Today, Midea and Manchester City today announced an amplification to their global partnership which kicked off in January 2020. Throughout this partnership, Midea has produced engaging digital content, which has been extremely popular with City fans around the world. Most notably, the #MideaHomeChallenge kept fans entertained during lockdowns when several Manchester City players challenged fans to show their football skills interacting with their home appliances in unique ways.
“Here in the U.S., we aim to show all City and soccer fans our wide range of smart home appliances that enable them to feel even more at home, as our slogan states ‘make yourself at home’” said Kurt Jovais, president of Midea North America Corp. “That said, apart from bolstering our global brand presence, we look forward to igniting excitement and bringing Americans together throughout the season, enjoying their homes even more.”
This season, hand in hand with the Etihad Stadium’s new top-notch and world-leading two-tier LED display system, Midea now has 12 LED slots at every Manchester City home match to showcase their extensive range of smart home appliances across all categories to over hundreds of millions global consumers and football fanatics.
Also, the Midea #WorldClass Awards campaign celebrated the Club’s, and especially players’ #WorldClass performances during the 2020/21 season. Midea’s innovative, humorous and funny award show, moderated by City legends Paul Dickov and Shaun Wright-Phillips, attracted millions of views and engagements from fans when nine different #WorldClass trophies were voted on, and subsequently awarded to, their favorite City players.
“Although we have high ambitions, Midea’s global visibility is still fairly small. Partnering with Manchester City – awarded the most innovative sports team in the world and with their philosophy to combine playing the most attractive football to watch, with a very successful outcome – gives us great global visibility and a business partner with the same high ambitions towards the future,” said Eric Wang, VP Midea Group and President & CEO of Midea Group’s International Business Division.
“There are 55,000 fans in the stadium, but millions of Manchester City fans among the 3.5 billion football fans all around the world watching on TV and Social Media at home – and home is where we are. Hence, in Midea, we are delighted to showcase our commitment and ambitions to millions and billions of fans who are enjoying football from their homes.
“Manchester City’s partnership with Midea has gone from strength to strength and we are delighted to further deepen our relationship. Midea has shown great understanding in how to engage with City fans around the world by producing some of our strongest performing social media content in recent seasons and we’re now looking forward to expanding this partnership into community outreach and further smart product integration,” said Roel de Vries, City Football Group’s Group Chief Operating Officer.
Midea will also extend its relationship to help support the community by partnering with the Club’s renowned ‘City In The Community’ programme, to explore ways to tackle social challenges. Over the coming months, the Club will also be integrating industry-leading Midea smart home appliances across the Etihad Campus to provide enhanced facilities for players and fans alike.
In addition to the commitment with the Manchester City Men’s team, Midea is also the exclusive global Home Appliances, White Goods and HVAC partner of the Manchester City Women’s team and the main partner of Manchester City’s City Football Group sister club, New York City FC which plays in the MLS.