Tag: Football sponsorship

The 2018 FIFA World Cup Sponsorship XI – Which Sponsors fit where in Slingshot’s Starting Line-Up? 12th June, 2018

Sponsorship for the FIFA World Cup is a fundamental part of what makes the iconic sporting competition possible.

But it’s perhaps never been as important for governing body FIFA itself as it is in 2018.

FIFA post big losses most years – £275m in 2016, and £140m in 2017. However, these vast sums are offset by World Cup-year revenues, healthily boosted in no small part by tournament sponsors.

So how has it been looking for them in this World Cup year? It’s not been entirely smooth sailing. Russia’s hosting of the 2018 FIFA World Cup has been fraught with the odd spot of controversy since it was awarded FIFA’s jewel in the crown back in December 2010.

Inevitably, this has kept some potential sponsors away. Overall, there are five official tournament sponsors listed for 2018, which is down on the number from the previous two World Cups (eight in 2014 and six in 2010).

Coupled with FIFA’s seven long-term partners, it means there are 12 notable key sponsors altogether – which, fittingly, is the perfect amount for a starting XI and manager. This got us thinking: which companies could we put where and why into a starting line-up of sponsors? We put together our very own Slingshot Sponsorship World Cup XI below in a 4-4-2 formation.

Take a look, and then scroll down to find out precisely why each brand is playing where it is…

Goalkeeper: Mengniu

There’s a lot of competition out there when you’re facing the best teams in the world, so you need a top goalkeeper to stand any chance. Fortunately, we have exactly that in the shape of China’s market-leading dairy produce company – a giant in their field who provide a very strong base in the spine of the team and give a boost to the bones of the squad around them.

Right-back: McDonald’s

Whether it’s attacking or defending required from the right full-back position, there are plenty of options available on McDonald’s menu. When things are tight and the team require a bit of game management, they’ll have no problem making a meal of any challenges – but with so much to offer the team, they should be able to serve up a good shift.

Centre-back: Visa

The financial services company are fully invested in the team and, despite their longevity, aren’t anywhere near spent yet. That makes them the perfect candidates to sit in the heart of the defence, swiping through strikers at will – although they are at risk of getting carded.

Centre-back: Hyundai

Pacey defenders are a must in modern football, and Hyundai know exactly how to put their foot on the gas when they need to. At the same time they’re a solid proposition who put the brakes on any dangerous attacks they face. As an added bonus, they’re not liable to break down with injury at any moment.

Left-back: Hisense

Hisense have a lot to offer in this position, whether it’s crisp, clear vision when going forward or simply keeping cool when under pressure. What’s more, the Chinese white goods company is built like a fridge, making them an intimidating proposition for any opponent.

Right midfield: Qatar Airways

With the ability to fly down the wing and being economical in possession, Qatar Airways slot straight into the right midfield position. Preparation is key for them, with the right pre-match fuel required to perform – but when they get going, they can cover the entire field and are able to float in perfect crosses to the target men.

Central midfield: Gazprom

Bringing the energy into the midfield, Gazprom are ideal to have in the middle of the park thanks to their ability to clean up loose possession and naturally bring others in to play. They sometimes have a tendency to gas a bit too much to the referee, but overall they’re the oil which keeps the engine room of this Sponsorship XI ticking over.

Central midfield: Adidas

A stylish option to complement Gazprom’s energy, Adidas know exactly what they need to do to look good on the pitch. With top footwork and an intense training work ethic, they can draw upon a wealth of experience from top athletes across all sports, which allows them to perform with maximum impact.

Left midfield: Wanda Group

The Chinese property developers and cinema chain owners are right at home on the left-hand side, with proven ability to break down the opposition and help build on possession. They’re definitely one to keep an eye on, as anything could play out with them involved during the 90 minutes before they head back to the luxury team hotel.

Centre-forward: Budweiser

Yes, they may be somewhat overconfident on occasion, but Budweiser has the ability to settle the team’s nerves when leading the line upfront. Just be warned if the game goes to a penalty shootout, however: they could struggle to keep their legs composed during the run-up, resulting in bottling their effort altogether.

Centre-forward: Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola provide a refreshing look to the front line, making them the perfect strike partner in a fluid front two. Their presence gives those around them a much-needed boost, and they provide an exciting fizz in attack, although that can wear off after a short while making their performance fall flat.

Manager: Vivo

Some say this is a shrewd appointment from the board, and the fantastic reception Vivo have got from people phoning in to talk shows speaks volumes. But the proof is in the pudding and fans will be hoping Vivo’s new-age thinking and innovation on the field won’t be too much to take in for the squad.

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China, The Sleeping Giant 12th January, 2017

China, a country already with the world’s second largest economy, made a bold statement in 2015. President Xi Jinping announced a goal to create a domestic sports economy worth $850 billion by 2025, a plan that also involves winning the football World Cup by 2050.

