A Study on the Commercialisation and Brand Building of Sports Event IPs

Against the backdrop of the state’s promotion of high-quality development in the sports industry and the ongoing deepening of the national fitness strategy, sports event IPs have become a core driver and vital engine for the transformation and upgrading of the sports industry. With the upgrading of consumption and the widespread adoption of digital technology, public demand for sports consumption is becoming increasingly diverse and quality-oriented, whilst the commercial value and brand influence of sports event IPs are becoming increasingly prominent. As a sport with high popularity and a vast participant base in China, badminton has seen the rapid rise of personal IP tournaments built around retired top athletes in recent years, becoming a new growth point in the exploration of sports event commercialisation. This paper systematically reviews domestic and international research from the past decade on the commercial operation, brand building, value conversion and digital transformation of sports event IPs, summarising the main directions, core viewpoints, research methods and limitations of existing studies. The research reveals that current domestic studies predominantly focus on highly professionalised sports such as football and basketball, as well as large-scale multi-sport events, whilst paying insufficient attention to strong sports with a solid grassroots foundation, such as badminton. Furthermore, research on individual athlete IP events remains largely confined to descriptive analysis and the listing of issues, lacking a systematic analysis of the mechanisms by which individual IPs are transformed into independent event IPs. Taking the ‘Lin Dan Cup’ badminton personal IP event as a case study, this paper conducts an in-depth analysis across four dimensions: commercial operation models, brand-building pathways, digital empowerment mechanisms, and risk management strategies. It summarises the event’s developmental experiences and existing shortcomings, whilst proposing targeted optimisation pathways. The study aims to fill the theoretical gap in the field of domestic badminton individual IP events, refine the theoretical framework for the commercialisation and brand building of sports event IPs, and provide practical guidance for retired athletes in China wishing to establish individual IP events and cultivate indigenous, independent event IPs.