Pop Mart in the sports world? This company may have an answer

It is quite painful to be an NBA fan in China.

Most of the competitions take place in the morning, with idols far away from the Pacific Ocean, and most people can only send their support through the screen throughout their lives. Fans have invested a lot of time, energy and emotions, but not many scenes that can truly take on this love.

As the "fan economy" gradually became a consensus, the industry began to try to respond to this long-standing but difficult to accurately reach.

Ace Incarnation - This domestic trendy toy brand that has been established for only three years is gradually finding its own solution, trying to provide a more sustainable answer to this gap, constantly bringing the distance between stars and fans.

This article will start from an industry perspective and analyze how the ace incarnation breaks away from the traditional trendy logic and builds a deeper way of connecting fans through the collaboration of products, scenarios, IP and community.

Each generation of stars will influence a generation. For the current youth basketball community, Stephen Curry is undoubtedly one of the most appealing beings. He not only leads the innovation of world basketball concepts, but also carries a belief that efforts can change destiny.

Ace incarnates him as the first character in the AI series, which is traffic judgment, but more of an emotional touch.

On July 15, Ace Incarnation officially launched the "Ace Awakening" event in the flagship store in Langyuan, Beijing, focusing on the world's first AI interactive plush star doll. Under the witness of fans on site, the use of AI trendy toys in real life scenes was released for the first time.

This AI plush doll is highly restored to the image characteristics of Curry based on genuine authorization, and is also equipped with a Chinese and English original tone and voice AI system to support users to have personalized interactions. Not only can it express encouragement and respond to emotions, but it can also provide inspiring advice on training skills.

At the same time, in order to ensure the friendship and education of the use process, the Ace Incarnation uses its own language model for training, and at the same time, an information security threshold is specially set to build a pure dialogue space suitable for teenagers.

As we all know, sports IP naturally has emotional thickness and can carry growth memories. It is from this perspective that the ace incarnation is added to AI capabilities to make the product continuity and emphasizes the construction of long-term relationships with users. Through continuous learning and updating, it can gradually form a sense of familiarity with users, allowing fans to no longer just look up, but achieve real emotional dialogue.

In essence, this also responds to a bigger question: Can trendy toy products be able to emerge from the display cabinet, not only as collectibles, but also become life partners with interactive value and companionship functions?

In the concept of ace incarnation, the answer is yes.

For the teenage user group, the strategy proposed by Ace Incarnation is not only to be a "good-looking doll", but also to build a partner that can accompany you to grow, so that trendy toys can truly enter the life scene - what supports this vision is the word "connection" advocated by the brand.

For fans, it provides a deeper and more daily expression of love; and for brands, it opens up a new path from trendy toys to fan relationship solutions, and also provides a verified direction for the extension of trendy toy products' life cycle.

At last week's event, Ace Incarnation invited several young fans from the brand community to the scene, not only sharing the interactive experience with AI Curry, but also participating in content recording, social media dissemination, and even becoming a part of the brand narrative.

And this kind of perspective from the fans is not a one-time interactive arrangement, but a long-term mechanism in the brand strategy.

For a long time, the ace has focused on social operations and emphasized real connections. With "Play As One" as its core proposition, the Ace incarnation constantly explores ways to narrow the distance between fans and implements it into a specific operating mechanism.

From the viewing party, star meeting, and this offline experience around AI Curry, the ace has always been building a fan community field with a sense of real participation.

Compared with other brands, the Ace Incarnation has had deep sports genes since its inception and has also provided them with unique advantages in building a fan community.

For sports events, offline is always the most competitive scene. The emotions displayed by fans when watching the game, participating and sharing their love are irreplaceable by online communication and are also the key touchpoint to complete the "connection".

McDie airborne as "one-day store manager"

It is worth mentioning that the ace has rich experience in sports IP cooperation and authorization. In addition to the top stars, teams and celebrities in the NBA, it has also reached cooperation with top European football clubs to launch multiple series of products. This comprehensive IP matrix not only further expands the brand’s user audience, but also provides flexible space for larger-scale content co-creation and derivative cooperation in the future.

It is also because of this that the combination of top IP image and user relationship management can build deeper connections. Once these connections are established, the brand's ductility and user stickiness will naturally enter the positive cycle.

However, this mechanism not only brings more possibilities to the ace, but also puts forward higher requirements for its technological iteration, content sustainability and service system.

