Japanese tyre brand Falken has revealed the names of the 21 European clubs with which it has signed Official Tyre Partner deals for the 2018-19 season.
The brand’s pan-European sponsoring strategy has been led by commercial marketing agency Lagardère Sports, and has focused on partnerships with clubs in Germany, England, Spain, Italy, France, The Netherlands, Poland and, for the time first time ever, Sweden.
Brand awareness on LED perimeter and static boards in all core European markets, and corporate hospitality for regional distributor activations, are key to the campaign.
The biggest deals in the portfolio are thought to be with Premier League club Liverpool, where the brand gets in-stadium presence on both LED perimeter boards and dug-out branding, and with Bundesliga clubs Ingolstadt and Schalke 04, where Falken ranks among the main Official Partners in the second tier.
So far, Falken has signed commercial partnerships with the following European clubs:
- Germany: FC Schalke 04, FC Ingolstadt 04, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Hamburger SV and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim
- Italy: FC Bologna, FC Turin and Lazio
- Spain: Real Betis, Seville FC, Espanyol, Atlético de Madrid
- France: OSC Lille, AS St. Etienne and Girondins Bordeaux
- Poland: Legia Warsaw and Wisła Kraków
- The Netherlands: FC Utrecht and AZ Alkmaar
- Great Britain: Liverpool FC
- Sweden: Ostersunds FK
For analysis of the origins of Falken’s sponsorship strategy, read ‘Bundesliga play-offs ignite Falken’s ‘big bang’ strategy’.