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Interview
TEAM MARKETING
UEFA CLUB COMPETITION LICENSING PROGRAMME LM met Daniel Hammond, Head of Licensing at TEAM Marketing AG, the exclusive global agency for the exploitation of media and commercial rights relating to UEFA men’s club competitions, to learn more on the licensing strategies being employed to develop UEFA men’s club competition brands, and the steps being taken into experiential licensing.
Daniel Hammond
Champions League Experience, Brazil How is licensing structured for a brand such as UEFA? TEAM Marketing has been working as UEFA’s full service marketing partner for club competitions since the inception of the UEFA Champions League in 1992, responsible for Sponsorship and Broadcast rights in addition to the Licensing Programme. Regarding licensing, our focus is to find new and credible fan engagement opportunities, promote the competition brands and associated values, and from all this to create additional interest to view matches and create tangible revenues. The UEFA ambition for licensing is to reach a wider audience, not only those already engaged with football, and to work with Partners who are already experienced in interacting with these target audiences. This allows UEFA to reach new fans through established and credible partners and products. I think the starting point when looking at
our licensing programme is to note the complexity of our commercial landscape with many stakeholders, including clubs and European national leagues. The UEFA club competition licensing programme is based around the use of the world renowned competition marks, without having direct access to the centralised IP for competing clubs and players. UEFA Licensing Partners are able to exploit the prestigious and globally recognized club competition brand assets with the possibility to combine any licenses held for clubs, featuring in the competition that season to create a unique offering for fans. Alternatively, each club can order a separate full range of merchandise and apparel unbranded products for any season they feature in that competition via UEFA’s club servicing programme. Licensing categories for UEFA club competitions must respect any exclusive Sponsor category protection, with the aim to create additional value to UEFA and commercial partners.
Which is the main target for your consumer products, if compared to the football fanbase? Importantly, licensing can bring new football fans into our environment as well as offering existing football fans additional ways to interact with the competition brands. If you look at the Video Game and eSports category as an example, the majority of gamers come from a younger demographic who often eChampions League
