Sponsorship in sport is more important than ever

June 16, 2011 - PRLog -- It has never been more important for marketing teams working in sport to forge ahead with sponsorship deals. This is especially true for the Eastern Region’s professional football teams. With the I’s and T’s dotted and crossed on the Sky Sports’ broadcast deal with the football league, a real terms revenue decrease of 26% is expected to hit clubs hard. Even with the Premier League exceeding expectations and generating over £1billion this year it is difficult to see where profit can be made when 90% of this is used to pay players’ wages.

Based at Carrow Road, Norwich City Football Club are no strangers to developing and maintaining partnerships with both local and international companies. Over the last 20 years they have been affiliated with companies as diverse as Foster’s Lager, Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, Colman’s and Flybe. More recently the club announced a new sponsorship deal with Aviva with an extension being announced which will see the global insurance giant’s successful partnership with the club continue until the end of the 2011-12 football season. New City Chief Executive David McNally said, “Aviva’s backing for the club over recent years has been significant, culminating in them being our main sponsor. This further extension to the deal is fantastic news and a great commitment of support to the club at a really challenging time for us, and for football in general.”

Aviva’s deal with Norwich City football club not only sees them take shirt sponsorship with the club but also includes an exciting new educational initiative linking football with money management skills for young people. Along with this, they will renew sponsorship of the Community Stand and provide funding of the club’s Ability Counts initiative and continued involvement in Canaries for the Community. Aviva also has a commitment to financial education and as such is working with Norwich City Football Club on a new initiative designed to improve financial and budgeting skills amongst young people by combining education and sport.

Since the 1980’s the need for strong offline and online marketers in sport has increased due to the growth and expansion that the different types of sports have enjoyed. This has in turn increased the level of marketing job opportunities within the sports industry. This is especially true in the East where football clubs such as Norwich City, Ipswich Town and Peterborough United compete with Newmarket Race Course and Silverstone for the best local marketers. The route into sports marketing is highly competitive with potential candidates not only having to prove their marketing ability but also demonstrate their passion for the team, event or venue in which they will be working. This passion, however, is the main contributor to driving forward new initiatives in sports marketing and clubs and venues alike should feel confident that with the expansion of their marketing teams they will continue to grow their partnership portfolios and continue to increase revenue.

For a comprehensive list of the marketing jobs available in the Eastern Region please visit: http://www.brandrecruitment.co.uk

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Brand Recruitment is the only specialist PR and Marketing recruitment agency in the Eastern Region. With the widest variety of Norfolk marketing jobs, we work with clients ranging from boutique marketing agencies to global leisure giants.