The recent Tiger Woods crisis showed the world how brands and athletes are tightly linked. While Accenture, Gatorade, AT&T dropped the golfer, other brands such as Gillette and Procter and Gamble, have significantly dimmed down their use of Tiger in advertising campaigns. EA Sports played differently as  Tiger shared his PGA Tour 2011 video game cover for the first time in 13 years. On the other hand, Nike stood by his athlete and aired an interesting, yet controversial advertsing campaign.

Athletes are the icons of sports brands. The Tiger Woods case showed  us that it can be a double edged sword.  I reckon the most famous football marketing icons would be David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane & Lionel Messi  among others for adidas, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney & Didier Drogba (among others) for Nike. Eto’o being the Puma icon for some years now. 

It’s not an easy task to link a player to a brand. It is a long way process. Brands have a very well thought scouting system, and know talented young players before they get under mediatic spotlights. Sponsorship deals are being made, with parents agreement, and the kid grows up with the brand throughout his career. For those who saw the U-19 final where France deafeated Spain 2-1, all these youngsters were (already) wearing either adidas, Nike or Puma footwear. Obviously, these brands did not come up yesterday to add these players to their portfolio.

Gael Kakuta, the Chelsea player, Alexandre Lacazette the Olympique Lyonnais striker and Cédric Bakambu are the perfect examples. Three upcoming french stars, the first one wears the Superfly Vapour II, the OL player strikes with the adidas adizero F50 and Bakambu scored 2 goals against The Netherlands with his Pumas.

The “big three” are in constant look for the next Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. Once players are contracted by either one the three (adidas, Nike, Puma) it is difficult for the other two to step in. In other words, I don’t see Nike approaching Xavi nor adidas willing to sign Didier Drogba. Not only the Spaniard and the Ivory Coast player are already strongly “stamped” by their current sponsor but it will be a very costly deal if it gets through. Secondly I would like to think that the sponsors would rather invest in signing new young players with this amount of cash.

Brands link their image (and vice versa) to footballers from a very early age and this is a long term investment which will pay off when these talented players will lift a World Cup or Champions League trophy. In the meantime, they would have encapsulated their sponsors brand image and values. They would have represented the brand throughout their career. For instance, Zidane & Beckham will always be associated with the adidas brand and ultimately with the Predator boot. Recently, we have seen Nike’s effort to market Cristiano Ronaldo with the Mercurial Vapor Superfly II and Rooney with the T90 Laser III.

Happy to hear your thoughts!

Tomorrow’s Champions League Final between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich will see the Television debut of the Nike’s new epic football commercial.  Not only will TV viewers love it but it is set to become another viral phenomenon as it gets tweeted and imbedded in blogs like this around the world.

The ‘write the future’ ad shows how footballers such as Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Didier Drogba have the ability to change their destinies with one pass on the looming World Cup stage.

Directed by renowned Hollywood artisan Alejandro G. Iñarritu (21 Grams, Babel), the ad features guest appearances by Roger Federer, Kobe Bryant and, in a moment of sheer comic genius, Homer Simpson (is hillarious and worth waiting for).  Seeing a bearded Rooney living in a caravan is a great touch as well.  Hats off to Nike for this one.

I’m sure you will love it as well and is well worth a few minutes of your Friday afternoon…….. enjoy!

Write The Future from Nalden on Vimeo.

I was reading a french news forum the other day and one comment caught my attention. Although 95% of the comments on this forum are senseless, immature and inappropriate, this member had an interesting view about Nike being the new sponsor of the French Football Federation in 2011. He said: “it will be weird to me not to see 3 stripes on the French shirt! It will be like watching any other team but France”.

Indeed, for those who have not followed the not really recent football marketing news, from 2011 the French Football Federation (F.F.F) will be equipped with Nike products. Nike and the FFF agreed on a 7.5 season contract which amounts to € 42,66 million per season.

The French national team was sponsored by adidas since 1972 with great success, talented players and an idea of playing together. In a nutshell, adidas and “Les bleus” have been more than business partners. Some would argue that they were simply……partners. After the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, a 38 year “marriage” will end as FFF signed with adidas’ biggest competitor: Nike.

Football teams that have long lasting sponsors, are willingly or not integrating their sponsors in their brand design. Football federations like France (FFF) or Germany (DFB) have always worn 3 stripes and are strongly adidas branded. The same logic can be applied to the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) . The “auriverde” football shirt history never featured 3 stripes. Therefore, “clean” sleeves are part of the Brazil kit design.

