Jeremy Lin’s Jump to Stardom Has Marketers Comparing Knicks Guard to Yao Ming
Jeremy Lin has taken over the basketball world by coming out of nowhere to put up eye-popping numbers and ignite a string of Knicks wins. It was only a matter of time just before conversations began about how worthwhile the guard can be.
As a Chinese-American, Lin’s success naturally opens up an totally new landscape for advertising possibilities — on best of an currently robust New York marketplace.
Reuters points out that there are marketers who think that there could be huge items in the way of marketing and endorsing Lin, even drawing comparisons to former NBA All-Star and China native Yao Ming.
“You only have to look at what Yao Ming has accomplished not just for the NBA but for brands that he represents the two in the States and China,” Jeremy Walker, head of sports marketing for GolinHarris told Reuters. “Each and every leading Chinese star comes out from the Olympic Games or wherever it may possibly be, there’s constantly going to be an awful lot of interest for brands due to the fact all main brand names in the planet are nonetheless seeking to China for development.
“A lot of brand names want that constructive ‘halo effect’ association they are going to get from staying involved with a superstar.”
It really should come as no surprise that Chinese fans of basketball — 1 of the country’s most popular sports — have taken notice when it comes to Lin’s successes.
It really is nonetheless way too early to say regardless of whether or not Lin can at some point attain the same sort of social and financial status Yao did (Lin’s run has only been 5 games soon after all), but it’s evident that the Harvard alum has plenty to obtain if he can prove that Linsanity is here to stay.