Arguably the most surprising part of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa was not Uruguay’s run to the semi-finals or Germany’s combined 8-1 shellacking of England and Argentina, but the appearance of a Chinese company as an official World Cup sponsor. Few had heard of Yingli Solar before the tournament began, but with prominent pitch-level advertising at some of the most watched games in the world, its name was catapulted into the global consciousness. The firm clearly thought that the estimated $30 million price tag was worth it, because, four years later, Yingli is still there, on par in Brazil with likes of
Chinese telecoms equipment manufacturer Huawei may not be a World Cup sponsor, but it appears to following Yingli’s lead with a succession of high-profile sports sponsorship deals. Over the past 12 months, Huawei has signed deals with Borussia Dortmund (Germany), AC Milan (Italy), Arsenal (England), Paris Saint-Germain (France) and Ajax (Holland), all major European clubs who between them have won an average of four European trophies, 16 league championships and 11 domestic league cups. Throw another 20-plus trophies in there for Atletico Madrid, with whom Huawei had a short-term shirt deal in 2012–as well as some priceless shots of PSG players taking selfies with their Huawei phones–and that’s some pretty serious star power by association.
And they haven’t stopped there.
Other soccer teams sponsored by Huawei include Wellington Phoenix in Australia’s A-League, the entire Spanish football league and the Ghanaian men’s national team. Where Yingli has gone after football’s crown jewels, Huawei has gone after seemingly everything else. Even outside of the world’s most popular sport, Huawei has targeted cricket in India and rugby league in Australia. It’s a bold strategy that shows no sign of stopping anytime soon and is part of a coordinated soft power push in a bid to gain acceptance around the world.
But will it work?
The answer, for now at least, seems to be very much dependent on individual markets. Huawei’s international revenues had surpassed its domestic ones as early as 2004, but its first big deal of note came a year later supplying equipment to British Telecom. A deal with European carrier Vodafone followed in 2006 and the company has progressed from there.
But if Huawei has hitched its wagon to soccer, it’s perhaps no surprise that its campaign is floundering in the US, where soccer may be growing, but is yet to break into the top tier of sports. Other than helping to promote a Jonas brothers tour in 2013, Huawei has been conspicuous by its absence in American sports and entertainment circles, largely due to the fact that Washington has blacklisted the company: Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei’s background in the Chinese military and his close Chinese government links have sparked fears of espionage given the nature of his business.
Huawei opened its first US office in 2001, even though it didn’t have a single customer there for three years, but Washington’s resistance became so strong–with former CIA director Michael Hayden specifically accusing Huawei of spying for the Chinese government–that Eric Xu, one of Huawei’s rotating CEOs, declared a year ago that the firm was no longer interested in the US market. This year, though, that approach has softened with Jane Li, COO of Enterprise for Huawei US saying that the company would continue to grow its enterprise business in the US.
But Huawei’s expensive lobbying campaign there has yet to bear fruit, and Washington has even influenced its allies into dropping Huawei from key projects. Australia banned Huawei from submitting a bid for its national broadband network citing security issues, while South Korea amended a deal so that US communications in Korea could circumvent Huawei equipment. India, too, has expressed concerns in the past.
Which brings us back to Huawei’s sporting diplomacy.
Huawei has often targeted sports teams in the capital cities–the political centers–of countries and Australia is no exception. Huawei’s political connections in Australia start at the top of the company where the Australian chairman is retired rear admiral John Lord. Board members include a former foreign minister and a former premier of Victoria.
When Huawei signed a sponsorship deal with the Canberra Raiders rugby league team in March 2012, reports claimed that Dennis Richardson, then Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and a big Raiders fan, had facilitated the deal. Richardson denied this, but it’s interesting that the current Raiders chairman is Allan Hawke, a former Australian Defence Secretary.
If Huawei can successfully get politicians and powerbrokers on its side in Australia–even despite that ban on the national broadband network–there may yet be hope in the US.
Until then, it will have to be content with celebrity selfies in Europe.
