After Nokia India’s successful association with leading Bollywood star Sharukh Khan’s IPL cricket team – Kolkata Knight Riders, the company today announced its association with FC Barcelona club at an event in New Delhi. This makes Nokia the first brand to join hands with FC Barcelona in India. The long term association is aimed at creating an engagement platform to bring Indian fans closer to football.
FC Barcelona club was founded in 1899 by Joan Gamper and currently has 170,000 members. FC Barcelona is one of the most successful teams in the world, being the first team in history to win 6 titles in the same season. The association brings these two brands together in India that share a common belief of leading through values. Through this association, Nokia India and FC Barcelona will reach out to football enthusiasts through retail, on ground activation, television, digital and social media.
Speaking on the association, D. Shivakumar, SVP, Nokia India Middle East & Africa (IMEA) said, “This association is particularly special for us as Nokia and FCB share similar beliefs and values. Nokia has always believed in connecting the youth with their passions. Today, football is gaining significant traction and the youth is following club football with a lot of enthusiasm. We believe that this association will bring fans closer to football and FC Barcelona like never before.”
Commenting on the association with Nokia, Antoni Rossich, CEO, FC Barcelona said, “Asia is a very important region for us. In particular, we are really happy to be in India as football has emerged as the second most popular sport here. FC Barcelona is confident that this association with Nokia India will create an excellent platform for the Indian youth to engage with us, and bring the club closer to its Indian fans.”
Mr. Antoni Rossich also revealed that FC Barcelona club is spreading its wings and will be coming to India shortly.
Nokia India also unveiled its new brand campaign for this association, ‘Tiki Taka with Nokia Lumia.’ The campaign is based on FC Barcelona’s famous style of play — ‘Tiki Taka’. However, more than the style of play, the campaign embodies the philosophy of Tiki Taka – sharing, connecting people, being spontaneous and social. Nokia also believe in the same philosophy and hence this campaign.
The consumer campaign, unveiled jointly by Nokia India and FC Barcelona, will run for 6 months, enabling fans to constantly engage with the brands through a variety of touchpoints including digital, television, on ground activation and an exclusive mobile app on Nokia Lumia smartphones. The campaign will form a ‘dream team’ of 11 lucky consumers who will travel to Barcelona to meet the FC Barcelona players and watch the team play at the hallowed Camp Nou.
This is a smart move by Nokia India to engage young population of India , which are their potential customers for Lumia mobile devices equipped with features required by the youth. Nokia is going to announce very interesting mobile device tomorrow in New Delhi. We shall be covering this event also. Watch out for this space tomorrow for this interesting device!
