Colin Kazim-Richards is a name you may be hearing a lot more of in the next couple of months.
He’s an 18-year-old footballer who played 10 games (scoring 3 goals) for Bury in England’s League 2 last season and who has recently joined Brighton and Hove Albion.
Nothing too unusual about that of course except that Colin was not bought and paid for by the club…he was the prize in a competition run by Coca Cola.
Coke’s ‘Win A Footballer’ competition – launched through a series of TV sports which showed the legs of a footballer protruding from the business end of a Coca Cola vending machine - was won by a Seagulls fan who forwarded the £250,000 cheque to the club, who have used the cash to secure the services of Kazim-Richards.
It’s a wonderfully creative sports promotion that will surely be mentioned every time Kazim-Richards plays for Brighton next season. There is, of course, the risk that he may tire of the inevitable p*** taking but it’s a move which will keep Coca Cola in the public eye as they enter their second season as the major sponsor of the Football League’s three divisions.
Research from TNS Sport’s Soccerscope tracker shows that awareness of Coca Cola’s relationship with football received a massive boost towards the beginning of last season with a series of a announcements, poster ads and TV slots focusing on fans of clubs outside the Premier league as ‘The Real Fans’. That awareness has dropped off somewhat over the season but still ranks above that of many brands associated with the Premier League and its teams.
* * * * * * * *
Subscriptions to MUTV, Manchester United’s cable TV operation, could receive a boost today as fans jostle for position to hear the first words of wisdom from the family which now owns the club.
Having survived rioting fans and a journey in a police wagon during his first visit to Old Trafford, Joel Glazer has given an exclusive interview to the channel in which he outlines the family’s plans for the club. He is clearly anxious to put to rest the fears of fans, and leaks suggest that he has underscored United’s commitment to remaining a major and persuasive player in the transfer market when it comes to taking big names to Old Trafford.
* * * * * * * * *
Edward Freedman, the man credited with getting the Manchester United’s commercial bandwagon rolling by taking its merchandising revenues from £1.8million to £28million during his time with the club, was in typically provocative form at the SportBusiness/Norton Rose Licensing and Merchandising Conference yesterday.
Following a speaker representing the Naional Basketball Association he lamented: “Football doesn’t take merchandising seriously. That is a fact.
“Why do we allow the NBA to get away with all this (merchandising success) while the major sport in the world lags behind? People who are running football clubs are too involved with the team and players to understand how they can devlreop their brands.”
* * * * * * * * *
Singapore is in a state of high excitement ahead of next week’s IOC Session at which – among other things – the host of the 2012 Olympic Games will be selected.
Singapore won the right to stage the meeting in a head-to-head against Guatemala and is determined to put on its best face for the watching world. Indeed, senior sports officials have gone on record as saying that hosting the IOC Session is the next best thing to staging the Games themselves.
That may be stretching a point but Singapore is certainly determined to make the most of its moment in the spotlight to promote its potential as a regional and international sports venue.
It has massive plans to develop a sports hub that will include a range of world-class facilities including a new 55,000 capacity national stadium.
There is also a scheme under way to create a huge new reservoir by damning a river. This will create an exciting new facility for all manner of water sports although there are more pressing reasons.
The reservoir will, effectively, secure Singapore’s water supply – it is currently somewhat dependent on neighbouring Malaysia – and act as a flood defence system.
