European Jersey Sponsorships Return to Growth
The sixth edition of SPORT+MARKT 'European Jersey Report' reveals that the prices paid by jersey sponsors within the key European football markets of the U.K, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and the Netherlands for the 2004-2005 season have grown compared to last season.
Key points from the report:
European Jersey Sponsorship Total climbs to €330m
The total annual volume for the clubs in the top leagues in the six investigated markets was €330.8m. This climb of €10m on the previous season, meant that the fall of the previous season was stemmed. This upward trend was, however, bucked in England alone where total deals for the clubs in the FA Premier League were down €2m to €60.8m.
Bundesliga and Premiership’s market shares drop
The German Bundesliga, while still the largest market in Europe (despite being for only 18 clubs), saw a reduction in its market share of jersey sponsorship volume from 27.7% to 26.8%. The FA Premier League also saw its market share fall 1% point to 18.4%. (see chart 1 below). On the other hand there were increased shares for the French Ligue 1 (13.1% to 14.3%) and Spanish Primera Division (9.8% to 10.7%). Italy’s Serie A (20.5%) and the Netherlands’ Eredivisie (9.3%) maintained the shares of last season.
France edges up on England in size of average deals
The average price of jersey sponsorship in the English Premiership slipped €0.1m to €3.0m, just above the European average of €2.9m. This was in third place behind leaders Germany (average price €4.9m) and Italy (€3.6m) and not too far ahead of France (up €0.3m to €2.4m).
Juventus – The New No 1; Dortmund drops out of European Top 5
Juventus FC has usurped Bayern Munich with the largest deal in Europe. Its new deal with Sky Sport and Tamoil, is worth €18.5m per annum (part of a €90m annual package including media rights), overtaking Bayern’s €17m-a-year deal with Deutsche Telekom. Manchester United’s new improved four-year deal with Vodafone (€13m p.a.) did not move it up in the rankings as it remained behind an improved deal between Real Madrid and Siemens Mobile (€14m p.a.). However, Borussia Dortmund was dislodged from the Top 5 by a new package of deals with sponsors for French league champions Olympique Lyonnais, which added up to €12m.
Serie A is best performing major market in costs per thousand
When considering the market values, of course, one could argue that the size of the football market in each country defines the size of the market value for total jersey sponsorship deals. Therefore in order to take into account the size of each domestic football fan base to whom the jersey sponsors are attempting to communicate SPORT+MARKT calculated the cost being paid per thousand fans aged 15-69 in each market.
Among the major markets, in terms of the size of the market it is Serie A which is the best performing with jersey sponsors paying over €2,550 per thousand domestic football fans aged 15-69. This was ahead of Germany where sponsors are paying €2,501 per thousand and ahead of the €2,469 per thousand that English Premiership club sponsors are paying.
Of course, this does not include fans of these competitions outside of their respective country, which are also exposed to the jersey sponsors and are the target for the sponsors of the bigger clubs. Here the English Premiership has previously been found by SPORT+MARKT research to be clearly the most popular with 30m fans in Europe and close to 300m outside, which means that these cost per thousand figures will be significantly diluted, meaning even greater value for money for English club sponsors.
Growth of financial services, decline of telecoms continue
The rise in financial services getting involved in football jersey sponsorship continued and the current number of 29 financial service companies across the six markets is over 28% up from two seasons ago. In contrast the decline in the appearance of telecommunications companies continued to a present level of 12 companies. This is almost a 35% decline the number two seasons ago.
Wealth divide in Barclays Premiership widens – Top 6 take up 80% of market
The difference in the level of the sponsorship deals for the Top 5 clubs in the English Premiership and the Bottom 5 has once more increased. The Top 5 deals for Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Newcastle United for this season averaged €8.9m per club, up from €8.7m the previous season. In contrast, the average of the Bottom 5 deals for Middlesbrough, Norwich City, West Bromwich Albion, Portsmouth and Crystal Palace slipped €0.2m to a level of €0.5m per club, a mere 6% of the level of the Top 5 clubs. When the SPORT+MARKT Jersey Report was first started in 1999-2000, the Bottom 5 deals were only a quarter of the value of the Top 5. When one includes Tottenham’s deal with Thomson, the Top 6 deals out of 20 (30%) account for 80% of the market value.
