Ligue 2 BKT helps raise brand awareness for OTR tyre specialist

PSG face Lyon in the BKT Coupe de la Ligue (Photo: BKT)

BKT’s title sponsorship of French football has increased its brand awareness according to new data compiled for the off-highway tyre specialist. The CSA Research panel found that brand awareness has reached 17 per cent among football fans following two years title sponsorship of the Coupe de la Ligue BKT.

BKT said this awareness is driven mainly by television coverage; 42 per cent of its brand visibility is linked to TV and increasingly TV advertising. Among people interested in the Coupe de la Ligue BKT, the association between the brand and the competition gained fully 10 points between 2019 and 2020, reaching 22 per cent. The company took over title sponsorship of Ligue 2 in July 2020, an agreement that will last until June 2024.

“We are very satisfied with this experience which has enabled us to stand out from the crowd. There is no doubt that the increase in brand awareness has helped us increase the sales of our products in France. We have benefitted greatly from this,” states Lucia Salmaso, CEO of BKT Europe. “Nonetheless, we are only two years into our six-year partnership with the Ligue de Football Professionel (LFP) and we consider this period as a test. We are ready for the adventure with Ligue 2 BKT over the next four years and I am convinced that it will go even better because these strategies take time to produce results.”

A Ligue 2 BKT match ball

BKT added that the Covid-19 crisis has not diminished French passion for football. “Ligue 2 has been chosen because it allows us to reach all the provinces, the local areas where we can get much closer to our end users: farmers,” Salmaso goes on. “In addition, Ligue 2 is built around its regularity with a high number of scheduled games, and around the passion and bond with the local territory. We love this strategy, the same we used when we selected the title sponsorship of the Serie BKT in Italy. The two championships are very similar.

“I know that we made an unusual choice, even more so given that we are a B2B brand,” concludes Lucia Salmaso, “but we like the idea of supporting the development of sport and the ‘second-tier leagues’ which we believe are genuine incubators for the great champions. Support is also needed at this level of sport. We want everyone to remember our name because we are engaged in developing talents. Especially at a time like this when sport needs support.”