Soccer Sponsorship Helps Mobile Phone Firms Score Big with Thai Customers.

Byline: Kanjana Pluemjit

Jul. 25--The sponsorship of the soccer match between Manchester United and the Thai national team on Sunday is probably a very worthwhile investment for Siemens and Advance Info Service Plc.

While Siemens, a leading cellphone manufacturer, has paid 40 million baht to sponsor the match, AIS has outlaid between four million and five million baht in sponsorship. AIS benefits as the match has been billed as the Siemens-GSM Manchester United Invitation. GSM is AIS's mobile-phone network system.

Not only does the sponsorship help lift the image of Siemens and AIS, particularly among soccer fans, but their sales have also increased sharply.

During the three months of the "Man U fever" campaign, Siemens, which granted Man U-Thailand match tickets to certain customers, has significantly increased sales.

Siemens previously held the smallest share of the GSM cellphone market, but the campaign helped lift it to second, according to Yanyong Akrajindanond, vice-president of AIS. "The market share is only slightly lower than Nokia's, which has been number one for a long time," Mr Yanyong said.

Suwannee Singluedej, an assistant vice-president of Siemens Thailand, said the Man U campaign had greatly helped raise the company's sales, but it was too early to assess the actual effect. "One thing for sure is that Siemens is now well known among teenagers which is Siemens' major target group," she said.