Following the signing of a multi-year agreement, Continental is now ‘official tyre’ of the USA’s largest football association, the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO). The tyre maker has also become the presenting sponsor of ‘Safe Haven’, a child and volunteer safety programme that is compulsory for every registered AYSO coach, referee, administrator and volunteer helper.
Hankook has announced that its sponsorship contract with the UEFA Europa League will continue for another three years. The tyre manufacturer will be an official partner to the prestigious club competition until the end of the 2017/18 season, having started in 2012. Explaining the latest contract extension, Hankook stated that sport sponsorship activities are an integral part of the company’s marketing strategy in the region. It claims this strategy has contributed to 13 and 6 per cent increases in consumers’ awareness of and references to the brand respectively in the European market. Many of the tyre industry’s biggest brands have capitalised on the huge global popularity of the beautiful game.
This year Linglong Tire marks its 40th anniversary. To this end, the company’s Autopromotec 2015 stand carried suitably celebratory messages, not to mention the “appearance” of two top-flight footballers.
As “Top Partner” to German Bundesliga VfL Wolfsburg, Linglong Tire displayed the life-size full-body photos of Wolfsburg stars Kevin De Bruyne and Bas Dost for visitors to take pictures next to. Linglong Tire also hosted a football shooting game during the exhibition, which was reportedly “warmly welcomed” by visitors.
FC Barcelona ad Lassa Tyres have signed a sponsorship deal which makes the Turkish tyre brand a global partner for the next four years. Under the global partnership rights, the club’s basketball, handball, futsal and roller hockey teams, will officially be named as “FC Barcelona Lassa”. The deal took effect on 1 June 2015 and makes Lassa Tyres the “Official Tyre Partner” of FC Barcelona.
In a few hours the UEFA Europa League Final will begin in Warsaw, and sponsor Hankook Tire is ready and waiting. The tyre maker has set up numerous fan events around the city and at Stadion Narodowy. In Castle Square, within Warsaw Old Town, Hankook has constructed a 130 square metre brand area in which it is showcasing its tyres and simultaneously offering many football-related activities, such as target shooting, face painting, and fan photography to the visitors. Products are also being displayed outside the national stadium, while a giant inflatable Hankook tyre has been set up at the entrance.
Italian football club F.C. Internazionale Milano recently unveiled its home kit for the upcoming 2015/16 season, a strip that prominently displays the name Pirelli – an Inter Milan sponsor since 1995 and former shareholder in the club – on the shirt. But a question mark now hangs over whether this partnership will last another season. Pirelli CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera has indicated that the tyre maker’s interest in sponsoring Inter Milan may wane if the club fails to secure a berth in next season’s Europa League.
Hankook’s Commercial Vehicle Show stand contained its CV tyre portfolio, with the recent adapted products for Euro V and VI vehicles taking centre stage. The SmartFlex AH31 and the TL02 trailer tyre were the key products in this respect, while the manufacturer also emphasised its Alphatread, retread range, which was extended with the addition of the popular 315/70R22.5 size, made available in January 2015. Hankook also hosted a football competition on its large Hall 5 stand, run in conjunction with its sponsorship of the UEFA Europa League.
Cooper, the first ‘Official Tyre of Arsenal Football Club’ has launched a new competition asking fans of the club to share their pre-match rituals. The tyre brand is using the hashtag #MatchReady to engage fans on social media, with three Arsenal stars taking part in the campaign-launching fan film (see below). Cooper is asking players and fans across Europe to share their #MatchReady rituals on Twitter, with the chance to win two tickets to see Arsenal v Swansea in the Premier League, hosted by former midfielder and ‘Romford Pelé’, Ray Parlour.
All English clubs may have already been knocked out, but eight teams remain in with a chance to win this year’s Europa League final, which will take place in Warsaw, Poland on 27 May. If your favourite team is still in the running, your support could pay off. In association with the UEFA Europa League, Hankook Tire has launched the ‘Hankook Digital Fan Match’ campaign and invites fans to show their support for the quarter finalists.
Yesterday evening, Chelsea Football Club signed what is said to be the second most valuable shirt sponsorship deal ever in English football when it entered into an agreement with Yokohama Rubber. According to The Telegraph, the deal is worth almost £40 million a year, a figure that puts it second only behind Manchester United’s sponsorship agreement with Chevrolet. The tyre maker has signed up with Chelsea FC for a five-year period that gets under way in July 2015, and in addition to the Yokohama logo’s presence on the shirts worn by Chelsea FC teams at all levels, Yokohama Rubber will gain representation through stadium branding and various advertising and promotional materials.
Toyo’s premium sponsorship of AC Milan has been supported by a new promotional video. The “Forza Milan by Toyo Tires” video, which also carries the social media-ready hashtag #weareacmilan, has the concept of connecting football fans around the world with a transcontinental game of keepy-uppy.
In addition to its newly-signed deal with Champions League and German Bundesliga team FC Schalke 04, Kumho Tyre has come on board as tyre partner for two further German clubs. Hamburger SV and Hertha BSC will be sponsored by the tyre maker until the end of the 2016/17 season.
Pirelli will support local football club Burton Albion FC’s Community Trust Ghana project for the second consecutive year. The tyre manufacturer, a long-term sponsorship partner of Burton Albion, is donating £500 to apprentice Joe Green’s target of £2,500 to support his travel costs to participate in the project. The Burton Albion Community Trust Ghana project involves young people travelling to Ghana to help with various community projects, such as building houses in some of the most deprived areas in the world as well as volunteering in schools. Green will visit Ghana in May for 11 days.
Kumho Tyre has picked up another football sponsorship agreement to complement its activities with the Spanish La Liga. This new sponsorship deal is with Champions League and German Bundesliga team FC Schalke 04. The contract runs until the end of the 2016/2017 season and contains the option of further collaboration. As sponsorship partner, Kumho will be represented on LED signage at FC Schalke 04’s home ground, Veltins Arena, and receive other advertising opportunities both in the stadium and in team-related publications. The team’s bus will also be equipped with Kumho tyres.
Speaking at the signing ceremony of Shandong Linglong Tire’s agreement with German football club VfL Wolfsburg, the tyre maker’s CEO spoke of the “first class exposure” and substantially increased brand awareness the partnership will bring. He also discussed Linglong Tire’s growth ambitions and the role Europe will play in achieving these.
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