Vivo Shifts To Global Sport Sponsorship With UEFA Deal

Chinese smartphone giant Vivo has become an official partner of the next two editions of the UEFA European Championship.

The four-year deal will see Vivo serve as the official smartphone brand for next year’s rescheduled Euro 2020, which is due to be played across 12 host cities, as well as Euro 2024 in Germany.  It will also serve as the first presenting partner of the quadrennial tournament’s opening and closing ceremonies.

This marks a shift for Vivo. Until recently, the brand has been spending heavily on local or sub-regional platforms in Asia*. Aside from its home market of China (37.5% of all its Asian spend, last 3 years to date), India has been its major strategic target market (61.1% of spend) with heavyweight deals such as the title sponsorship of the IPL (Indian Premier League). However, the recent political feud between China and India – and a subsequent boycott of Chinese brands in India – forced the early termination of their IPL sponsorship. So this UEFA deal is likely to be a direct result of this furore, and shows a nimbleness within the brand that it is able to pivot and find a new sponsorship of stature like this.

Guy-Laurent Epstein, UEFA’s marketing director, said, “Vivo is a recent and modern smartphone brand and we sincerely value their commitment to excellence and dedication to giving their customers the best possible experience. With Vivo’s help, we are looking forward to connecting football fans globally over the next four years and beyond.”

Vivo joins the likes of Alipay, Booking.com and Coca Cola as a partner of the Euros, which is also backed by FedEx, Heineken, Hisense, Socar, Takeaway.com and Volkswagen.

“Both Uefa and Vivo share a passion for excellence, and for providing unique and fantastic new experiences for our fans,” added Denny Deng, chief executive of Vivo Europe.

“Vivo hope to leverage the strengths in smartphones and smart services to work with Uefa, connecting with consumers around the world to create unique, outstanding and innovative human experiences for an extraordinary and unparalleled UEFA Euro.”

Euro 2020 is set to take place from June 11 until July 11 next year (2021) after the event was postponed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

* Vivo is still the biggest spender for the handset category in the Asian sponsorship market (36.1% share, US$429.8m in total over the past three years). Source: ASN