MediaMarkt kicks off the 2018/19 season by expanding its football sponsoring in Germany’s three professional leagues
Ingolstadt, 07.09.2018: Media Markt is increasing its involvement in professional football. In time for the 2018/19 season, Germany’s number one consumer electronics retailer has signed new partnerships with Bundesliga teams SV Werder Bremen and 1. FSV Mainz 05 as well as with the long-standing second division club FC St Pauli based in Hamburg. Moreover, contracts with another 13 clubs in the top three divisions have been renewed. Back in January 2018, MediaMarkt and FC Ingolstadt 04 announced that MediaMarkt would remain both one of the main sponsors of the team as well as its official shirt sponsor. All in all, MediaMarkt is now partnering a total of 17 clubs in Germany’s three professional divisions.
MediaMarkt has been a sponsor in German professional soccer since the 2015/16 season and continuously increased its activities over the years. “People all over Germany love football. And this perfectly complements MediaMarkt’s motto: ‘It’s all about you having fun!’” Therefore, from the outset we were determined to cover as much of the country as possible with our sponsoring activities. Our strategy of closely involving local stores in sponsorship for nearby clubs has been a great success. We’re all the more delighted that our partnership with many teams has now entered its fourth season and that we’ve managed to grow our activity,” declared Lennart Wehrmeier, COO MediaMarktSaturn Germany and responsible for the MediaMarkt sales brand.
In the season 2018/19, MediaMarkt has once again adopted an extensive activation strategy for all its partnerships, both regionally and nationally. A separate activation strategy is implemented for each club with the involvement of MediaMarkt stores in the local region. In the past, this has included for example the integration of football clubs into local advertising, autograph sessions with players, ticket raffles and joint events, in some cases organized by MediaMarkt exclusively for members of its customer loyalty programme, the MediaMarkt Club. All activities are accompanied by plenty of promotional activities in football-related media. For example, the live ticker of football magazine ‘11FREUNDE’ is presented by MediaMarkt, and the company also appears in the kicker, Onefootball and Transfermarkt apps.
For the 2018/19 season, MediaMarkt has signed sponsorship deals with nine teams in the Bundesliga: SV Werder Bremen, Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Eintracht Frankfurt, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, RB Leipzig, VfB Stuttgart, 1. FSV Mainz 05 and SC Freiburg. In the second division, MediaMarkt is a main sponsor and the shirt sponsor of FC Ingolstadt 04, and also a partner of DSC Arminia Bielefeld, Dynamo Dresden, FC Cologne, and the two Hamburg clubs FC St. Pauli and Hamburger SV. In the third division, the agreements with Hansa Rostock and Karlsruher SC have been renewed. The sponsorships cover in particular partner status, title and logo rights, TV-relevant LED perimeter advertising (which for first division clubs also includes virtual perimeter advertising for FIFA 19), social media services, local activation options and ticket packages enabling the involvement of customers, partners and employees.