Sony Ericsson dials up football sponsorship
Sony Ericsson is dialling up its sponsorship activity for the UEFA Champions League this season, following the unexpected success of its tennis sponsorship campaigns.
This year’s Champions League activity will be “dialled up” to include a number of social media campaigns, which the company says have been successful in building brand awareness and driving sales of the Xperia handset range.
Stephan Croix, head of global marketing partnerships and sponsorship at Sony Ericsson, says: “Social media will now become an additional investment in our Champions League sponsorship, we will dial up the volume to help build the brand and continue to drive commercial success.”
The extended activity will include the launch of an app that will offer extra content around the tournament and Facebook-exclusive promotions. The sponsorship will continue to be aligned with the Xperia range, which will include new handsets in the coming months.
Sony Ericsson will also continue its partnership with FourSquare to allow fans to collect branded badges when they visit stadiums, enter competitions and share tips about where best to celebrate after the games.
The phone manufacturer will promote the activity outside of social media with retail partnerships, to offer competitions and extra content. The entire sponsorship activity will be activated across 36 markets.
Sony Ericsson has just concluded its tennis sponsorship campaign dubbed Xperia Hot Shots.
The campaign launched at the Miami Sony Ericsson Open in March and included a web-based TV programme that aimed to build up the profile of six up-and-coming female tennis players, an app and Facebook promotions.
The Hot Shots campaign generated 823,238 Facebook fans and more than 3 million video views on YouTube.
Croix says: “Hot Shots was a project when we started but the response was tremendous. Thousands of fans actively engaged with the programme and we are now thinking about a ’season two’.”
Sony Ericsson’s official Facebook page has more than 6 million fans, making it the 40th biggest brand on the social network in the world.
