Football clubs today have commercial enterprises that not only need to provide positive results on the pitch but also need to adopt a business model that makes them a sustainable business unit in the long run. Globally football clubs and governing authorities have identified that corporate sponsorship is an avenue that still holds a lot of potential upside in terms of revenue that can be generated and that has led to several sponsorship deals being rolled out every year.
As per a report from Deloitte, an analysis of the top 20 revenue generating clubs in the world reveals that earnings from Commercial deals stands at 43% of the total revenues and is believed to be the driving force behind improved numbers going forward.
The enormity of deals, financially as well as reputation wise ensures that they are often put forth in every possible way by the club. However, sometimes, people need a reminder as to what club a particular brand is associated with and in this segment, we take a look at 5 sponsors which you might not be aware of.
#1 Liverpool – Chaokoh
One of the positive things that FSG - current owners of Liverpool – have done is that they have brought in several sponsors that have yielded better results financially. However, with the club still amongst those that have a higher percentage of earning from match day broadcast revenues than from corporate deals, it looks like the hierarchy at the club wants to bring onboard several other players.
In February of 2016, the club entered into a particular deal with a certain Thailand Coconut water brand Chaokoh. While Chaokoh is a global brand, with its products being sold in more than 40 countries, their decision to be associated with Liverpool seemed to be underutilised at the moment and could be termed hasty since very few fans outside of Thailand actually associate Liverpool with the brand.
Needlessly to say, while the deal remains active at least until the end of 2018, Chaokoh have failed to be associated with the club in ways that would catch the eye of several prospective customers and it has come to a point where we need to remind you they are the official partners of the Merseysiders.
#2 Bayern Munich – Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble, very much like Bayern Munich, is a behemoth that is amongst the leaders in the space it operates in. Their association makes for great reading since both are historically rich organisations, have been the best in the business for a long time and continue to dominate proceedings in the industry.
However, what does not make for great reading is the presence of another multi-national organisation that has identified the right way to be associated with the club and is ensuring that they maximise on the association to the fullest.
Deutsche Telecom have been the entity that has been associated with Bayern Munich since the beginning of the 2002-03 season and given their long standing relationship which is expected to continue until the end of the 2022-23 season, it is very unlikely that any other brand will manage to beat them to being associated with Bayern.
P&G began their relationship with the Bavarian giants in 2016 and their contract is set to run until the end of the 2018-19 season and for the company to really reap rewards of the association they will have to alter their positioning when it comes to being associated with Bayern.
#3 Manchester United – 20th Century Fox
The Manchester behemoth have been a trendsetter amongst the footballing fraternity as they have penned several multi-million deals over the course of the last few years that would ensure stable revenue from corporate associations.
Their association with companies such as Adidas, Chevrolet, and AON has ensured better brand awareness amongst the football fans in general and it does not surprise us that many legendary institutions have shown an interest in being associated with the club. 20th Century Fox are actually one of the official partners of the club. They have even gone on to include Manchester United in their promotions for movies such as Deadpool and Logan.
However, they have not been entirely able to imprint themselves as a brand associated with the club despite their best efforts thus far primarily because nothing awesome has come out of it. However, given their reputation for producing blockbusters don’t be surprised if they do come up with one solely for the Manchester club.
#4 Barcelona – Intel
When Intel decided to enter into an association with Barcelona back in 2013, it was believed to be a match made in heavens. Intel’s reputation and resources coupled with Barcelona’s fame and talent was believed to benefit both the parties, Intel with an improved global audience to reach out to and Barcelona financially.
While Barcelona have largely enjoyed the paycheck from the deal and have used it well to invest in the squad, the same could not be said about the US Multi-national company and it could be their own fault that they have not been able to capitalise on it.
In true Intel fashion, they have decided to put their logo “inside” the jersey of the Catalan clubs and that has been the primary reason why they have not garnered the requisite response from the footballing fraternity since the players are under no obligation to endorse the brand during games. The deal is set to expire at the end of the 2017-18 season and if the response thus far is anything to go by, either Intel needs to end the relationship after the current term or find a better way to portray their association with the club.
#5 Real Madrid – Microsoft
Barcelona’s great adversaries Real Madrid are amongst the richest clubs in the world. With a total revenue of £463.8 Million in 2016, the club ranks third in terms of revenues behind only Manchester United and Barcelona. A major portion of their aforementioned revenue is derived from their corporate sponsorships with the likes of Emirates, Audi, EA Sports and Adidas involved.
In late 2014, the Madrid giants entered into an arrangement with Microsoft. The primary agenda of the association was to bring the fans closer to the club using Microsoft’s expertise in cutting edge technology. Given that both the mentioned parties are amongst the leaders in their segment and this was a unique association that also brought in the fans in the picture, it garnered a lot of eyeballs initially.
However, with nothing much to show for the association until very recently, the euphoria around the association seemed to have died down. It is only in April 2017 that the fruits of the partnership are beginning to take shape with Microsoft recently revealing an interactive audio guide for the tour of the club’s legendary Bernabeu stadium.
Technology has a lot of potential in the game and Microsoft will be keen to explore all the avenues possible while they remain a partner of the Madrid club.
