Rugby Football Union (RFU) have named Energy company Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) as their National Community Partner.

The three-year partnership will see SSE invest heavily to support community rugby in England and they will also take the title sponsorship of the National and Divisional Leagues.

SSE want the local Rugby clubs to tell them what resources would most accomodate them and once they have had their say through the ‘What Clubs Need’ survey, SSE will use these results to try and provide the clubs with what they need through a programme of rewards, resources and opportunities for rugby clubs. 

Every respondent gets 10% off at the RFU’s online store, and those who offer greater detailed responses stand a chance of winning tickets to watch England in the 2012 RBS 6 Nations.

At the launch event this week, an example of ‘What clubs Need’ was shown with SSE National League 3 side Bracknell RFC announced as the first club to benefit from additional resource to give their season a boost. 

England International and SSE ambassador Tom Croft visited the club, providing their National League First XV with a training session and delivering the good news that SSE would be giving them exactly what they need in the form of a contribution to their much-needed floodlights.

“Having grown up in the English club rugby system, I know what a difference any additional support and investment can make to local rugby clubs – especially the smaller clubs in the lower Leagues” said Tom Croft.

“It’s great to see SSE taking an interest in the future of the game by investing where it is needed the most. That will make all the difference. It certainly has here at Bracknell” he added.

Stephen Forbes, director of sales, marketing and energy services for SSE added: “SSE is a growing brand, known better to many of our English customers as Southern Electric, and our primary focus is on delivering the best possible service for our customers – in short, making their lives easier in as many ways as we can. 

“Our partnership with the RFU will help us do this for rugby clubs and their surrounding communities all over the UK – with a particular focus on the areas we serve and provide for. We’re excited about our forthcoming plans that will bring this to bear”.

Sophie Goldschmidt, chief commercial officer at RFU concluded: “The announcement of SSE’s investment in the grassroots game is a credit to both SSE’s dedication to the development of the sport and the work of the Union. 

“The new partnership provides important additional funding which will help to continue the outstanding work of community rugby coaches all around the country”.

Stoke City have joined a partnership with Staffordshire University after both parties agreed a sponsorship agreement for Stoke’s Boothen End.

Staffordshire University will now be associated with that particular section of the Britannia Stadium after becoming official partners of the Barclays Premier League club.

The partnership builds upon a relationship which has been well-established and mutually beneficial for many years now and has been notable for the fact that Chairman Peter Coates, manager Tony Pulis and President Gordon Banks are all Honorary Doctors of the University.

One of the reasons of making this alliance official was so that they could create Brand awareness and make their brand more globalised.

In future, this popular end of the Britannia Stadium among City’s hardcore of supporters will be referred to as The Boothen End sponsored by Staffordshire University.

Tony Scholes, City’s Chief Executive, said: “This partnership continues to develop the relationship between two of the city’s foremost institutions.

“While the Football Club has made great strides forward in the last few years, the University can also be proud of its progress in that time.

“As well as the important roles that both institutions play locally, we have also helped to put the area on the map both nationally and internationally, and we therefore consider there are benefits to be gained from formalising this association with the new partnership.

“An encouraging aspect of the growth of our supporter base in the past few seasons has been the increase in the number of young fans and obviously we hope that many students, whether locally based or visiting the area, will become followers of the Club in the future.”

City’s Head of Commercial Andrew Billingham added: “This sponsorship of the Boothen End puts Staffordshire University right at the heart of the Club’s supporters and it was equally important to them to be associated with local pride because of the prominent and influential role which they play in the local community.

“The University tested the water last season with LED Perimeter advertising which worked extremely well for them in terms of exposure through the global reach of the Premier League and indeed our success in the FA Cup. Now, this Official Partnership status increases their involvement with the Club which I am sure they will find extremely beneficial.”

Paul Richards, the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Staffordshire University, echoed those views, saying: “This agreement formalises what has been a close association with the Football Club for some considerable time now and one which has benefited both organisations.

“We share many of the same values and I am sure we can enhance our reputations through alliance of the two brands and through working even closer together, particularly on projects which will demonstrate our commitment to transforming the lives and aspirations of the local community.”

He added: “As well as the increased exposure that we will gain at Stoke City’s matches, there are many business to business benefits of having a much more active link.”

Thoroughbred racing’s most prestiguous global event, the Breeders’ Cup, announced today that it has entered into a marketing alliance with Small Luxury Hotels of the World, a brand comprising of over 520 hotels in more than 70 countries, for the 2011 Breeders’ Cup World Championships.

