Rockets strike six-year deal with Yanjing Beer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Darren Rovell ESPN.com The Houston Rockets have yet to sign first overall draft pick Yao Ming, but that hasn't stopped the club from reaping early rewards for drafting the 7-foot-5 inch Chinese center. On Monday, the Rockets became the first NBA team to sign an official international beer partner when it announced a six-year deal with Yanjing Beer, China's largest beer manufacturer. "As soon as we drafted Yao, we began to put together a target list of companies that were looking to appeal to the Asian sector in order to gain market share in the United States," said Tad Brown, Rockets vice president of corporate development. "Yanjing was one of more than a dozen that we are working on." Throughout negotiations, the team had to make it clear that the beer maker could not use Yao Ming's image or name to explicitly sell its product, unless the company signed a separate endorsement deal with him. The sponsorship was still deemed worth it for Harbrew Imports, which owns the worldwide export rights to the beer and will pay at least $1 million a year for marketing. Yanjing will have courtside and concourse signage, will be tied to promotional events -- such as the Rockets' special Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration scheduled for Feb. 2 -- and receive commercial time on Rockets radio broadcasts. "Our partnership will give us an excellent opportunity to strengthen marketing efforts in the United States and take advantage of the international interest that is focused on the Houston Rockets," said Harbrew president Rich DeCicco. Brown said it has not yet been determined if some of the signage will be in Chinese, but he does anticipate a host of companies will ask for Chinese signage this season. The Rockets are currently waiting on word from the league as to how many Rockets games will be broadcast live in China. "They say that there are 300 million people that are interested in basketball and if we could reach just 40 million of those people, imagine the value that could come to these companies," Brown said. "It truly shows how having one player can really open up a lot of business in the international marketplace." Nintendo, which owns the Seattle Mariners, has a rotating Nintendo sign behind home plate at Safeco Field in Kanji (Japanese script), which can be read by Japanese patrons at the ballpark or by those watching their home-grown talent -- star outfielder Ichiro Suzuki and relief pitcher Kaz Sasaki -- in Japan. "This is not only about Yao Ming," said Marc Ganis, president of consulting firm Sportscorp Ltd., who just returned from a trip to China. "This is about the first opening of the door between the United States and China since Ping Pong Diplomacy in the 60s. Many companies will follow Yanjing's lead because there is so much more disposable income there than most Americans understand. You don't have to hit a large percentage of people when you are presenting something to 1.4 billion. Even if a company marketed to the eastern port cities alone, there's 800 million people there, which is almost triple the size of the entire United States." It has been speculated that Yao Ming's greatest immediate help to the Rockets' bottom line will be in the form of an arena naming rights deal for the new 18,500-seat arena that opens for the 2003-04 season. Brown said several companies that have interest in tapping into the Asian market have contacted the club about arena naming rights.
Has anybody tried that? Is that the same beer as General Tsao beer or whatever it's called. That Tsao beer is the most grotesque smelling funky ass bitter looking **** I have lapped in my tounge.
Wow, I don't know the significance of the deal, but Yanjing beer is what I have been drinking when I was still in China. Hmm..., a lot of memories . I have to say it is the best beer Beijing (I finally understood what Kidrock was referring to) can offer. Shrimpie
When we drafted Ming, the first thing I thought of was Yao mania, like Ichiro-mania. I went to Korea for the World Cup this summer, and we were able to get a few Japanese channels. One of the channels showed every M's or every other M's games. While China is not as financially strong as Japan, China grossly outnumbers Japan by nearly a billion people. Yao can average 20 and 10, and it would still have less of an impact on the court, as it will off the court, with marketing and revenue. I'm not sure what the NBA regulations are, but would it be possible for a Chinese TV network to show a large chunk of Rockets games, not on ABC, TNT, ESPN, etc?
Shanghai alone has population of 14-15 million people and is one of the wealthiest area in China and it's looking more and more like New York City. You wouldn't believe how much disposable incomes they have there in that city. Most of the big global companies have offices there. So there is definitely lots of market potentials for the Rockets to explore.
Yanjing is pretty good. Cheap as dirt in Beijing tho It was cheaper than bottled water... needless to say, I drank a lot! a pic of shanghai... <img src="http://students.washington.edu/divinity/CIEE/ShangHai01.jpg">
Yanjing beer dominates the Beijing market. Unlike Tsing Tao beer, Yanjing doesn't taste bitter at all. I used to like it, but the regular ones' quality seems to be dropping to me. Now I like Tsing Tao much more. The premium Yanjing is still very good. It is also the national banquet beer. Tsing Tao and Yanjing are of different companies and they are fiercely competing against each other in China. I think the export beer will be the premium ones, but it should still be quite cheap in USA.
Qing Dao (Tsing Tao) is basically a Chinese attempt at a German beer. It is one of the older breweries in China and I think it was founded way back when Shandong was the German concession in China...
