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Spikeball

We helped a new-ish sport conquer China through e-commerce.

Industry

Key Deliverables

The client

Spikeball is a game played by two teams of two players. The object of the game is to hit the ball into the net so that the opposing team cannot return it.

Launched in 2008, Spikeball has already amassed 4+ million players, with 150+ tournaments taking place every year. Its ambition is to become “the next great global sport”, so conquering China is a must!

The challenge

Chinese consumers have traditionally favoured sports that are more technically demanding, like table tennis and badminton. Because, Spikeball is a game that requires a similar level of control and precision, it lends itself well to the Chinese market.

Health, wellbeing, and fitness are central to people’s lives in China, so the opportunity for any sports or physical gaming brand is huge. Spikeball hopes Chinese consumers will see this sport as a substitute for table tennis, frisbee, volleyball, and other park and beach games​.

Our solutions

WPIC designed and built Spikeball’s e-commerce storefront and provided translated and localized content. Tmall was chosen because sports products are popular on the platform and the Tmall marketplace is responsible for close to 60% of China’s annual e-commerce market.

Spikeball case study

Over the past 15 years, Spikeball’s popularity has quickly spread throughout North America, but the sport was not initially known in China. As such, videos, tips, and instructions on how to play Spikeball feature throughout the store — including on product pages to assist with conversions.

Chinese consumers are incredibly curious when it comes to learning about new products and brands. With new sports, they want to be educated on the activity to understand how they can improve their performance. This has been core throughout all of our work with Spikeball.

WPIC worked with Spikeball to formulate a marketing plan that would drive consumer awareness through the roof. That plan encompassed:

-Livestreaming​
-Influencers
-Grassroots campaigns and offline marketing activities
-Social media campaigns across Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu

Results

Spikeball’s Tmall has been a huge hit with consumers. The store has a 5-star rating and performs highly across all of Tmall’s customer service indicators. Chinese consumers rely heavily on customer reviews, and so a high store rating is critical to success.

Do you have a similar project in mind?

We don’t just work with the biggest brands. Our clients include many small to medium-sized organizations, non-profits, and start-ups.

Just tell us what you want to achieve, and we’ll let you know how we can help you. You can also check out more of our work in Asia-Pacific.

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