Sir Galahad
Debutant
- Jun 21, 2015
- 84
- 365
- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
Audi has an interesting approach to sports sponsorship. They've long under-spent their direct German rivals on marketing, while spending a big proportion of their marketing budget on sports sponsorships.
And their sports sponsorship is carefully targeted. Most car companies sponsor sport largely for general brand exposure - meaning its not critical which teams you sponsor. Audi is more selective. They focus on their demographic (younger buyers of prestige vehicles); and on associating their brand with sporting success, the values their demographic aspire to, and cultural relevance.
In practice, this means they target particular sports or segments of sports that are most relevant to their demographic, such as soccer across Europe; winter sports across northern Europe & Canada; soccer and (until recently) polo in the uk; and the leading international comp for weekend-warrior golfers.
It also means that they target sporting teams with long track records of outstanding success. For example, in European soccer, they sponsor traditional power-house teams Real Madrid, Barcelona FC, Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Manchester United.
Notice the pattern? Hawthorn is to the AFL/Australia what each of those teams is in their country - the most dominant team over the last generation or so, in the pre-eminent (ie culturally relevant) sport.
Having targeted the AFL, they would have picked Hawthorn for its record of success, possibly combined with Hawthorn's perceived association with certain values.
I find it laughable that Audi went to the AFL and asked them which AFL team to sponsor. Only the AFL spin machine could come up with a story like that.
Audi also sponsor whole sporting leagues/competitions. For example, in soccer they sponsor Major League Soccer and attempted to sponsor the Champions League.
When they originally approached the AFL, my guess is that they enquired about sponsoring the whole league... At which point Gil's minions tried (and unsurprisingly failed) to sell them on sponsoring St Kilda or the Bulldogs.
And their sports sponsorship is carefully targeted. Most car companies sponsor sport largely for general brand exposure - meaning its not critical which teams you sponsor. Audi is more selective. They focus on their demographic (younger buyers of prestige vehicles); and on associating their brand with sporting success, the values their demographic aspire to, and cultural relevance.
In practice, this means they target particular sports or segments of sports that are most relevant to their demographic, such as soccer across Europe; winter sports across northern Europe & Canada; soccer and (until recently) polo in the uk; and the leading international comp for weekend-warrior golfers.
It also means that they target sporting teams with long track records of outstanding success. For example, in European soccer, they sponsor traditional power-house teams Real Madrid, Barcelona FC, Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Manchester United.
Notice the pattern? Hawthorn is to the AFL/Australia what each of those teams is in their country - the most dominant team over the last generation or so, in the pre-eminent (ie culturally relevant) sport.
Having targeted the AFL, they would have picked Hawthorn for its record of success, possibly combined with Hawthorn's perceived association with certain values.
I find it laughable that Audi went to the AFL and asked them which AFL team to sponsor. Only the AFL spin machine could come up with a story like that.
Audi also sponsor whole sporting leagues/competitions. For example, in soccer they sponsor Major League Soccer and attempted to sponsor the Champions League.
When they originally approached the AFL, my guess is that they enquired about sponsoring the whole league... At which point Gil's minions tried (and unsurprisingly failed) to sell them on sponsoring St Kilda or the Bulldogs.
