Hyundai Bolsters European Club Football Sponsorship Deals

Following partnerships with Serie A’s A.S. Roma and Bundesliga’s Hertha Berlin, Hyundai has five major football sponsorships in the region, including recent deals with EPL club Chelsea and La Liga’s Atletico Madrid. It has also been backing Ligue 1’s Olympique Lyonnais since 2012. The auto firm is posting increasing sales in Europe, despite tepid growth in the US and China.

“AS Roma is another club with a hugely passionate fanbase that aligns with our strategy of placing fans at the heart of all our activities, and we look forward to giving back to these fans over the course of the upcoming season and beyond,” said Andreas-Christoph Hofmann, vice president of marketing and product at Hyundai Motor Europe.

The deals running until 2021 will also see Hyundai’s logo emblazoned on the back of the A.S. Roma’s shirt and on the left sleeve of the Hertha Berlin shirt, as well as a host of activation campaigns in the stadium and across other club platforms.

Looking at this huge US$90b turnover company, Hyundai IS football, and has been for years. Beyond the European club football deals, the chaebol’s global football pedigree includes:

• Of course, a FIFA World Cup partner (2018 microsite here), with consumers inspired into their live activation campaign by (among others) French football legend Thierry Henry
  • For the US market, Hyundai commissioned a 14-day serial programme called History of Football with A&E Networks (History Channel) which was part of the pre-World Cup progamming.
• A UEFA Partner from 2000-2016, including a 2010 renewal into the “EUROTOP” programme which includes ancillary European championships including the U21 Championships
  • Volkswagen have subsequently replaced Hyundai with the Korean brand switching tack to the “2nd tier” UEFA Europa League

Closer to home, Hyundai have continued to place markers on football platforms in many Asian countries:

• Ownership of Ulsan Hyundai, a leading football club in South Korea’s K-League
• Unbroken title sponsor of the Australian A-League since inception in 2005. Their TVC for the 2012/2013 season sums up how Hyundai IS football
• Philippine National Football Team (Azkals)
• South Korean National Football Team
• China FA Cup
• AFF Suzuki Cup, ASEAN’s sub-regional championship
• Singaporean Football club, Tampines Rovers
• Another Korean football club, Busan I’Park
• & more

The data proves the point too: Football is the leading platform of choice for the Hyundai Group (ASN has tracked 21 sub-brands to date in Asia!), investing over US$39m into the sport in the last 5 complete years (2013-2017), representing an average share of 29% of its US$135m budget in that period.

That said, Football’s share of their budget has eased in that timeframe: from 31% in 2013 to 27% in 2017 – and in 2015, Hyundai clearly made a strategic decision in 2015 to consolidate its Sponsorship spend into less platforms. In 2014, their spend straddled 17 platforms; by 2015, it had dropped to 11… and 10 in 2016. 2017 saw them increase again to 14 platforms, with experimental sub US$100k spends in 4 new platforms including – tellingly – eSports.

Some of the auto maker’s bigger ticket platforms in Asia – which have created some of the bigger swings in the above data, include:

• A 2-year endorsement with NBA basketballer Lebron James (for Asian markets) in 2014 & 2015
• 5-year sponsorship of Team India, the national cricket team, starting in 2016 (preluded by a Tier 2 sponsorship of the Indian Premier League 2008-2011)
• Title sponsor (Kia) of the World Extreme Games (which skipped a year in 2016)
• Ownership of the Kia Tigers baseball team, the leading KBO team, purchased in 2001 and activated since

Looking wider still at a consolidated view of Hyundai’s agglomerated brands, the brand has built up its investments slowly since 2008. 2016 was its quietest year in spend terms (US$19m, 29% below the 5-year average) but the recent spike in Q1 this year – created by the Hyundai-Kia sponsorship of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang – appears to have jump-started the auto maker’s pulse again.

To summarise, this picture – namely a resurgence in 2017 & early 2018, experimentation with 4 new platforms (including eSports), plus sustained investment into global platforms that reinforce their Asian sponsorship spend – means that this South Korean giant is taking its brand sponsorship seriously; this is a brand to watch in Asia for 2018 and 2019.