The Breeders’ Cup World Championships, consists of 15 races and purses totaling $26 million will be held on November 4-5 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. The 2010 Breeders’ Cup delivered nearly $140 million in winning wagers to fans at betting locations around the globe.

As part of the agreement, Small Luxury Hotels of the World will provide Breeders’ Cup nominators and participants with a special micro site that allows them to reserve rooms at reduced rates and offer promotional opportunities such as complimentary room upgrades at hotels within its worldwide portfolio.

Carter Carnegie, Breeders’ Cup Senior Vice President of Sponsorship Sales and Business Development, said “The Small Luxury Hotels of the World brand is a perfect fit for the high-end international traveler associated with the Breeders’ Cup, as a company that is at the forefront of the luxury travel market, Breeders’ Cup is proud to partner with them and the prestigious benefits they are providing to our core constituents.”

Small Luxury Hotels of the World brand is an unrivalled portfolio of some of the world’s finest small independent hotels.

“We are very happy to be partnering with the Breeders’ Cup,” says Paul Kerr, Chief Executive Officer for Small Luxury Hotels of the World. “We are always looking to develop relationships with organizations that cater to the discerning traveler and are pleased to extend exclusive benefits to those associated with this renowned event. Long may our relationship continue!”

Allianz has become the official partner of the German Football Association (DFB)

The financial services conglomerate was already the main partner of the highly ranked and recently dissapointed German women’s team but has decided to make the step up to support all the German national teams. The new agreement will run until 2014 as the company becoming the official insurer.

Bernd Heinemann, Allianz AG’s market management board, said: “The new partnership with the DFB complements the approach of Allianz to position itself as a comprehensive partner of football in Germany – in addition to promoting the FIFA Women’s World Cup, the naming rights to the Allianz Arena and the commitment to FC Bayern Munich.”

DFB marketing director, Denni Strich, added: “We are delighted that Allianz will add value to the DFB sponsorship at least until the end of 2014. This result assures us of our work with our loyal and innovative partners.”

TAG Heuer, medical the Swiss watchmaker, discount ended its endorsement agreement with Tiger Woods when the golfer’s contract expired last month.

TAG Heuer, owned by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA(MC) and based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, had limited its use of Woods’s image in certain markets following a November 2009 car accident that led to his admission of marital infidelity and personal and professional decline. The company signed Woods in 2002.

Over the past 19 months, Woods has lost endorsement deal after endorsement deal with companies including AT&T (T), Accenture PLC (ACN) and PepsiCo Inc.’s Gatorade brand. The 14-time major champion has maintained commercial contracts with Electronic Arts Inc (ERTS) , NIKE Inc (NKE), Upper Deck, Berkshire Hathaway’s NetJets Inc., and TLC Vision Corp. He began promoting a muscle-relief heat rub made by Japan-based Kowa Co. in June.

Woods, 35 stands 30th in the World Golf Rankings and hasn’t won a tournament since the 2009 Australian Masters, a week before the accident. He finished 37th yesterday in the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational, 18 shots behind winner Adam Scott, who is now using Woods’s former caddie.

TransStadia has committed its future to Indian Boxing by buying the franchise rights for the World Series Boxing (WSB) Mumbai team.

TransStadia are a sports management and infrastructure development company who have given $5 million for a period of ten years to secure the franchise.

Udit Sheth, CEO of TransStadia,  said “There are two angles to this. First is TransStadia is in the business of sports where we do sporting infrastructure, managing intellectual property rights, management and development and we have our own manufacturing and technology division. For TransStadia to go on a global platform it was very important for us to be affiliated to a property which has a global reach not just a national reach and WSB provided that opportunity to us.

The second perspective is, the WSB itself is promoted by Aiba and duly supported by the Indian Boxing Federation. Now boxing has always been developed on a very ad-hoc basis and for the first time they have put boxing on a team format in a global competition. So my objective was to be part of this new initiative because there are few properties which are global in nature, (though) there are many leagues. The only league which is global in nature is Formula One. WSB is a property which is not the same as motorsports but I would say boxing has always been very popular in India and worldwide.”

He also believes Indian boxers can showcase their talents. He added: “In India, it has not been packaged properly for the masses, we have a lot of boxers in North of India who are doing well (on a global level), this is an opportunity for India to showcase that capability and for us to show that we are ready to perform and compete at the international level. Being part of this initiative we are going to be part of a very elite group of 12 teams. Every year they will add two teams. This year we are in a very nice group, we are going to be fighting with Los Angeles, Milan, Korea, Moscow, Astana. So it’s a very international format.”

ambulance helvetica, drug sans-serif;”>The FA have renewed their partnership with Lucozade as the official Sports and Energy Drink supplier to the England Team.

