Emirates – What keeps the brand ticking
Emirates put sponsorship at the heart of their marketing strategy. They saw it as the most cost-effective way to build the profile of their brand, gain credibility, tell their story and secure global media exposure. Once the premium airline carrier dipped their toes into this huge section by sponsoring the 1987 Powerboat race and after tasting success, Emirates couldn't turn back.
‘Fly Emirates’ eventually became a tag-line, people all over the world are too familiar with. Over the years, Emirates Airlines has significantly expanded its footprint worldwide and in the U.S, through its vast number of sports sponsorships. For a 30 year plus brand, the figures are impressive.
Their portfolio is as impressive as their fleet: Cricket (4), Golf (27), Rugby Union (5), Football (10), Tennis (11), Horse Racing (Numerous), Sailing (1) and Motor sport (1). The impressive Emirates Stadium in London, the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, a cable car connecting the East End of London to the Greenwich Peninsula and the Emirates Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth. Their logo seems to be literally everywhere.
From November through April each year, Emirates supports more than 40 events with over 100 sponsorship deals in some of the biggest sports. The Dubai Based airline put a marketing strategy together like no other; a strategy that replaced everyday advertising with sports sponsorship. Emirates stuck with sports sponsorship as it captures people’s emotion – as an audience and a fan we cheer with teams for their success and cry with teams for their failures. The psychology behind it is simple – with sponsorship also comes entertainment, what better way to spread your brands name.
According to Insights in the USA, 91% of the top 100 telecasts last few years were for sports programming, and sports drove more than 50% of the social TV conversations on Twitter. As a brand, Emirates have not only taken the sports sponsorship sector by storm but have also been smart about where they dip their toes.
When it comes to Cricket, Emirates realized instead of sponsoring separate tournaments and teams just sponsoring ICC match officials, gave them a presence at every international match played across the Globe. More than Cricket, football has proven to be of more value to them, Football comprises almost half (49.8 %) of all online exchanges focused around Emirates and sport. No. 2 is golf (16.2 %) and No. 3 is cricket (14.8 %). Tennis, Rugby, and Sailing represent the rest of the brand’s online conversion. Their sponsorship is all connected to non-Olympic sports, a simple explanation for this is the fact that sponsorship happens every year for longer periods of time.
Football is one of the world’s greatest sport and it’s only fitting that their sponsorship rates will be as big. Emirates signed the most expensive sponsorship deal ($332 million for a time period of 4 years, running until 2022) in European Football with Real Madrid’s new kit. Their tie up with Arsenal Football Club goes way back (2004) and apart from the shirt sponsorship, they proudly to hold the naming rights to Arsenal’s home ground, Emirates Stadium. As three-time winners of the English Premier League, 12-time FA Cup winners and regulars in the UEFA Champions League, Arsenal is one of the best supported clubs in the world allowing Emirates to reach an International audience. Research shows that Arsenal has a phenomenal global fan base, and Emirates is confident that it has found a true world leader to partner with on the international stage.
The Dubai based Airline has a close tie up with FIFA and the England FA, where they get global exposure because of the number of fans from different areas following the sport. The Emirates Cup is an annual two-day pre-season football tournament; a tournament which brings over 100,000 people to the Emirates Stadium over the course of a weekend to enjoy some of the world’s best teams going head-to-head. The idea of hosting their own tournament took their Sports sponsorship strategy to the next level, and this way of 360 degree branding helps to further increase brand awareness and understanding of the product offering while forming deeper connections with fans by enhancing their experience.
As a brand, one looks at the sport that will match the company’s marketing strategy perfectly- Emirates followed this to the crisp and have decided not to sponsor a Formula One Team; Formula one is a sport that’s target audience is mostly rich people; having already sponsored so many different sports, the company easily realized that the sport did not need more money. With football, it reaches everyone. There is no point in going back to the grass roots in Formula One, instead they went on with a standard partnership with the sport, running until 2022.
Emirates Airline & Group sees sponsorship as vital in the airline’s marketing strategy. They believe sponsorships are one of the best ways to connect with global passengers, this in turn allows them to build closer relationships. According to Gulf News in 2014, The Dubai based Airline company spent over 1 Billion Dirhams ($275 million) on sports and social sponsorships. They have developed a vast strategy that is based around sponsorships - through in-depth research, it is clearly seen that sponsorships are used as an advertising supplement.
Another clever and gripping marketing strategy of the airline is the fact that it ties up its flights with sports- When Emirates opens a new route anywhere around the world, it usually comes with a branding sponsorship announcement. For example, when Emirates decided to infiltrate the US market by adding New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Boston, Washington, and later on Orlando, to its list of destinations, they announced major sponsorship agreements with the New York Cosmos, a football team made famous for having Pele and Franz Beckenbauer as its players in the 1970’s, and the US Open becoming the ‘Emirates Airlines US Open series’ in 2012.
From 2003 to 2011, global marketing expenses grew by 41%, from $342 billion to $483 billion and in the same period, investment in sports sponsorship grew by 88%, from $26 billion to $49 billion. Emirates is right at the center of this by posting a $ 670 million profit for the financial year ending 31 March 2017.
Emirates quickly learned that it’s not always about the brand but it’s about the people and their communities. How better can it get? Connecting a brand to the culture of the country/area – there is no other way to make a lifelong mark- always a smart way to build ‘brand love’. What the Dubai based airline company has done is dominate a sport and then gone after every other notable premium sport targeting affluent businessmen, particularly to ensure they capture the entire sporting sponsorship market. With so many sponsorships already on the line, one can only imagine how much bigger its going to get.
Emirates Group has thoroughly executed the ‘Go Big or Go Home’ thought process in their strategies. Whether it is in regards to connecting to their passengers through sports or spreading their wings into the untapped markets, this strategy has seen them reap high rewards in variety of sectors. When they started their sponsorship journey with the first powerboat race in 1987 or their entry to Global Football with Chelsea FC in 2001, one would have merely given a chance to Emirates to be in the forefront of sports sponsorship deals across the globe. Using sports as their fuel, Emirates have grown into or better to say muscled themselves as a global brand and today, they continue to set the bench mark in the marketing world – turning everything they touch into Gold!