Oliver Butler, account director at SPORT+MARKT comments:
'The recent resurgence in the advertising sector in Europe and in the UK helped by the UEFA EURO 2004 has been reflected by an increase in the overall size of the European jersey sponsorship market for the following season. It has been the historically underperforming markets of France and Spain that have helped to boost these sums. The Spanish increase is despite the fact that one of the largest deals in Spain and Europe, that of FC Barcelona, remains unfulfilled despite being close to a €15m p.a. deal with Bet & Win. The French increase comes despite consistently poor results for the sponsors in this market through the multitude of sponsors on one jersey.
'The English market was the only one to see a decline in the total value. This was disappointing not only as it bucks the upward advertising trend in the UK, but also since the new domestic TV deal for the Barclays Premiership gives greater exposure for sponsors with more live games than ever before. When the international reach of the Premiership is considered - Premier League games are broadcast on TV in over 180 countries with a global home reach of around 600m - the opportunities for jersey sponsorship in the Barclays Premiership are probably the best value out all the European markets. People say that the value of club shirt deals is only worth what the industry will pay. However, we believe football sponsorship, of which club shirts are the most developed form, still does not enjoy the same level of professional research and evaluation as other marketing disciplines, and as long as that remains the case, it will continue to be undersold.'
SPORT+MARKT AG is a leading institute specialising in the area of communications research and consultancy. We conduct over 300 studies annually in the field of sponsoring research, as well as assist companies, agencies, media, clubs and associations for the optimization of their individual strategies within the international sport sponsoring market.
SPORT+MARKT is responsible for innovative new research projects, such as a European Club Positioning Matrix (Sport5) and the first ever European Naming Rights Evaluation Tool (e.g. Allianz Arena/Bayern Munich and Juventus FC) to be implemented.
For a full list of our clients, products and services visit – www.sportundmarkt.com.
For further information please contact:
Oliver Butler, UK Account Manager
Tel: +44-(0)207 614 3344
Fax: +44-(0)207 614 3345
www.sportundmarkt.com
oliver.butler@sportundmarkt.com
Key points from the report:
European Jersey Sponsorship Total climbs to €330m
The total annual volume for the clubs in the top leagues in the six investigated markets was €330.8m. This climb of €10m on the previous season, meant that the fall of the previous season was stemmed. This upward trend was, however, bucked in England alone where total deals for the clubs in the FA Premier League were down €2m to €60.8m.
Bundesliga and Premiership’s market shares drop
The German Bundesliga, while still the largest market in Europe (despite being for only 18 clubs), saw a reduction in its market share of jersey sponsorship volume from 27.7% to 26.8%. The FA Premier League also saw its market share fall 1% point to 18.4%. (see chart 1 below). On the other hand there were increased shares for the French Ligue 1 (13.1% to 14.3%) and Spanish Primera Division (9.8% to 10.7%). Italy’s Serie A (20.5%) and the Netherlands’ Eredivisie (9.3%) maintained the shares of last season.
France edges up on England in size of average deals
The average price of jersey sponsorship in the English Premiership slipped €0.1m to €3.0m, just above the European average of €2.9m. This was in third place behind leaders Germany (average price €4.9m) and Italy (€3.6m) and not too far ahead of France (up €0.3m to €2.4m).
Juventus – The New No 1; Dortmund drops out of European Top 5
Juventus FC has usurped Bayern Munich with the largest deal in Europe. Its new deal with Sky Sport and Tamoil, is worth €18.5m per annum (part of a €90m annual package including media rights), overtaking Bayern’s €17m-a-year deal with Deutsche Telekom. Manchester United’s new improved four-year deal with Vodafone (€13m p.a.) did not move it up in the rankings as it remained behind an improved deal between Real Madrid and Siemens Mobile (€14m p.a.). However, Borussia Dortmund was dislodged from the Top 5 by a new package of deals with sponsors for French league champions Olympique Lyonnais, which added up to €12m.
