China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba is rolling out its first corporate global branding campaign focused on how it helps small businesses succeed.
Launched for the upcoming PyeongChang 2018 games, the campaign, which celebrates “the greatness of small” features several spots starring a wide cast of multinational characters including athletes who have made big impacts though they are relatively small.
Along with the three-part video campaign the brand will run a billboard campaign in South Korea for the Feb. 9 to 25 Pyeongchang Winter Games, as well as a social media campaign in the United States, Britain and Japan.
The three videos will be run in English, Chinese, and Japanese languages
One of the ads features the Kenyan ice hockey team. Alibaba has said that it will fly them to the Olympic games in South Korea – even though they are not competing.
Another spot features Australia’s 1928 Olympic rower Bobby Pearce, who stopped during the middle of his heat to allow a family of ducks to pass.
This marks the first time the company has run a global branding campaign for the parent company, rather than one focused on one of its business units, Chief Marketing Officer Chris Tung told Reuters.
“Our advertising will help introduce our brand and what Alibaba stands for to audiences beyond China,” Tung said, adding that these are “critical strategically important markets.”
Tung added that Alibaba will not be sponsoring individual athletes as part of its campaign.
The move has thus far been a success in the B2B arena Tung said.
“Since we announced our partnership we’ve been engaged in ongoing conversations with the top partners like Procter & Gamble Co, Coca-Cola Co, Samsung Electronics and Intel Corp and so on to identify opportunities to work together in both the short term and long term,” Tung said.
