Tuning Into Sports IWOM Q4 2007 (English)

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

© 2008 CIC

Study Background and
Quick Takeaways

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.

© 2008 CIC Data Source: CIC Sports Practice, 2007 Q4 3

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.


KEY IMPLICATIONS

• 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.


An Introduction to Chinese
Sports IWOM

WHAT IS INTERNET WORD OF MOUTH (IWOM)?

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
Any information of the sports Provide up-to-date
world you want to Know?! Just information on tennis world.
come to join us !

For more on this definition, see our blogs here (EN) and here (CN)


IWOM HAS MASSIVE REACH

• 210 million Internet users Internet User in China (Unit-million) 210
in China*
• 74.6 million regular BBS 137
111
users (35.5%)* 94
80
59
• 49.4 million Chinese 34
23
bloggers (23.5%)* 1 2 9

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Regular BBS User Online (Unit-million) Regular Blog User Online (Unit-million)
74.6

50.6
49.4
46.2
34.7

19.6
15.0 15.8
11.2
3.3

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2005 2006 2007

*Data Source: The 21st Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China by CNNIC, January 2008


IWOM BRINGS COMPLEXITY TO COMMUNICATIONS:
Consumers are gaining influence
Consumers 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.

Billboard BBS Blog
TVC

IWOM
Shape Influence Reshape
Mainstream Media

Video Sharing
Newspaper & Magazines


UNIQUE NETIZEN LANGUAGE: The presence of online
culture is represented by a unique lexicon
Selected Athlete and Team Selected Net Language on
Nick Names Sports E-community

Nick Name Interpretation 某蜜/某黑(-- lover/ -- hater):
The people who strongly supports certain
大姚 Big Yao athletes or teams will be named “-- lover“, e.g.
Yao lover (姚蜜). On the contrary, those who
Ming with
胡子明 frequently criticize certain athletes or teams
mustache will be named “-- hater”, e.g. Yao hater (姚黑).
Yao Ming
明王 King Ming
筒子 / (mates):
Piero for penalty Used to refer to other netizens chatting in the
点球皮
goal same forums. It is frequently used in sports
forums.
Alessandro
Del Piero 斑马王子 Prince of zebra
小黑屋 (little black house):
The green shirt The name for a netizen who is banned from
绿衫军 posting in the forum by BBS administrator.
army

Boston 蚱蜢 The grasshoppers 卡路里 (calorie):
Celtics 蚂蚁队 The ants team In a particular basketball e-community, this
term refers to virtual money within the forum
枪手 The gunners (not the heat energy unit).
我厂 My factory See more sports net languages on seeiee
Arsenal
blog (Chinese)


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 BUZZ: Nike leads with 42.5% of
sports brand buzz in Q4
* Buzz incidence of top 10 mentioned sports brands in Q4, 2007

Nike 42.5%

Adidas 21.9%

Reebok
Vertical 11.8%

Lining 5.0%
Portal
Converse 4.0%

Portal 3.8%
Anta

Puma 3.4%
Fans club
AND1 2.9%
Portal
Kappa 2.7%

Mizuno 0.5%

* 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


SPORTS BRAND BUZZ: New product and campaign
launch are main brand buzz drivers

Weekly trends for top 3 sports brands buzz in Q4, 2007

15,000

Nonofficial ZK3 and
Number of post

AJ23 pictures release A series of real AJ23
10,000 pictures release

Adidas Olympic
campaign launch
5,000

Reebok Yao
campaign launch

0
10.1-10.7 10.8- 10.15- 10.22- 10.29- 11.5- 11.12- 11.19- 11.26- 12.3-12.9 12.10- 12.17- 12.24-
10.14 10.21 10.28 11.4 11.11 11.18 11.25 12.2 12.16 12.23 12.31

Base: Total number of sports brands posts in Q4 2007 is 229,087


NETIZENS’ PASSION TOWARDS SPORTS: Sports fans use
brand assets for creating original content
Recreating content among brand fans

Original Nike slogan Netizens’ recreating slogans

Slogan recreating “Just over time it!”
“Just do it”
“Just Nike it!”

Original “My Story” content Netizens’ recreating drawings

Content recreating

Original “Where Amazing Netizens’ recreating videos
Happens” TVC

TVC recreating

Link Link


NETIZENS’ PASSION TOWARDS SPORTS: Brands
can ride the wave of sports net culture

Hot sneaker DIY culture among Mizuno’s “Table Tennis Shoes Graffiti” campaign
invites netizens to design shoes for China’s table
sneaker heads tennis athletes

Nike iD allows consumer to design his or her own
unique sneaker

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.


