Work

Yokohama Tyres

Our work with Yokohama Tyres and their sponsorship of Chelsea FC is a seven-year story of client services and best-in-class content marketing

Yokohama Tyres

Our work with Yokohama Tyres and their sponsorship of Chelsea FC is a seven-year story of client services and best-in-class content marketing

Overview

Yokohama Tyres is a global tyre manufacturing company based in Tokyo, Japan. Ahead of the 2015/16 Premier League season, Yokohama announced a £200m, five-year partnership with Chelsea FC, making it one of the most lucrative shirt sponsorships ever signed.

This partnership gave Yokohama a compelling opportunity to showcase its brand to a global audience, thanks to Chelsea FC’s ever-growing popularity.

We were appointed lead digital and social media agency to activate the partnership, creating outstanding social campaigns to amplify the brand to new audiences.

Our work with Yokohama Tyres is a seven-year story of client services and best-in-class content marketing that mirrors Chelsea’s on-field success.

Approach

When first partnering with Yokohama Tyres, we identified key target audiences to produce an engagement-led, social-first content strategy. This was the key to driving significant growth in global brand and product awareness.

Our objective was to engage, excite and delight audiences around the world, telling the brand’s story through the lens of football. The strategy involved owned and paid channels, and was activated across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Content was designed to reach a global audience of fans. With an ‘always-on’ approach, we developed digital and social campaigns around Chelsea fixtures, player birthdays, seasons and cultural celebrations. We also rewarded fans’ participation with free tickets and merchandise.

Outcomes

Our seven-year relationship with Yokohama Tyres has delivered some remarkable results for the brand.

As of January 2022, Yokohama Tyres has a following of more than 740,000 engaged fans on social media, with a reach of more than 400 million people globally.

We’re proud to say WePlay has helped the brand surpass many rivals in the tyre industry as the second-most followed company in the category.

740,000

engaged fans on Yokohama’s social channels

400m

global reach

25m

video views

2nd

most followed tyre brand in its category

"WePlay have provided Yokohama Tyres with digital marketing expertise since 2015. Our relationship with the agency has helped activate the shirt sponsorship with Chelsea Football Club and increase the brand awareness of Yokohama Tyres around the world and more importantly, our key markets"

Kazu Sekiguchi, Head of Chelsea FC Task Force, Yokohama Tyres