Milan, Italy – Changhong, one of the largest Chinese producers of consumer electronics, and Infront Sports & Media, the leading international sports marketing company, have announced that they have signed an advertising agreement, which guarantees the Chinese brand visibility at 12 Serie A and B stadiums.
Starting from the next round of the Serie A and B championship, Changhong will be present on pitch-side LED advertising boards and receives a corporate hospitality package for the stadiums of Milan, Udinese, Palermo, Genoa, Sampdoria, Carpi, Chievo, Cagliari, Bari, Cesena, Livorno and Brescia.
The presence of Changhong will be of particular significance as attention rises in the run-up to the final rounds of the league season.
Alex Lin, General Manager Changhong Italia, stated: “The sporting spirit of Changhong has found the ideal partner in Infront, in order to develop the presence of our brand in Italian stadiums. Changhong Italia is drawing up a communication plan for 2016/17 which will be very rich in cultural and sporting events with wide-spread appeal.”
Darwin Huang, Vice General Manager of Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., Ltd. added: “Italy, for Changhong, is a very important country in terms of developing the brand in Europe. At the same time, Italian football has a big following in China, with many fans watching the league and being informed about the players.”
Giuseppe Ciocchetti, General Manager of Infront Italy, declared: “We are very pleased to have Changhong involved in such an immense sponsorship program, as they run their LED board campaign across 12 stadiums. Changhong is a new player in the Italian market, but it is one of the leading consumer electronics companies in China and the world. Its growth strategy in the Italian market, where it aims to distribute its TV products, brings with it the need to raise awareness of its brand and its products to an audience which is very attentive to the image quality and performance of today’s TV screens – which applies to most football fans.”
Infront Sports & Media is the most authoritative, internationally renowned leader in sports marketing and manages a comprehensive portfolio of top property. Led by President and CEO Philippe Blatter, Infront is concerned with all aspects of every successful sports event - including distribution of media rights, sponsorship, media production and organization of events - earning notoriety in the market for high quality standards. Number one in winter sports and playing a leading role in football and in summer sports, Infront enjoys long-lasting partnerships with 180 rights holders and hundreds of sponsors and media agencies. Headquartered in Zug in Switzerland, Infront is made up of an expert team of more than 900 people, working in over 35 offices in over 15 different countries, and offers 4,100 event days of top level sport around the world every year. In November 2015, it announced its assimilation within Wanda Sports Holding.
Founded in 1958, Changhong is one of the largest Chinese manufacturers, specialized in research & development, manufacturing and marketing of consumer electronics products. Changhong become a "public company" in 1994 quoting its shares on the stock exchange in Shanghai. In 2005 the annual turnover of Changhong was $ 2.2 billion and reached 3.1 billion in 2006. In June 2008, the Changhong brand was valued at 9.5 billion. Today, Changhong has branches and joint ventures with more than 90,000 employees worldwide. Founded in 2003, Guangdong Changhong Electronics Co. Ltd. with a paid-up capital of 500 million RMB, is a company concerned with the large-scale production of TV panels (LCD, PDP, and LED) with its own research and development, marketing and production, it is also the center of Changhong for exports "overseas." Situated in an area of 480,000 square meters, the 320,000 square meter headquarters houses 30,000 employees. Guangdong Changhong Electronics Co., Ltd. is the strategic base of the Changhong Group for South China and for the international markets. Guangdong Changhong has its own automated production lines, assembly machines, assembly, insertion, automatic assembly of the components through to the painting stage and to the cutting-edge, high-speed punching lines. It also has an automatic safety test system and performance tests for the TVs. In addition, the factory has been certified by ISO and CE and has UL global certification and meets the WEEE and RoHS directives. With the production capacity of over 3 million TV panels it is the largest exporter of Chinese color TVs.