Just like introducing AI products from scratch to build language models and undertake more complex after-sales maintenance and product updates, compared with traditional 2D IP or blind box mechanisms, the construction of sports communities also means heavier offline operations and higher thresholds for content participation..

Ace incarnation chose to face the difficulties, coordinated the AI capabilities with offline community operations, and tried to transform trendy toys from one-way presentation displays into a complete system mechanism.

"Some things may have low profit margins and no ready-made paths, but they are what we should do - they are the company of small fans and the response to our original intentions." Wu Shaoyong, founder of the Ace Incarnation Brand, revealed to Krypton.

Ace Experience Official Master Interactive and Exchange with Little Fans

At the moment when a number of trendy toy brands are pursuing the logic of hot products, this choice seems to be against the trend, but it also shows a more penetrating patience strategy. However, in order to truly enter the perception of more users, a strong enough trigger point is needed.

So, the ace incarnated turned his attention to Curry's trip to China this summer.

For brands, they need to use products to carry, or express their love for users; and for fans, the best way to give back their love is to get closer to their idols.

From August 18 to 20, Curry is about to come to Chongqing to start this year's China tour. Ace Incarnation will participate in it in depth and launch a new plan called "Ace Gravity Plan", which will take this fan event as a key node for brand strategy upgrade.

The "gravity" here corresponds to Curry's attraction to the defensive party in the game, and is also the bond between stars and fans to give each other strength.

From the perspective of implementation rhythm, this "Ace Gravity Plan" adopts a three-line approach of content, scene and product: not only will the image of Curry be exhibited at the China Tour, but also the blue and white porcelain and military-themed figures be displayed; it will also create an immersive experience area before and after the event, and use offline exhibitions and community operations to enhance the sense of participation and presence of fans. More than 10 new product matrices covering collection, interaction and companionship functions will be released one after another to expand user portraits.

The new product for the ace incarnation is about to be launched

This is a summary and focus of all efforts to bring fans and stars closer to each other in the past few years. As the founder of the brand, Wu Shaoyong, said: "I understand the power of idols, so everything we do is to bring fans closer to them. It can be a window of dialogue, a ticket to watch the game, or even an opportunity to go to the United States to participate in training camps."

If the "Ace Gravity Plan" is the concentrated expression of the ace incarnation at an important node of Curry's China Tour, then it carries not only an amplification of an activity action, but also a microcosm of the brand's future strategic direction.

When brands begin to consider building a larger connection system, the logic of "connection" is no longer just a conversation or an idol, but gradually extends into a complete set of future-oriented spatial layout and development strategies.

At present, Ace Incarnation has laid out offline spaces in Beijing, Shenyang and other places, and has explored a flexible and imaginative store model around the word "experience". In addition to undertaking product sales and brand expression functions, it has also become an important touchpoint for fans to offline gatherings, content co-creation and brand cooperation, and at the same time, it has reserved rich imagination for the brand to more offline co-construction and cooperation in the future.

According to Wu Shaoyong, Ace Incarnation plans to open 30 stores next year and try to independently lead the star China tour in the future. At the same time, by continuously releasing new products and community activities, we will increase the density of user participation, and promote the parallelization of "content-driven" and "role-driven", so that more fans can realize their dreams through the ace incarnation, and in the true sense, we will continue to realize the original intention of the brand to "create links".

At the same time, Wu Shaoyong also revealed that the plan to go overseas for the ace has also been officially launched. He is currently actively preparing to enter the North American market. He looks forward to working with more forces to truly bring the products into the most active core scenarios of the event site, star interaction and fan culture.

"We want fans and stars to connect in the most ritual way at the most critical occasion and at the closest distance." Wu Shaoyong told Krypton.

As the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics approach, relying on the IP matrix of NBA, football and comprehensive sports, the ace may enter more stadiums and carry out diversified content exploration and brand creation.

In the context of the trendy toy industry's operations around "traffic drive" and "short-cycle monetization", the left hand extends outward and expands its own long-term development map; the right hand returns to user connections and pays attention to deep relationships, which is precisely the basis for the brand to build long-term vitality.

After all, for most fans, sports are not just scores on the field, nor are they hot memes on social networks - it may also be a growing self-identity, an emotional outlet when encountering setbacks, a friend you have never met.

If this series of projects incarnated by the ace can make more and more sports enthusiasts feel that they are "a little closer to their idols", then this exploration may have meaning.

source:7m pc