What’s in a Thermos? Some Extra Pocket Change — and Relevance — for Aging Rock Band

Picture this: Aging Rolling Stones rocker Mick Jagger leans forward from his rocking chair, carefully lifts a china cup of piping hot tea from the table in front of him, and slowly puts it to his mouth to savor a sip.

Such an image may seem full of contradictions, but a China equivalent is bringing relevance back to the aging rock group Black Panther on the eve of its 30th anniversary. It’s also earning some extra pocket change for the band and an entrepreneurial unit of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

The saga began when a photo of aging rock drummer Zhao Mingyi, who will turn 50 next month, went viral on social media. The cause of the lively discussion had little to do with the singer’s subdued appearance, in contrast to his wilder days as drummer for a new generation of musicians coming from China in the late 1980s. Instead, the discussion centered on the object held casually in his hand.

That object, a glass thermos presumably filled with tea, is a style of drinking that harkens back to Black Panther’s heyday in the 1980s and 1990s. But more recently, such objects are associated with middle-aged men from a bygone era of rebellion and massive social changes during China’s early days of shedding its socialist roots for a more market-oriented system.

Not one to miss a good opportunity, Alibaba Pictures, the e-commerce giant’s entertainment arm, was quick to sign a set of licensing agreements with not only the band, but also the maker of glass thermoses in the photo, a brand called Tiger.

The Alibaba unit then worked with its two new partners to roll out a new line of Black Panther-themed thermos bottles, which began selling the products Sept. 1 on Alibaba’s Taobao online mall. As of Tuesday, that campaign had generated 52,675 yuan ($6,061) in sales from fans placing 141 orders for thermoses costing 299 yuan for a single one or 538 yuan for a pair.

The marketing company also splashed posters of the band, with Zhao at center holding one of the new thermoses, during a Sept. 2 concert to commemorate its 30th anniversary.

Black Leopard was one of a handful of bands that helped to revolutionize China’s musical scene in the 1980s and ’90s, ushering in a new generation of popular music to replace more revolutionary songs of previous decades. But like counterparts in the West, rockers like Zhao have had difficulty maintaining relevance for a younger generation that grew up with no awareness of such music and takes modern popular music as the norm.

After the initial photo went viral, ticket sales to the Sept. 2 concert among people under 30 went up, as a younger generation began to show some interest in the band, according to the ticketing site Damai.

The band’s abrupt zoom back into the spotlight prompted Alibaba Pictures to sign a broader two-year licensing deal with the band, with an aim of developing a wider range of products and other tie-ins to sell during concerts and at other venues.

“In theory, there are all kinds of opportunities for transactions involving associated merchandise in (Alibaba’s) Taobao and Tmall online marketplaces,” said Dong Fang, a representative of the Alibaba Pictures unit handling the campaign. “Conservatively speaking, this market should be worth more than 100 billion yuan.”

Contact reporter Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)