At the Paris Olympic Games, which will open a week later, every time a five-star flag is raised, the FAW red flag will present a glory version of the car to the glory athletes.
At the fan festival held on July 17, Hongqi Automobile announced the decision. That night, Hongqi invited three Olympic champions, He Zi, Xing Aowei and Ding Ning, to the scene. With the announcement of the news of "Raise the red flag, give the red flag", the atmosphere was led to a climax.
This is not the first time Hongqi has given away vehicles to Olympic athletes. Previously, Hongqi has given away vehicles or vehicle use rights to athletes who won medals during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games. Today, on social media platforms, the family of Olympic diving champion Quan Hongchan can still be seen picking up the car at that time.
On the one hand, there is an independent high-end brand with a long brand history and heavy emotions of the people, and on the other hand, there are athletes who strive hard and gain glory. The two are linked and seem to fit well.
Red Flag × Olympic Games, has been linked for many years
If you search for the word "Olympic" as a keyword, you will find that the linkage between Hongqi cars and the Olympic Games and athletes has a long history.
As early as the beginning of 2018, at the launch site of Hongqi’s new brand strategy, Lang Ping, the head coach of the Chinese women’s volleyball team, confessed to Hongqi: "Hongqi, I support you!"; in 2019, it officially appeared in the Changchun International Marathon; in 2020, Hongqi joined hands with the Chinese women’s national volleyball team and became its main sponsor and official partner; followed by the "free car" activities of the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games and the 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
In the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympic Games, in addition to giving away vehicles to Olympic athletes, the red flag further increases the sense of participation of ordinary consumers. The red flag announced at the event site on the 17th that for every five-star red flag raised in the Paris Olympic arena, the red flag will provide a lucky fan with the right to use a red flag EH7 car, and obtain the right to use the same car as the Olympic champion.
Why has Hongqi maintained a strong interaction with athletes and invested a lot of energy in "Olympic marketing"?
First and foremost, the most direct point is that the Olympic Games, as the most influential sports event in the world, will bring a lot of exposure to the brand, which will help consumers better understand the red flag.
For many people, Hongqi may be the "most familiar unfamiliar brand". The brand itself has a long history, having been established as early as 1958, and the Hongqi sedan has long been used as a review vehicle for major celebrations in China. However, due to brand positioning, lack of products and other reasons, Hongqi has not really entered the mass consumer market for a long time.
At the 2018 Hongqi brand strategy conference, Hongqi launched a new round of revival and proposed an ambitious sales growth plan. FAW Hongqi hopes that everyone will see a different red flag.
Secondly, the linkage between Hongqi cars and athletes can easily arouse people’s emotional resonance. Hongqi is a highly representative independent high-end brand, and many people have a simple emotion of "hoping for the rejuvenation of Hongqi". In the 66-year history of development, the rejuvenation of Hongqi brand has gone through several ups and downs, which is also in line with the fighting spirit of athletes. The national pride at the moment when the red flag is raised in the Olympic arena echoes the emotion of seeing the rejuvenation of the red flag.
Hongqi’s "Olympic marketing" has indeed achieved the expected effect. Recently, FAW Hongqi revealed that a series of measures such as giving red flag cars to athletes at the Tokyo Olympics and Beijing Olympic Winter Games have increased the familiarity of the Hongqi brand by 9.8% and the reputation by 6.8%.
The three major sub-brands are in place, impacting higher sales
In addition to the marketing method of "raising the red flag and giving the red flag", the product is another major highlight of this red flag fan festival.
This time, Hongqi plans to give away the vehicle to the Olympic athletes as Hongqi EH7, a pure electric medium and large sedan that went on sale in March this year and needs to increase its volume. At the event, another car appeared – the PHEV plug-in model completed its debut. In addition, another D-class executive sedan of Hongqi, Guoya, will also be launched this year.
These three models precisely correspond to the three sub-brands of Hongqi: "Hongqi New Energy", which mainly promotes pure electric vehicles at this stage, "Hongqi Energy-saving Vehicles", which mainly promotes mixed models, and "responsible for the construction of high-end models". During the Shanghai Auto Show in April last year, Hongqi officially announced these three sub-brands to the public.
At this stage, the new cars of the three major sub-brands are advancing steadily. In the pure electric field, Hongqi has launched three models of E-QM5, EH7, and E-HS9, as well as the planned Hongqi EHS7. In the mixed field, Hongqi launched the Hongqi HQ7 PHEV in April this year, and the HS7 PHEV will also be launched this month. The follow-up models include the HS3 PHEV unveiled this time. In the field of high-end models, in June this year, the models priced at 7.18 million yuan will be launched. In the second half of the year, Hongqi will launch the Guoya model.
The continuous improvement of products has helped Hongqi achieve remarkable sales results. Specific data show that from January to June this year, FAW Hongqi’s wholesale sales exceeded 201,500 units, an increase of 42.6% year-on-year, and retail sales reached 190,900 units during the same period, an increase of 25% year-on-year. If this increase can be maintained in the second half of the year, Hongqi’s retail sales this year may exceed 460,000 units. According to the data released by Hongqi’s event, the total number of Hongqi users has exceeded 1.50 million.
Finally, returning to the topic at the beginning, you may wonder how many Red Flag EH7s the Red Flag needs to prepare for the Olympic athletes this time? The results of the Chinese team at the Tokyo Olympics can be used as a reference. That year, the Chinese sports delegation won 38 gold, 32 silver and 19 bronze medals, a total of 89 medals.
It can be seen that in this Paris Olympic Games, Red Flag must have paid a lot of effort.
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