This has commenced rapidly, with Chinese Super League clubs paying stars like Oscar and Carlos Tevez at a premium, £60 million and £71.6 million respectively. The effect is simple – bigger names bring more spectators, more commercial interest and greater global reach. As teams gain more exposure around the world due to the leagues increased profile, they become an even more attractive property to brands. This heightened market activity has a knock-on effect to sponsorship fees throughout the rest of the world, as these large rights holders are able to command higher fees, smaller clubs can ride the coat-tails and leverage more expensive properties to their own benefit.

Outside of their home league, Chinese brands have become progressively active as sporting event sponsors and investors, lured by the potential profits of associating their brands with a sport, team or athlete to access a new market. Chinese brands are shown in each of the major European leagues – AIA at Tottenham, 138.com at Watford and Rastar Group gracing the jersey of RCD Espanyol, to name a few.

The biggest example is Hisense, who became the first ever Chinese sponsor of the Euros when aligning with the 2016 competition. Although the official sponsorship fee has not been disclosed, Hisense is said to have invested a sum of 370 million yuan (roughly £43 million).

It is not just football that China is attracted to, but also rugby and basketball. The levels of investment being seen will lead to an effect that can be likened to sponsorship inflation, as activity from within China develops rights holders into even larger properties. Global sports sponsorship investment levels have continuously grown year on year by 4-5% since the late 2000’s and with the sports industry estimated to be worth $73.5 billion by 2019, not surprisingly the bulk of that money will come from China.

Contrastingly, Western brands now have a way to penetrate the largely untapped Chinese market. With significant increases in awareness and media value, gaining a foothold in China would be a lot of brands’ number one goal, however there hasn’t been a platform big enough to promote themselves effectively, until now. The huge audience means Western brands now have a solid foundation to build exposure and revenue in this massive economy, just like the Chinese brands are doing in European sporting markets.

The next few years are going to be a very interesting period for sports sponsorship in China. An already global sport like football is becoming accessible to far more people, allowing rights holders to generate more money for their assets. While some may say that the money in sports is already at a ridiculous level without China’s new-found interest, it is another way of increasing globalisation by providing a platform for China to integrate with the West and vice versa.

Is Quantity or Quality More Important in Football Sponsorship? 27th June, 2018

Whether it’s Arsenal’s sleeve sponsorship deal with Rwanda’s tourist board or Manchester City’s sizzling hook-up with Tinder, the sheer quantity of football team sponsors has exploded in recent years.

You don’t have to think too far back to a time when clubs would have been more than happy to simply enjoy commercial ties with a kit supplier for team equipment, with a major sponsor’s logo splashed across the front.

However, in the age of globalisation, sports organisations – and their potential partners – see sponsorship as an enabler of expansion. This allows both clubs and brands to reach millions of potential new fans and consumers wherever they’re based, while of course remaining a key way to drive revenues.

Who is making the most of these opportunities?

Manchester United perfectly embody this renewed approach to sport sponsorship. Already a global brand with fans and non-fans alike, in recent years the Red Devils have aggressively pursued sponsorships and commercial partnerships from less traditional industries across the globe.

For example, United’s Integrated Telecommunications Partners are split up by region. This means that they have separate sponsors in many different territories, such as STC (Saudi Arabia), TM (Malaysia) and others in Hong Kong, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Nigeria and Ghana. This approach allows the club to maximise potential revenue in just one specific industry.

More obscure sponsors include Japan’s Nissin Foods, who are Manchester United’s official global noodle partner (yes, really). Malaysian brand Kansai are proudly the official paint partner of the club, while in May 2018 United extended its deal with Chinese company MLILY to be their official mattress and pillow provider. These are all in addition to more traditional financial and motor companies who are considered part of their 22 “global partners”.

What are the positives and negatives of this?

Quite understandably, the main argument for this proliferation of brand sponsorships is that it boosts clubs’ coffers whilst also raising its profile in less traditional markets. In time, this expanded fanbase will generate future income thanks to merchandise sales and so forth. Meanwhile, sponsor brands benefit from increased exposure and its allegiance with a successful, popular club.

However, this explosion in sponsorships can also have a negative impact if not handled correctly. The sheer amount of sponsors a club could attract can dilute their image of exclusivity and prestige, which prospective sponsors may view as a drawback to any potential involvement. Such a multinational and seemingly unselective approach to sponsorships could also erode the identity that years of success and history have helped to create.

So what does the future look like?

There is an argument for clubs to reconsider this approach and focus on fewer, more focused and appropriate brands. This could result in greater bargaining power for clubs as they take back some of the feeling of exclusivity they have gifted away – albeit at a profit, of course.

