Is Shirt Sponsorship Worth It?
Is Sponsoring Man Utd Going To Be The Consumer Brand Moment Snapdragon Needs?
Snapdragon (the brand) is unknown to most consumers, if not almost everyone.
It’s Qualcomm’s consumer-facing brand. Maybe you’ve heard of them? Don’t worry most haven’t and wouldn’t recall the brand.
Well if you haven’t heard, I wouldn’t worry about it you’re about to see Snapdragon many times a week. Queue the Eric Cantona teaser above.
Their quick backstory:
Snapdragon is a chip in many smartphones and laptops (think PC laptops that are surfaces, Dell’s etc) that many use for work.
Snapdragon is looking to leverage the AI movement and this is a (smart) brand play
Snapdragon is a Mercedes AMG F1 team sponsor
Why has Eric Cantona returned to Old Trafford? The Snapdragon brand has just become the shirt sponsor of Manchester United, meaning they’ll be featured on the kits (think live TV coverage, Match Of The Day, social media highlights, fans wearing their team kits (home, away and 3rd shirts) & global TV ads constantly in your social feeds through players, TV and in your daily lives).
The BIG Question: Is £60m A Year Worth The Investment?
Will $75m/£60m a year (for a 5-year deal) sponsorship of one of the top teams in the world be worth it for Qualcomm and their consumer chip Snapdragon?
Or is this more of an awareness play? Will the CMOs get the leeway and the access to make this worth the big long term investment?
But what if the brand isn’t expecting any payback from their huge investment - is this ok? In my boardrooms now it won’t be ok, it is for the Marketing & Partnerships teams to make the most out of this, to get in front of the core consumer and bring the Snapdragon brand to the forefront of the purchase cycle when buying a new laptop or smartphone with the chip in it.
Shirt Sponsorship is really the new billboard, it spreads far and wide and brand recall shoots up, but the hard question to answer is it ever going to be worth while? The Qualcomm management team have compared it to a weekly SuperBowl ad… I hope they are right and give their teams internally the creative space to make more out of it.
