Opinion | Lin Dan is one of China’s most marketable athletes – so will his many sponsors rush to abandon him after affair scandal?
A leading sports marketing agency in Shanghai says the badminton star faces a hefty hit to his earning power after being caught cheating on his pregnant wife, but others believe the rules in China are different to Western norms
Lin Dan is said to be worth as much as US$32.5 million thanks to his many endorsement deals – does he now stand to lose it all?
Super Dan’s affair is the biggest celebrity scandal in China in years and has been dominating Weibo. It’s also somewhat uncharted territory for Chinese sport, where athletes have often been “protected” from the prying eyes of an already pliant media.
Lin has been playing catch-up to the likes of Yao Ming and Li Na in the marketing game. As an example of his awareness of keeping sponsors happy, his post announcing the birth on Weibo gave shoutouts to Oakley, Yonex and Montblanc. He has advertised umpteen leading Chinese and western brands, including Pepsi, Gillette, Red Bull, Citroen, L’oreal, Tsingtao and KFC to name a few.
In the west, companies have been swift to distance themselves from scandal-embroiled athletes – think of Tiger Woods, or Maria Sharapova and Ryan Lochte more recently. Lin will now be sweating, says Tom Elsden of Mailman Group, a leading sports marketing agency in Shanghai that has worked with brands including Manchester United, the Bundesliga and Kobe Bryant in China.
“The post has reached over 1 billion reads on Weibo, the same level as Kobe Bryant’s retirement announcement, and the online sentiment is very negative,” said Elsden. “The brands who endorse him – Dolce & Gabbana, Montblanc, Yonex etc – are unlikely to respond positively to this news and we expect that there will be serious financial consequences. Lin has over RMB150 million worth in contracts with his sponsors, and we don’t expect them to stand by him. So the financial loss will be considerable.”