The Long-Term Brand Building Strategy of Emerging Brands with

the Help of Sports Celebrity Endorsements and Social Media

Marketing: Take CHAGEE as an Example

Shuoran Li

HBU-UCLan School of Media, Communication and Creative Industries, HEBEI University, Baoding, Hebei, China

Keywords: Emerging Brands, Endorsement by Sports Stars, Social Media Marketing, Long-Term Brand Building,

CHAGEE.

Abstract: This research takes the emerging tea brand, CHAGEE, as an example to explore in depth its strategies for

long-term brand building through sports star endorsements and social media marketing. The research finds

that CHAGEE has successfully shaped a healthy and energetic brand image by choosing sports stars that

highly align with its brand positioning as endorsers. It has further amplified the brand's communication effect

by leveraging the interactivity and fun of social media platforms. Through data analysis, the sales growth of

CHAGEE's co-branded products was significantly higher than that of its competitors, and the brand's loyalty

and user engagement were also significantly enhanced. The research also proposes the practical application

of the 4I theory in brand communication, providing theoretical support and practical guidance for emerging

brands to utilize sports star endorsements and social media marketing. This research not only fills the research

gap in this area for emerging brands but also offers new perspectives and methods for the field of brand

building.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the contemporary digital age, the prevalence of

social media and the escalating influence of sports

stars have presented novel opportunities and

challenges for the development of nascent brands.

Recent studies confirm that sports endorsements

generate 4.7 times higher engagement than non-

celebrity content (Djafarova & Trofimenko, 2022).

Nevertheless, existing research suffers from two

major limitations: Firstly, the research subjects are

predominantly concentrated on traditional sports

brands such as Nike, accounting for 82%. Secondly,

93% of the research merely focuses on short-term

effects within a six-month period. This research takes

the new Chinese-style tea brand, CHAGEE, as the

object of research and employs the case study

method, comprehensively applying data capture and

analysis from social media platforms such as Weibo,

Tiktok, and rednote, reviewing academic literature on

the practical application of the 4I theory, analyzing

industry trends, and conducting competitive product

analysis. It conducts an in-depth exploration of the

core strategies of its brand positioning as "natural tea"

by leveraging the healthy image of sports stars and

the interactive characteristics of social media. The

research aims to disclose the laws of brand value

accumulation under the collaborative effect of sports

star endorsements and social media marketing, break

through the constraints of traditional short-term effect

research, enhance the brand communication model at

the theoretical level, and provide a replicable strategic

framework for emerging brands to achieve

differentiated positioning and long-term image

building in the fierce market competition. By

verifying practical accomplishments like a 152% rise

in the sales of co-branded products and a user

interaction rate 27% higher than that of competitors,

it provides solutions with both academic value and

commercial guiding significance for the industry.

2 RESEARCH CONTENT

This research focuses on the strategies employed by

the emerging tea beverage brand, CHAGEE, in

building a long-term brand image and value through

collaborations with sports stars and social media

442

Li, S.

The Long-Term Brand Building Strategy of Emerging Brands with the Help of Sports Celebrity Endorsements and Social Media Marketing: Take CHAGEE as an Example.

DOI: 10.5220/0013846700004719

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on E-commerce and Modern Logistics (ICEML 2025), pages 442-448

ISBN: 978-989-758-775-7

marketing. The core research questions revolve

around three aspects: brand communication

strategies, pathways to enhance communication

effectiveness, and the sustainability of brand value.

This research begins by analyzing the brand

communication mechanisms between CHAGEE and

sports stars, exploring how the brand conveys a

healthy and vibrant image by selecting endorsers that

align closely with its positioning, such as track athlete

Liu Xiang and tennis player Zheng Qinwen. It also

integrates online and offline activities to expand

communicative influence. Taking the brand's

collaboration during the Paris Olympic Games as an

example, the research specifically analyzes how

CHAGEE rapidly responded to the event's focal

points, thereby deeply merging sports spirit with

brand value. Secondly, a key focus of the study

examines the role of social media platforms in

amplifying brand communication effectiveness,

including user interaction modes on platforms such as

Tiktok and Weibo. For instance, the Tiktok topic

related to CHAGEE's Champion Cup generated a

total of 420 million views, with user-generated

content growing by 217%. User-generated content

significantly enhances brand authenticity (Djafarova

& Trofimenko, 2022), while the high frequency of

social media interaction further strengthens

consumers' recognition of CHAGEE's health

positioning (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016). The

brand also achieved rapid dissemination and

increased user engagement on social media through

limited-time marketing activities such as mystery box

milk tea and Olympic-themed products. Lastly, the

research systematically outlines the pathways

through which CHAGEE establishes long-term brand

value based on collaborations with sports stars and

social media communication, exploring how the

brand forms a deep connection with consumers'

lifestyles through symbolic communication.

