BYD has announced that it’s becoming Hawthorn’s major sponsor after the company put pen to paper on its first major AFL partnership. The move follows the carmaker signing a five-year sponsorship agreement with reigning NRL premiers the Sydney Roosters in 2024.

The deal with Hawthorn also makes BYD the club’s official automotive partner, and its logo will feature prominently on the front of the guernsey for the men’s team, as well as the back of the strip for the Hawks’ AFLW side.

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Customers can get in on the action, too, with BYD promising that the Hawthorn deal means they will get access to match-day ticketing officers and “exclusive access to partnered events”.

It’s a canny move from BYD as name recognition and brand loyalty are strong drivers of car purchase decisions in Australia, and now the carmaker has got the nation’s two premier winter sports covered by signing on with two of the codes’ most successful teams.

BYD chief operating officer Stephen Collins said the sponsorship shows that the company is “proud to become part of the communities and culture that matter” to Australians, while Hawthorn CEO Ash Klein said BYD shares “our deep commitment to high performance, continuous innovation, and delivering genuine value”. 

Partnering with sporting teams is also part of the expansion plans for other more relatively new brands down under. GWM has teamed up with the Parramatta Eels in the NRL (pictured below), and MG was among the first to do so when it joined forces with South Sydney and Port Adelaide in the AFL.

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Chery has a sponsorship deal with St Kilda, Geely has partnered with the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, JAC Motors is tied to the St George Illawarra Dragons and GAC sponsors both Sydney FC and Melbourne City in the A-League. 

The number of Aussies the brands reach by sponsoring AFL and NRL teams is immense. For example, car finance comparison site Savvy found that GWM’s footy sponsorships have put its branding in front of more than 1.5 million fans at matches, and the codes’ grand finals attract millions of viewers.