Warc, 19 August 2013
LONDON: Brands continue to invest in the English Premier
League and its top players as they look to exploit a 4.4bn global football
audience.
Carlsberg is the latest brand to associate itself with
top-flight English football, in a three-year deal that makes it the Official
Beer of the Premier League. As part of its plans it intends to increase the
frequency of football-related content it publishes online.
"Any brand worth its salt would take a look at the
Premier League [as an opportunity]," Rob Sellers, a director at shopper
agency Dialogue, told Marketing.
"Football is still the heartbeat of people in the
UK," he said. "Look at Twitter trends at any given moment: it's what
people talk about."
And the Premier League is hoping to export that attitude to
the US where it has a three-year deal with broadcaster NBC to show live games.
"Football is going to become the fourth biggest sport
in the biggest market in the world, and that is huge," said Antony Marcou,
group managing director at sports media marketing business Sports Revolution.
"It opens the Premier League up to more US brands
because, unlike the NFL or Major League Baseball, the Premier League has
genuinely global coverage," he added.
Sponsors are reported to want to go beyond a pure media buy
and develop more innovative strategies. Andy Kenny, managing director at
BrandRapport, told Marketing Week: "The challenge for Premier League clubs
is helping marketers identify an area of football they can own and then get
traction from that on a global scale."
Footballers too are being targeted by brands, as Repucom's
Celebrity DBI Index has classified Manchester United's Robin van Persie as the
Premier League player most likely to resonate with fans worldwide, followed by
Arsenal's Jack Wilshere and Tottenham's Gareth Bale.
High-profile managers are also being utilised, with Audi
said to be involving new Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho in a social media
initiative.
The enthusiasm for association with the English Premier
League has even extended to Wales, where the Welsh Government is hoping to use
the presence of two Welsh clubs – Cardiff and Swansea – as a way of branding
Wales as a good place to invest.
Data sourced from Campaign, Marketing Week, BBC, Wall Street
Journal; additional content by Warc staff
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