The Big Interview: Hisense

In the lead up to the Formula One Brazilian Grand Prix, Sport Industry Group speaks to Hisense UK​ deputy managing director, Howard Grindrod, about their partnership with Red Bull Racing and plans for their FIFA World Cup sponsorship…

Firstly, what is your day-to-day role at Hisense?

I’m the co-managing director at Hisense UK, I’ve been in this role for five years and when it comes to my day-to-day duties, I am very much involved in the general management of the company. This includes day to-day administration and HR responsibilities. In regard to commercial operations I have oversight on responsibilities in our marketing activities and how these support relationships with our trading partners. I am also involved in our logistics and aftersales service operations.

Hisense partners with a number of high profile, global sporting properties – including the FIFA World Cup and Red Bull Racing – how does your sport sponsorship dovetail into the brand’s overall marketing strategy?

Globally, Hisense is one of the largest TV manufacturers in the world but across its subsidiaries, including here at Hisense UK – there is still work to be done when it comes to brand awareness. Sponsorship of such high-profile and well-supported sporting properties is one way that we can reach new audiences within our respective domestic markets.

Across the world, each subsidiary works together strategically to activate these properties in each individual market. Sports sponsorship dovetails and plays an important supportive role in our broader brand, market and retailer awareness strategies.

The partnership with Red Bull Racing has been ongoing for a few years now, how does Hisense work with Red Bull Racing to provide support?

Our partnership with Red Bull Racing allows us to utilise our advanced technology to directly support Red Bull Racing, providing equipment and monitors such as our giant 10m x 3m screen, which was designed and built especially for their operations room. This huge screen and the related technology allows them to analyse practise sessions, qualification, races and all the data that’s involved in monitoring the cars’ performances no matter where in the world the Grand Prix may be – it’s something we’re really proud of.

This alternative base of operations means that engineers and Red Bull Racing personnel can monitor events that are taking place trackside, keeping the entire team connected and sharing crucial data amongst different heads of department within the organisation.

What other parallels are there between the two organisations?

We are two organisations that pride ourselves on our technological accomplishments. As any Formula 1 supporter will tell you, F1 is a sport of split seconds, one tiny technological advantage can be the difference between winning and losing. There is a similar sense of competition within the TV market, so many great brands are constantly unveiling impressive innovations and the minutest of details can be the difference between the must-have panel and a not so sought-after model. As challenger brands both Red Bull and Hisense have to be ‘in the detail’. We cannot afford to be complacent in any aspect of our respective businesses.

When looking for sporting properties to partner with, what are the key things you look for?

Naturally we’d look for a passionate and engaged fanbase, which obviously F1 and Red Bull Racing have, as does the FIFA World Cup. Also, a little closer to home, this explains our decision to work alongside Aston Villa, they’re a club with a huge fanbase within English football and it’s an audience we wanted to talk to.

As an aspiring global brand, we want to demonstrate to our customers that we have a connection to sport at a global level. F1 and the FIFA World Cup certainly reinforce this perception. That said, we also want to demonstrate our passion at a team and individual level. Red Bull’s success, has to a large effect, been due to design excellence, making sure that valuable fractions of a second can be saved as a result of construction techniques. It is not all about the brute force of the engine. Red Bull’s loyal fans appreciate this. With Aston Villa we have one of the founder teams of the English football league, they attract and retain loyal fans that appreciate the heritage and the technical efforts being made to make the team ready.

These are the qualities that we have within Hisense, to use passion and attention to detail, to create a strong foundation that will sustain us for years to come.

Hisense is still a relative newcomer to the UK market, has the domestic strategy differed to the global strategy?

Domestically, we’re still a challenger brand. We like to use and tailor the global strategy to suit our specific market and our audience here in the UK. Obviously, this gives us an advantage as we can use the scale of the Hisense brand globally to leverage assets and opportunities that aren’t often readily available to other challenger brands in the UK market.

On a basic level however, both domestically and on a global scale, we are proud of our products and the core of our strategy stems from our confidence in letting the quality of our ranges speak for themselves.

Can you give us a few details on what to expect of the activation of the partnership at next year’s FIFA World Cup?

Plans are still being prepared for the exact detail of next year’s activity alongside the 2018 FIFA World Cup. That said, we will certainly be looking to engage with what will be a passionate support amongst the home nations sides that make it to the final tournament, we’ll want to use our official partnership to create activations that offer money can’t buy experiences to football fans across the UK. From a retailer perspective, this is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the brand’s credibility and global scale, the FIFA World Cup is one of the largest and most watched spectacles in the world, so we need to maximise every avenue, from media engagement and traditional PR, through to digital assets and POS.

One of the key themes within our campaign will be looking to the future. The 2018 FIFA World Cup represents the pinnacle of many players and manager’s careers. These career journeys started some time ago. Stars of the future however may not have been identified yet. We will be focusing on this constant evolution and passion.

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