LMA Business Club e-news issue 1 - January 2010

The Business of Football

With a heritage in the sport dating back more than 100 years, and commitments ranging from grass roots community programmes to the official sponsorship of the Premier League and the LMA, Barclays has become synonymous with football. But what does the bank get in return for this commitment? The Manager talked to Matt Appleby, Barclays' Sponsorship Director.

Has the sponsorship changed people's perception of Barclays?

Our sponsorship of the Barclays Premier League gives us the chance to associate ourselves across the world with the excitement of top flight football. Our research shows that this powerful emotional association can help make customers and football fans feel more positive about our business.

In terms of pure media exposure, the sponsorship must deliver. But how else do you evaluate the media coverage?

When you take on a global sponsorship like ours, you need a rigorous scientific approach to evaluate it. We use two external agencies to monitor our sponsorship. One tracks visual and verbal references to the Barclays Premier League across global media so that we can quantify our exposure and scrutinise changing media trends. The other evaluates consumer opinions of our sponsorships and the impact on our business.

UK football has a massive global fan base. How does this benefit Barclays?

The Barclays Premier League is the world’s most popular league, with over 200 countries screening games. This global reach and popularity helps us achieve our business goal of becoming one of a handful of banks leading the financial services industry. The Barclays Premier League increases our brand awareness globally and, importantly, in markets where our brand is still growing such as the Middle East and Asia.

What are the direct returns on investment from the sponsorship?

In addition to the global brand benefits I've mentioned, we also generate direct commercial return. For example, Barclays Wealth banks a significant proportion of all current Barclays Premier League players and managers, and more than 500,000 customers in seven countries have Barclays Premier League credit cards.

What does Barclays' relationship with the LMA mean?

We have been a sponsor of the LMA since we first started sponsoring the Premier League in 2001. This is because we recognise what an important role managers play in the game today. More often than not, it is the manager who is the face of a club, and the Barclays Premier League - whether at a press conference or post-match interview, managers are so often the focal point.

What is the Barclays Spaces for Sport programme? Is it important to be recognised as sponsoring more than just football?

We are very proud of the Barclays Spaces for Sport programme. It is a five time award-winning project that supports sport at grass roots level. Over the last five years, we have invested over £37m in creating sports sites in areas that need them most. We now have over 200 sites across the UK (with 50,000 people using them each week) and overseas projects in South Africa, USA, Spain and Zambia, with further ones planned.

For more information on LMA's Lead Sponsor, please click here to visit the page on the LMA website or contact Emma Rochlin at the LMA on emma.rochlin@lmasecure.com or 01926 831556.