Web 2.0 Asia

Many called Samsung crazy when the company decided to pour $100 million into Chealsea FC. But the deal starts to look like a bargain.

Chealsea won this year's European FA Cup; It's reported over 3 billion people from 200 countries watched at least one Chealsea game. Since the Chealsea sponsorship, Samsung's brand recognition in Europe went up by 68%; Samsung LCD TV sales in the region increased by a whopping 177%. This year, overall Samsung sales in the EU is expected to go up by 26% over the last year. It can't entirely be attributed to the Chealsea sponsorship, but at least we know that sometimes a well-executed sport sponsorship can make or break a company. A job well done, Samsung.