NETIZENS’ PASSION TOWARDS SPORTS: Brands can
ride the wave of sports net culture
“Showing off” is popular among Conversations about Gatorade’s “Crazy Fans”
online sports fans campaign shows netizens’ enthusiasm toward sports

The conversation received over 9,000
replies and 166,087 page views

Lining’s “One Team” campaign
Inspires netizens to make TVC version

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 BUZZ: Yao Ming and Houston Rockets buzz
topped basketball player and team buzz respectively
*Buzz incidence of top 5 mentioned basketball athletes, Q4 2007

Yao Ming 7.7%
Not surprisingly, as one of the most
Kobe Bryant 6.7% popular athletes in China, Yao and
his team Houston Rockets, topped
Tracy McGrady 6.1% the athlete and team buzz.
Yi Jian Lian 3.7%

Michael Jordan 3.3% • Base: Total post number of basketball athletes is 1,714,008, Q4 2007
• Notes: Basketball athletes include NBA and CBA players.

*Buzz incidence of top 5 mentioned basketball teams, Q4 2007

Houston Rockets 13.0%

Los Angeles Lakers 4.3%

Milwaukee Bucks 3.2%

Phoenix Suns 1.9%

• Base: Total post number of basketball team is 2,111,352, Q4 2007
San Antonio Spurs 1.9%
• Notes: Basketball teams include NBA and CBA teams.

*Buzz incidence of basketball athlete/team is the number of athlete/team mention that occurs in all basketball athletes/teams posts


FOOTBALL BUZZ: Kaka and AC Milan buzz topped
football player and team buzz
*Buzz incidence of top 5 discussed football athletes, Q4 2007

Kaka 4.2% Kaka’s Golden Ball award win in
2007 and AC Milan’s match against
Ronaldo 2.7%
Inter Milan in Q4 triggered high buzz
Ronaldinho 2.0% volumes for Q4.

Messi 1.7%

• Base: Total post number of football athletes is 965,225, Q4 2007
Cristiano Ronaldo 1.6% • Notes: Football athletes include top 5 European football league players
and Chinese league players.

*Buzz incidence of top 5 discussed football teams, Q4 2007

AC Milan 4.1%

Manchester United 2.7%

Juventus 2.7%

Inter Milan 2.6%
• Base: Total post number of football team is 2,481,461, Q4 2007
Arsenal 1.7% • Notes: The football teams include top 5 European football leagues
teams and Chinese league teams.

*Buzz incidence of football athlete/team is the number of athlete/team mention that occurs in all football athletes/teams posts


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)
*Buzz incidence of top 10 mentioned sports teams *Buzz incidence of top 10 mentioned athletes

Houston Rockets 6.0% 4.9% Yao Ming

AC Milan 3.0% 4.3% Kobe Bryant

Manchester United 3.0% 3.8% Tracy McGrady

Juventus 2.0% 2.3% Yi Jian Lian

Los Angeles Lakers 2.0% 2.1% Michael Jordan

Inter Milan 2.0% 1.6% Lebron James
Milwaukee Bucks 1.5% 1.5% Kaka
Arsenal 1.3% 1.1% Steve Francis
Barcelona 1.2% 1.0% Ronaldo
Real Madrid 1.1% 0.9% Allen Iverson

Understanding the differences between netizens’
communication habits and focusing on their interests Football related
can help brands to create effective campaign/promotion Basketball related
strategies which will be more welcomed by netizens.

*Buzz incidence of athlete/team is the number of athlete/team Base: Total number of athlete post is 2,679,223, Q4 2007
mention that occurs in all athletes/teams posts Total number of team post is 4,592,813 ,Q4 2007


TEAM VS. PLAYER: Basketball fans discuss players,
football fans discuss teams

Football Basketball

Quote : That’s why Chelsea is better than Quote : Luther Head is really disappointing.
Liverpool. We have seen what Liverpool When Yao is at his best, he still needs
can do, but we haven’t done our best yet. support from other team members. In the end,
basketball is a team sport.
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。帖子示例：海德让人失望咳姚明继续出色的
而我们还没做到最好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


BUZZ TREND FOR AC MILAN: AC Milan fans are united in
support, especially during important matches against
competitors like “Milan Derby”
*Keyword Frequency Rank for AC Milan Unit post Weekly buzz trend of Ac Milan in Q4, 2007
20,000
Discussion Content
15,000

Rank Keyword Frequency 10,000

5,000 Milan Derby at Dec 23rd
1 Inter Milan – 国际米兰 6,922 drove Ac Milan buzz
0

8

5

3

1
8

6
1

.4

11

.2
14

9
7

.2

.2

.3
.2

.2

.1

.1
2.
0.

12
11

1.
0.

11

11

-1

12

12

12
10

10
-1

6-
9-

-1
-1

.3
.1

2-

9-

0-

7-

4-
5-

2-
Milan derby – 米兰德比

.5

.2
.2
.8
2 5,325

12
10

.1

.1

.1

.1

.2
.1

.2

11
10

11
10

11

11

12

12

12
10

10
3 Juventus – 尤文图斯 3,898 Quote: The Milan derby will begin soon, is there
anyone who is interested in the match? Let’s
discuss together.
4 Boca – 博卡 2,473
帖子示例：米兰德比开始了,有没有同好?一起吼
起来!!
Shakhtyor Donetsk Team – Quote: AC Milan is playing against Boca Junior
5 1,976
矿工 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
*Keyword frequency: the rank is according to CIC Keyword Frequency
目前的比分是1：1去关注下啊
Analysis around “AC Milan” in terms of No. of mentions


BUZZ TREND FOR YAO MING: Yao Ming’s fans created
articles in preparation for his first match against Yi Jianlian
Keyword Frequency around Yao Ming Unit post Weekly buzz trend of Yao Ming in Q4, 2007
20,000

Discussion Content 15,000

10,000
Rank Keyword Frequency Yao Min and Yi Jianlian’s
5,000 first competition in NBA
drove Yao’s buzz
1 Rockets – 火箭 18,462 0

8

5

6

3

1
1

8
14

.4

11

.2

9
7

.1

.2

.3
.2

.1

.2
.2

2.
0.

