The significance of Manchester United’s £10m a year training kit deal with DHL is undelined by the fact that it represents half the value of the club’s sponsorship contract with insurance company Aon. The DHL deal is worth more to United than the shirt sponsorship deal the club signed a decade ago with Vodafone.
The four year deal is a pioneering form of sponsorship for an English football club. It is borrowed from the US where players wear sponsor-branded training apparel to maximise commercial opportunities for their teams.
The significance of Manchester United’s £10m a year training kit deal with DHL is undelined by the fact that it represents half the value of the club’s sponsorship contract with insurance company Aon. The DHL deal is worth more to United than the shirt sponsorship deal the club signed a decade ago with Vodafone.
The four year deal is a pioneering form of sponsorship for an English football club. It is borrowed from the US where players wear sponsor-branded training apparel to maximise commercial opportunities for their teams.
DHL, already the club’s official logistics partner, will have its name on the bibs, tracksuits and training shirts of first team, reserve team and youth team players. The name will figure prominently in press briefings given by Sir Alex Ferguson.
The television exposure of players wearing training kit is limited to sports news bulletins and match programmes. It remains to be seen whether Sir Alex will be willing to open more training sessions to photographers and TV crews, with DHL keen to maximise exposure.
The deal is the latest in a series of commercial contracts signed by a 70-strong sales team based in United’s enlarged London offices dedicated to exploiting the global appeal of the United brand.
Two new deals are in the offing in the key Asian market. United have already announced a three-year partnership deal with Beeline, Vietnam’s leading mobile phone company. This is worth at least £1m a year. Beeline will help to distribute United content and media in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Another deal is being lined up with a Malaysian snack food manufacturer, Mister Double Decker. This will see the United brand associated with the company’s Mister Potato brand of crisps and chips.