What it takes for superstar football club Real Madrid and Korean company Hankook Tire to form a winning partnership, on and off the pitch

W ith the LaLiga 2018 season kicking off, Spanish football team Real Madrid and South Korean company Hankook Tire are again brought together by their mutual quest to score more winning goals on and off the field.

"Real Madrid is known for its legacy of success and has hundreds of millions of fans globally," says Crystal An, Vice President and Head of Global Brand Marketing for Hankook Tire. "By partnering with such a team, Hankook Tire will be able to deliver its philosophy of an unending pursuit for excellent technologies and innovativeness to many global consumers."

The partnership is a three-year agreement between Real Madrid and Hankook Tire signed by both Real Madrid President Florentino Pérez and Hankook Tire's President at that time, Hyun Shick Cho, in the Presidential Box of the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid back in 2016. With Real Madrid team members in attendance, Pérez called it a "perfect alliance" with a company that is present in 180 countries around the world, and pushes innovation, with five Research & Development centers located globally.

Perfect Coordination

This year, the two organizations have teamed up for fan-based events to meet their respective aims. One of such events took place on March 19th at the Real Madrid City Center, inviting 22 children from the Pequeño Deseo Foundation. The day was an opportunity for severely ill children to forget their ongoing struggles and instead enjoy a tour of the Center, which included an up-close-and-personal football clinic with Real Madrid legends Raúl González and Santiago Solari.

The next event was on June 21st, this time at the legendary Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. Approximately 50 people, including members of the Spanish automotive press and eight lucky winners selected via a Facebook contest, played alongside Real Madrid football players Iván Helguera and José Amavisca in a friendly football match. The event coincided with the second anniversary of the partnership between Real Madrid and Hankook Tire and resulted in extensive local media coverage as well as over seven million views on various social media channels.

Real Madrid and Hankook Tire emphasized its partnership on an even greater international level last May 12th-14th, when eight specially selected fans were invited to take part in a series of all-expenses-paid events that revolved around Real Madrid. Alongside a pair of Spanish fans chosen locally, the participants traveled from as far away as Mexico, the Netherlands and the UK. Over the three days, the ‘Madridistas’ got a private tour of Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, watched a Real Madrid match from the vantage point of a VIP box seat and took part in an exclusive private football clinic with football legend Fernando Morientes.

The event enabled the winners to not only watch their favorite football team live but allowed them to see how the seamless partnership with Hankook Tire works. “Of all the events we have held with Real Madrid, this is one of our favorites,” says An. “We selected eight lucky winners from all over the world from an online event and offered them a series of unforgettable opportunities. We were really glad that Hankook Tire was able to provide its customers with such opportunities.”

Putting Partnership Into Action

Over the course of its partnership, the Spanish based sports team and the Korean based tire company have been able to increase their international brand awareness extensively. “The two global players share many common interests, in that we need to market ourselves to the whole world, even though, at first sight, football and tires seems to be less connected with each other,” says An. “Real Madrid and Hankook Tire are both producing the best results through ‘winning innovation.’”

In the near future, the partnership between Hankook Tire and Real Madrid looks to grow even stronger. Currently, Real Madrid has an estimated 650 million football supporters around the world while Hankook Tire is now recognized as one of the world’s largest tire companies. The football team aims to court its 250 million Asian fans by building a 12,000 square meter virtual reality attraction in the Chinese island of Hengqin, as well as an “Experience Center” in Zhuhai, China, which is a stone’s throw away from Macau.

For its part, Hankook Tire aims to help create more innovative events with the team to emphasize its international outlook and forward-thinking values. “Hankook Tire’s first objective in this partnership is to reinforce its value as a premium brand by promoting its high sense of innovation,” says An. “Both Real Madrid and Hankook Tire have achieved enormous success during the partnership period. Hankook Tire was able to show its commitment to innovation and its technologies to numerous global consumers by sponsoring Real Madrid, and it’s believed that this fruitful partnership will continue, in the hope for even greater success for both.” Butragueño further confirms that teaming up with Hankook has been very easy. "We are both thriving for the same objectives. The partnership has been activated on a worldwide scale, putting a special focus on profiling their brand, improving their B2B relations through high quality hospitality at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and access to world class players. Thanks to this complex approach in putting into action the partnership, the brand has already noted an increase in its perception as a premium brand in the market."