On March 24th, GOME signed FC Barcelona and Uruguayan star Luis Suarez as their new brand ambassador  in the Chinese city of Nanning. The signing ceremony took place during the 2018 China Cup International Football Championship which features the national teams of China, Uruguay, Wales and the Czech Republic, which kicked off on March 22 in Nanning, Guangxi. 

Song Linlin, the President of GOME attended the signing ceremony and gave a GOME U7 mobile phone as a present to Luis Suarez who in return, presented Linlin with an  autographed football. 

The duration and amount of the deal was not disclosed. Mr Song Linlin stated that they would launch a series of relevant mobile phone promotions and activities in June and would do more things in the sports world in the future.

GOME Holdings Group is a large comprehensive corporation in China founded in 1987, but this endorsement partnership is for GOME mobile phones only, which is a sub-brand belonging to the investment sector of GOME Holdings Group. The general GOME brand is very well known as a home electronic product retailer in China. 

The partnership is one of a number of recent deals in China that wants to take advantage of marketing opportunities related to the 2018 FIFA World Cup. A number of Chinese brands have signed up with international football teams or stars recently, such as the recently signed deals between Eastroc Super Drink and the Portugal national team, Wahaha and Portugal national team, Changhong and the Belgium national team. It is expected that more partnerships will be announced soon.

Song Linlin said during the ceremony that the reason they partnered with Suarez was because of the marketing momentum created by the FIFA World Cup and that the GOME brand and Suarez both demonstrate innovation, wisdom, good skills, trust-worthy and breakthrough spirit. He believes that the partnership will help GOME mobile phones lead the way in the competitive smart phone market. 

Source:Sina Sports

Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick