In a press conference held at the Seoul Plaza Hotel on January 4, 2018, the company introduced this new sports sponsorship and presented the team´s line-up for 2018. Hanwha Q Cells acquired this sports sponsorship opportunity from its mother company, Hanwha Group, which has been sponsoring the golf team since 2011.
Hanwha Q Cells, the world´s largest solar cell manufacturer (2017), will use this opportunity to promote the company and the Q Cells product brand of leading technology in some of the major solar markets, which are also part of the LPGA World Tour. In return, the support and brand power of Hanwha Q Cells will also create positive effects for the golf team and its players.
The current line-up of the Hanwha Q Cells golf team consists of 9 professional players from Asia and Europe who will start in the LPGA World Tour, the KLPGA Tour in Korea, or the JLPGA Tour in Japan. The players for the LPGA Tour are In-Kyung Kim, Eun-Hee Ji, Haru Nomura, Jenny Shin, and Nelly Korda. Min-Young Lee and Chae-Young Yoon will play in the JLPGA Tour, while Ji Hyun Kim and new member Jung-Min Lee will play in the KLPGA Tour.
Together, they have bagged a total of 22 victories in international golf tournaments, with 10 victories in 2017 alone. The fact that the golfers achieved these victories after having joined the Hanwha golf team, strongly underlines how systematically and successfully Hanwha supports their golf team partners.
Hanwha Group and Hanwha Q Cells have a strong history of successful sport sponsorships. Hanwha Q Cells currently is an international partner of the rising German football club, RB Leipzig, who has reached the UEFA Champions League after only their first season in the German football Bundesliga.
Past partnerships with sports names like the San Francisco Giants, Juventus Turin or Hamburger SV have all contributed to increasing the brand awareness for Hanwha Q Cells in key solar markets. In 2018, the company has ambitious targets in its solar business and will proceed to actively promote its brand via various sports marketing activities with its golf team.
The company´s CEO, Sungwoo Nam, said, “Hanwha Q Cells considers sports as a marketing platform for strengthening our market position.” He added, “We will actively practice sports marketing targeting main markets of our business.”
