend by the big sports brands over the last few years. Nike for example reportedly spent Rmb 154,600 in 2003 compared to Rmb 108,300 in 2002.
Li-Ning is fast approaching adspend levels of competing international brands, investing Rmb 36,668 up until June 2004, excluding its new Olympic-based TVC.