Serie A is best performing major market in costs per thousand
When considering the market values, of course, one could argue that the size of the football market in each country defines the size of the market value for total jersey sponsorship deals. Therefore in order to take into account the size of each domestic football fan base to whom the jersey sponsors are attempting to communicate SPORT+MARKT calculated the cost being paid per thousand fans aged 15-69 in each market.
Among the major markets, in terms of the size of the market it is Serie A which is the best performing with jersey sponsors paying over €2,550 per thousand domestic football fans aged 15-69. This was ahead of Germany where sponsors are paying €2,501 per thousand and ahead of the €2,469 per thousand that English Premiership club sponsors are paying.
Of course, this does not include fans of these competitions outside of their respective country, which are also exposed to the jersey sponsors and are the target for the sponsors of the bigger clubs. Here the English Premiership has previously been found by SPORT+MARKT research to be clearly the most popular with 30m fans in Europe and close to 300m outside, which means that these cost per thousand figures will be significantly diluted, meaning even greater value for money for English club sponsors.
Growth of financial services, decline of telecoms continue
The rise in financial services getting involved in football jersey sponsorship continued and the current number of 29 financial service companies across the six markets is over 28% up from two seasons ago. In contrast the decline in the appearance of telecommunications companies continued to a present level of 12 companies. This is almost a 35% decline the number two seasons ago.
Wealth divide in Barclays Premiership widens – Top 6 take up 80% of market
The difference in the level of the sponsorship deals for the Top 5 clubs in the English Premiership and the Bottom 5 has once more increased. The Top 5 deals for Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Newcastle United for this season averaged €8.9m per club, up from €8.7m the previous season. In contrast, the average of the Bottom 5 deals for Middlesbrough, Norwich City, West Bromwich Albion, Portsmouth and Crystal Palace slipped €0.2m to a level of €0.5m per club, a mere 6% of the level of the Top 5 clubs. When the SPORT+MARKT Jersey Report was first started in 1999-2000, the Bottom 5 deals were only a quarter of the value of the Top 5. When one includes Tottenham’s deal with Thomson, the Top 6 deals out of 20 (30%) account for 80% of the market value.
Oliver Butler, account director at SPORT+MARKT comments:
'The recent resurgence in the advertising sector in Europe and in the UK helped by the UEFA EURO 2004 has been reflected by an increase in the overall size of the European jersey sponsorship market for the following season. It has been the historically underperforming markets of France and Spain that have helped to boost these sums. The Spanish increase is despite the fact that one of the largest deals in Spain and Europe, that of FC Barcelona, remains unfulfilled despite being close to a €15m p.a. deal with Bet & Win. The French increase comes despite consistently poor results for the sponsors in this market through the multitude of sponsors on one jersey.
'The English market was the only one to see a decline in the total value. This was disappointing not only as it bucks the upward advertising trend in the UK, but also since the new domestic TV deal for the Barclays Premiership gives greater exposure for sponsors with more live games than ever before. When the international reach of the Premiership is considered - Premier League games are broadcast on TV in over 180 countries with a global home reach of around 600m - the opportunities for jersey sponsorship in the Barclays Premiership are probably the best value out all the European markets. People say that the value of club shirt deals is only worth what the industry will pay. However, we believe football sponsorship, of which club shirts are the most developed form, still does not enjoy the same level of professional research and evaluation as other marketing disciplines, and as long as that remains the case, it will continue to be undersold.'
SPORT+MARKT AG is a leading institute specialising in the area of communications research and consultancy. We conduct over 300 studies annually in the field of sponsoring research, as well as assist companies, agencies, media, clubs and associations for the optimization of their individual strategies within the international sport sponsoring market.
SPORT+MARKT is responsible for innovative new research projects, such as a European Club Positioning Matrix (Sport5) and the first ever European Naming Rights Evaluation Tool (e.g. Allianz Arena/Bayern Munich and Juventus FC) to be implemented.
For a full list of our clients, products and services visit – www.sportundmarkt.com.
For further information please contact:
Oliver Butler, UK Account Manager
Tel: +44-(0)207 614 3344
Fax: +44-(0)207 614 3345
www.sportundmarkt.com
oliver.butler@sportundmarkt.com