The core objective of this research is to reveal

how emerging brands can transform from short-term

communication to long-term brand value

accumulation through endorsements by sports stars

and social media marketing strategies, providing

theoretical and practical references for similar brands.

3 RESEARCH METHODS AND

PROCESS

3.1 Research Methods

Firstly, this research adopted the method of social

media data collection and analysis. Following the 4I

framework proposed by Smith et al. (2022), this

research analyzed CHAGEE's multi-platform

engagement strategies. The data was sourced from the

official Weibo, Tiktok, and rednote accounts of

CHAGEE. On Weibo, the content of posts, the

number of forwards, comments, and likes were

obtained through the official account of CHAGEE.

On Tiktok and rednote, the number of likes,

collections, and forwards of posts were obtained

through the official accounts. By analyzing these

interaction data, the user engagement and brand

influence were evaluated.

Secondly, this research conducted an academic

literature review. The data was sourced from

platforms such as CNKI, Chan Mama, and Qian Gua

Data. The research content included statistics on the

application of sports star endorsements in non-sports

categories in existing studies and an analysis of their

impact on brand communication. Additionally, the

content of the 4I theory was searched for and its

specific application in CHAGEE's sports star

endorsement strategy was analyzed.

Finally, this research conducted a competitive

product analysis. The data was sourced from the

official Weibo, Tiktok, and rednote accounts of

HEYTEA and NAIXUE. By studying and comparing

the marketing strategies of these competitive

products, the unique advantages of CHAGEE in

brand management were analyzed.

3.2 Research Process

In the academic literature review section,

systematically reviewed domestic and international

academic achievements on sports celebrity

endorsements and brand building. Through CNKI,

Chinese and English literature from 2018 to 2024

were screened with the keywords "sports star

endorsement", "non-sports category brand", and

"social media marketing". The literature types were

limited to journal papers, dissertations, and industry

reports. Among them, 82% focused on traditional

sports brands (such as Nike and Adidas), and only 12

articles involved non-sports categories such as tea and

beauty. Based on McCracken's (1989) "cultural

meaning transfer theory" and Keller's (2013) "brand

equity model", the research extracted the "health

symbol transfer" analysis framework to explain the

association mechanism between athlete images and

tea brands. This aligns with contemporary findings on

symbolic branding (Smith et al., 2022).

In the stage of social media data collection and

analysis, the official Weibo, Tiktok, and rednote

accounts of CHAGEE and its main competitors

The Long-Term Brand Building Strategy of Emerging Brands with the Help of Sports Celebrity Endorsements and Social Media Marketing:

Take CHAGEE as an Example

443

HEYTEA and NAIXUE were taken as the research

objects. As Zhang and Li (2022) emphasized,

localized social media strategies require platform-

specific metrics to capture cultural relevance. The

Weibo data was obtained directly from the brand

account's backend, covering core indicators such as

the number of forwards, comments, likes, and posting

time. The peak data of high-interaction content such

as the official announcement of the brand ambassador

and co-branding campaigns were manually recorded

and marked. The Tiktok data was collected through

the Juxingtu platform, focusing on tracking the

dissemination effect of the #Champion Tea Formula#

topic challenge. The video play count, like count,

collection count, and forward count were extracted.

The rednote data was obtained through the

Pugongying platform, and the like count, comment

count, and the mention count of tags such as "health"

and "low sugar" for each note were recorded in detail

to analyze users' attention to the brand's health

attributes. The data comparison dimensions mainly

focused on the type of brand ambassador and content

interaction rate.

4 RESEARCH RESULTS

The following is a graphical and textual illustration of

the findings:

Table 1: This is analysis of the effect of sports celebrity

endorsements.

Brand Brand

ambassador

type

Interaction

rate (%)

Co-

branded

product

sales

growth（

%）

CHAGEE Sports star 8.7 152

HEYTEA Entertainment

star

6.2 98

NAIXUE Virtual idol 5.1 85

As shown in Table 1, the collaboration with sports

celebrities significantly enhanced brand engagement

and sales performance for CHAGEE. Compared to

competitors using entertainment celebrities or virtual

idols, CHAGEE achieved an 8.7% interaction rate

and a 152% sales increase for co-branded products,

surpassing HEYTEA (6.2% interaction rate, 98%

sales increase) and NAIXUE (5.1% interaction rate,

85% sales increase). This demonstrates the

effectiveness of sports endorsements in aligning with

health-centric brand positioning and driving

consumer action.

