Brand Health Check: Will Yili’s meme marketing continue to succeed post-Olympics?

Mengniu and Yili, the top-two rival dairy brands from China, began a competition for the best sports marketing campaigns during the recent Paris Olympics Games. 

Rewinding back to 2019, Mengniu was the first Chinese fast-moving consumer goods company to join the prestigious list of top brand sponsors within the International Olympic Committee. Yili, meanwhile, signed its official contract with the Beijing Organising Committee of the Olympic Games in 2005, and began its sponsorship journey with the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. The brand also becomes the official dairy partner of the Chinese sports team for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. 

This year, both brands produced standout TV commercials recognised by Chinese media. Mengniu showcased a grand scene at the opening ceremony in Paris, while Yili depicted nostalgia and national pride by reflecting on the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Following a marketing campaign battle costing over US$3 billion, Chinese media reviewed the efforts of both brands. Over 60% of readers voted for Yili Olympic marketing as their favourite.

So, what sets Yili apart in the competitive dairy market and among other Olympic campaigns? 

Doris Ke, a marcomms analysts, consultant and KOL in China, and founder of DigiPont, pointed to Yili’s smart meme marketing. The brand invited Chinese TV host Lu Yu to be the ambassador for Paris Games Watching, capitalising on a widely shared meme on Chinese social media that noted the resemblance between the Paris 2024 logo and Lu Yu’s image.

The brand also released a humorous short video featuring people of all ages reacting to the Olympics logo. Lu Yu reacted: ‘It’s too similar! Can’t unsee it!’.

Additionally, Chinese netizens noted that the purple tracks and green grass field at the Stade de France closely resembled the colours of Sha Wujing’s costume, the Sand Monk from the TV series Journey to the West, which is adapted from one of China’s four great classical novels. 

Yili invited Liu Dagang, one of the actors who played Sha Wujing, to be its ambassador of fashion and co-created an AI-assisted photo shoot that went viral on social media channels in China.

Meanwhile, Yili invited 16 top Olympic athletes from team China, including many gold medalists, to join its team of brand ambassadors.   

However, Yili’s Olympic marketing wasn’t entirely smooth. When Yili performed tests for its OOH big screens in Sanlitun, a downtown shopping area near Beijing’s CBD, the brand mistakenly shared incorrect predictions for the women’s singles tennis and table tennis Olympic champions. That evening, the brand promptly issued an apology, expressing sincere regret for the “early exposure on the big screen in Sanlitun”. They explained that the premature display was due to advanced testing and assured that immediate measures were taken to prevent similar issues in the future. Later, Yili acknowledged that testing before the finals led to misunderstandings and discussions, admitting it was an inappropriate choice.

Campaign consulted independent brand experts for their take on the brand’s Olympic campaigns as well as future strategies.

How would you evaluate Yili’s Olympic campaigns?

Ali Zein Kazmi
Principal consultant, Serpons
Co-host, ShanghaiZhan Podcast

Yili has been involved with the Olympics for about 20 years. And over the past 20 years their business has continued to grow. While you cannot attribute a global event like the Olympics to be what has fuelled their growth but it certainly is a reflection of the confidence this dairy brand has to present itself on a global stage. Today, it is a global brand, it’s selling something in almost every continent. Having said this, China is home turf for the brand, and social media is central to getting timely updates on medal tallies and how China’s athletes are performing. Disrupting the seriousness of counting medals into something jovial and fun is welcoming especially with icons of Chinese popular culture.

Yimin Wang
Content writer
Dao Insights

I think overall they were rather successful. The campaigns came from various angles, from the national pride of the Chinese team promo video and the “Shatou' song to the nostalgic emotional value of the 'Forerunners' video, as well as meme-based ones such as the Lu Yu and Sha Wujing campaigns. Also the prize draws and offline pop-up in Shanghai helped to connect with [audiences].

The orfer of the campaigns were well coordinated, like how Sha Wujing followed the Lu Yu one with the same tagline: 'Once you accept this setting, you won’t be able to go back'.

Also, betting on multiple athletes, apart from the blunder of jumping the gun on Sun Yingsha and Zheng Qinwen, seemed to have worked well for getting exposure across the board.

What lessons can be learned from the mini-PR crisis and the subsequent quick apology?

Kazmi: Having worked with both leading sports brands, both plan their communication based on scenarios and outcomes. Print, OOH and social advertising is planned around potential outcomes that want to own the win-or-loss moment. It’s hard to explain this to a consumer. It’s also hard to explain that advertising needs to go through censorship is an unsophisticated review and approval process. In this case all potential outcomes get circulated both to the publisher and to the regulatory authority, and this may create an opportunity for things to go wrong. I guess some element of a review and approval of content before it gets published by the client will help resolve this kind of an issue from recurring. This can easily be resolved through process implementation and some element of technology which is very mature within social-media publishing. Perhaps these best practises can be extended into the print and OOH space.

Wang: First, don’t jump the gun and always have a plan B with sporting events. However, the quick apology was timely and did salvage the brand image to an extent.

But the online discourse and multiple conspiracy theories actually run deep and still have effects, like how Yili had to clarify that the audience member who gave Chen the middle finger was not one of theirs. It was also unfortunate because the incorrect poster fed into the conspiracy regarding whether the final was supposed to be the coronation of Sun Yingsha.

I guess it is about always monitoring the online sentiment and reacting accordingly.

According to Chinese media, it is the most challenging period for dairy brands in China since 2008. What strategies should Yili adopt to maximise the benefits of the Olympics?

Kazmi: It’s a challenging time for all dairy and CPG (consumer packaged goods) brands and the reality is that it won’t get any easier. So we are on a level playing field when it comes to maximising the benefit from advertising during any future Olympics. Nutrition is central to athlete health, I think they should double down on endorsements on athletes especially ones that are unendorsed or do not have the same quality of access to training resources endorsed by leading sports brands. The Bandit Unsponsored Project which featured athletes with all-black, unbranded kits could benefit from support from Yili and probably give them a lot more social-media mileage. Yili may want to also consider developing a portfolio of nutrition and hydration products that are made for athletes giving them a lot more credibility in their association with the pinnacle of sport like the Olympics.

Wang: As it is one of the few dairy brands that's still making a considerable profit, Yili’s current strategy apparently works. However, as the Olympics raised more awareness of the brand, perhaps it can go with a younger brand image, with the meme-heavy side of the Lu Yu and Sha Wujing, the New Chinese Style of the team promo, or the youthfulness with the 'Shatou' song. Marketing-wise, there are plenty of options.

Also, overall, going abroad can be a good strategy after the Olympics putting them on the global stage, as HeyTea and Chagee also demonstrated this Olympics. Although most of the Yili Olympics campaigns are aimed at Chinese audiences, perhaps it can turn that exposure to further its 'going abroad' strategy.