Aiming for 2026? Hisense Released 2022 World Cup Marketing Strategy with Long-Term Perspective

“Is our sponsorship of the World Cup worth it? It’s not the way to calculate the return on this investment in the current period.”

On October 26, the 25-day countdown to the Qatar World Cup, at the Hisense World Cup marketing strategy conference, Pang Jing, as deputy general manager of the Hisense Brand Management Department, said that Hisense had been deeply engaged in sports marketing for 15 years. This long-term blueprint is a “destined choice” for unswervingly building a global independent brand and establishing a leading position in the worldwide competition. To be international is Hisense’s top opportunity in a long term, and sports marketing, as an effective path to achieve the vision, will be a long journey.

 PANG Jing, deputy manager of the Hisense Brand Management Department ©️Hisense

It has been Hisense’s second appearance in the World Cup and the fourth time to sponsor the world’s top sports events since 2016, after 8 years of sports marketing attempts, including naming the Australian Open stadium, sponsoring the Australian Open, U.S Formula One Red Bull, NASCAR, as well as the Schalke 04 of Bundesliga. All of these sports sponsorship experience have made Hisense deeply reflect that sport is not only the world’s universal language but the most direct, simple, pure, and efficient way for brands to communicate with consumers.

©️Hisense

In Pang Jing’s opinion, all Hisense’s sports marketing stories, have demonstrated the brand’s unswerving belief in building itself as a global independent brand. In 2006, Hisense set its core strategy to target overseas market as the main focus of the future, and began to do independent brands to expand the international market rather than being OEM. With the accelerating progress of Hisense’s localization in production, sales, and R&D, sports marketing has become the best impetus for the brand to fulfill the long-term vision.

The top international sports events have introduced Hisense to customers from untapped markets. Data show that from 2016 to 2021, Hisense’s global popularity increased from 37% to 59%, with overseas revenue growing from 19.6 billion CNY to 72.5 billion CNY, accounting for 41% of the whole cake, while the independent sub-brands have accounted for more than 80% of the revenue.

At the same time, Hisense’s proactive applications of HET in these top sports events drives the brand to invest considerable R&D funds in technology upgrading and product iteration every year, which further brings better viewing experience and enjoyment to users around the world. According to the latest data from Omdia, the world’s authoritative market statistics agency, in the second quarter of 2022, Hisense TV became the second-best in the world with a shipment market share of 12.1%.

©️Hisense

According to Pang Jing, internationalization is Hisense’s biggest long-term opportunity in the future, while sports marketing is expediting Hisense’s internationalization journey and enhancing the progress of the products. “The world’s home appliance industry will belong to Chinese enterprise,” said Pang Jing,“ and Hisense TV, which has ranked second in the world, will become the world’s first in the future.”

At the press conference, Pang Jing revealed that, to become the official sponsor of the World Cup, money is just one of the many factors. The factors that FIFA values Hisense lies not only in its active engagement in sports marketing but also the steady investment in technology and product innovation to build a brand. As for whether it is worthwhile to sponsor the World Cup, she gives a clear answer, on behalf of Hisense, “It’s not the way to calculate the return on this investment in the current period. It’s been a long journey, and when we decided to take the first step to build our brand, we had been ready to face all speculation and suspicions from the public.”

“From Hisense, we can see the decisive significance of sustainable investment in the brand’s sports marketing strategy,” Said Li Jiang, executive director of Yutang Sports, “Hisense has been engaging in sports marketing for 15 years with a clear and long-term blueprint, which is especially rare among Chinese brands. With scientific combinations of different overseas market resources and active localization attempts, Hisense has already created an exclusive sports marketing mode with Hisense characteristics, which not only empowers the brand to stand out in overseas markets but also demonstrates China’s strength in manufacturing and technology at the global stage.”