Kobe Bryant Switches to Ping Pong in Ad for Chinese Food-Delivery Startup

Retired NBA Pro Has a New Pitchman Gig

Published On
Jul 14, 2016

Editor's Pick

Kobe Bryant has plugged brands from Nike to Sprite to Apple. His latest commercial is unexpected: He's playing ping pong, badly, in a spot for a Chinese food delivery startup.

The ad from McCann Worldgroup Shanghai shows the retired Lakers star fighting hunger pangs as he botches a table tennis tournament. He's revived after a quick delivery of takeout from Ele.me, which is backed by internet giant Alibaba Group.

Mr. Bryant is huge in China. Even in retirement, he's the country's most famous athlete, according to ESPN's World Fame 100. Nike has brought him to China many times to train young players and inspire NBA fans. That partly explains his appeal here. Crowds appear whenever he visits; some Chinese companies gave employees time off in April to watch his final game.

Mr. Bryant appears in the ad with a Hong Kong actor named Wong Cho-lam. The campaign appears on TV and online. A second video will air in August.

Ele.me, which means "Are You Hungry?" in Chinese, was founded in 2008 by Jiaotong University students Zhang Xuhao and Kang Jia. It got $900 million in backing from e-commerce giant Alibaba this year; at the same time an Alibaba affiliate, Ant Financial, offered another $350 million investment. Alibaba rival Tencent has also backed it. Ele.me gets 5 million orders a day and has more than 70 million registered users; it's present in over 700 Chinese cities.

Read the full story on Kobe's new pitchman gig on Adage.com.

Credits

Date
Jul 14, 2016
Brand :
Eleme
Client :
Eleme
Agency :
McCann Worldgroup-Shanghai
Chief Executive Officer :
Mark Zhang
Vice President, Marketing :
Peter Xu
Brand Team :
Songqian Wu
Brand Team :
Chengcheng Li
Brand Team :
Shihang Xu
Chairperson :
Tomaz Mok
Senior Creative Director :
Sun Tao
Associate Creative Director :
Roni Lu
Head of TV :
George Ooi
Senior Producer :
Denny Yu
Agency Managing Director :
Mike Zeng
Business Director :
Christine Sung
Account Director :
Fiona Jiang
Account Manager :
Phil Peng
Production Company :
Breathe
Director :
Mark Toia
Executive Producer :
Iris Jin
Executive Producer :
Anthony Yao
Executive Producer :
Han West
Executive Producer :
John Baker
Post Production :
Fin Design
Company :
Craft
General Manager :
Jacqueline Wu
Project Manager :
Sunni Shen
Photographer :
Mitch Jenkins
Photographer :
Chili
Company :
Moto Group
Executive Producer :
Phil Cui
Producer :
Wanyun Zhang

Need a credit fix? Contact the Creativity Editors

Project Type