Adidas’ Soccer Sponsorship Provides Better Financial Returns than Olympic Deal

September 17, 2012

Adidas has experienced greater financial returns from its sponsorship of Euro 2012 than the London Olympics.

Adidas was the sole sportswear partner of the London Olympic Games in a deal worth US$162.2m.

The deal saw Adidas’s UK Olympic merchandise sales more than triple compared with the 2008 Games in Beijing, helping to boost first-half sales in the UK by 24 percent.

But the German company admits the financial returns from its commercial association with the Olympics aren’t nearly as high as from soccer. It plows money into the sport’s two biggest international tournaments, the FIFA  World Cup and UEFA European Championship.

Adidas paid a large sum for sponsorship of this summer’s European Championship, which broadcast its logo to billions of viewers across around the world.

“A soccer event has clearly a positive effect on sales because you can sell millions of the match ball. Fans also buy the jersey of the team,” Jan Runau, Adidas’s chief corporate communication officer, said.

Adidas sold seven million ‘Tango 12’ balls and one million Germany replica shirts before and during Euro 2012. Adidas forecasts record global sales of more than US$2.1 billion from soccer in 2012, 23 percent higher than in 2008, when the last European Championship was held.

The immediate sales impact for Olympic sponsorship is believed to be lower as most of the sports included in the Games are not as commercially driven as soccer.{jcomments on}