Arsenal and Emirates have announced the extension of their sport sponsorship alliances – the largest ever commercial deal signed by the North London Club.
The extension runs, which spans playing and training shirts for all Arsenal teams, runs until 2024: making it the longest running partnership in Premier League history.
To announce and celebrate the extension, Emirates released a video to coincide with the official announcement that emphasises the strength, depth and longevity of the airline’s association with Arsenal.
The 90-second film is primarily functional and fact-based: it is fronted by Arsenal chief commercial officer Vinai Venkatesham and blends football action footage, with imagery across the men’s, women’s and youth teams along with fanbase footage from around the world.
The emphasis lies in Arsenal’s global reach.
As well as running on the airline’s YouTube channel, the piece is amplified across all Emirates channels including Twitter
We've extended our shirt sponsorship with @Arsenal until 2024. That makes it the longest running partnership in Premier League history! https://t.co/q9VaWuVDm7 pic.twitter.com/su3DJQYjZt
— Emirates airline (@emirates) February 19, 2018
and Instagram.
With plenty of further amplification across the club’s own platforms too.
The new five-year deal gives Arsenal airline supplier services when travelling to games, while the airline’s rights package includes an extensive suite of rights in addition to on-shirt logo.
Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis said: “Our shirt partnership is the longest running in the Premier League and one of the longest relationships in world sport. This mutual commitment is testimony to the strength and depth of our unique relationship. Emirates are again demonstrating their great belief in our approach and ambition and their significantly increased investment will help us continue to compete for trophies and bring more success to the club and our fans around the world. Emirates is a great partner for Arsenal – a world-class brand with a truly global reach. The airline plays a significant role in our ambitions to extend our influence and following around the world. The new deal, extending our shirt partnership until 2024, underlines how much both organisations value and benefit from the relationship.”
Comment:
The sponsorship is reported to be worth in excess of £200m ($280m) at as much as £40m per season: a sum which would make it the second largest in the Premiership behind Manchester United and Chevrolet’s £47m deal, sround a similar level as Chelsea’s deal with Yokohama and ahead of the £35m alliances between Manchester City and Etihad and Tottenham and AIA.
This Emirates shirt partnership began in 2006 and the latest extension will see it last more than 18 years: surpassing Arsenal’s previous longest, 17-year, shirt deal with Japanese electronics firm JVC from 1981 to 1999.
The airline’s shirt sponsorship deals with a stable of leading European clubs – which also includes Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan, SL Benfica, Hamburger SV and Olympiacos FC – sits at the core of Emirates’ an partnerships portfolio that spans sports alliances and high profile cultural events around the world.
The airline, which also has deals with the Asian Football Confederation and with the Emirates Cup tournament – has become one of the most prominent football sponsors in any category.
It’s strategy is to leverage the truly global reach of football and to link with global soccer clubs to further boost brand awareness and to unite and engage fans/customers worldwide.
It was back in 2004 that Emirates and Arsenal signed the largest ever UK football sponsorship deal: one that included naming rights to the new Arsenal stadium and in 2006/7 it extended its Arsenal shirt deal for a further eight years
While in 2005 Emirates first signed its initial sponsorship deal 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.
While 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.
Links:
Emirates
https://www.youtube.com/user/EMIRATES
https://www.facebook.com/Emirates
https://www.instagram.com/emirates/
Arsenal
https://www.facebook.com/Arsenal
https://www.instagram.com/arsenal/
https://www.youtube.com/arsenal
https://plus.google.com/+arsenal/
http://cn.arsenal.com/newsdetail.php?id=32
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20151106/arsenal-on-snapchat
