Today Qualcomm has announced that it’s entered a “multi-year global strategic collaboration” with Manchester United, one of the best known football clubs in the world. So Qualcomm will be sponsoring Manchester United, with the arrangement featuring the Snapdragon brand.
That’s definitely interesting – Qualcomm seems to be expanding these sponsorships far and wide recently, putting the Snapdragon brand in front of as many people as possible, even though it isn’t actually selling anything direct to consumers.
Maybe the company simply has too much money to know what to do with. Or maybe it’s all a vanity play – Qualcomm wants you to know about Snapdragon so you know that Qualcomm is powering your favorite device? Seems a bit like a stretch.
Then perhaps it envisions a future in which people walk into a high street operator shop in Manchester and specifically ask for a Snapdragon phone? Sure, that may as well happen, given enough marketing money and time, but… why though? As it stands Snapdragon has almost no real competition at the high end in the Android world, so this all seems rather pointless.
Unless, the conspiracy hat wearing people in the corner would say, unless Qualcomm wants to launch a Snapdragon branded phone? No, not that one, a real one to sell to consumers? But why would it want to do that and jeopardize relationships with its current customers, the Android phone makers?
So many questions, so few answers. Anyway, Qualcomm notes that the strategic collaboration (what ever happened to naming a sponsorship a sponsorship?) will “create unique events and experiences for fans at Old Trafford and around the world”, whatever that means.
Additionally, Qualcomm will “advise Manchester United on planned improvements to mobile connectivity at Old Trafford, which will enhance fans’ experience on match days”. Sounds nice enough.
Amping up the PR speak to 110, Victoria Timpson, CEO of Alliances and Partnerships at Manchester United said: “Snapdragon platforms will enable ground-breaking experiences for fans across the globe, deepening their engagement with the football club they love”. How? Who knows. What’s clear is that you should expect to see a lot of Snapdragon branding across Old Trafford and perhaps even the players’ shirts in the upcoming season.