With the 2018 Premier League television deal worth over £4.5bn – a somewhat surprising drop of around £500m on the previous deal in 2015 – there is an indication that the vast sums from this vital revenue source may have peaked. Clubs will be buoyed, then, that brands are showing no signs of being put off by the prospect of teams retaining more and more sponsors.

Although if the trend continues on the current path, there may come a day when less in considered more in the world of football sponsorship.

Football Sponsorship in Brazil Grows Up 23rd January, 2014

With Brazil becoming ever more present in global sponsorship discussions due to securing the upcoming World Cup and Olympics, sponsorship professionals abroad need to be aware of this growing market. Specifically how Brazilian brands have previously been choosing sponsorship rights to how those rights are being activated in South America. More importantly, with Brazil acting as the next global stage for some of the largest global brands – understanding their desire and ability to become more strategic in their approach to create more sustainability in sponsorship beyond the upcoming events.

Football in Brazil remains the sport that receives the majority of sponsorship investment and therefore would be expected to be the industry leaders in terms of activation and strategy. However, football still remains poorly activated as an engagement platform by both football clubs and brands. More surprising is that the tactics used within football are not substantially more advanced than many of the other sponsorship platforms such as art and culture which retain a fraction of investment.

Valuation within this market seems to be the key downfall for rights owners – specifically within football clubs in terms of their property rights and additional commercial assets outside of kit deals. For brands; it is largely due to poorly planned activation strategies. Many of the deals are tactical in nature, which extrapolates the problem of long-term vision and the necessary time to truly derive value from the assets purchase. Unfortunately the combination results in a lack of value for the audience, the brands and the clubs themselves – undeniably reducing the true value these partnerships can generate in Brazil.

It seems that in the most part, Brazil is heavily afflicted by a cultural problem that affects not only football, but sponsorship as an industry in the South American market. Many brands in Brazil still purchase sponsorship and invest in properties within the same principals and frameworks as their media buys – making tactical as well as individual preferences based solely on the need to generate brand exposure with very little strategic insight. As an industry, Brazil is missing real-world experience in activating strategies that really connect brands to their audiences and tend to play it safe opting for more traditional activation through media advertising.

However the desire to start utilising sponsorship’s ability to harness online engagement and experiential is growing ever apparent. The next coming months will be telling – watch this space!

“Enter At Your Own Peril” : Sponsor Association With Controversial Brand Ambassadors 23rd September, 2013

“The role of a brand ambassador – the brand ambassador is a marketing model that employs trusted, credible personalities to promote and give greater visibility to its brand products”

It seems, historically, that sport and scandal have gone hand-in-hand. Over the past five years there have been multiple athletes in the upper echelons of their respected fields that have been subject to a public fall from grace. For the sponsor, the usual protocol will be to run for the hills, and withdraw any association with the respected star. However, there are some exceptions, and brands do, in some cases, stick by or re-invest in their asset – but under what circumstance and why?

Level Of Association

If the player is either an integral part of the sponsors make up, or headline star, then it makes the job of getting rid of them, and keeping to your marketing strategy a lot harder. Woods, of course, has been embezzled with the swoosh his entire career, this can also be said of Wayne Rooney. However Ryan Giggs has not been so fortunate, despite being held up as headline moral ambassador for his maturity, the star ended up being shunned by a number of his sponsors for a comparable offense to that of Rooney or Woods.

Bankability

The commercial revenue generated by any ambassador is integral to their credentials, and can play a significant role in the decision making process. In Woods and Rooney’s case, both EA games and Nike had complete product ranges centered on them, and commercially had too much to lose.

Sponsor’s market place

Accenture was Woods’s big loss in the aftermath of the scandal around his affair. The firm could not justify sporting a star whilst marketing themselves as a trusted Business Consultancy. Brands have ambassadors for a multitude of reasons, but they must be able to link their common values and business goals. In contrast, Alex Rodriguez, was still used by Guitar Hero in their adverts even after he admitted to taking banned substances. The business case for this was that Guitar Hero’s product was not affiliated with his sporting attributes, but his public personality.

The Offense

The line with which most brands have consistently taken when suspending contracts, has been when the ambassador’s actions directly affect the relationship they have with the respected brand’s promotional attributes. In the case of Drugs there has been a 100% termination rate in sport. However, in the case of Kate Moss and the fashion industry, the offence was taken very differently. Although she did lose substantial contracts, Moss managed to retain seven, and go on to re-build her career, something which has never been seen on such a scale in sport.

There is no doubt that trust in ambassadors has publically waned, as such, there has been a shift in how brands market their ambassadors. Recent campaigns by brands such as Nike illustrate that the focus is now upon empowering the consumer, rather than showboating the skills of an untouchable star. Even in fashion, couture designers are collaborating with high street fashion chains to bring their products to a consumer level. This shift undoubtedly showcases ambassadors but does much to bring the star or garment to the consumers level, retaining brand loyalty, which is essential in a very fickle market place.

