Manchester United and Snapdragon: A winning match
Get ready, Manchester United and Snapdragon fans! Not only is pre-season just around the corner, but the new home kit launched today. And Snapdragon, with its iconic fireball, is front and center. After a very successful first year of bringing technology and football together, we are kicking off the next phase with the launch of the 2024/25 season kits.
Not only will our branding be featured prominently on the front of these globally revered shirts, but it also marks the beginning of a new standard of fan engagement. We created a digital experience for fans to interact with the new kits by scanning the Snapdragon logo to experience exclusive content and participate in exciting giveaways throughout the season for both the men and women’s teams. Additional exclusive experiences, such as stadium activations, will transform how fans engage with their favorite team, deepening their connection through cutting-edge technology.
That’s a big promise to the over 1.1 billion Manchester United fans worldwide. To fully understand how we will deliver on this pledge, it’s important to know how we got here. TL;DR: it’s a story on how brand value drives business value.
It starts, of course, with Snapdragon. We have been on a journey to position our brand as a powerhouse in the consumer space, aligning with Qualcomm’s growth and diversification strategy across product categories and industries. Building on our momentum in smartphones, we have been making big moves to bring our cutting-edge mobile technology and premium experiences to other devices, including auto, extended reality (XR) and, most recently, to the new generation of laptops. In fact, more than 20 Copilot+ PCs on the market today are powered by Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus Platforms, delivering the latest in AI-accelerated experiences.
While compute is an established, highly competitive market, we are relatively new entrants.
Enabling a superior technology is only part of the equation. We want to further deliver for our original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners by continuing to build the Snapdragon brand strategically. Thankfully, we didn’t have far to look.
In the nearly two years since we announced our global strategic collaboration with Manchester United, we’ve seen a tremendous return on our investment. Through stadium activations and online experiences, fan curiosity about Snapdragon — and how it’s at the heart of their favorite devices — was piqued to impressive results.
When the opportunity to become the club’s seventh front-of-shirt partner arose, it was a no brainer, especially when considering one home match at Old Trafford has the same exposure as one Superbowl ad. But, this is more than a marketing play.
Rather, it’s a business case that starts with increased awareness, continuing through an understanding and affinity for the role that Snapdragon plays in powering extraordinary experiences across billions of devices. We want our OEM partners to feel confident that we are committed to getting their customers to look for and purchase devices powered by our groundbreaking Snapdragon platforms.
Some of the most vocal champions of all this tech goodness are the Snapdragon Insiders, a community of 15 million global members.2 They have embraced our activations with Manchester United and vice versa. We’re seeing the cross-pollination of fans as another type of return, particularly as we collaborate across our other brand partners, including the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team, with a recently announced expansion into the team’s F1 Academy which develops female drivers, and the ESL FACEIT Group for the Snapdragon Pro Series esports competition, now the largest global mobile gaming competition.
We have plenty planned in the coming season, so stay tuned. But first, I recommend starting with the special launch film featuring Manchester United legend, Eric Cantona, that celebrates the storied club’s rich history and passionate fanbase. Go, Manchester United and Team Snapdragon!
