What does an international airline do when the two biggest football club s in its sponsorship portfolio play against one another on Valentine’s Day?
The answer is ‘share the love’ in the air and on the ground.
14 February saw long-time European football super heavyweight Real Madrid CF take on young pretender to its continental football crown Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League.
To mark the match up and celebrate the airline’s love for both teams it created a heart-shaped runway football stunt featruing two team branded planes and shared it with the world across its digital and social platforms.
The tactical soccer stunt was also amplified with film and images across its other social platforms such as Twitter,
Love is in the air and on the ground. We are happy to share the love with @RealMadrid and @PSG_Inside for their big match on Valentine’s Day. #FlyEmirates pic.twitter.com/IzADuxbEH3
— Emirates airline (@emirates) February 13, 2018
Good luck to both #FlyEmirates teams for today’s big match between @RealMadrid & @PSG_inside. We are happy to share the love with you. pic.twitter.com/RQGhqPaZ7I
— Emirates airline (@emirates) February 14, 2018
Facebook,
and Instagram.
It was further boosted and distributed across the club’s own channels.
This calendar-driven campaign also linked to the airline’s wider Valentine’s Day flight promotions and offers (see https://www.emirates.com/uk/english/) as well as its in-light celebratory treats.
A little something for every passenger on today’s flights. Love, Emirates pic.twitter.com/gfwdYuTb9l
— Emirates airline (@emirates) February 14, 2018
Its shirt sponsorships with both Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain form the core foundation of Emirates’ partnerships portfolio: which includes a set of alliances with leading sports teams, tournaments and high profile cultural events around the world.
The airline’s strategy is to leverage the truly global reach of football and iit has become one of the most prominent football sponsors in any category.
These two club deals spearhead the airline’s strategy of linking with global brands and passion platforms to continue to boost brand awareness and to unite and engage fans/customers worldwide.
It’s other top tier European club partnerships include tie-up with AC Milan, S.L. Benfica, Hamburger SV, Olympiacos FC and Arsenal (back in 2004 Emirates signed the largest ever UK football sponsorship deal with Arsenal that included naming rights to the new stadium and in 2006/7 it extended its Arsenal shirt deal for a further eight years
The airline also has deals with the Asian Football Confederation and with the Emirates Cup tournament.
Emirates current Real Madrid alliance has run since 2011 and saw the airline agree a five-year shirt sponsorship of the club that runs until the end of the 2017/2018 season.
The ‘Fly Emirates’ logo appears on the front of Real Madrid’s playing and training kits and the deal spans hospitality rights, a branded VIP Lounge at the Santiago Bernabéu, visible in stadium advertising, additional player access and further advertising rights.
It was back in 2005 that Emirates first signed its sponsorship with Paris Saint-Germain and the following year it stepped up to become the club’s principle partner and shirt sponsor.
For the Club’s first Asian tour in July 2017, Emirates presented the first branded aircraft in the colours of the club to spearhead an activation programme that connected fans in Hong Kong and Beijing to their footballing passions.
The partnership also sees Emirates enjoy highly visible branding in Parc des Princes stadium, as well as the Fly Emirates logo on the team shirt and access to the stadium’s premier hospitality facilities.
Comment:
It certainly makes sense to pair up two football partnerships on Valentine’s Day, but the airline might be a touch disappointed with some of the engagement metrics which show just 13,558 views on its YouTube channel and Twitter retweets and likes in the hundreds rather than the thousands.
But on Instagram, perhaps a more appropriate amorous channel, the video generated a far more impressive 228,000 views.
Perhaps the creative itself was a touch too cute and vanilla?
In another interesting piece of creative around this game real Madrid super star Christian Ronaldo even appealed to its fans that they ‘Together We Are Stronger’ and urged them to show their support and ‘Let’s make history together again’.
While PSG leveraged the game with a tactical campaign called ‘We SAre Ready’.
After Madrid triumphing 3:1, one can only assume that they weren’t.
Links:
Emirates
https://www.youtube.com/user/EMIRATES
https://www.facebook.com/Emirates
https://www.instagram.com/emirates/
Real Madrid
https://twitter.com/realmadrid
https://www.instagram.com/realmadrid/
https://www.youtube.com/user/realmadridcf
https://www.facebook.com/RealMadrid
PSG
https://www.youtube.com/user/PSGofficiel
