BEYOND PARTISANSHIP: FOOTBALL CLUB SPONSORSHIPS THAT TRANSCEND TRIBALISM

By Tom Gladstone

The Premier League ban on front of shirt gambling ban has created a glut of football club sponsorship opportunities in market. Prospecting sales decks are hitting the inbox with unprecedented frequency, and if we’re feeling the uptick agency-side, odds-on that brand-side marketing teams are being inundated. Deals are landing – from shirt sponsorships like Brentford + Indeed and Everton + CMC Markets, and sleeve sponsorships including Arsenal + Deel – but plenty of sponsorship outreach will hit a familiar roadblock: fear of alienation. Club sponsorship creates a classic perceived tension – alignment with a single club’s fanbase at the risk of rejection (or outright hostility) from rival supporters. 

All sponsorship sales teams have anecdotes of brands avoiding sponsoring individual football clubs due to concerns over fan partisanship. The boardroom fear of picking sides has echoes of Michael Jordan’s refusal to endorse a Democrat candidate ‘because Republicans buy sneakers too’.

For brands buying into Premier League clubs primarily for national or global eyeballs, that concern fades somewhat. But for brands that want to leverage football for campaigns, storytelling, and deeper engagement, the size of the prize is around 35 million (UK) football fans. Limiting ambition to a single club fanbase – below 2 million for all but the top handful of clubs – is leaving considerable value on the table.

However, we are seeing an increasing shift towards football partnerships that transcend partisanship and refuse to be prescribed by single-fanbase view of the opportunity. Brands are deploying smart creative strategies that enable single-club sponsorships to punch above their weight and engage the wider football audience, not just the individual club fanbase. So how are they doing it?

Partisan-proof purpose

A compelling way to transcend club allegiances is the find causes or values that all fans can support. It is hard to sneer at a brand using football to do good. And some things unite all fans and tap into the sense of football fan ‘righteousness’ – that undefined moral code that all fans seem to buy into.

COVID-19 provided a catalyst for such purposeful pivots. When Cadbury launched their Manchester United sponsorship during lockdown, they tapped into the communal experience of live football to address social isolation. In the “Donate Your Words” campaign with Age UK, Cadbury brought a group of older Man Utd fans to Old Trafford as VIP guests, highlighting an issue (loneliness) that affects 1.4 million old people in the UK. The campaign’s uplifting images and ‘support the elderly in your community’ call-to-action earned widespread positive coverage and appreciation far beyond Man Utd’s fan base. Rival fans weren’t asked to love Man Utd, they were invited to join a good cause.

More sustained, less reactive cause-related examples include Nivea’s ‘Dear Liverpool’ campaign platform. Season after season, Nivea use their football partnership to give deserving, needy or disadvantaged individuals a Liverpool FC-related surprise of a lifetime, creating content with personal stories that tug on the heartstrings regardless of club affiliation.

Fan-centricity

Many club partnerships are founded on an impassioned commitment from brand to club – ‘proud sponsor…’ being the well-worn shortcut to the sense of kinship. But there is a more compelling way to forge fan connection – don’t say you’re on their side, demonstrate it. By campaigning on behalf of fans, brands can resonate beyond a specific club fanbase.

Virgin Media’s ‘Twenty’s Plenty’ is often held up as a gold-standard of fan-centric activation. The brand used their sponsorship of Southampton FC – and a collaboration with Football Supporters’ Federation – to campaign for a £20 cap on away tickets. For one round of fixtures, it reimbursed every away fan in the Premier League the cost of their ticket above £20, effectively slashing prices across the board. It was an act of generosity that transcended club loyalties, turning a single-club shirt deal into a nationwide fan-first initiative. While having such a tangible, transactional benefit for away fans may seem like ‘cheating’ – not every sponsorship can deliver such utility to all – the magic was as much in the insight. Virgin Media recognised the loyalty of travelling supporters and the financial burden that went with it, against a backdrop of escalating travel costs and ticket prices.

Another example that fits the ‘campaigning rather than campaign’ approach was Paddy Power’s acclaimed ‘Save Our Shirt’ idea. The betting brand unveiled a Huddersfield kit with an absurdly oversized sash logo, drawing outrage about “commercial sellouts”. Two days and millions of social media impressions later, Paddy Power revealed it was all a hoax. The real kit was logo-free, part of a campaign to “unsponsor” shirts and give them back to fans. By satirising how clubs make walking billboards of supporters, the stunt captured fan attention, sparked a nationwide debate on gambling ads and earned the brand kudos for championing supporters’ interests. Whether or not fans really cared about oversized sponsor logos was debatable, but Paddy Power’s fan-centric crusade positioned them clearly on the fans’ side.

Universal football truths

Showing a genuine understanding of fandom was at the heart of Meta’s recent Arsenal partnership launch. Titled “It’s Official,” the launch video captured the nervous optimism of Arsenal supporters chatting in WhatsApp groups and Facebook communities during a tense title race. It showcased the real-life rituals familiar to fans of any club: friends trading memes and voice notes, planning watch parties, commiserating after losses and clinging onto hope. By zeroing in on the emotion of fandom – the connection and belonging at the heart of football – the idea transcended club-specifics. Tapping into those universal football truths made it an ode to football culture, not an Arsenal story.

Talking of Arsenal stories, the ‘Who Are Ya?’ film from new fintech partner Airwallex could not have been more saturated in Arsenal-ness. Directed by die-hard supporter Spike Lee, it features Arsenal legends (Thierry Henry, Rachel Yankey, and Martin Keown), current players, archive footage, Arsenal memorabilia, various ‘Easter eggs’ for Arsenal aficionados, all set a quintessential North London boozer. However, it is as firmly rooted in terrace humour, pub chat and fan debate, introducing the new brand to football in a way that supporters of any club will relate to. The production values and cultural cross-over with cinema (stardust provided by Spike Lee, Aaron Pierre, Jasmine Jobson and Nick Moran’s lock-stock-esque cameo), add even more resonance for general football fans.

The creative dividend

Evidently, Meta and Airwallex are not partnering with Arsenal simply to engage, connect and service Arsenal fans exclusively. Their blueprint is clear – single-club partnerships can be used as a narrative platform for a broader, football-wide idea and message by identifying universal football truths and communicating them with clarity, emotion and creative craft.

Underpinning all the successful strategic approaches is the need for creative impact. Showmanship, distinctiveness, emotion – identified by Orland Wood’s research on the hallmarks of creative effectiveness highlighted by System1 – are a clear red thread through the campaigns from Nivea, Paddy Power, Airwallex and others cited above. Club partnerships provide compelling ingredients for brands that buy into creativity as a commercial differentiator. They are a shortcut to fan emotions through something they care about (football). They provide distinctive brand assets and IP to help brand stand-out. And used with the right creative strategy, as outlined, they can transcend tribal loyalty.

The traditional foundations of football club sponsorship remain intact. They can still deliver brand exposure to mass football fan audiences on a national and global basis. And they can still deliver consistency of attention and depth of connection to a die-hard, loyal, partisan audience who are likely to prefer sponsor brands to non-sponsors. The club’s core fanbase remains the low-hanging fruit for sponsorship engagement (provided you can bridge the sponsorship gap – a story for another blog). But tapping into fan culture, community, cause or creativity can allow sponsors to have it both ways – benefiting from the deep passion of partisan club supporters while also connecting with the wider football community.