Signing Bryant to market car smart step
By Zhu Huanian from Los Angeles |
February 19, 2011, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
NBA star Kobe Bryant spent eight hours in a Los Angeles downtown street on Thursday afternoon to shoot his first TV commercial tailor-made for the Chinese market to promote smart, the youngest brand of German car maker Mercedes-Benz.
For Bryant, who calls China "a home away from home" and a frequent visitor to the country almost every summer in recent years, his huge fan base is obviously commercially valuable for smart, which targets young Chinese elites.
"Kobe is so popular in China, young people go crazy when meeting him," said Klaus Maier, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz (China) Ltd. "And he cares for China. We want some Chinese element for the new campaign."
The huge media coverage on Bryant's visit last year in China gave the idea to Maier to use Byrant, an NBA Most Valuable Player, as the brand ambassador for smart over the next three years.
The marketing campaign, themed "Big, in the city," will kick off in late March, with Bryant starring in the TV advertisement that will be aired in the country.
After trying out a smart car, the 1.98-meter-tall Los Angeles Laker star said there is spacious room in it even for him.
Sales of smart cars more than doubled from a year earlier to over 4,000 in China last year. Maier said the company still targets a double-digital growth this year, without giving an exact figure.
Last December, smart introduced six new models, costing between 115,000 yuan and 225,000 yuan (US$17,451 and US$34,143), in the Chinese market.
But smart currently accounts for a small portion of the overall sales of Mercedes-Benz cars. In January, the German car company reported that it sold 15,330 cars in China, a surge of 89 percent from a year earlier, continuing the boom in 2010.
Bryant's fan power in China also matches the growing popularity of NBA in the country. Bryant has been selected for the NBA All-Star Game this weekend - for 11 straight years since 2000. Bryant hopes he will be able to visit China very soon this year.
For Bryant, who calls China "a home away from home" and a frequent visitor to the country almost every summer in recent years, his huge fan base is obviously commercially valuable for smart, which targets young Chinese elites.
"Kobe is so popular in China, young people go crazy when meeting him," said Klaus Maier, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz (China) Ltd. "And he cares for China. We want some Chinese element for the new campaign."
The huge media coverage on Bryant's visit last year in China gave the idea to Maier to use Byrant, an NBA Most Valuable Player, as the brand ambassador for smart over the next three years.
The marketing campaign, themed "Big, in the city," will kick off in late March, with Bryant starring in the TV advertisement that will be aired in the country.
After trying out a smart car, the 1.98-meter-tall Los Angeles Laker star said there is spacious room in it even for him.
Sales of smart cars more than doubled from a year earlier to over 4,000 in China last year. Maier said the company still targets a double-digital growth this year, without giving an exact figure.
Last December, smart introduced six new models, costing between 115,000 yuan and 225,000 yuan (US$17,451 and US$34,143), in the Chinese market.
But smart currently accounts for a small portion of the overall sales of Mercedes-Benz cars. In January, the German car company reported that it sold 15,330 cars in China, a surge of 89 percent from a year earlier, continuing the boom in 2010.
Bryant's fan power in China also matches the growing popularity of NBA in the country. Bryant has been selected for the NBA All-Star Game this weekend - for 11 straight years since 2000. Bryant hopes he will be able to visit China very soon this year.
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