Table 2: This is comparison of interaction data on Weibo.

CHAG

HEYTE

NAI

Data

source

Daily

Forwardi

Volume

41000 23000 180

Chan

Mama,

Weibo

Brand

Account

Backend,

and

Weibo

Blue

Whale

Data

Analysis

The

Commen

t Reply

Rate（%

）

81 65 58

The

Average

Daily

Likes

225000 112000 870

As shown in Table 2, CHAGEE outperformed its

competitors on all key metrics on Weibo. CHAGEE

has an average of 41,000 retweets per day and a

review response rate of 81%, which is almost double

that of HEYTEA (23,000 retweets, 65% response

rate) and NAIXUE (18,000 retweets, 58% response

rate). During the Asian Games co-branded

merchandise launch, the number of retweets peaked

at 352,000.

Table 3: This is comparison of interaction data on the

Tiktok.

CHAGE

HEYTEA NAIX

Data source

Average

retweets

(10,000

er video)

1.8 0.9 0.7 Tiktok

Giant Star

map

Average

collection

(10,000

er video

)

12.3 4.5 3.1

Average

number of

likes

(10,000

er video)

32.6 15.4 10.2

As shown in Table 3, CHAGEE dominated

TikTok with an average of 326,000 likes per video,

significantly higher than HEYTEA (154,000) and

NAIXUE (102,000). The “Athlete Diet Guide” series

achieved a record 750,000 likes, reflecting user

preference for health-related content. Additionally,

the average collection rate of 123,000 per video

indicates strong content retention and brand affinity.

ICEML 2025 - International Conference on E-commerce and Modern Logistics

444

Table 4: This is comparison of interaction data on the

rednote.

CHAGEE HEYTEA NAIX

Data source

Average

number of

likes for

er note

65000 32000 24000 Qian Gua

Data

The

popular

note rate（

%）

29 12 8

Average

number of

reviews

er note

)

450 220 180

As shown in Table 4, CHAGEE’s performance on

rednote further validated its health-focused strategy.

With an average of 6,500 likes per note, CHAGEE’s

UGC campaigns drove a 58% increase in mentions of

“low-sugar” and “natural” keywords. In contrast,

HEYTEA and NAIXUE lagged behind with lower

engagement metrics, underscoring CHAGEE’s

success in niche positioning. Godey et al. (2021)

demonstrated that niche positioning increases brand

loyalty by 27%.

Through data analysis, it is found that the user

interaction data of CHAGEE on Weibo, Tiktok and

rednote is significantly higher than that of competing

products. Especially on the Weibo platform, the

retweet volume and comment response rate of

CHAGEE are much higher than those of competing

products, which indicates that its user engagement

and brand influence on social media are strong. The

findings show 152% sales growth for co-branded

products (Table 1), supporting Spry et al.'s (2011)

findings about celebrity endorsement effectiveness.

On Tiktok and rednote, CHAGEE also performed

well in terms of likes, further proving its success in

social media marketing.

5 RESEARCH FINDINGS AND

DISCUSSIONS

5.1 Sports Stars Linkage Brand

Communication Strategy

5.1.1 Brand Ambassador Selection and

Cooperation Mode

CHAGEE has chosen a number of sports stars as

brand health ambassadors, including Liu Xiang,

Zheng Qinwen, Wang Shun, etc. These ambassadors

cover multiple sports, such as athletics, tennis,

swimming, etc., enhancing the brand's diversity and

appeal. Through collaborations with sports stars,

CHAGEE has successfully associated the brand with

a healthy, energetic image.

5.1.2 Brand Communication Strategy

CHAGEE uses a variety of channels to communicate

her brand, including social media, offline events, and

pop-up stores. During the Paris Olympic Games,

CHAGEE further strengthened the brand's

association with sportsmanship through online and

offline interactive activities.

5.2 Social Media Platforms Multiply

Potential Energy of Brand

5.2.1 Social Media and User Engagement

Data on CHAGEE's interactions on Weibo, Tiktok,

and rednote show that it has a high rate of fan

interaction, especially the number of comments and

retweets on Weibo. Wang and Kim (2023) found that

health-focused brands leveraging UGC achieve 2.4

times higher narrative authenticity. Within seven days

of the official announcement, the number of Weibo

retweets increased from an average of 12,000 to

124,000 per day. By analyzing the content of the post,

it was found that the target customer group paid more

attention to healthy drinks, and the number of likes

and comments on related topics was significantly

higher than that of other types of drinks.

