4
OUR THOUGHTS ON
Premier League pulls up its sleeves for Summer
The English Premier League will now allow clubs
to sell ‘shirt sleeve’ sponsorship ahead of the
2017-18 season. This is a significant development
for one of the most valuable sponsorship spaces in
world sport. Here are our thoughts on the impact
for the clubs themselves as well as how brands
should approach this new opportunity.
Given its omnipresence in professional sport,
stalwarts of the sponsorship industry will not see
this as a pioneering initiative, nevertheless, it is a
big step for the Premier League. The League has
resisted up until now, taking a view that a clean
product with a firm control on the level of
branding will command more valuable broadcast
deals. However, a combination of the most recent
£8.3 billion broadcast deal and the new ‘clean’
Premier League minus title partner has provoked
this new commercial avenue for clubs and brands.
In order to capitalise, clubs need to make a
strategic decision: is this new inventory something
that can be sold, or is it a great opportunity to
enhance or up-sell to one of their existing
partners? Manchester City proudly announced they
were the first Premier League Club to sell this
inventory in March. The deal was negotiated with
existing partner Nexen Tire, the South Korean Tyre
giant. This deal was part of a renewal process and
the opportunity for Man City to include this right
as part of a new contact was clearly too appealing
for Nexen to ignore.
The approach of enhancing existing partnerships
can easily be adopted by the Top 6 Premier League
clubs such as Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea,
Tottenham and Liverpool. Their significant
portfolio of international partners would facilitate
this and thus we anticipate this to be a likely
outcome.
From a brand perspective, purchasing a
sleeve sponsorship and expecting a
significant ROI from just badging the shirt is
an absolute no. Nexen Tire and Beko
(Barcelona sleeve sponsors) are perfect
examples of a brand amplifying their existing
partnership. A new brand entering into this
space should carefully think about the rights
negotiated as sleeve sponsorship alone may
not reap rewards. The EPL is a good example:
outside of the top 6 clubs, ten of the
remaining clubs have betting partners as their
main shirt sponsors. In an already -cluttered
market, there is a risk of this new inventory
compounding the saturated and highly
competitive gambling brand portfolio in the
league. The question thus remains as to
whether these betting brands will consider
dominating the shirt (by holding both
properties) as an important part of their deal.
Another consideration that clubs should take
on board is a potential new sponsor having a
detrimental effect on existing long-standing
partnerships. An exclusive shirt sponsorship
has traditionally been the principal partner of
a club – this notion has now been disrupted
due to the sleeve patch option.
To conclude, this is an interesting
development within sponsorship given the
magnitude of the English Premier League.
However, rights holders and brands should
not get sucked back into the badging
approach and carefully consider where and
how this inventory could be most effective.
Looking ahead to the 2017-18 season it will
be fascinating to see how many of the 20
clubs manage to sell this right and to whom.