By Mark Baber
June 17 – Portugal Telecom (PT) chose the day of the Portugal’s World Cup opener against Germany to announce it has renewed, for four more years, the sponsorship of the national football teams, maintaining until 2018 support for the A, B, Olympic, under-21 and under-16 teams.
The new agreement marks a continuation of the relationship between the telecoms operator and Portuguese national team football which has lasted for 16 years.
According to PT, the new contract entails the use of various brands of the group in healthcare communication, marketing, events, product launches and services associated with the teams, in addition to advertising exposure.
The Portuguese national team has a number of long-term sponsorships including from Sagres (since 1993), from Nike (since 1997), BES (since 2004) and Galp Energia (since 1999).
Portugal Telecom also sponsors Futebol Clube do Porto, Sport Lisboa e Benfica and Sporting Clube of Portugal and will have an increased presence during this World Cup as it is in the process of merging with Oi, Brazil’s largest telecommunications company, which is an official sponsor and technology partner of the event.
No figures were released regarding the sponsorship value, but a study by Cision released last week suggested that sponsoring brands would stand to benefit to the tune of €150 million – if the Portuguese national team reach the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Portugal’s chances of progressing from the Group stages, however, were significantly dented a few hours after the announcement, as the team went down 4-0 to Germany.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734804647labto1734804647ofdlr1734804647owedi1734804647sni@r1734804647ebab.1734804647kram1734804647