These days, it seems every tiremaker and his dog participate in motorsport. This is fine of course, and a good way to boost brand awareness. But serving as a tire supplier involves considerable product development costs, not to mention the logistics and planning associated with each championship round. 
And motorsport sponsorship only reaches a particular target audience – unless, as we’ve seen throughout this year, in cases where the tire supplier finds itself on the receiving end of negative media attention.
Of the top five tire manufacturers, just one has opted to swim against this tide of motorsport involvement. Continental has opted instead to invest its sponsorship budget in a sport where there is nary a tire in sight and it needn’t fear a grilling from the press the morning after each championship round. And it has being doing so, with very positive results, for some time now.
Soccer has in one form or another been part of Continental’s history for more than a century. The German tiremaker and automotive supplier did a brisk trade in soft rubber soccer and rubber soccer bladders in its early days, and began its initial soccer sponsorship in the 1950s with local club Hannover 96.
In those days, stadium advertising was unknown and shirt advertising was banned, a far cry from the lucrative sport sponsorship business today. Soccer took off as a sponsorship tool for Continental in the modern sense of the word in 1995, following the UEFA decision to replace the European Cup with the Champions League. The company signed up as an official partner, and the arrangement quickly paid off for Conti. The German firm says the Champions League proved superior to any other sporting event in terms of its ability to boost awareness of Continental name amongst motorists and potential customers, and by the end of the first season brand awareness was already on the rise in all of the company’s core markets.
More recently, Continental has entered into sponsorship deals for the FIFA World Cup, starting with the event hosted in Germany in 2006, and UEFA Euro, which it first sponsored in 2012. It supported this year’s FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil and in June was an official partner to the DFB Cup Final in Berlin. Continental is also linked to the men’s national teams in Spain and the Netherlands, as well as in France, where sponsorship also includes the women’s national team, and in England, where Continental sponsors the FA Women’s Super League. Sponsorship in England and the USA also extends to the national soccer associations – The FA and US Soccer.
These links to the beautiful game are regularly communicated in the company’s advertising and Continental’s own surveys show that more and more drivers have internalized the connection – which in turn drives sales as consumers are far more likely to buy brands they recognize. Conti notes that high awareness of its flagship brand generates dependable demand for its products.
Continental draws attention to one particular survey that indicates its soccer sponsorship activities reach 100% of its core target group. The company found that awareness of the Continental tire brand has increased in all markets since 2003, in some cases substantially. Remarkably, this is even true in its German home market, where brand recognition rates have risen from an already high 88% to 93%. The largest increases in Europe occurred in Poland and Russia, with brand awareness respectively rising from 45% to 62% and from 30% to 55% as of 2012. Furthermore, Continental is also profiting from a new trend – a growing interest in soccer amongst female fans. This provides access to a target group that has not always been easy for tiremakers to effectively reach.
“As by far the world’s most popular sport, professional football (soccer) has proved an outstanding central communications platform for us,” comments Nikolai Setzer, executive board member and head of Continental’s Tire division. “Since 1995, we have recorded a steady increase in brand awareness for our premium Continental brand and have fired up the brand image with the powerful emotions from football stadiums around the world…It is hard to imagine Continental not being involved in football. Football has a fundamental role to play in society at large – and for our premium Continental brand in particular.”
Continental’s contract with the FIFA World Cup is up for renewal next year and its current agreement with UEFA continues until 2016. The finals of UEFA EURO 2016 will be hosted by two-times European champion France, a country that also happens to be one of Continental’s largest and most important European markets. (Tyres & Accessories)