A similar scenario is applicable to football clubs. Carlsberg has been on Liverpool shirts for 18 years (circa €10 million a season) and the deal will expire at the end of 2009-2010 season. From next season onwards, Liverpool FC will feature a new sponsor on their kits as their partnership with Carlsberg is over. Hey, 18 years is quite a long sponsorship for a club and I believe, to some extent that Carlsberg branding became “normality” on the Reds kits.

But let’s come back to the 38 year old partnership between adidas and the FFF. As I mentioned earlier, 3-stripes on FFF and DFB kits have become part of the shirt design in football fans and marketers minds. On the other hand, fans are more and more aware of sponsorships deals and of the fact that a sponsor is not forever. This forumer knows about adidas, he knows about Nike. He knows very well that the French kits will be different in 2011 and his problem lies in the recognition of the french kit as a brand………which I found interesting.

It will be a drastic change in the football landscape, but adidas will still have a presence as the individuals deals remain. Players like Nasri, Benzema, Mandanda will still be part of the squad and will endorse their adidas footwear and gloves.

The point of this article is not to emphasise on the looks of the kits, but essentially to insist on the fact that after 38 years of a specific brand on a football kit, it will be interesting to have views on the brand transition that will happen on the french kits in 2011. What will be the FFF strategy (If they have one) to communicate on not having their mark of football heritage?

And you? what’s your take? Please share your views

On March 3, I gave a strong credit to the Nike football kits for the World Cup. They are made from 8 recycled plastic bottles and consequently Nike is making a bold statement by integrating the sustainable element to football. No doubt that it will be a great buzz during the World Cup in South Africa.

The swoosh did not overlook retail distribution though. The Federations shirts will be sold…………in a plastic bottle. I would hope that they have not used more bottles for jersey packaging than bottles to make those jerseys! A simple pull tab in the middle of the bottle hides the opening, and the federation shirt is yours. The idea is simple, inspirational and smart. We may wonder why using a plastic bottle to sell shirts made from plastic bottles. Well, as a marketer, I would argue that selling jersey made out of a plastic bottle IN a plastic bottle was the best marketing element to drive the consumer’s purchase. In addition, an interesting add on is a USB key which stores Nike press releases and HD pictures of the complete range. A cool way to provide a unique gift for clients: Marketing Lagniappe?

I would like to focus on the following points:

1. New football retail trend
The traditional football shirt purchase is over. For those who do buy football jerseys in stores, you have a piece of cloth in your retail store bag and off you go. Now the customer will experience a new trend when buying a Nike shirt. A better feel for the money spent as he will leave the store with a new and unexpected item.

I am not sure how the stores managers handled the warehousing issue of the bottled shirts, as they had to plan a different retail space and involve new logistic methods. But hey, it’s for a “good cause” isn’t it?

2. Address the environmental issues
Football fans that are concerned with the environmental issues will not refrain from spending €75 on a football shirt. Well I speak for the 9 World Cup qualified countries Nike created sustainable jerseys for (Netherlands, Korea Republic, New Zealand, USA, Slovenia, Brazil, Portugal, Australia, Serbia).

3. Competition creates emulation
I believe that in every single industry, competition creates emulation which the healthiest way to come up with great new products and services. I am looking forward to seeing the marketing initiatives other football brands will activate around the 2010 FIFA World Cup. So far, adidas is preparing a marketing offensive as World Cup approaches and I will develop more in an article coming soon. Puma, Coca-Cola and others have as well unveiled their strategy. More to come on My Football Lounge. Stay Tuned!

Your thoughts on the Nike bottled shirts are welcome!

On 25 February 2010, Nike launched its new football kits for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Nike put together a brilliant concept: SUSTAINABILITY.

Nike’s national team kits are the most environmentally-friendly and technologically-advanced in football’s history. BOOM there you go. Nike is setting another benchmark in football by emphasisng on sustainability, a word well known worldwide.

But let’s have a look at the kits. The design is clean, simple and obviously, the technological aspect is also a key factor. Moisture management is taken care of to offer players the most comfortable kit to match the weather conditions in South Africa. The jerseys are also 15% lighter to allow Pato and Cristiano Ronaldo to go faster…..Simple, but great looking kits. But the emphasis is  somewhere else. Delivering a powerful message: Environmentally friendly and sustainable football products.

In a previous article, I pointed out that adidas, Nike and Puma will be the 3 most powerful players and will have the strongest exposure in South Africa. What did I say again about Nike?: “The answer from Nike will for sure be there [...] the message will be big, powerful, inspirational and we can expect a kick ass marketing campaign from the Swoosh.”

