FC BARCELONA has signed its first international sponsorship deal in the Indian market with Nokia India, the number one mobile phone brand in the country.
Under the deal, Nokia India becomes the club's official mobile device in India with the brand acquiring the rights to use club IP in its marketing and promotional campaigns throughout its home market.
Nokia India unveiled plans for a brand campaign called ‘Tiki Taka’ to engage consumers through various touch points including digital, television and activation. The campaign, including a television commercial, has yet to be launched.
“While the ‘Tiki Taka’ campaign will run for six months, the immediate objectives will be to launch a mascot, tag the FC Barcelona flag through an extensive digital campaign and unveil an exclusive mobile app on Nokia Lumia smartphones,” said D. Shivakumar, senior VP of Nokia IMEA (India, Middle East & Africa).
As part of the campaign, a contest will also see 11 winners being flown to Barcelona to meet the team’s players and watch a game at the Camp Nou.
While the sponsorship will benefit the club in terms of getting closer to its Indian fans, the opportunity for major European clubs to make lucrative international deals in certain markets appears to have superseded the brand-building mission.
Manchester United is leading the way in this area, creating a patchwork of territory-by-territory deals in the telecoms sector: Bakcell (Azerbaijan), Beeline (Vietnam), Bharti Airtel Limited (Africa), Bharti Airtel Limited (India), Du (UAE), Globacom (Nigeria, Ghana, Benin), Globul (Bulgaria), Hutchinson 3 (Indonesia), MTN (Southern Africa), PCCW (Hong Kong), STC (Saudi Arabia), TM (Malyasia), Turk Telekom (Turkey), VIVA (Bahrain), VIVA Kuwait (Kuwait) and Zong (Pakistan).
United have also opened up international deals in the motorcycle sector with AP Honda in Thailand (as have Liverpool FC), soft drinks with Kagome in Japan and snacks (noodles) with Mamee in Asia, Oceania and the Middle East.
United believe they can eventually amass around 90 sponsorship deals, with the geographic separation of IP rights preventing the clutter that characterised exploitation of club rights in the past.
Another sector ripe for exploitation is gaming.
Liverpool FC recently agreed a pair of betting partnership deals with Paddy Power and 188 Bet. Paddy Power will be the Reds' official betting partner in the UK, Ireland and Italy with 188Bet becoming the club's international partner. Liverpool subsequently signed a new deal with Turkish betting brand Misli.com, which will be exclusive to the Turkish market.
Everton FC structured similar deals with Asia’s Dafabet as its international betting and gaming partner and Paddy Power as its betting partner in the UK, Ireland and Italy.
Sunderland has signed a partnership agreement with TLC88.com that will see the online sportsbook and casino operator act as the club's official Asian betting partner, while Tottenham Hotspur named Fun88, a leading Asian gaming company, as the club's official Asian betting and gaming partner.
The potential appears limitless and threatens the prevailing wisdom that rights holders should structure sponsorship inventory around five to ten global deals.
Real Madrid, for example, has signed a two-year deal that will see Yamaha Motor become the club’s official sponsor in Thailand. This marks the second Thailand-based company to partner with the club after ThaiBev brought Real together with FC Barcelona to promote the company’s Chang-branded beer, soda and drinking water in Thailand and elsewhere in Asia.
Country deals in certain sectors and on a large enough scale may simply become more profitable than one global deal from that sector.
While Real Madrid has signed a major global telecom deal with an emerging brand from Saudi Arabia (Saudi Telecom) and Barcelona with the UAE's Etisalat, it may have proven more lucrative to hold back on global deals to satisfy regional or national demand. Similarly, United's global deal with Singha beer from Thailand may have been more profitable if the deal was confined to Thailand, while other countries and regions pitched for local deals.
Whatever the revenue equations in each case, with new brands coming to the fore at a pace from emerging markets, the top football club brands are well-placed to profit from the changing dynamic of the world economy.
By Matthew Glendinning
Follow Matthew on Twitter: @mattglen