...when globally launching the Manchester City Sponsorship in January 2020, it was crucial to give all local markets a way to activate it, too.

In our brainstorming sessions (even already before signing the deal!) we saw that both parties, Manchester City + Midea are:

• leaders within their respective field
• still young + innovative challenger brands aiming the fight + make their mark against the big, famous + traditional + all-time brands/clubs

However, already the pre-condition both parties bring to the table, too, are:

• obvious(ly) (BIG) visions +
• clearly worked out = ready in place strategies +
• enough resources to bring vision + strategy to life with the right team

This is how #WorldClass was born as our over-arching campaign theme...

Nevertheless, both party's 'Brand Positioning' also include on very important word (=value!) #humbleness

Based on above we worked out a Series of Manchester City match footage to be used by every local market within 2 main clusters:

• Emotional Match Posts
• Functional Product Posts

Here we used Manchester City match footage related to the upcoming opponent + our Midea brand (positioning) fitting 'greeting & comments'.

Every market (in their language) could every weekend remind Manchester City fans in their market + potential consumers that Midea is an 'Official Sponsor of Manchester City'...

+ even congratulate the morning after to the respective WIN ⚽️🏆

...the extra fun was hidden in those small word-games combining Manchester City Quality + Opponent Cues + Midea Offering:

example: against Real Madrid:

...next to emotionally connecting with Manchester City fans all around the globe, by stating that we are an 'Official Global Sponsor + Partner), Midea is still a quite 'unknown' (Challenger) brand.

Most people (outside China) have no clue how BIG Midea is + that Midea actually has the world's most comprehensive product portfolio = our second objective is to introduce our surprisingly-friendly products to the world.

So, we connected Manchester City Club + Player values + skills with respective Midea product features + benefits in a light-hearted + football fan engaging way ⚽️🩵🥰

Plus, very important in the Midea case:

• every local market has
• a different product portfolio with slightly different features
• mostly different languages, too

Therefore, the concept has to be easily + most cost efficiently applicable by:

• swopping product image
• changing tagline + language respectively

We did it!

...having launched the Midea + Manchester City campaigns under the umbrella #WorldClass,
the idea was born to give the Manchester City players their #WorldClass 🏆 Awards at the end of the season + involve our global fans by making them vote.

As presenters of the Midea #WorldClass Awards we engaged Manchester City Club Legends Paul Dickov + Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Right from the very beginning in 2020, we connected Manchester City's (players) attributes with Midea's product/categories values

• “Air-Dominator” – sponsored by Midea Air-Fryer
• “Freshest Opener” – sponsored by Midea Refrigerator
• “Hottest Recipe” – sponsored by Midea Microwave Oven
• “Corner Master” – sponsored by Midea Vacuum Cleaner
• “Coolest Distributor” – sponsored by Midea Air-Conditioner
• “High Pressure Performer” – sponsored by Midea Pressure Cooker
• “Cleanest Tackler” – sponsored by Midea Washing Machine
• “Brilliant Finisher” – sponsored by Midea Dishwasher
• “Smart Team Management” – sponsored by Midea Smart Home App

Check out the #MideaWorldClassAward 🏆 campaign with Paul & Shaun over the year: