Sunday, February 8, 2015

"Jersey" Marketing


There is something different about how sports are played in the United States. Sure players and clubs rack in an absurd amount of money but on the field, court, ring, players wear traditional no logo jerseys. This is only the case in America. Every other national league aboard has affiliations with companies  to sponsor their league and or teams. For example in England the most popular league there is the Barclays Premier League. Barclays is the name of a bank company established in England.
 





 

        Barclays is the sponsor for the whole league. They Pay the League 40 million Pounds a year, or 61 million dollars. In 2016 their contract will be up for renewal and some articles online state that the bank will not continue their contract in 2016.  http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/barclays-will-not-renew-premier-3579182  
Barclays has been under contract with the Premier League since 2004. The teams in the Premier League such as Manchester United and Chelsea are sponsored as well, Manchester United is sponsored by Chevy and Chelsea is sponsored by Samsung. Samsung pays $16 million a year for jersey rights and there are rumors that the company will have to pull out for the next contract because Chelsea wants to double the cost the $32 million a year. Chevy has a 10 year contract with Manchester United that cost $560 million. That is equivalent to $56 million per year. Due to the fact that 60% of Chevrolet's sales were come from overseas, the company knew they would need to build on foreign recognition.    
      
Manchester United is one of the most prestigious and iconic club in the world of futbol. A brand like Chevy will build a strong recognition from foreign consumers.It is true to say that consumers like familiar brands and Chevy will do will European market with this move.


Here in the United States the only teams that are sponsored are part of the MLS (Major League of Soccer),
. Teams in the MLS are sponsored by brands
such as Volkswagen, Bell, Red Bull, Xbox. Herbalife, and many others. Soccer does not have a big following here in the United States compared to football or baseball. The teams in the MLS are not as financially stable compared to the other sports market so companies and teams make agreements in order to market their brand. 

Could there be shift in the American sports market with jersey company contracts? In the NHL and NBA there are talks of these contracts taking place in later season.


"These contracts could bring in an additional $120 million to the League"  That would be a lot of money for the league, enough to think carefully about the idea. I do not think people will be forgiving to the league and teams if they make that move though. There was a time to make the switch to a sponsored jersey league in the 90's but now I believe the idea will not go over well with the fans.  

It will be interesting to see what League or leagues will make the shift over a sponsored jersey league. As of now it is all talk behind closed doors.



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http://reachhispanic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/nike-vs-adidas.jpg

World Cup Marketing Strategy
Adidas Vs Nike

When it comes to soccer or futbol depending where you are from, there is not bigger stage than the World Cup. Major sporting companies such as Nike and Adidas spend up to 100 million dollars on just advertising their brands. The world cup is sponsored by Adidas and Adidas only. this means that Nike or Puma can not use the world cup in their market strategy. If you look closely at Nike's most popular commercial for the 2014 world cup you will see that no where in the commercial was the world cup shown or mentioned. 

The commercial does do a good job at making it seem like it is representing the world cup but in reality they never once make reference to it.

Adidas has the rights to use the world cup in its commercials but is it really worth the millions of dollars just to publicise a few words and a golden trophy? If Nike can make the feeling of the world cup in their commercials and not have to pay the money Adidas is paying, who really wins? In my opinion I believe Nike won that battle because they still made the audience believe they are watch the world cup even though they are not. 

Even with the rights to the world cup Adidas did not take full advantage to what they had in my opinion, as you can see in this commercials. 
Regardless it is a very good commercial. It shows the world cup being played but there is so much that Adidas could have done with the rights.  

The war between companies such as Adidas and Nike is not limited to only commercials, it also carries over to the apparel, countries, and players.
Cristiano Ronaldo gets paid 21 million dollars a year by Nike and all he has to do is wear their brand and participate in ads.
Messi on the other hand gets paid 20 million dollars a year by Adidas to wear their brand and participate in ads.

Nike and Adidas battle for countries to represent. For example Nike supplies USA, England, Brazil, Portugal,Netherlands, France, Australia, and a few others with Jerseys and other clothing. 
Adidas supplies Argentina, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Belgium, Sweden, and a few other.
If the winner of the world cup is wearing a company's jersey the possibilities for ads are endless. 
Germany who was the winner of the world cup in 2014 was sponsored by no other Adidas,seeing that they are in fact a German company.      
http://www.brandchannel.com/home/image.axd?picture=2014%2F7%2Fadidas-germany-560.jpg

As you can see picture Adidas is everywhere in the image and is in fact the first picture on google images if you type in 2014 worldcup. 

To further the Nike/ Adidas world cup battle take a look at this video from Bloomberg.com

Shaun Degnan
St. Michael's College
Marketing 
1/25/15



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