It’s the end product that matters

As the quote above states, ambassadors uphold the values of the product they promote, and being the lucrative tool which they are, brands will do anything to protect them. However no one is bigger than the brand and on a case-by-case basis, the outcome of each offense is dictated by the relationship between the star and the value of the product they endorse.

Can too many Sponsors Dilute a Rights-Holder’s Brand? 22nd August, 2013

In sports leagues around the world, success on the field is ultimately driven by commercial revenue. As a consequence, their response has been to bring in sponsors to help facilitate the gap in funding. But this growing emphasis upon sponsorship has left many people asking – are too many sponsors diluting the right-holder’s brand?

Sponsors make the brand more vibrant

When discussing the ever increasing number of sponsors in sport, it would be hard not to mention Manchester United, having just signed another spread of partners across the globe. The club has recently signed the Indonesian tyre producer bringing the club’s sponsorship total to 33. It begs to ask the question – are these sponsors devaluing the Manchester United brand?

Jonathan Rigby CM for MU, has rejected that the club has anywhere near reached its limit. He states that by implementing a local model amongst the 77 countries they have sponsors in currently, they are appealing to each fan individually, making the brand more vibrant and producing a follow on effect which will ultimately benefit all sponsors involved.

This certainly seems to be the case when you look at their operating profit, which has increased this year by 13.7%. The club has also just signed a new shirt deal worth nearly £500 million over 8 years, increasing their commercial sponsorship revenue to £118 million annually.

More value lies in fewer partners

In comparison, Juventus believe going the other way is more rewarding. The club believes that having valuable relationships with fewer brands will bring you more credibility amongst your following, and as a result will lead to greater financial weight behind the deals. This is the case for Jeep who is currently their headline sponsor, and one of 15 corporate partners. In a public image driven market, and where it is only public interest which governs your reach; keeping it close to home can be seen as vital.

It’s the end product that matters

Brands enter into sponsorship for a multitude of reasons, but generally speaking, brands sponsor rights-holders for the audience, exposure, association and to fulfill their own brand objectives. For rights-holders, one of the main things they rely upon, aside from funding, is the fans/ their audience. As a platform, sponsorship allows both the rights-holder and brand to connect to their audience in a wholly tailored way.

The focus, therefore, shouldn’t be based on the amount of sponsors, but upon the end product – what the partnership has created for the fan, the overall experience and the club. MU’s model works because it has such a wide fan base and global sponsorship platform that allows them to associate with their following in all corners of the world. Juventus, on the other hand, has had success through its emphasis upon a few partners that have a strong affiliation to the club, keeping it close to home allows them to stay true to both the sponsor and the rights-holder’s objectives.

The Outcome

So long as the sponsorship is delivered and is aligned to the brand’s objectives and these objectives align with those of the rights-holder, the end product should ultimately benefit both club and sponsor. Dilution of the brand will come when parties lose sight of their overall objective.

Brentford Football Club Appoints Slingshot Sponsorship as Exclusive Sponsorship Agency 23rd October, 2012

Brentford Football Club, home of the Bees, has appointed Slingshot Sponsorship as their exclusive sponsorship agency.

Slingshot Sponsorship’s initial objective will be focused on securing partners for the Club’s prime advertising sites and developing opportunities at the new stadium. Slingshot will be working alongside the club not only to acquire new commercial partners but also to create more diverse partnerships for the club as a whole with the aim of enhancing the club’s appeal to a younger audience. The team will be moving to their new stadium at Lionel Road in 2016 and are looking to facilitate new brand relationships in the run up to the move. The new stadium will provide a wealth of opportunities further enhancing the club’s appeal.

Mark Devlin, Chief Executive of Brentford Football Club commented:

The stadium roofs at Griffin Park offer a truly unique advertising or sponsorship opportunity, and we are delighted to appoint Slingshot as our Sponsorship agency. They have a very successful background in creating diverse sponsorship properties which can capitalise on the Brentford brand and our active fan base. Slingshot’s experience and creative skills are exactly what the Club is looking for at this exciting stage of its development.

The team’s ground at Griffin Park in London is directly under the Heathrow flight path and the stadium provides two of the biggest aerial advertising sites in the country which have seen branding in the past from the likes of Qatar Airways, Atari, KLM, EasyJet, Sabena and Ericsson.

Jackie Fast Managing Director of Slingshot Sponsorship commented:

We are thrilled to be working with Brentford Football Club. Slingshot’s partnership with the club is about so much more than sponsorship for the roof and we plan to work alongside the club to create new partnerships and increase Brentford’s appeal to a wider audience. We are delighted that our objectives run parallel to those of the club and are very excited to be part of Brentford FC’s journey into their new stadium and beyond.

Brentford FC’s next game at Griffin Park is Tuesday, October 23^rd versus Coventry City.