Why would an airline sponsor a football team? Why would many Middle East region airlines do it? What is the benefit? What is the risk? To understand, let’s look at the value of sponsorship, the way it works and the brand loyalty that it engenders.
Sponsorship has seen significant growth as a tool in the marketing communications mix over the last twenty years.1 IEG values global sponsorship activity at $62.7 billion in 2018. Statista.com gives the global sport sponsorship market at $40 billion and rising in 2015.
Moreover, growth in spending on sponsorship outstrips that on advertising and the gap between the two is widening. The declining effectiveness of traditional media is one of the factors behind the growth of sponsorship.
Football plays an important role in the field of sport sponsorship. Seven of the 10 largest sponsorship deals in Britain were football sponsorships at the turn of the century.
