April 22 – Liverpool may have under-achieved on the field this season after finishing runner-up in the Premier League last term but their brand shows little sign of being adversely affected. The club has signed a three-year extension to their main sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered.
The deal, estimated at £30 million a season (the club is keeping exact figures confidential), will take the sponsorship through to the end of the 2018/19 season and will mean Standard Chartered will have been on the club’s shirts for eight years.
The sponsorship was first extended in July 2013 in a deal understood to be worth £20 million a year. Standard Chartered had taken over as the club’s main sponsor in July 2010.
“The sponsorship of the Liverpool shirt is extremely prestigious and only five brands will have adorned the shirt in the 40 years since we created the sponsorship opportunity,” said Billy Hogan, Liverpool’s chief commercial officer.
“At the end of this term we will have been working in partnership with Standard Chartered for almost a decade and we continue to collaborate on our shared values, passion and commitment to the community.”
The bank, which earns around 90% of its income and profits in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, has primarily used the club brand to drive its business in these markets rather than in England where it has very little retail presence.
The sponsorship has been used to support a number of the bank’s sustainability and community investment programmes including the ‘Perfect Match’ game – where Liverpool players swap the Standard Chartered logo on their shirts for the Seeing is Believing logo. This campaign has raised more than $340,000 to tackle avoidable blindness.
The club’s social media presence to educate and share awareness on HIV / AIDS on successive World AIDS Days, supporting Standard Chartered’s Living with HIV programme.
Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre says the partnership will also help grow the club’s profile in key overseas markets.
“We’ve always felt there was great synergy throughout the two organisations, particularly the reach of Standard Chartered Bank around Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and the great global support we have as a football club in those regions,” said Ayre.
“That we’ve only had five shirt sponsors in 40 years is testament to the fact people want to stay as part of the Liverpool family.”
Peter Sands, Group Chief Executive, Standard Chartered PLC, echoed this sentiment, saiying: “Liverpool Football Club is a fantastic club and hugely popular across our global footprint. Over the last five years our partnership has allowed us to deepen our engagement with our customers, clients and staff, and has provided valuable support to the charitable initiatives close to our hearts. We are very pleased to be able to continue this collaboration, and look forward to what we can achieve together in the future.”
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