New research published by sport communication research specialist Sport+Markt reveals that stadium naming rights sponsorship is achieving a ‘positive impact’ in the UK and Germany.
German soccer fans in particular, it says, are embracing the notion of commercial stadium names – and showing impressive recall when quizzed.
The company has been closely monitoring naming rights deals across Europe and has been able to judge the performance of individual deals across the continent.
Sport+Markt was central to the price evaluation of naming rights to the Allianz Arena in Munich, the largest naming rights deal in Europe, and is the only organisation to have developed a price evaluation model for naming rights that has been implemented outside of the US.
Said a company spokesman: “The rise in significance of naming rights in Europe is a result of a number of factors. Euro 2004 in Portugal and the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany have seen a number of new stadia built, while in the UK a number of football clubs, such as Arsenal, Liverpool and Cardiff City, are planning new stadia as a means of generating greater revenues.
“The circumstances of new stadia are much more favourable for a naming rights sponsor as the competition for attention from a traditionally entrenched previous name is not an obstacle to a successful engagement. Furthermore, the income generated can be directly put to use in the financing of the stadium – a concrete association that can add to a positive image build amongst the fans, who may otherwise resist the commercial elements of the game.
“Furthermore, site holders and sponsors are beginning to realise the opportunities that naming rights offer in providing an exclusive platform to guarantee exclusivity in an increasingly saturated market.”
In the UK, one of the most established naming rights sponsor, Reebok, which has sponsored the stadium of Premier League club Bolton Wanderers since 1997, achieved the best recall score among the 600 British football fans aged 15-69 surveyed by Sport+Markt. Close to 40 percent of fans mentioned the Reebok when asked to name a naming rights sponsor, more than those who were able to mention Vodafone’s sponsorship of Manchester United.
Close to a quarter were able to mention the Walkers Stadium of Leicester City, which has been in place since 2001, while nine percent mentioned the JJB Stadium used by Nationwide Division One club Wigan Athletic and Rugby League club Wigan Warriors.
However, the company’s research figures demonstrate that these sponsorships are eclipsed in terms of performance in Germany where a greater number of high-profile stadia utilise naming rights and where a greater debate of the potential of naming rights has helped to develop it as sponsoring tool.
The AOL-Arena (pictured), home of Bundesliga club Hamburg SV, generated awareness among two-thirds of the 600 German football fans aged 15-69 surveyed, while one-quarter mentioned the Allianz Arena in Munich, despite the fact that it is not due to be completed for another 18 months.
In Germany over five stadia naming rights sponsors were able to generate awareness of 10 precent or more, much better than the UK where only three stadia generated significant scores.
Adds the spokesman: “The potential that naming rights has in the UK in developing as a sponsorship form for companies is demonstrated by the fact while only 22 percent of German football fans were unable to name a single stadium naming rights sponsor, in the UK double the number of fans could not name one.
“Until now, a somewhat negative perception of stadium naming rights has existed, creating fears that it might not work as a sponsorship platform, but our research has found that in fact, in the UK, football fans were much more receptive to this form of sponsorship than alternative means, such as jersey sponsorship or perimeter boards.”
Added Paul Whitehead of Sport+Markt’s UK division: “This research demonstrates the need to incorporate the actual effect that naming rights has on your target groups in order to generate a true evaluation of the worth of this sponsorship platform.
“Sport+Markt’s’s evaluation model for naming rights has proved to be effective in doing just that and can provide site owners and sponsoring companies with a reliable and objective measurement against which the real value of the naming rights can be established.”
