Siemens is scoring goals in Asia's Real Madrid mania

WHO HAS BEEN the real winner in the recent Real Madrid frenzy? The German mobile company Siemens, it seems. Every day in the past week there have been television and newspaper pictures of David Beckham and his superstar team mates wearing Real Madrid's famous white shirt with the company logo.

From Beijing to Tokyo to Hong Kong, Real Madrid mania has swept the region like a typhoon.

Siemens began sponsoring the Spanish team last year and chief operating officer Lothar Pauly says it is worth every bit of the roughly 10 million euros (HK$88.7 million) it paid. 'We did not invest in Real Madrid as a Spanish football club, we invested in Real Madrid because they have a global coverage,' he said.

Encouraged by its success, Siemens has become more aggressive in football, sponsoring the Chinese national team and the Chinese football league, which has been renamed the Siemens Mobile League.

Q: How would you rate your sponsorship of Real Madrid last year?

A: It was quite a success. They had a great season last year. They won the Spanish championship and they won the European Champions League, which draws a lot of interest and media coverage. Of course, last year the club bought Ronaldo and this year they signed David Beckham, which gives us a large presence in Brazil and Britain and also Asia. Meanwhile, [Zinedine] Zidane and Luis Figo give us a respectable audience in France and Portugal.

Q: Why are you sponsoring Chinese soccer instead of getting involved at home in Germany?

A: We are a multinational corporation and only a small percentage of our sales today are from Germany. Siemens Mobile does 20 per cent of its sales in China and only 10 per cent in Germany. We don't have to improve our brand name in Germany, but we have to continuously improve it in other countries.

Q: How do you measure the success of your football sponsorship?

A: Of course it is interconnected. For example, in the last research we did on our brand recognition in China we had jumped to No1 because of the Chinese national team and football league and because of Real Madrid.

Q: How long are the three sponsorship contracts?

A: Three years with Real Madrid, two with the Chinese national team and one with the Chinese football league. All have options to extend.

Q: How much do you earn from the sale of Real Madrid football shirts?

A: Not a penny. Maybe we'll stop selling mobile phones and start selling shirts.

Q: So they sell more football shirts than you sell phones?

A: We sold 35 million phones last year. I think the figure for the shirts is close to one million.

Q: What is Siemens' strategy for sport sponsorship?

A: Our strategy is built on three pillars. Pillar one is football and pillar two is Formula One. These are both global sports events and get a lot of television coverage. The third pillar involves sponsoring what we consider cool and dynamic sporting events such as beach volleyball. It is not a global event but it has a multiplying effect in reaching different people.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51krrPAyJyjnmdkZ4FzgJhoqqKdnZq7tHnSnKaroZ6ceqi7wKWqZpmjnq60edGemKVlnZaxs7XDZqSappmW