March 19 – China’s rapidly growing interest in football has seen a new twist to its sponsorship involvement with Hangzhou Wahaha Group becoming an official sponsor of the Portuguese national team and Sichuan Changhong Electric Co. becoming a sponsor of the Belgian team.
Both nations are among the favourites for the World Cup in Russia, Portugal are the current European champions. Both sponsorships are focussed on the Chinese market but also to open international brand recognition. Generally national team sponsorships are from brands with strong bases in the countries they are sponsoring.
Hangzhou Wahaha Group is China’s largest beverage producer focussed on soft drinks, water and milk products. The Portuguese sponsorship will feature on and offline campaigns and will use player images, including Cristiano Ronaldo, in product packaging, print and video ads.
Wahaha is aiming the sponsorship at a younger audience to its customer base, and to speed up its international expansion. Wahaha is not new to sports marketing having previously sponsored Manchester United, the China MTB Open and the 13th National Student Sports Games of China.
Belgian push
Sichuan Changhong Electric Co. is the first Chinese sponsor for the Royal Belgian Football Association in its 123-year history and are similarly using the sponsorship to build an international presence though with a China focus.
Changhong General Manager Li Wei said that the Belgian team, called the Red Devils since 1906, have an affinity in that the word ‘hong’ in the company name and “red” share the same pronunciation in Chinese.
Li Wei said that with the brand celebrating its 60 years anniversary the sponsorship makes it relevant for young consumers as well as positioning it for international expansion in future years.
No figures were released for either sponsorship.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1713563777labto1713563777ofdlr1713563777owedi1713563777sni@n1713563777osloh1713563777cin.l1713563777uap1713563777