Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE: BABA) Champions Small in Its Olympic Ads

February 06, 2018, 12:21 pm ET, BY Simon M.- Contributor| Editor: Thomas H. Kee Jr. (Follow on LinkedIn)

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE: BABA) recently released Olympic ads targeted at the global audience as a Worldwide sponsor of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. The three clips are part of its global campaign to appeal to international customers outside its home turf of China by positioning itself as a company that supports small businesses.

Article Summary

Alibaba recently released ads targeting the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

The ads are based on the theme of empowering small businesses and young people.

The ads reflect the company’s story as a global underdog.

Here’s the trading report on BABA.

The creative Olympic ads tell the unique stories of underdogs such as small businesses and many athletes who are largely unknown in many countries. The ads are a reflection of Alibaba’s beginnings as an underdog in the e-commerce industry where its first major victory was when it beat eBay Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY) in 2003 to dominate the Chinese e-commerce market.  

According to Chris Tung Alibaba’s Chief Marketing Officer, the ads are aimed at introducing the e-commerce giant to audiences outside China. Although the company is well-known in China, it is largely unknown globally especially in developed countries such as in Europe and in North America where Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is the dominant online retailer.  

Although Alibaba is no longer an underdog in China given that the company is currently valued at $519 billion, the company is focused on supporting small business in the country and abroad. The company recently announced that it would bring a million US small businesses onto its platform so that they can sell to Chinese customers.

The ad campaign is part of an 11-year sponsorship deal signed with the International Olympic Committee, which is likely to raise the company’s profile globally. Alibaba will provide cloud support for the Olympic Games through its Alibaba Cloud, which competes directly with Amazon Web Services.  

The ads will be aired mostly through social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube, which is evidence of the growing popularity of the online advertising platforms. According to Chris Tung, TV ads by sponsors of the Olympic Games have become extremely competitive, while ratings for the ads have not been growing.

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