Emirates - FIFA World Cup 2014

Emirates - FIFA World Cup 2014

Soccer’s huge popularity around the world has made it a magnet for carriers looking to raise their profile. Over the last few years, fast-growing airlines such as Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines have been using using soccer to build their brand names and reach a broad audience.

Emirates in particular has spent lavishly to become one of the world’s biggest sponsors of sports, including half a dozen European soccer teams such as Real Madrid, Paris Saint Germain, Arsenal and AC Milan – four of Europe’s top 10 clubs by revenue. According to BusinessWeek, the GBP150 million Emirates is paying Arsenal for five years is more than five times the entire sponsorship budget of Lufthansa.

According to an estimate from London-based Brand Finance, Emirates also spent about USD100 million over the past four years to be one of FIFA’s six top “partners,” a group that includes Adidas, Coca-Cola, Hyundai/Kia, Sony and Visa.

Being an official FIFA partner also gave Emirates the opportunity to take central stage at the World Cup final.

Or as BusinessWeek nicely put it:

As the jubilant German soccer team hoisted its World Cup trophy and FIFA President Sepp Blatter preened, a phalanx of Emirates flight attendants flanked the scene in frozen smiles. The women, dressed in their beige Emirates uniforms topped off with red pillbox caps, presented the German athletes with gold medals on silver trays. That gave it the chance to place its flight attendants in countless images of the winning team.