China sports brand takes short cut to Olympic fame

By Samuel Shen

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - As sportswear makers jostle for attention at Beijing's Olympic Games this summer, one home-grown Chinese brand has a plan to get a leg up on big global names like Adidas that paid big money for official sponsorships.

Li Ning, founded by and named for the gymnast who won three gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, will have its logo emblazoned on shirts, shoes and assorted sportswear worn by reporters and sportscasters at the state-run Chinese channel with exclusive rights to mainland broadcasts of the games.

While Adidas AG paid about $200 million to sponsor the event, the company's Asia chief said earlier this year, Li Ning paid a fraction of that to sponsor Olympic coverage by the National Sports TV Channel of China's CCTV.

This deal is hardly a first in the Olympics' long history of so-called ambush marketing that sidesteps pricey official sponsorships.

But it puts ambitious Li Ning in a sweet spot of Olympics-related marketing this summer as it battles global rivals in China's sportswear market, which is growing by more than 20 percent a year and, according to Shanghai-based brand strategists ZOU Marketing, will be worth $7.2 billion by 2009.

"These days, it doesn't make much sense to sponsor the Olympics, as you cannot set yourself apart from others any more as brand awareness is diluted," said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group.

But Li Ning's rivals have cried foul.

The International Olympic Committee, spurred by complaints from competitors, investigated Li Ning's arrangements, although it found no violation of its rules.