Infront Named Marketing Partner for SV Sandhausen
July 18, 2012
Infront Sports & Media have signed on with Bundesliga 2. team SV Sandhausen to become their marketing partner until 2016.
The sports agency will handle the marketing of major commercial rights around the club and the stadium. The engagement includes the main sponsor and kit supplier package, allergy the entire stadium advertising as well as the hospitality areas of the Hardtwaldstadion.
In order to ensure a close collaboration with the club, Infront is now represented by its own team at the SV Sandhausen head offices. As a first step, the marketing concept for the club has been improved toward the upcoming season. This includes a streamlined and clearly structured sponsorship pyramid – which guarantees the companies involved high exclusivity. In addition, Infront is optimising the arrangement and allocation of advertising space in camera view within the stadium, and has initiated the introduction of a rotating advertising system.
The path of SV Sandhausen has been on an upward climb in recent years. Having been part of the 3. Liga since its foundation in 2008, the club qualified to ascend towards the 2. Bundesliga for the first time in 2011/12 and was even ranked first. The local Hardtwaldstadion had so far a capacity of 10,231 seats (of which 2,954 are covered), which will be extended next season by further VIP provisions, including nine lounges (a total of 450 seats) and a grandstand, to a capacity of 12,000 visitors.
Thanks to the collaboration with SV Sandhausen, Infront is now further extending its comprehensive football portfolio. The company holds long-term marketing experience on a national as well as international level – as partner to federations such as FIFA and the Deutscher Fussball-Bund (for the DFB Cup and the German national team games). Infront works with leagues, such as the Italian Lega Serie A and with clubs including AC Milan and Lazio Rome. In Germany, the company is involved with six clubs in the Bundesliga (SV Werder Bremen, FC Schalke 04, SC Freiburg and Fortuna Düsseldorf), in the 2. Bundesliga (FC Energie Cottbus) and in the 3. Liga (FC Hansa Rostock).
Jürgen Machmeier, President of SV Sandhausen, said: “As one of the leading marketing companies in German and international football, Infront has a wealth of experience from which SV Sandhausen will be able to benefit in the future. It is for this reason that – for the marketing and exploitation of all our rights – we are trusting in the support and know-how of Infront. We are confident that in close co-operation, we will succeed in establishing SV Sandhausen in the 2. Bundesliga, both on the sportive and economical side, as well as to exploit our marketing potential.”
“Thanks to the great popularity of football in Germany, clubs and commercial partners benefit already in the 2. Bundesliga from nation-wide visibility and high media interest”, said Reinhardt Weinberger, Managing Director of Infront Germany. “With the promotion as leader of the 3. Liga, SV Sandhausen has demonstrated its ambitions in German football and we will do our upmost in this partnership to contribute to the successful development of the club. With the optimised marketing and advertising concept, SV Sandhausen and Infront are now offering an attractive platform for brand communication to local and national companies.”