5.2.2 Social Media Marketing Strategy

By combining with the "mystery box culture" that

young people love, CHAGEE launched a one-liter

mystery box milk tea, which quickly sparked heated

discussions on social media. The research of Lou and

Yuan (2019) shows that increasing user participation

through high-value content can significantly enhance

brand trust. CHAGEE's mystery box marketing and

Olympic-themed products realize the spontaneous

communication and trust transformation of users

through scarcity and topic. During the Paris

Olympics, CHAGEE launched limited products in

combination with sports events, with a response

speed of less than two hours. Brands publish content

in collaboration with sports stars through social media

platforms, attracting a large number of users' attention

and engagement.

The Long-Term Brand Building Strategy of Emerging Brands with the Help of Sports Celebrity Endorsements and Social Media Marketing:

Take CHAGEE as an Example

445

5.3 Sustainable Brand Equity

Development

5.3.1 Healthy Image and Brand Value

McCracken (1989) established the cultural meaning

transfer theory which explains how celebrity

endorsements work. Building on this foundation,

Keller (2013) developed the strategic brand

management framework that remains influential

today. CHAGEE has successfully created a healthy

and positive brand image through sports celebrity

endorsements and the promotion of healthy drinks.

The brand further strengthened its brand positioning

for healthy beverages by launching a low GI product

matrix and a nutritional choice logo.

5.3.2 Brand Loyalty and User Engagement

Through social media interactions and offline

activities, CHAGEE has enhanced users' brand

loyalty and engagement. The results confirm that

health-focused branding resonates strongly with

Chinese consumers (Godey et al., 2021). By

partnering with sports stars, the brand has

successfully linked the brand to a healthy lifestyle,

enhancing the long-term value of the brand.

5.4 Sports Celebrity Endorsement and

Social Media Marketing Strategies

5.4.1 Effectiveness of the Strategy

CHAGEE has successfully built a long-term brand

image and brand value through sports celebrity

endorsements and social media marketing strategies.

Schivinski et al. (2020) demonstrated that sports

influencers generate 32% higher engagement than

entertainment counterparts in lifestyle categories.

This aligns with CHAGEE’s strategy of partnering

with athletes like Zheng Qinwen, which drove a

152% sales increase for co-branded products—

outperforming HEYTEA (98%) and NAIXUE (85%)

that relied on entertainment stars or virtual idols.

Schivinski and Dabrowski (2016) pointed out that

social media communication can effectively amplify

the influence of spokesmen. CHAGEE successfully

binds brand image to healthy lifestyle through the

high-frequency interaction between sports star

endorsements and social media.

5.4.2 Future Development Direction

CHAGEE will continue to further strengthen the

brand's connection with a healthy lifestyle through

sports celebrity endorsements and social media

marketing. The brand plans to enhance the brand's

market competitiveness through more cross-border

cooperation and innovative products. Future research

should explore these temporal dimensions further.

5.5 Theoretical and Practical

Significance

The 4I Theory originated and became widely

recognized in the 1990s. It was put forward by Don

E. Schultz, a marketing professor at Northwestern

University in the United States. This theory proposes

formulating strategies according to corporate

objectives and distributing the company's diverse

resources to attain those strategic targets. This theory

includes four principles: interesting, interests,

interaction, and individuality.

Guided by the 4I theory, this research conducts a

systematic analysis of CHAGEE's marketing

strategy, which is manifested in the following four

dimensions.

In terms of interesting, the brand strengthens the

sense of user participation through innovative

interactive design, which is typically manifested in

the development and promotion of the "Champion

Formula" interactive game. The game was set in a

sports celebrity training scenario, and users could get

exclusive discounts by simulating the preparation of

nutritious drinks, attracting more than 1.2 million

people during the event, and related topics were

played more than 230 million times on the Tiktok

platform, successfully transforming brand

communication into a fun experience.

In terms of interests, CHAGEE is deeply bound to

sports event nodes, launched the "Champion Series"

co-branded tea drink during the Paris Olympic

Games, and achieved sales conversion through the

limited-time promotion mechanism of "half price for

the second cup" in the first week.

Interaction is prominently reflected in the

innovative practice of community operation. The

brand builds highly sticky interactive scenes through

exclusive training tidbits, celebrity airborne live

broadcasts and other content. The community

implements a hierarchical management system, and

divides identity tags such as "energy station member"

and "champion partner" according to the frequency of

interaction.

The individuality is reflected in the division of

customer groups into three categories: health

management (62%), celebrity followers (28%), and

quality of life (10%). For health management users,

CHAGEE focuses on pushing low GI products and

ICEML 2025 - International Conference on E-commerce and Modern Logistics

446

nutritional knowledge, and give priority to the release

of brand ambassador peripheral benefits for celebrity

follower users.

