The Softer Side of Corporate Sponsorship

This must just be the future of sports sponsorship. The current sponsorship model is twenty or thirty years old and we are waiting for the next one to emerge. to emerge. I was at Aston Villa when the shirt was donated to Acorns and I would have liked to see that continue rather than revert to commercial companies paying not a lot for such rights. Of course, clubs can't be quite so generous as to forego such revenue but I think that improving your standing within the community will lead to your club being more attractive to partner with. Deeper commercial partnerships can be developed with major organisations who want a relationship with your fans and to get involved in your charitable activities. CSR works. You can achieve your sponsorship income from several partners rather than one main one.

But who is going to do it?

373 days ago

Sohail A. Rasul,

Interesting. I'm involved in shirt sponsorship deals and I'm also a trustee of a large national charity. From both perspectives this looks like an attractive idea. However it is attractive largely because it's original and (presumably) a one-off. I can see rapidly diminishing returns if this were to be repeated or if it were copied by other clubs.

373 days ago

Pippa Collett,

Standard Chartered is a long term supporter of Seeing is Believing - donating their shirt 'real estate' to the charity on this season-ending cliff hanger guaranteed the charity visibility. Perhaps this generated a greater level of name awareness, although one would have to be a Liverpool fan or have been there on the night to see whether SC enabled the charity to really engage with fans in some meaningful way.

On the one hand I applaud any sponsor who looks to use their assets to promote good causes. However, without engagement, preferably over the long term, it could be seen that this was more an exercise in internal back-slapping than in first steps towards generating significant charitable support.

374 days ago

Richard Smith,

While it's true that, after a while, a brand temporarily removing itself from the shirt can generate more awareness and engagement than being on it. The key point for me here is that Standard Chartered are activating the rights available to them through their sponsorship. This kind of ongoing involvement is a great example to other sponsors.

375 days ago

Stephen Pearson,

In fact this is not that groundbreaking - indeed as we know clubs like Barcelona had Unicef on their shirts for a long time, Aston Villa had Acorns and Blackburn more recently Princes Trust (more down to the fact they couldnt find a paying sponsor.
Birmingham City's sponsor Rational FX indeed gave their shirt sponsorship to local charity Little Hearts Matter earlier in the season and this was well applauded by the fans of the club. Research actually shows that the majority of the club sponsors value is derived from the interview backdrops so the resulting loss in value for the shirt is not that significant. Also Standard Chartered will have built up enough brand equity in their relationship to Liverpool that they would have felt comfortable ini going ahead with this initiative. Overall its a very positive concept, one that we will probably see more of in the future.

375 days ago