China’s Linglong Tyre Renews Juventus FC Deal Continuing Sports Skew

Serie A giant Juventus has announced a three-year extension of their partnership with Linglong Tire. The deal will see the China-based company continue as the Italian football club’s official global tyre partner until 2022.

Linglong, which began collaborating with Juventus in February last year, is one of three of the club’s global partners based in Asia, alongside Japanese video game company Konami and Chinese mineral water brand Ganten.

Giorgio Ricci, chief revenue officer at Juventus, said, “This has proven to be a mutually beneficial partnership that has allowed both brands to continue to grow globally thanks to a series of fantastic activations. We are looking forward to expanding our collaboration in order to create even better experiences for fans.”

“With the help of the club’s huge and loyal worldwide fan base, Linglong has improved its brand image and increased its product sales, with the brand now being chosen by more consumers,” added Linglong chairman Wang Feng. “The renewal is the result of a high degree of unity in the pursuit of outstanding values for both sides.”

Linglong has invested slightly over US$6.2m in the Asian sponsorship market since Q118, giving it a mere 1.9% share for its category. However, its spends have increased significantly in 2019, by 31.5%, reaching over US$3.5m compared to US$2.7m in 2018. Besides its football-related deals – with the likes of Juventus and top tier Thai League 1 club Ratchaburi Mitr Phol (~US$54k) – the tyre brand tends to be skew its investment towards sporting platforms, also investing in the China Volleyball League (~US$1m+) and the Japanese leg of D1: Street Legal Series (~US$50k).