12
11

1.
0.

11

11

-1

12

12

12
10

10
-1

6-
9-

-1
-1

.3
.1

2-

9-

0-

7-

4-
5-

2-

.2
.2

.5
.8

12
10

.1

.1

.1

.1

.2
.1

.2

11
10

11
10

11

11

12

12

12
10

10
2 McGrady – 麦蒂 3,978
Subject: have been waiting for a long time,
Yao vs. Yi [Authorship]
3 Yi Jianlian – 易建联 2,610 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
4 Kobe – 科比 1,492 帖子主题：[绝对原创] 姚明VS易建联

5 Adelman – 阿德尔曼 1,294

*Keyword frequency: the rank is according to CIC Keyword Frequency
Analysis around “Yao Ming” in terms of No. of mentions


ATTRIBUTES OF DIFFERENT SPORTS COMMUNITIES:
Online fan club users create over twice the amount of
content of users on portal and vertical sports sites
Comparison of 3 of the hottest BBS communities*
40,000 200

159
30,000 150

20,000 100
68 64

10,000 50

0 0
Portal Site Vertical Site Fan Club

No. of Poster Avg. post number per poster**

*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.

ADMINISTRATOR IN FAN CLUBS: Administrators are
among the most active users with the highest prestige
Administrator is active Administrator is powerful
Top 5 active posters in the hottest fan club Main functions of BBS Administrator
No. of Post in • Ensure the user content is appropriate and
Rank Poster Identity
Q4 2007 legal
1 Administrator 3,029 • Recommend and highlight high quality posts
2 Administrator 2,134 • Delete meaningless, rule breaking, and/or
commercially seeded posts
3 Member 1,993
• Restrict/delete posters who break the rules
4 Member 1,598 • Answer questions and educate users
5 Member 1,514

Administrator is respectable BBS administrators possess rich knowledge of
Netizens’ comments on administrator the fields or topics discussed in the forums and
Quote: “The administrator’s resource forum is possess power within the BBS community. They
always the specialty for our fans club.” manage the forum based on their professional
帖子示例: “斑竹的资源版一直是我们的招牌菜.” knowledge, authority and influence. They are
among the most active users.
Quote: “Support~~, administrator’s decoration
design [for sneaker] is beautiful; the article is Cooperating with administrators can be one way
very professional.” for brands to connect with e-communities.
帖子示例: “顶～～，版主装修的很华丽～写的也
灰常的专业。”


SPORTS E-ZINE: E-zine is becoming a communication
tool for sites, online fans clubs and brands
SITE – Sports related sites FAN – Athlete fans create and BRAND – Sports brand delivers
offer E-zine download update e-zine for idol running information

Music in
magazine
• Online running training place
• Fans running MV

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.

GAME ‘GROUP REPORTING’: Netizens passionately and
systematically report on and discuss games
Before match During match After match
- Announce group reporting - Live game discussions - Discussing conclusion and
topic updating game statistics

Topic: Special post for
Rockets group reporting

Quote: “I applied for a group
reporting hotline. I hope I can Quote: “It is so scary. Quote: “Hayes established the
have the chance to report it.” Rockets are already 8 points game’s tone for Rockets’ win.
帖子示例：”我申请热线做好 behind at Hawks’ court. He is the king of defense.”
并经过检查，希望给我机会” 帖子示例：很凶险啊，在鸟帖子示例：”海耶斯奠定了火箭
的主场，落后8分了” 本场赢球的基调防守之神。”
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)


SPORTS BLOGOSPHERE: Blogs are another popular
media and communication channel for sports fans
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 apparel
blog group
Cartoon blog
group

Sports writer
blog group

Sports Blogs
Athlete blog Sports fan
group And more…..
blog group


CARTOON BLOG: Cartoon bloggers are well received
by sports fans especially when they create new cartoon
images
Sports blogger with over 1 million Cartoon Bloggers in the club
page views
PV 6,020,539 PV 1,454,755

PV 15,733,672 PV 326,344

Netizen adds Sports cartoon blogger are a growing
Pepsi can to the trend generating impressive page views.
cartoon picture Brand’s direct or indirect involvements
of Beckham with cartoon bloggers demonstrates a
drawn by a new way to connect to fans for brands.
popular cartoon
blogger.


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

Tuning Into Sports IWOM Q4 2007 (English)

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