Football September 29, 2020

Could linking with Barcelona and Real Madrid be the brand booster your business needs?

La Liga is rapidly becoming huge in the Middle East. Just take a look around your city – you’ll see Barcelona, Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid shirts proudly worn by fans everywhere.

It’s partly due to the commitment of this football league to the Middle East region – La Liga has established a Dubai office in recent years and appointed a regional Director to this part of the world.

But it’s mainly because of the appeal of its Spanish teams, particularly Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona – with world class players, thrilling matches and a brand of football famous around the world.

This growing love of La Liga presents a huge opportunity to brands in the Middle East that want to engage with a young, sport-loving audience.

We recently enabled our client, Mohammed Bin Rashid Al, Maktoum City, to sponsor virtual LED pitch-side banners at Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid away matches – with exceptional results. For relatively low costs this brand reached a vast, yet targeted audience and benefited enormously from having its name associated with some of the world’s most popular teams.

The big advantage of virtual LED boards is that they are only shown to audiences in the regions that the brand wants to target. In the case of this client, this meant people watching in the Middle East and North Africa only. This way, the sponsor avoids the big costs – and wasted opportunity – of global rights, while being associated with the international brands that also associate with La Liga.

Another important benefit is that brands often gain more exposure than they pay for. Mohammed Bin Rashid Al, Maktoum City gained 50% more airtime than they booked. The value for money of this approach, together with the simplicity of getting involved, makes localised LED boards by far the most cost-effective way to associate with world class football teams.

Philippose Thomas, Marketing Manager at Mohammed Bin Rashid Al, Maktoum City, was thrilled with the results, commenting: “Our leadership team were very impressed by the exposure we received throughout the Mena region and the ability we had to showcase our key messages.”

If you’d like to explore the options for your brand to reach large and engaged audiences, get in touch today, or view a copy of our brochure here.