Chinese Volleyball Recovers From 2017 Sponsorship Setbacks With Two New Deals

The CVA’s strategic partnership with Tencent will see will see the online giant become an official partner of China’s women’s national volleyball team.

The company’s subsidiary, Yingde Sports, has also secured the exclusive business operation rights of the Rio 2016 Olympic champions. The deal sees Tencent and Yingde joint marketing and business operations campaign across Tencent’s mobile platforms and terminals, and on Chinese social media platforms WeChat and Tencent QQ, in order to increase the popularity of the team.

Wang Yongzhi, general manager of the brokerage division of Tencent Sports, said: “It’s a brand new exploration carried out by Tencent Sports. In the future, Tencent Sports will level up the commercial value of the national volleyball team, athletes and volleyball events, better unlock the market value of the national women’s team, and inherit the ‘spirit’ cherished by generations of Chinese people, by making use of Tencent’s online distribution abilities, refined operation, advantages on sports marketing and social media platforms.”

The agreement makes Team China the first volleyball team to appoint a third party organisation to operate their business rights.

Meanwhile, the partnership with Peak will see the sportswear brand become the official sponsor and exclusive equipment supplier of the governing body’s domestic Chinese Volleyball League. Along with staff and officials, every player in all 28 teams from both the men’s and women’s competitions will wear the Chinese company’s products during regular season games.

Peak and the CVA will also collaborate to design merchandise and apparel for fans, and will work together to promote volleyball in schools across China. The agreement represents the Chinese Volleyball League’s first new sponsorship deal since the 2014/15 season.

While volleyball sponsorship is a mere US$12.53m (0.4% market share) since Q414 in China’s sponsorship industry worth US$2.94b, the exploits of the Chinese women’s national team in Rio Olympics has reignited interest in the sport among the masses…However, we have also seen a string of major sponsorship withdrawals in the sport this year, namely real estate developer Rong Qiao pulling out of the title sponsorship of the FIVB World Tour: Fuzhou Open and Coca Cola backing out of lucrative personal endorsement deals with Lang Ping (Team China Women’s coach) and national captain Zhu Ping, and the two recent deals are a boon in the current climate.