Sponsoring a Team – How Brands Use Sporting Events to Engage with Customers

Following DiscountIF’s previous article on ‘Sponsoring an Event’, this is part 2 of their mini 4 article series. Brands may also choose to sponsor a team or athlete rather than the competition itself. Allianz, the financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany, have engaged with their audience through the sponsorship and partnership of German football team, Bayern Munich.

Besides having the brands’ name on their football kit, they also had Bayern Munich’s stadium renamed to the Allianz Arena. Allianz had acquired an 8.33% stake in Bayern Munich for £110 million, joining Adidas and Audi as their official partners.

The Allianz stadium holds a capacity of 75,000, meaning that every time Bayern Munich play a game in their stadium, all Bayern’s fans are exposed to the Allianz brand and engage with it. And it’s not even just the fans attending; it’s all those fans who are watching on TV also. The Allianz brand is all around the stadium, impossible to be missed.

This form of engagement, although not direct, forms an emotional connection with the brands potential customers. If you’ve visited the stadium and had a good experience, one will feel that little bit more close to the Allianz brand, as though the fan and the brand shared a connection at one point or another, which they technically did.

Brands have begun exposing themselves to sports for a while now, and although it’s highly costly to implement, the fact that brands keep doing it, only emphasizes the rewards it reaps for the brand.

With the implementation of DiscountIF’s tool, brands can continue to engage with fans through lucrative offers which are directly linked to the team they are sponsoring during a sporting event. Taking the example above, Allianz could offer their customers a chance to get a reward if Bayern Munich win a match or win a particular competition. This will reinforce further their sponsorship of the team and link their services directly to the team.

Written by the team at DiscountIF