New categories enter sports sponsorship

From the glamour of Paris to the sedate suburbs of Bournemouth, there are signs that the world of sports sponsorship is being shaken up as luxury and B2B brands enter the market. 

What’s happening

• LVMH recently announced it would sponsor the 2024 Olympics in Paris, in a €150m deal that includes designing the winner’s medals.
• Louis Vuitton has just signed up its first athlete as a brand ambassador. It is also involved in the 2023 Rugby World Cup taking place in France in the autumn.
• Prada has sponsored the China women’s football team, whose interest in the FIFA Women’s World Cup has just ended. (Pre-tournament, a post of the team wearing its suits was viewed 300 million times on Weibo.)
• A world away from these, business data analytics firm Dun & Bradstreet is to become official training kit sponsor for AFC Bournemouth in football’s English Premier League.
• It joins other B2B football sponsors including Oracle (Premier League), DXC Technology (Manchester United), FICO (Chelsea), Standard Chartered (Liverpool). 

What it means 

As a French company, it’s not necessarily that surprising that LVMH would choose to associate itself with two global sporting events taking place in its home country. But as the example of Prada demonstrates, there’s a recognition of the huge levels of media attention and viewing figures such events bring for brands, giving them opportunities to put themselves in front of a whole new audience.

Meanwhile, as the Premier League cracks down on sponsorship by gambling companies, there are opportunities for new categories to step in. Online car companies and crypto businesses have already had a go, B2B companies may be next.  

Sourced from Financial Times, WWD, Glossy