The agreement has added on a further four years allowing Lucozade to provide existing support.

Lucozade will continue to support all 24 England national teams as they pursue worldwide honours at the highest level over the coming seasons, most notably the Men’s ongoing European Championship qualification campaign and 2014 World Cup qualification and the Women’s senior team who return to action in September against Serbia.

“Lucozade remains a market leader in the field of sports and energy drinks and has an unrivalled heritage of supporting top-flight football and we are delighted to be able to continue our partnership with them” said Sean McAuliffe, The FA Group Head of Business Development.

“Their continued support and expertise will remain a huge asset to all England teams training and competing at the highest level.”

Lucozade started their sponsorship of soccer teams in 1992 when they sponsored the Premier League teams.

The FA will also provide assistance to Lucozade by helping their sport scientists test the drink to make sure England players are correctly fuelled and hydrated every time they pull on the national shirt along with accessing the other products Lucozade offers.

Stewart Crooks, Sponsorship Manager for Lucozade, said: “Lucozade takes great pride in helping fuel the England squads and so we are delighted to have been selected as part of the national team set up. We’re looking forward to seeing the teams develop over the next four seasons and celebrating their achievements with them.”

LV= have retained the services of sports and entertainment agency brandRapport to work on its sponsorship strategy and current portfolio, most notably the LV= Cup.

LV= are a insurance, retirement and investment group who have been the title sponsor of Rugby Union’s Anglo-Welsh cup since 2009 and has extended the agreement with the RFU,WRU and PRL for a further four years.

brandRapport has been responsible for the LV= Cup since the start of the sponsorship with responsibility for strategy, PR and activation.  

David Smith, LV= HR and communications director, said: ‘We have developed an excellent working relationship with brandRapport and the expertise from the agency has been crucial to the success of our sponsorship programme’.

‘Apart from the activation role brandRapport has developed our overall sponsorship programme which now includes significant LV= Cup broadcast sponsorship packages with both Sky and ITV’.

‘We are delighted to be continuing our work with LV=. The new contract will give us a great platform to take the sponsorship forward and build on the work done over the past two years,’ added Andy Dwyer, managing director of brandRapport.

brandRapport also works for LV= on its sponsorship of Harlequins Rugby Club and on cricket’s LV= County Championship, and the agency’s client list includes Vodafone, Barclays, and Jaguar.  

Irish Rugby Football Union has extended its partnership with O2 seeing the company continue as sponsor of the Ireland rugby union team.

The deal will run to 2016, including the Rugby World Cup in 2015.

Stephen Shurrock, Chief Executive of Telefónica Ireland, which operates the O2 brand in the Irish marketplace, said: “I am delighted to confirm O2’s continued support of the Ireland team.

“Declan Kidney, Brian O’Driscoll and all of the players and coaching staff have been incredibly successful, lifting the Grand Slam and numerous Triple Crowns, as well as the spirits of the country.

“We look forward to sharing in the ambitions and successes of Irish rugby in the years ahead.”

John Hussey, President of the IRFU said: “We are delighted to extend our partnership with O2 as sponsors of the Ireland National team.

“This has been one of the best and most successful sponsorships in Irish sport. We thank O2 for their continued commitment and we look forward to enjoying many more successful years both for O2 and the Ireland team.”

 

German Bundesliga soccer club Bayer 04 Leverkusen has struck a deal with SunPower Corporation to be the club’s new main sponsor.

The deal will last three years and, in addition to shirt sponsorship, American company SunPower will have prominent presence on concourses at the BayArena, perimeter boards and on all advertising output from Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

The deal adds to the growing trend of solar energy companies opting to sponsor Bundesliga clubs over the summer.

Reinhard Lampe, director of SunPower GmbH, Germany, said: “The German market is of enormous importance for us. We see great growth potential in Germany for SunPower – that’s why we want to expand our commitment here. In Bayer 04 Leverkusen, we have found the right partner, where performance is also of prime importance.”

Leverkusen managing director Wolfgang Holzhäuser added: “Over recent weeks we have been working day and night with Bayer 04 Marketing GmbH and our distribution partner Sportfive on the acquisition of a new main and shirt sponsor. We are charting new territory with our international tender. I am very satisfied with the result. Solar energy fits in perfectly with Bayer 04 Leverkusen.” Leverkusen’s 2011-12 campaign got off to a poor start with a 2-0 defeat at Mainz on Sunday.