Philly Inquirer: Yao tallest in the world of marketing

It seems every major newspaper has done a Yao/marketing story. Here's another:

So far, Yao stands tallest in the world of marketing

By Marc Narducci
Inquirer Staff Writer

Yao Ming has an all-star appearance on his resume, but the 7-foot-5 Houston Rockets rookie has already made bigger strides on Madison Avenue than he has in, say, Madison Square Garden or any other basketball mecca.

While Yao brings an average of 13.7 points, 8.2 rebounds, 1.79 blocks and 29.2 minutes into tonight's matchup at the First Union Center against the 76ers, his biggest impact has been in the marketing game. His size, his humble attitude and his ethnicity have made him a marketing machine.

He has increased his world-wide visibility and marketability by starring in advertisements for Visa and Apple computers. During the all-star break, he shot a commercial for Gatorade.

Yao, his name already a catch phrase in the States thanks to his popular "Yao?... Yo!" TV ads for Visa, also has two endorsement deals in his homeland of China. One is with Sorrent, a company that develops video games for mobile phones and other wireless devices. The other is with a wireless provider, China Unicom. He is in the last year of a contract with Nike that predated his arrival in the United States but will expire in May.

Yao signed a four-year, $17.8 million contract with the Rockets, a total that experts say will be slam-dunked by his endorsement income. Estimates of his income from marketing ventures this year alone fall in the $4 million-to-$10 million range.

"It's hard to say how much he is earning, but the $10 million may be a little high and the $4 million sounds low," said Jon Mandel, co-CEO of New York-based MediaCom, one of the nation's leading media-services agencies, which is owned by the Grey Global Group. "If he is managed right - and so far it seems that he has been - then he can be huge [in the endorsement field]."

Yao's marketing team, headed by Bill Sanders of BDA Sports in Walnut Creek, Calif., won't divulge any endorsement figures. A company official said that BDA is no longer giving interviews about Yao's marketing career and prefers to discuss only his playing career.

Others say that BDA has Yao headed in the right marketing direction.

"If you do too many brands, you become diluted," said Greg Sullivan, president of Sullivan Marketing, a sports marketing firm in Ormond Beach, Fla., that specializes in auto racing. "If you do ads for Bob's Car Wash, it's not impressive, and that's why it's important that he is lining up with quality brands."

The NBA has benefited from Yao as well. While not the first NBA player from China, he is certainly the most prominent.

Andrew Messick, the senior international vice president for the NBA, said that the league is close to announcing a new apparel deal in China. That means plenty of Yao Ming shirts to sell.

As it is, the NBA is doing pretty good business in China in other areas. For instance, there are 14 different NBA television deals in China, up from five a year ago. The biggest carrier is CCTV, the government-run China Central Television, which airs an NBA game of the week.

The NBA, which has been televised globally since 1987, is carried in 212 countries, in 42 different languages.

"We're running out of countries," Messick said.

While Messick is hesitant to give Yao the lion's share of credit, he acknowledges his world-wide impact.

"Yao is emerging as a cultural icon for a number of reasons," Messick said. "The fact that he is from China... and is very skillful and has a great personality [have] all contributed to his popularity," Messick said.

The NBA truly has become a global league. As of March, there were 65 international players from 34 countries.

Leading the way, at least in worldwide popularity, is Yao, who one day could approach the Michael Jordan stratosphere in the endorsement game.

"The initial worldwide interest in Yao is as high as any player I've seen," said Terry Lyons, vice president for international public relations for the NBA.

The key will be whether Yao is able to sustain the interest. Jordan wasn't an immediate marketing machine in the NBA, but he gradually built himself into the king of commercials. Sports marketers estimate that at his peak, Jordan was pulling in $40 million a year in endorsement income.

"Michael Jordan didn't do everything [at once] for the longest time," Mandel said. "If you do a lot, you can lose your impact."

Now Yao, who turns 23 in September, could be following the same trail. Jordan's popularity grew as his winning increased. Claiming six NBA titles didn't hurt his marketing appeal. Right now Yao and Houston are in a fight to earn the eighth playoff spot in the West.

"Yao can have a successful marketing career even if he has a mediocre basketball career," Mandel said. "If he and the team continue to progress, then the sky's the limit."