So the message is out there. It’s big, powerful inspirational, and on top of that, the marketing platform is immense. Tackling the sustainability aspect in football is now owned by Nike as Charlie Denson (President Nike Brand) stressed that “We are equipping athletes with newly designed uniforms that not only look great and deliver performance benefits, but are also made with recycled materials, creating less impact on our environment.”

The “war” has begun, and the Swoosh took the first shot. What better message can be delivered to the world than the one of taking care of the environment? According to the Nike Press Release;

To make the 2010 national team kits, Nike’s fabric suppliers sourced discarded plastic bottles from Japanese and Taiwanese landfill sites and then melted them down to produce new yarn that was ultimately converted to fabric for the jerseys. This process saves raw materials and reduces energy consumption by up to 30 percent compared to manufacturing virgin polyester. By using recycled polyester for its new range of national jerseys, Nike prevented nearly 13 million plastic bottles, totaling nearly 254,000 kg of polyester waste, from going into landfill sites. This amount would be enough to cover more than 29 football pitches. If the recycled bottles used to make the jerseys were laid end-to-end they would cover more than 3,000 kilometres, which is more than the entire coastline of South Africa.

So what is the bottom line here? Nike is setting a benchmark in the industry by taking ownership of sustainability in football. Their football kits are “green” and the buzz will be high. Well, they just did it….again.

What do you think? What is your take on this?

Last week Karl Lusbec wrote about the 20 Best Known European Football Brands. The article referenced a Sport+Markt 2009-2010 study of brand recognition among football fans in the top five markets (UK, Germany, Spain, France & Italy).  You can read the report yourself here.

I thought it might be interesting to look at this data and try to extrapolate from it which club brands were the most powerful.  Unscientific of course, but I wanted to see to what degree being aligned with a specific club (or clubs) is a factor, in addition to sponsoring tournaments like the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions League or UEFA European Championships.  So, let’s take a look.  Here’s the 2009 Delloitte & Touche Money League of clubs* along with the brands listed in the Sport+Markt survey (and the brands ranking in that survey) associated with them:

1. Real Madrid – adidas (1), Coca-Cola (5), Audi (8), bwin (9)

2. Manchester United – Nike (2), AIG (6), Audi (8),

3. FC Barcelona – Nike (2), Audi (8), Unicef (15)

4. Bayern Munich – adidas (1), Coca-Cola (5), Audi (8)

5. Chelsea – adidas (1), Samsung (10), Heineken (20)

6. Arsenal – Nike (2), Emirates (5)

7. Liverpool – adidas (1), Carlsberg (7)

8. AC Milan – adidas (1), bwin (9)

9. AS Roma -

10. Inter Milan – Nike (2)

11. Juventus – Nike (2)

12. Olympique Lyonnais – Umbro (16), Orange (18)

13. Schalke 04 – adidas (1)

14. Tottenham Hotspur – Puma (3), Carlsberg (7)

15. Hamburger SV – adidas (1), Emirates (5)

16. Olympique Marseille – adidas (1), Orange (18)

17. Newcastle United – adidas (1)

18. VfB Stuttgart – Puma (3), Coca-Cola (4)

19. Fenerbahce – adidas (1), Audi (8)

20. Manchester City – Umbro (16)

*I looked for the list of official club sponsors on official team websites as of February 2010.

Who from the Sport+Markt list weren’t represented by a club from the Delloitte & Touche Money League clubs?

11. Reebok

12. Opel (Read this Sport Business story from 2001 calling them the ‘most successful shirt sponsor’)

13. Vodafone

14. Ford – Champions League

17. MasterCard – Champions League

19. Sony – Champions League

So, the two odd men out appear to be Reebok and Vodafone.  Now, Vodafone is a massive sponsor of sport and had a run with Man Utd a while back from which they may still be seeing a halo effect.  Reebok sponsors Ryan Giggs (Man Utd), Thierry Henry (Barca) and formally kitted out Liverpool and Man City.  AS Roma are the only club in the top 20 not aligned with a big sponsor.

I think a big winner here may be Audi.  Not a name I immediately associated with big time European football, I was surprised to see them so high.  But they have a variety of partnerships with leading clubs, allowing them to also create the Audi Cup in July 2009, which featured ManU, Bayern Munich and AC Milan along with Boca Juniors of Argentina.  I don’t think they’ve spent the same type of money as some of the other top 10 brands, bet I suspect they are reaping rewards from their associations.  Look too for Umbro to move up the charts if the English National Team can make a run in the 2010 FIFA World Cup this summer.