ZTE: from Cinderella to Caesar

Since becoming the 2015 NBA Champions, the Golden State Warriors have virtually become the most headline-grabbing team in the field of sports today. The extent of the team’s American audience reached a record number of over 20 million,  a tremendous achievement for the basketball team from Oakland,California. However, besides the success of the Warriors, we could not neglect the prosperity achieved by ZTE (Zhongxing Telecommunication Equipment Corporation), a Chinese cellphone company.

During the 2015 NBA Finals, the Cinderella story happened not only to the Warriors but also to ZTE. During the Final's 6 games, ZTE's logos as well as advertising videos were constantly displayed in the Oracle Arena, the home stadium of the Warriors. In addition, ZTE’s CEO in America, Cheng Lixin, attended the NBA Finals to cheer for the Warriors and celebrate their Final’s victory.

However, the world rarely sees senior executives coming to the arena to watch the Warriors’ games like Cheng. Yet, ZTE as the one of those key sponsors and sole  official smartphone sponsor of Warriors, he therefore gets special VIP treatment. Five years ago, ZTE entered the American market and made splendid  progress in the following years. Up to now, ZTE has become a major competitor of Apple and Samsung. In other words, ZTE similar to Cinderella actually experienced a radical change overnight, changing from a poor servant girl to a princess, just as the old tale said.

In fact, the partnership between ZTE and NBA basketball teams began relatively early. In October 2013, ZTE reached a cooperative agreement with the Houston Rockets, becoming the Rockets’ sole smartphone sponsor. In addition, to most people’s surprise, ZTE also announced partnerships with the Knicks and the Warriors in October 2014, with Chandler Parsons becoming the company’s spokesman. The effort that ZTE put in was finally rewarded. In March 2015, The Wall Street Journal, quoting from the Counterpoint Technology Market Research report revealed that the market share of ZTE in America ranked in fourth place.

According to recent news, ZTE may yet continue to expand in America and could possibly sign with another NBA basketball club, rumored to be the Cleveland Cavaliers. With the development of ZTE’s partnership and sponsorship, there is reason to believe that ZTE will become the Caesar of NBA sports marketing.

“Veni, vidi, vici"  It came. It saw. It conquered!

Edited and Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick