In today’s fourth part of our look in detail at how Nissan activated its sponsorship of the UEFA Champions’ League, we look at how sponsors integrated themselves into the match day event at the San Siro and explore whether some of the tricks might find their way to Croke Park or the Aviva Stadium…
The San Siro Stadium in Milan is an imposing ground rising from a low level neighbourhood and flanked by Milan’s horse racecourse.
It’s sheer stands rise to dizzying heights and there could be few more dramatic stages on which to play the final of the Champions’ League.
Bringing 80,000 fans through the city streets is nothing new for Croke Park in September but entertaining the VIP guests in a stadium where corporate hospitality is at a premium was a challenge for UEFA and its partners.
The creation of the Champions’ League village 100 metres from the ground provided amble space for each of Nissan, Heineken, Sony, Gazprom and others to build their own entertainment pavilions that go way beyond what we would consider as a tented village.
Their was live music and entertainment on a raised stage and the technical innovation in Sony and Nissan in particular was a showcase for important clients that will live long in their memory.
There was a degree of comfort that avoided entry and exit at largely the same time as the main body of fans but once in the stadium the corporate seats were positioned within the main body of the ground allowing the maximum from the electric atmosphere that the fans produced.
There were a couple of neat tricks as well. Corporate tickets as they are for many international events these days, at least in the corporate areas were laminated and on a lanyard enabling easier security of movement but also an opportunity for sponsors to brand their message.
MasterCard did this particularly well with their ticket holder incorporating a pre-loaded card that enabled you to buy beer and refreshments from staff that were walking among the corporate seats. That was the only means of payment so it added a measure of exclusivity for their guests.
Nissan were able to ferry their gustiest from the city centre using their own vehicles and allowing a sensory experience of the product that attached them even stronger to the event.
The stadium announcements helped to raise the level of excitement even further with fans fully buying into the moment with the announcer calling the first name of the platers as the teams were introduced and the fans rising in a chorus to cal out the surname.
Whether a more reserved Irish crowd would follow with the same gusto is open to some doubt but there is no doubt it raised the temperature by another couple of degrees.
Merchandising is a key revenue stream for UEFA and others and the positioning of pop up shops was geared to extract maximum spend. It’s not something we do around big events here but there is a certain appetite and if street vendors can make a killing from knock off Champions’ T-shirts, flags and scarves it may be that the GAA and County Boards, or the IRFU and FAI could explore as well, perhaps in partnership with Elvery’s who already have fixed stores at each of the main stadia.
It will be interesting to see what the organisers of the College Football match at the Aviva Stadium do in this regard in September just 24 hours before the All Ireland Hurling Final.
Monday: Interview with Nissan Head of Marketing, Jean Pierre Diernaz
Thursday: Match Day Activation
