A remarkable 2022/2023 for FC Barcelona Asia Pacific

Whilst celebrating the Liga titles for FC Barcelona Men's and Women's teams for the 22/23 season, especially with the second Champions League championship for the Barça Women’s team crowned on Jun 3. The Club's footprints in the Asia Pacific region continued to grow physically and digitally with lots of successes and milestones achieved throughout, thanks to the support from the Club’s new and existing partners, licensees and many other local market activation campaigns.

Two New Regional Partners & Seven New Licensees

With an aim to bring the Club closer to Barça fans across various sectors in the Asia Pacific, region, FC Barcelona has signed new partners including Daka earlier this year, a Chinese trading card company to create a series of collectible cards signed by the players, as well as ZENB in 2022, a gluten-free pasta brand owned by a Japanese corporation to promote their product in Japan, UK and the US.

During the course, BLM, responsible for Barça's licensing and merchandising business, has joint forces with Wildbrain CPLG who will act as the Club's first-ever Indian master licensee to reinforce the Club's presence in the market which still has a lot of untapped potentials. Amongst all the seven new licensees signed up during the season, Scorpion Exo, became the first Asian licensee to provide worldwide supply for Barça-branded helmet to its global audience.

Partnership Renewals & Activations 

It is equally important to continue to foster a strong relationship with the Club's existing partners in the region. For instance, SEBANG, the official car battery partner, renewed its partnership with additional strategic markets in Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan to boost its business growth in Southeast Asia. SK ZIC, the leading Korean lubricant brand, also extended its partnership with additional territories to explore in United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain in the next season. Maybank, the regional banking partner, agreed to extend its 7th year partnership with the Club to further expand its brand awareness across the region.

A lot of excitement was also created through offering exclusivity to Barça's supporting partners, special line-ups to meet and greet with either the Barça legends or First Team players were arranged throughout the season, including Maybank, who had a chance to meet and greet Barça Legend, Luis García in Nov 2022 and SEBANG, with the First team players Raphinha, Ansu Fati and Christensen in May 2023.

Barça Academy

Committed to spreading out the Barça brand and philosophy across the region, a couple of training camps were organized by the Barça Academy between Jan and Apr 2023, such as two series of training camps in Australia, specifically in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide which were well-received by all the participants and their families. A drastic growth was also seen in Singapore where the academy expanded to 3 training venues in order to accommodate the overwhelming sign-ups during the season, demonstrating the growing reputation of the brand. Apart from this, the Barça Academy World Cup held in Barcelona every year welcomed a record-breaking 18 teams from Japan in Apr 2023, including two first-ever female teams participating at the tournament, an important milestone achieved for Barça Academy in history signifying the recognition of the Club’s efforts in the country over the years.

Activation Campaigns in China

China remains as a strategic growth market for the Club, with over 15.5M Chinese followers across all social platforms, the Club always strives to create opportunities to engage with the Club’s Chinese partners, supporters and fans so as to sustain the Club’s strong growth momentum in the market. For instance, the Club expanded its digital footprint in China by launching its official Bilibili account in Nov 2022. Apart from that, FC Barcelona organized 16 training camps with its regional insurance partner, China Taiping, in various major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Changsha, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Chengdu, etc. during the 22/23 season as a tool to communicate the Barça values and philosophy.

Last but not least, the First Team played a friendly match in Japan on Jun 6 against Vissel Kobe where it was the last game for Andres Iniesta, the all-time great player in Barça's history. More than 47,000 fans from Japan showed up to witness such a historical moment between the two football clubs.

Bryan Bachner, Managing Director of FC Barcelona APAC and Americas, says, 'Asia Pacific remains the fastest growing economy in the world, it has been a strategic growth area for FC Barcelona and we will continue to identify more opportunities to expand our Club’s brand awareness and bring the Club closer to our Barça fans in Asia Pacific in the years to come. This year also marks the 10th anniversary for FC Barcelona's presence in the region. Over the last decade our office and team based in APAC have been warmly welcomed into a community of Barça supporters including fans, sponsors and partners. We look forward to expanding the Barça family in the region with them and celebrating more achievements in the near future!"