TEAM MARKETING Uefa Club competition licensing programme

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.

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. 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. Daniel Hammond

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

Gillette Champions Edition

consume football in a very different way to previous generations. For licensing, the youth market is one of our focal target audiences as they are the future fans.

Which are your main territories, in terms of licensing business?

We deliver pan-European competitions with a global viewership and following. We have over 2.5 billion UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League fans globally and they are present across all regions. Europe is obviously our biggest market and our primary focus. Matches are played in European time which makes it, in some territories, difficult to follow matches live due to the time difference. In addition, UEFA club competitions are strong in most global markets, particularly

in Latin America where we have a huge fan base due to the number of local players featuring in the competitions, as well as strong growth in audiences across the US and Asian regions.

Can you tell me more about the eChampions League?

Since 2018 we have worked with EA Sports to integrate the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Super Cup competitions into the annual FIFA simulation game. Using FIFA we have developed the eChampions League e-sport competition which is part of the wider FIFA Global e-sports series.The concept is to replicate as authentically as possible the real world football matches into the e-sport arena, including the iconic UEFA Champions League identity and anthem, offering gamers a truly unique experience. The eChampions League is exclusive to the Playstation platform as they are an official partner. These e-sport events offer the opportunity of on-site and digital activations for both UEFA and our commercial partners, providing additional exposure and the opportunity to be exposed to the notoriously difficult to reach younger

UEFA Europa League apparel and merchandise range

audience. The annual e-Champions League final takes place on the eve of the UEFA Champions League final in the host city. The 2020 competition was an exception due to the COVID pandemic and was instead delivered as an online invitational event, showcasing eight of the best FIFA players. EA and UEFA provide players with a unique experience aligned with the UEFA Champions League and giving the gamers a platform to feel like real football stars, enjoying behind the scenes football experiences as well as prestigious products from our Licensing Partners. In addition, the eChampions League winner can lift the trophy won the previous day pitch side in the build-up to the UEFA Champions League final, as happened in Madrid in 2019 when NYC Chris lifted the inaugural trophy. The idea is to go beyond

Icons.com authentic memorabilia

just gaming and to allow the gamers to feel like the icons who adorn the realworld football pitch.

You are also working on the experiential licensing. Could you tell us something more?

Experiential licensing is away to bring the brand to life and allow interaction with the competitions in regions where matchesare not usually played. These venues can create additional retail opportunities for our licensing partners, new activation opportunities for sponsors and broadcasters and offer clubs a platform for activations linked to the competitions in that region due to the wide appeal of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League respectively. We want to createa unique UEFA experience that the fan may not have been able to have under normal circumstances. The experiential concepts are wideranging and can include match viewing Topps Match Attax trading card game

opportunities, fan entertainment activations to get people actively playing football, as well as potentially theme parks and brand road-shows in areas with high footfall. The ambition is to effectively engage with fans in interesting ways relevant to a particular region as well as creating value for our commercial partners in a protected competition environment.

We are looking to launch the first UEFA Champions League Experiences in the Brazil Mexico and the UK, each with a very different concept, with many other locations under discussion. The first experiential venue we hope to open this year will be in SãoPaulo in Brazil and will be named the “Champions League Experience”, but obviously the COVID pandemic is dictating our plans to open venues at this time. This will be a match viewing concept with a sit down food and beverage operation and an interactive UEFA Champions League tour showcasing the best of the competition and its rich heritage.

Am Ball official replica trophy We also hope to open a “football skills based activation” in London called Metrix. This concept focuses on different football performance elements, such as shooting accuracy and speed, offering the player a score card of their performance. Supported by a food and beverage operation, the whole family can enjoy an active experience with a competitive element to it. We expect a viral element to this activation with players taking their scores and competing both at the venue and online afterwards to showcase their own performance.

The final experiential concept we hope to launch in the next season will be a threeday UEFA Champions League Final match viewing concept, the “Champions League Fan Festival”. Historically UEFA have a Fan Festival in the host city of the final, but were keen to offer this experience outside of Europe to fans who would not normally get to experience such an event.

What are your plans for the future?

UEFA’s club competitions work on a three-year commercial cycle and we are currently in the midst of the 2018-21 cycle. Our sales team are actively in the market looking at new opportunities for the 2021-24 cycle,with partnerships starting in July 2021. Excitingly, we are also launching a new competition for the 2021-24 cycle which will open up even more opportunities. UEFA’s third club competition will be called the UEFA Europa Conference League and will provide more clubs with a chance to play in European club football competitions as well as creating new Licensing opportunities.