Huawei 5th GCC National Teams Under 23 Championship Kicks Off on August 15

Huawei sponsorship of 5th GCC Under 23 Championship coincides with company’s marketing push following Middle East launch of world’s thinnest smartphone Huawei Ascend P6

Mobilk - As excitement builds up for the fifth edition of the Huawei GCC National Teams Under 23 Championship—one of the most eagerly anticipated events in the region’s annual sports calendar—Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today announced its title sponsorship of the event. This includes direct brand association with the inclusion of the Huawei brand at the beginning of the championship name this year, in addition to many additional activities Huawei will implement to create and promote increased interaction with audience of the Championship, which is set to take place from August 15 to 26 in Bahrain.

Huawei is sponsoring the tournament as part of the company’s promotion of its latest smartphone release —the Ascend P6, the world’s slimmest premium-range smartphone. In addition to being the title sponsor, Huawei will be hosting several in-stadium activities focusing on promoting the Ascend P6 throughout the tournament.

The Huawei GCC National Teams Under 23 Championship is an annual football competition contested by the national teams of countries in the Gulf region which include the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain. The tournament, among the most fiercely contested sporting events in the GCC, features the region’s best young players and often serves as a springboard for emerging talents to greater fame and glory.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to align our brand with one of the most popular football tournaments in a region where the game enjoys massive, universal following,” said Jiao Jian, Huawei ME Device BG President. “Huawei aims to establish itself as a global consumer brand, and the Under 23 Championship provides us with the perfect opportunity to reach out to consumers across the Middle East and create awareness for our innovative and competitively priced smartphones - such as the super-slim, feature-packed Ascend P6.”

”The GCC National Teams Under 23 Championship is a keenly contested competition and enjoys a strong and an ever growing regional following every year. We are pleased to have Huawei on board as a title sponsor, with the championship being rebranded this year as the Huawei GCC National Teams Under 23 Championship,” said Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim, Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports in Bahrain. 

“The 5th edition of Championship promises to deliver more thrills and spills to our sporting audience. We look forward to working with our title sponsor, Huawei to make this year’s event the best ever.”

Huawei’s sponsorship of the tournament is part of the company’s drive to extend its reach among the consumer audience and heighten awareness of its devices portfolio. This sponsorship comes just a week after the company joined hands with Brazilian football legend Falcao in a series of local promotional activities during the recently concluded Al Roudan Football Tournament in Kuwait.

These targeted marketing moves are in keeping with Huawei Device’s new global strategy to build brand awareness through advertising and sponsorship opportunities across the world of sport – an approach that kicked off with its sponsorship of the 2011 Italian Supercup. Last year saw the company build on this strategy through a series of notable sporting projects including a broadcasting agreement with Eurosport and agreements to sponsor various Spanish La Liga football matches.  

Huawei aspires to become one of the world’s top three smartphone brands by 2015, and earlier this year launched its global “Make It Possible” campaign as part of its aggressive strategy to extend its footprint within the consumer audience.  The launch of the Ascend P6 continues the company’s recent charge into the high-end smartphone category. Embodying cutting-edge design for the fashion conscious, the Ascend P6 is not only the world’s slimmest smartphone but also features an industry-leading 5MP front-facing camera as well as a 8MP rear-facing camera; it is stocked with Android’s latest 4.2.2 OS and weighs just 120g.

Over the past few years Huawei has achieved rapid growth in the global smartphone market. In 2012, Huawei’s Consumer Business Group recorded sales revenue of USD 7.5 billion, a year-on-year growth of 60%, and shipped 127 million units of devices globally. In the first quarter of 2013, Huawei ranked number four in global market share for smartphone shipments, according to research from Strategy Analytics and IDC.