11 September saw Nissan celebrate a new three-year extension of its UEFA Champions League sponsorship through a new spot starring Real Madrid striker and the auto outfit’s athlete ambassador Gareth Bale.
To activate around the partnership news, Nissan took endorser Bale to meet a group of Madrid school children for whom he was charged with recreating his 2014 cup-winning goal against fierce city rivals Athletico Madrid.
And teaching them how to re-enact it.
Bale’s appearance was, of course, filmed and rolled out across the brand’s digital and social channels – beginning with YouTube.
The extension of the tie-up continues Nissan’s official tournament car status and, as well as the usual media, logo, hospitality and ticket partrs of the package, it also sees the auto outfit secure rights to the ‘Pre-match Center Circle Carriers’ and ‘Post-match UEFA Champions League Goal of the Week – presented by Nissan’ digital activation.
The Champions League, the world’s most watched annual sports property, is the key pillar in Nissan’s sports marketing.
“We’re delighted to be extending this partnership for another three seasons, and it will continue to be at the very heart of our global marketing strategy,” said Nissan’s VP and global head of marketing Roel de Vries.
“We’ve seen huge success from the partnership and the additional engagement it has allowed us to have with consumers.”
Adding his own comments about the extended agreement, UEFA events SA marketing director Guy-Laurent Epstein said: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with Nissan after a very successful first cycle. They have become an integral member of the sponsor family and have been invaluable for the promotion of the competition on a global level.”
The Champions League partnership has been an integral in embedding the Asian car company in the European marketplace.
“In the coming years, we have an ambitious product plan supported with breakthrough technologies, having the world’s most exciting sporting event as a partner is giving us the perfect platform to emotionally engage with our audience and drive brand preference,” explained Nissan Europe’s marketing VP Jean-Pierre Diernaz.
“I am excited to see how innovative we will be together with UEFA in creating excitement for the fans.”
Comment:
Bale’s return to front the auto outfit’s Champions League activation follows on from his (kind of) soccer endorser substitution at the beginning of 2017 when, while the Welsh attacker was suffering from a long term injury, he was replaced in Nissan trournament activation by Real Madrid CF fan Ana Rueda Hernandez who stepped in to star alongside player endorser Sergio Agüero (see case study).
The announcement and its accompanying activation is the brand’s first work around the property since its work around last year’s final – which in the UK included the ‘Get There With Ginola’ fan created content competition (see case study)
In fact, the car company’s PR material pushing the extension says that it expects a cumulative television audience of over 3.6 billion each season across the tournament.
The partnership was first unveiled back in April 2014 in a deal reported to be worth over £45m per season.
The alliance, which saw Nissan replace long-time UEFA car partner Ford, kicked off during the 2014/2015 season with an Andres Iniesta and Thiago Silva fronted campaign called ‘Excitement Engineers’ (see case study) and since then has also included inventive and notable activations such as 2016’s 360-degree live streaming (see case study) and a 2015 final Eco Fan Fest project in Milan (see case study),
Other sponsors of the Uefa Champions League include Heineken, Gazprom, Mastercard, PepsiCo (Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Gatorade, Lays/Walkers), Sony (Playstation and Experia) and Unicredit.
Links:
Nissan
https://www.facebook.com/NissanUK
UEFA
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/
https://www.facebook.com/uefacom
https://plus.google.com/+UEFAcom