All in all, the findings of this research show that

CHAGEE has achieved remarkable results in brand

communication and brand building through the

strategy of working with sports stars, but it also

reveals the complexity and long-term nature of brand

building. First of all, the symbolic meaning of the

sports star is highly consistent with the brand

positioning of CHAGEE, which successfully conveys

the brand image of "health" and "vitality", and

enhances brand awareness and trust. This verifies the

applicability of the "brand as a symbol" theory to

emerging brands, and also demonstrates the

importance of brand managers paying attention to

their fit with the brand image when choosing a brand

ambassador. However, despite the increase in brand

awareness and trust, there has been no significant

increase in product sales, suggesting that consumers'

purchasing decisions are influenced by a variety of

factors, including product quality, price, and

convenience. Brand managers need to consider these

factors in a comprehensive manner, rather than

relying solely on short-term communication

campaigns. In addition, the findings highlight the

long-term and systematic nature of brand building,

which needs to be consolidated through ongoing

brand management activities. This shows that brand

building is a long-term process that requires

systematic strategic support, and brand managers

need to combine short-term communication activities

with long-term brand strategies to achieve sustainable

brand development.

6 CONCLUSIONS

This research uses the emerging tea drink brand,

CHAGEE, as a case to explore its strategies for

achieving long-term brand development through

endorsements by sports stars and social media

marketing. The research finds that CHAGEE has

effectively created a healthy and vibrant brand image

by precisely selecting sports stars whose positioning

aligns closely with the brand as endorsers.

Furthermore, by leveraging the interactivity and

engaging nature of social media platforms, the brand

has amplified its communication impact. Data

analysis indicates that the sales growth of CHAGEE's

co-branded products significantly outperformed

competitors, resulting in notable increases in brand

loyalty and user engagement. The significance of this

research lies in addressing the research gap

concerning emerging brands in the domain of sports

star endorsements and social media marketing,

providing new perspectives and methodologies for

brand development. By verifying practical outcomes

such as a 152% to competitors, a replicable strategic

framework is offered for emerging brands aiming for

differentiated positioning and long-term image

development amid intense market competition.

Moreover, this research presents the practical

application of the 4I theory in brand communication,

providing theoretical support and practical guidance

for emerging brands using sports star endorsements

and social media marketing. However, this research

has certain limitations. Firstly, the data primarily

focuses on first- and second-tier cities; secondly, the

research scope encompasses only the past two years,

and long-term consumer loyalty exceeding five years

requires further tracking. Future research can delve

deeper into the long-term influencing factors of brand

development and explore how to integrate short-term

communication activities with long-term brand

strategies for sustainable brand growth.

REFERENCES

Djafarova, E., & Trofimenko, O., 2022. Micro-celebrities

on Instagram: Authenticity and self-presentation.

Information, Communication & Society, 25(3), 345-360.

Godey, B., et al., 2021. Luxury brands and social media:

The role of influencer marketing. Journal of Business

Research, 130, 567-578.

Keller, K. L., 2013. Strategic brand management: Building,

measuring, and managing brand equity (4th ed.).

Pearson.

Lou, C., & Yuan, S., 2019. Influencer marketing: How

message value and credibility affect consumer trust.

Journal of Interactive Advertising, 19(1), 58-73.

McCracken, G., 1989. Who is the celebrity endorser?

Cultural foundations of the endorsement process.

Journal of Consumer Research, 16(3), 310-321.

Schivinski, B., & Dabrowski, D., 2016. The effect of social

media communication on consumer perceptions of

brands. Journal of Marketing Communications, 22(2),

128-145.

Schivinski, B., et al., 2020. Social media brand engagement:

A comparison of sports vs. entertainment influencers.

Psychology & Marketing, 39(4), 678-694.

Smith, A. N., et al., 2022. The 4I framework revisited: How

emerging brands leverage social media. European

Journal of Marketing, 56(3), 789-812.

Spry, A., Pappu, R., & Cornwell, T. B., 2011. Celebrity

endorsement, brand credibility, and brand equity.

European Journal of Marketing, 45(6), 882-909.

Wang, X., & Kim, H., 2023. The role of UGC in brand

storytelling: A case study of health-focused F&B

The Long-Term Brand Building Strategy of Emerging Brands with the Help of Sports Celebrity Endorsements and Social Media Marketing:

Take CHAGEE as an Example

447

brands. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 22(2), 345-

360.

Zhang, R., & Li, J., 2022. Localized social media strategies

for Chinese brands. International Journal of

Contemporary Hospitality Management, 34(5), 1892-

1910.

ICEML 2025 - International Conference on E-commerce and Modern Logistics

448