New York City & Mumbai City

In spring 2021 - at the end of our second 'season' - working with Manchester City has become a real 'bonding' between both parties, because we (Midea) as a global sponsor had shown that we stick to our partnership commitment by managing the 🦠 Pandemic together = as a team - which was not guaranteed during these unprecedented times of crisis!

Remember, back in early 2020, just a few weeks into the deal, basically right after we announced our first-ever deal in the global press... like most probably happening in all companies all around the world, also my senior management & legal team (not surprisingly) required to carefully check the options of dropping out + getting our money back because:

since global football was suspended
= we will eventually not be able to use our assets as contractually agreed+
overall budget-planning was on uncertain 'crisis + survival' mode in every business...
= not surprisingly, marketing + branding initiatives a luxury = among the first you can save on = cut ✂️

You know by now, instead we created opportunities + award-winning campaigns (see below links) benefiting Midea's global brand visibility & sentiment as well as helped Manchester City connecting with their global fans in lock-downs with very engaging content...

Based on that mutually created trust = partnership (between Midea & Manchester City, but also between me & my senior management during times of crisis), we as Midea decided to pimp up the partnership in 2 of our Midea key markets with additional + locally very relevant City Football Group's Manchester City sister clubs:

Furthermore, in 2021 several City Football Group Clubs won their respective Local Leagues 🏆

In our case, it was now already proven, that during my 'Global Sponsorship Strategy' work, not betting purely on stats + numbers on paper and hence going with the old-school + traditional approach = 'Manchester United' ...but betting on + believing in the 'Challenger' brand with the right vision + strategy + hunger ...has proven to be the right one!