By Paul Nicholson
April 6 – FIFA’s struggle to sign up commercial partners to its reformed vision and upcoming World Cup in Russia was given some much-needed relief with confirmation that China’s Hisense, a white goods and electronics company based in the east-coast city of Qingdao, has put its name to the 2017 Confederations Cup and 2018 World Cup as an official sponsor.
Hisense has stopped short of taking the top category of FIFA sponsorship as a FIFA partner, instead joining Budweiser and McDonalds as World Cup sponsors.
No figure was announced for the sponsorship.
Hisense televisions will be designated the official televisions of the tournament and will receive “access to marketing opportunities both on and off the pitch, including advertising boards in stadiums and on-screen credits,” said a FIFA press release.
Hisesne is a market leader in television sales in China and said: “Hisense will offer its technical expertise and products throughout the 2018 FIFA World Cup while also engaging in a joint R&D initiative with FIFA to further push the boundaries of display technology.”
Liu Hongxin, President of the Hisense Group, emphasised the global marketing opportunity for the brand. “Over the years, Hisense has gained a lot of experience and seen strong brand growth through sports sponsorships. We are honoured to take on our biggest challenge yet, the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and we believe that the competition will vastly improve global awareness and economic value for Hisense as a truly international brand,” he said.
FIFA will be relieved to sign up Hisense though it is for a shorter term than it would ideally have liked. The governing body has failed to replace top-tier partners Sony Corp and Emirates Airline after their deals expired at the end of 2014, though did add China’s Wanda as a top tier partner, announced immediately after the election of new president Gianni Infantino in March 2015.
China was hoped to be a new frontier for FIFA sponsorship but has so far not been an easy commercial nut to crack, though Chinese internet group Alibaba agreed an eight-year sponsorship deal for the Club World Cup last year.
Hisense is already involved in World Cup-driven sponsorship through its deal with UEFA.
In January 2016 the company was unveiled as the 10th global partner of Euro 2016. Under that deal, the Chinese group sponsors other UEFA national team competitions until the end of 2017. These include European qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, UEFA Futsal Euro 2016, the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship and UEFA Women’s Euro 2017.
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