China

Chinese telco China Unicom has become the Official Telecommunication Services Partner of the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in deal valued in the high tens of millions of dollars.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has renewed as the Presenting Sponsor of the annual Pac-12 China Game for four years from 2017 to 2020.

Two deals agreed in the last month by the Chinese Super League suggest the league is on course for a big increase – possibly 100 per cent – in sponsorship revenues in the next cycle.

Oil and gas company ExxonMobil has doubled up on its non-motorsports portfolio, again in basketball, securing a multiyear deal with the National Basketball Association.

Mobile phone manufacturer Vivo’s growing Chinese market share was key to its deal to become the Official Mobile Phone Partner of the NBA in China and replace domestic rival ZTE.

The International Basketball Federation (Fiba) expects to at least double its sponsorship revenues in the first cycle of its recently-revamped sponsorship structure for national team matches, and to enjoy substantial cycle-on-cycle growth, through to 2031.

The 16 member clubs of the Chinese Super League (CSL) are at a critical stage in the development of their commercial programmes. They are attempting to move away from a funding model based almost entirely on the patronage of the large Chinese corporations which own them to one based on revenues from sponsorship deals with major global brands, media rights income and match-day revenues.

“Have you been to China recently?” I ask this because the question is really a kind of shorthand for a different sort of enquiry, that is to say: is your sports, brand or agency connected to the potentially vast quantities of money that will be spent on sport by both the public and private sector in China over the next few years?

Chinese mobile phone brand Huawei has joined a group of blue chip international brands as one of 13 third-tier Prestige Partners of the 2015 Rolex Shanghai Masters.

NBA China, the organisation that conducts all the National Basketball Association’s business in China, made two major changes to its brand roster for the NBA Global Games China 2015.

Nutrition brand IVC signed a multi-year deal in October to become English Premier League club Manchester United’s first Official Chinese Wellness Partner and the fifth regional partner to have signed up or renewed during the 2014-15 season.

Chinese telecommunications company Huawei aims to use football sponsorship to increase brand awareness and drive sales in the Spanish market.

Global brand awareness and active customer engagement are the drivers behind Czech car manufacturer Škoda’s sponsorship programme.