Great Wall Motors "bets" on the World Cup, and its two major brands may benefit from it

For WEY, a high-end brand under Great Wall Motors, this is the right person to sign.

In the "Battle of Spain and Spain" in the early morning of June 16, the 33-year-old Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo scored 3 goals and performed a hat trick, and once again enjoyed the reputation in the football world as "carrying the entire national team on the shoulders of one person."

Meanwhile, Haval, another major brand under Great Wall Motors, was also not idle. On June 14, the "Haval Football Carnival" event was launched simultaneously in 72 Wanda Plazas in 24 provinces and cities across the country. The one-month "Football Carnival" is sweeping across the country.

There is no doubt that this marketing campaign has been a perfect start. Earlier this year, Great Wall Motors became the "top partner" of CCTV's 2018 World Cup broadcast.

Data shows that the average audience share of the 2014 Brazil World Cup was as high as 6.29%, while this year's World Cup's opening match alone had an audience share of 4.43%, which is double that of the Brazil World Cup. The brand premium of Great Wall Motors is difficult to estimate.

Of course, Great Wall Motors also paid a lot. The company did not disclose the specific amount of cooperation with CCTV and Ronaldo's endorsement fee, but in the eyes of Great Wall Motors, such an investment is worth it.

Great Wall Motors, a "grassroots hero", has become an indispensable representative of Chinese auto brands. From the market positioning of the Haval brand as the "SUV leader" to the ambition of the WEY brand to "redefine luxury", it can be said that Great Wall Motors has achieved a double transcendence in products and brands with its late-stage efforts.

What is commendable is that it has been widely recognized by the industry. At the Frankfurt International Motor Show in September 2017, the WEY brand made its debut on the international stage.

In February this year, the Haval brand was shortlisted for the world's top 500 most valuable brands and topped the list of Chinese auto brands. In the "2018 Global 100 Most Valuable Auto Brands" ranking, the Haval brand ranked first among Chinese brands. In the international ranking, the Haval brand once surpassed Tesla.

The achievement of such results is not only due to Great Wall Motors' highly self-disciplined development over the past years, but also benefits from its increasingly open and cooperative attitude.

It is understood that in recent years, as the cross-border trend has become increasingly popular, Great Wall Motors has begun to focus on cooperation with various domestic industries to promote the joint progress of independent brands.

Since 2016, Great Wall Motors and Baidu have cooperated in the field of high-precision map positioning technology, jointly developing high-precision map positioning technology based on the highways around Baoding City, Hebei Province, where Great Wall Motors is headquartered.

On April 9 this year, Great Wall Motors signed a strategic cooperation memorandum with Baidu, announcing that the two parties will carry out strategic cooperation in four major areas including vehicle intelligent networking, autonomous driving, shared travel, and big data, to create a joint giant in vehicle intelligent networking and autonomous driving technology.

An open mind will undoubtedly win more for Great Wall Motors.

It is worth mentioning that this nationwide "Haval Football Carnival" event is also the result of cross-border cooperation between the Haval brand and industry leaders such as Wanda Group, Xiaomi Technology, and Changhong TV.

At the event, not only Haval H4 but also Xiaomi Technology and Changhong TV can be seen. Relevant people said that they hope to show the top technological strength of Chinese brands through a wide range of on-site technology experience projects such as cars, mobile phones, laptops, VR glasses, smart TVs, etc.

In addition, the relevant person in charge of Great Wall Motors also revealed that Haval H4 also fills the only gap in the Haval 1-9 series. With the official launch of Haval H4, the Haval brand has formed a complete product chain and is undoubtedly expected to achieve further progress.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.