TMCnet News
Business of Sport: ADIB banking on local football to connect communities [Sport360](Sport360 Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Followers of the Arabian Gulf League (AGL) will be well aware of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank's (ADIB) involvement with the domestic game. Since the beginning of the 2010-11 season, football stadiums around the country have been emblazoned with messages from the company on matchday, while the bank also supplies half-time entertainment and prize draws to keep fans engaged. The success of the partnership prompted ADIB to renew its sponsorship of Pro League Committee (PLC) competitions for a further three years at the beginning of this year. Sport360°'s Martyn Thomas caught up with the bank's senior vice president and Group Marketing Director, Petr Klimes, to discuss their involvement with domestic football. Q ADIB has been involved with the PLC since 2010. What first attracted the company to football in the UAE? A We went into football for a few reasons. The first was to connect more with the Emirati youth, because it is a language that they speak. They are passionate about football and we know that 60-80 per cent of them follow a club, and most follow one of the local clubs. That's why we wanted to develop a local platform rather than going after an international club. We also wanted to re-energise the brand. We had just rebranded in 2010 and wanted to bring more energy to the brand. Football was a good way to do that. The decision was obviously commercially driven but was there a desire too to improve standards in local football? As a UAE bank, we believe in giving back to the community. By supporting the football league we can connect with the local community. We believe strongly in the future of UAE football, that's why we don't just work with the professional league but also at the grassroots level with youth. We also believe football is part of our CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) where we promote an active lifestyle for the public, which is why we also sponsor the Future Champions League. What does football mean to ADIB? We are a very interactive brand, we are not a brand you just see on the billboard. We are a brand that you can go and touch and feel. So we don't use football just for branding, or just for commercial purposes. We use it as a tool to connect with the community. Also, we reach out to the fans, so if you go to an Arabian Gulf League match you will meet ADIB there with our stand and we try to entertain the fans with competitions and activities. We also use football as a platform to develop promotions and products. For example, we were the first bank in the region to launch a football-related credit card and we did that as part of our sponsorship. How successful have the AGL branded credit cards been? We cannot share the exact numbers but we met the goals we had with that product. The product basically enabled people to put the name of their club on their card and proudly carry a card as a fan of Al Ain or Al Jazira or any other club. We are now working on phase two of the product and we will be launching some new features towards the end of this year. Other banks in the region have partnered with top international clubs. Was that ever a temptation for ADIB? We are an Abu Dhabi bank and we believe local football is of a very high quality. The Arabian Gulf League is very professionally run and it is a good enough platform for us to reach our target audience. We also didn't want to be associated with any one specific club. We wanted to be associated with UAE football as a whole because we are a bank that is present in all the emirates. So we needed to give benefits to each and every fan, whether he supports Al Ain or Al Jazira or Al Dhafra. Everybody benefits from our sponsorship. We will do whatever is right for the brand and for the community. We felt it was very important that we partnered with UAE football, that was absolutely the right decision and we are tracking very closely what the association has done to the brand. Our goal was that ADIB would be considered the bank of football in the UAE, so that a football fan would naturally have an affinity with us. Based on the tracking that we do every quarter, we are clearly the bank that people associate with football in the country. As a sponsor are you happy with how the AGL is developing? We started to partner with them in 2010, initially for three years, and we have renewed for this season and another three years. There has clearly been huge progress from the beginning until now. The league is adopting best international practices. As a sponsor they help us achieve our objectives, whether that is in branding, fan engagement or business promotion. There is still a long way to go but the progress has been very significant and has given us comfort as a sponsor that we have control over our investment. Are there any improvements in the AGL you would like to see as a sponsor? One of things that is already in the objectives of the AGL, and is part of our objectives, is to reach out beyond the traditional target audience, which is the Emiratis. On that journey we are completely aligned with them, as a bank historically we were only focused on Emiratis, but while we remain focused on them we are trying to add another segment, which is the expats. So as they are opening up and trying to attract expats into the stadiums we will work closely with them and support them in that. As you have mentioned, the bank also sponsors the Future Champions League youth football tournament. How happy are you with the competition's progress? The Future Champions League is one of our key assets at the grassroots level and enables schools in the UAE to participate in a professionally run football competition. It is run according to FIFA rules, we use professional referees and we hope that some of the kids that play in the competition, one day will be the stars of the UAE. Is ADIB looking to add other sports to its sponsorship portfolio? Football is going to be a long-term platform for us. We will definitely continue to support it. We are looking to add other sports, either as a long-term platform or on an adhoc basis. We are looking for something where we can reach both men and women and we are looking for the most suitable sports. (c) 2014 Gulf Sports Media All rights reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info, an Albawaba.com company |