FC Barcelona Appoints WE Red Bridge To Lead Its China Comms

FC BARCELONA APPOINTS WE RED BRIDGE TO LEAD ITS CHINA COMMUNICATIONS REMIT

APPOINTMENT FOLLOWS THE CLUB’S OPENING OF BARÇA EXPERIENCE AND BARÇA ACADEMY

SHANGHAI – 22 April 2019 – WE Red Bridge today announced its partnership with FC Barcelona (Barça), helping deepen the club’s connection with its growing fan base in China and spread its “More Than a Club” philosophy. The win comes after a competitive pitch process and will see WE Red Bridge develop FC Barcelona’s communications strategy in China, assist with its media relations and influencer marketing. The appointment follows the opening of the Barça Experience and Barça Academy Pro in Haikou, China last year.

FC Barcelona has witnessed the growing popularity of the club and football in China over recent years and is committed to engaging with Chinese fans and contributing to the development of football in China. In 2018, FC Barcelona and joint venture partner Chinese Mission Hill Group opened the Barça Experience and Barça Academy Pro.

The Barça Experience is the largest Barça-themed attraction outside of Spain, featuring a 4,000m² interactive museum and megastore. Barça Academy Pro is one of two club-managed training centres in the world teaching the club’s football philosophy and values. This is on top of the club’s growing number of Barça Academy flagship schools that have spread the Barça style to over 1,200 Chinese students since 2017.

To deliver against the needs of the client, WE Red Bridge has created an integrated team that combines staff and expertise from insights, consumer, creative, digital and corporate PR. The account will be led out of Shanghai, China.

With a focus on providing an integrated service offering rooted in insight and creativity, WE Red Bridge has extensive experience advising top clients on its launch and expansion strategy in Greater China including Aesop, Goodyear, iRobot, LaLiga, lululemon, Port Adelaide Football Club, Scoot and TaylorMade.

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ABOUT FC BARCELONA

FC Barcelona was founded 118 years ago in 1899, and is unique in many ways. The club is owned by its more than 145,000 members and can boast of being the most successful club in Europe over the last years. Since season 2004/05 they have won four of the Club’s five Champions League titles and nine of their 25 domestic league titles. Due to its very special personality, “Barça” is recognized as being “More Than a Club”. The team’s distinctive style of play is projected around the world by the best players and coaches of their time in combination with club’s famous reliance on homegrown talent.

All of this goes hand in hand with its ongoing ambition to become the most admired, beloved and global sports institution on the planet. This mission is supported by such core principles as humility, effort, ambition, respect and team-work, while the club is also famed for its commitment to society, which is channeled through the FC Barcelona Foundation and its work to educate children through the positive values of sport. Such unstoppable growth in recent years has led to a global reach of more than 315 million fans and made FC Barcelona a world leader on social media.

ABOUT WE

WE is an integrated communications agency that lives at the intersection of people, brands and technology. Female-founded, female-led, and fiercely independent, WE has spent more than three decades helping world-class brands in motion tell transformative stories that shift perceptions and drive people to positive action. Our independent spirit keeps us nimble. Our obsession with cutting-edge keeps us current. And our cross-capability partnerships in the PLUS network help keep us delivering wins for clients no matter what the RFP calls for. One of the largest independent communications agencies in the world, WE shapes stories for global brands like Microsoft, Honeywell, McDonalds, iRobot and Volvo. Our 23 global offices are staffed with storytellers and strategists, data scientists and disruptors—more than 1,000 experts in the technology, health and consumer sectors. Our work has been recognized with Cannes Lions, the Holmes Report SABRE Awards and PRWeek Awards, just to name a few.

For more information, press only: JJ Minder, WE Communications, jminder@we-worldwide.com