Midea Expands Partnership with Manchester City & City Football Group

The Home Appliances giant has broadened the partnership to include the Manchester City Women’s team and New York City Football Club

SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 28 January 2021 - Midea, one of the world's leading home appliance producers, has announced its global partnership expansion with City Football Group.

(L to R) Brando Brandstaeter, Head of Brands & Communications, Midea Group's International Business Division with Stephan Cieplik, SVP of Global Partnerships, City Football Group at the signing of the partnership expansion in Shanghai in December 2020.

Midea's relationship with City Football Group started in January 2020 when it became an Official Partner of Manchester City, and after a highly successful first year of partnership, the decision was made to expand the relationship by adding the Manchester City Women's team and New York City FC.

The highlight of the 2020 partnership has been the #MideaHomeChallenge -- a six-week campaign where players, coaches, legends and fans took part in a series of challenges and trick-shots using their household appliances. The social media campaign, which generated millions of engagements, was a creative solution to engage and inspire football fans all around the world who were stuck at home during lockdown.

Midea will continue to produce global, regional and localised digital campaigns with Manchester City's men's and women's players, as well as branding appearing across the Etihad Stadium and the Club's online platforms.

Stephan Cieplik, SVP of Global Partnerships at City Football Group, said: "Our partnership with Midea has been extremely successful since we launched in January 2020. The Midea Home Challenge has been one of our most popular content campaigns which not only created high levels of digital engagement but provided fans around the world with fun challenges to help keep them entertained whilst at home. Midea is a brand whose values and ambitions align with Manchester City and we are delighted that we are now expanding this partnership to include further teams within the City Football Group family."

Brando Brandstaeter, Head of Brands & Communications at Midea Group's International Business Division, commented: "We were thrilled to announce our partnership with Manchester City at the start of 2020. In light of the pandemic, we mobilised our teams to create the #MideaHomeChallenge, which helped kick-off the partnership in an unexpected but even more engaging way. The cooperation with Manchester City during these challenging times has given us the confidence to expand and strengthen our relationship with the City Football Group by adding Manchester City Women's and New York City FC and Mumbai City to our roster -- something I am very much looking forward to bring to life for Midea in 2021."  

About Manchester City Football Club

Manchester City FC is an English Premier League club initially founded in 1880 as St Mark's West Gorton. It officially became Manchester City FC in 1894 and has since then gone onto win the European Cup Winners' Cup, six League Championship titles, including four Premier League titles (2012, 2014, 2018, 2019), and six FA Cups. Manchester City FC is one of eleven clubs comprising the City Football Group and counts New York City FC and Melbourne City FC among its sister clubs. 

Under manager Pep Guardiola, one of the most highly decorated managers in world football, the Club plays its domestic and UEFA Champions League home fixtures at the Etihad Stadium, a spectacular 55,000 seat arena that City have called home since 2003. Today, the Stadium sits on the wider Etihad Campus, which also encompasses the City Football Academy, a state-of-the-art performance training and youth development facility located in the heart of East Manchester. Featuring a 7,000 capacity Academy Stadium, the City Football Academy is also where Manchester City Women's Football Club and the Elite Development Squad train on a daily basis and play their competitive home games.  

About Midea & Midea Group

Midea is one of over 10 brands within the home appliance business of Midea Group -- a leading global high-technology company ranked #307 at 2020's Global Fortune 500. Midea Group's business goes beyond home appliances and comprises business pillars like HVAC, robotics and automation, smart home and IoT, as well as smart logistics and components. All businesses of Midea Group are striving for one credo: #HumanizingTechnology.

Midea Home Appliances brand offers one of the world's most comprehensive product ranges in the home appliance industry, specializing in air-treatment (commercial and residential air conditioning solutions), refrigeration, laundry, large kitchen and cooking appliances, small kitchen appliances, water appliances, floor care and lighting.

Midea believes in providing 'surprisingly friendly' solutions by adopting a consumer-centric and problem-solving approach. Going above and beyond for the future, constantly exploring, and inventing to meet the ever-changing demand of our consumers -- enabling them to "make yourself at home", which also is the brand's slogan.

Midea is, among many others, the world's #1 Air Treatment Brand ^[1], the world's #1 Small Cooking Appliances Brand ^[2] and the world's #1 Rice Cookers Brand^[3] .

Midea's globally 34 production centers and over 150,000 employees in more than 200 countries and regions generated an annual revenue of more than USD 40.5 billion in 2019. Midea's 28 worldwide innovation centers and the strong commitment to R&D have resulted in more than 50,000 authorized patents to-date.

https://www.midea-group.com/Our-Businesses/home-appliances/midea

https://www.midea-group.com/newsRoom/News/MIDEA-EXPANDS-PARTNERSHIP-WITH-MANCHESTER-CITY---CITY-FOOTBALL-GROUP

https://www.midea-group.com/newsRoom/News/HOME-APPLIANCE-GIANT-MIDEA--INKS-GLOBAL-PARTNERSHIP--WITH-MUMBAI-CITY-FOOTBALL-CLUB/

^[1]"Midea -- World's No.1 Air Treatment Brand"

Source: Euromonitor International (Shanghai) Limited; Consumer Appliances 21ed, retail volume sales in units, 2020 data.

^[2]"Midea -- World's No.1 Small Cooking Appliances Brand"

Source: Euromonitor International Limited; Consumer Appliances 20ed retail volume sales in units, 2019 data.

^[3]"Midea -- World's No.1 Rice Cookers Brand"

Source: Euromonitor International Limited; Consumer Appliances 20ed retail volume sales in units, 2019 data.