The 2012 Best Global Football Brands Based on the 13th Annual Best Global Brand Report

Hi guys,
According to Interbrand‘s 13th annual best global brand report, the 3 most valuable global brands in 2012 are Coca-Cola, Apple and IBM. I had a look at the ranking and asked myself the following question: “How did football brands do?” Let’s have a look

If you check out the “Sponsorship” category on this blog, you will read/notice that many non traditional football brands are massively involved in this sport. Many, and different reasons explain their interest (positioning, image, new demographics, etc…), and I want here to outline how well (or bad) they are featured on this list.

I decided to focus on FIFA & UEFA sponsors and partners. I will publish a separate article for club’s shirts sponsors. It breaks down as follow:

FIFA Partners FIFA World Cup 2010 partners:
adidas
Kia/Hyundai
Coca-Cola
VISA
Emirates
Sony

FIFA Sponsors World Cup 2010:
Budweiser
Castrol
Continental
Mc Donald’s
MTN
Mahindra
Seara
Yingli Solar

UEFA Champions League, UEFA SuperCup and UEFA Europa League sponsors
adidas
Unicredit
MasterCard
Playstation
Gazprom
Heineken
Ford

Football Manufacturers
adidas
Nike
Puma
Umbro
Under Armour

UEFA Euro 2012
adidas
Coca-Cola
Kia/Hyundai
Mc Donald’s
Sharp
Castrol
Carlsberg
Canon

Clubs Official Shirt Sponsors
Samsung
Emirates
Deutsche Telekom
Bwin
etc…

Based on the 2012 Best Global Brands, the ranking of the 2012 Best Global Football Brands could be:

1- Coca-Cola
7- Mc Donald’s
9- Samsung
10- Toyota*
26- Nike
30- Canon
31- Budweiser
40- Sony
45- Ford
53- Kia/Hyundai**
60- adidas
74- VISA
92- Heineken
94- MasterCard

My 5 Key takeaways-
1) The first 4 brands featured on this list are non sporting goods brands.

2) Only TWO sporting goods brands of 100 brands.

3) The 1st sporting goods brand to show up is Nike, a non FIFA/UEFA sponsor.

4) At least 14% of the brands are investing in football. I have not included brands that have a more local impact than global.

5) Very surprising not to see Emirates in the Top 100 2012 Best Global Brands. With a major stadium naming rights deal with Arsenal in addition to global partnerships with Real Madrid, AC Milan, PSG, the UAE airlines is absent on this list.

Okay, this list was not targetting only brands investing in football. Despite the fact that it is a list extended to all industries, the brands which invest massively in football are present. Nike, adidas, Sony, MasterCard, Visa to name a few, and have a warm spot on the list, regardless their ranking.

What if Apple, Microsoft or Google have an approach à la Coca-Cola in football? Obviously, a long term strategy is key, but these brands have the financial backup.

Could we see in the next 5-10 years Google taking over from Bwin on a Real Madrid shirt? Will GE partner with FIFA and become the official light supplier of the 2022 World Cup?

Your thoughts?

Karl Lusbec

* Toyota is the FIFA Club World Cup Sponsor, hence I did not include it in neither category

** Kia/Hyundai is the official FIFA partner. On the list, both brands are separate. I chose the one that has the best ranking…..because I am a nice guy!