China will see the biggest boost in ad dollars with $835 million spending on advertising in this year's World Cup, which will be held in 11 cities in Russia from June 14 to July 15, Yicai.com's app reported on Sunday.
Chinese companies' advertisement spending in this year's World Cup doubles that of the United State, which is about $400 million, and it is also far more than host nation Russia, at about $64 million, according to statistics from media group Zenith, which focuses on market analysis.
Seven Chinese companies - including Dalian Wanda Group, Hisense Electronics Co, China Mengniu Dairy Co, Yadea Technology Group Co Ltd, Vivo Mobile Communication Technology, Zhidian Yijing Virtual Reality Technology with Immerex as its brand and male clothing brand DIKING - are on the sponsors list for this year's World Cup, compared with eight years ago when only one Chinese company for the first time in history sponsored the World Cup in South Africa.
Chinese property and entertainment conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group is a top-tier partner, having signed up in 2016 with $150 million, which allows the company enjoy all advertising and marketing rights of FIFA World Cup matches in 2018, 2022, 2026 and 2030.
Hisense Electronics Co, China Mengniu Dairy Co and Vivo Mobile Communication Technology are the second-tier partners, accounting for 60 percent of sponsors of this level, the report said.
"China plays a very important role in the career of promoting soccer's globalization and its participation is indispensible," said Fatma Samoura, secretary-general of FIFA
"We proposed a clear goal in 'FIFA 2.0: The Vision for the Future" to make over 60 percent of world's population participate in soccer game by 2026. To achieve this goal, we must focus on China, the 1.4 billion soccer fans and potential fans," according to Samoura.
FIFA changed the sponsoring system this year by allowing regional sponsors representing five continents to participate in the matches and this reform gives Chinese companies, such as Yadea, Immerex and DIKING, more opportunities to showcase their brands in international arena.
The media industry can expect global advertisers to spend $2.4 billion in total this year and the brands are expected to reach 3.5 billion global audiences at World Cup 2018, CNBC reported.
