Industry Shorts: Mufc, Paris 2024, Tough Mudder, Six Day, Fanatics

Manchester United has announced a new multi-year global marketing partnership with the Marriott International hotel group.

As part of the agreement, 120m worldwide members of the Marriott Bonvoy Moments loyalty programme will be able to redeem their points against exclusive ‘Manchester United Moments,’ including the chance to act as the club’s Stadium Announcer, Welcome Team and Kit Manager on matchdays.

A campaign launch film features a range of familiar faces from Old Trafford bringing the experiences to life.

Get closer to the first team! Be the Kit Manager or Stadium Announcer for the day with our new partner @MarriottBonvoy https://t.co/ffOf8ibITb pic.twitter.com/UIHeraqvHk

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) February 20, 2019

The Paris 2024 Organising Committee has proposed breakdancing, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing as its four “additional sports” to feature on the medal programme of the 2024 Olympic Games.

The move will see breakdancing make its debut as an Olympic sport in 2024, pending final approval by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It follows the success of the breakdancing competition at the Youth Olympic Games in 2018.

Skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing will all feature in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, having been proposed as “additional sports” by Japanese Games organisers, alongside baseball / softball and karate, which look set to miss out in 2024. Squash, billiards and chess also campaigned unsuccessfully for inclusion.

Alongside the additional sports, Paris 2024 also revealed unprecedented mass participation plans, including the opportunity for members of the public to take part in the Olympic marathon.

Sports licensing specialist Fanatics has been named as one of the “top 50 most innovative companies” in the world by Fast Company, whose editors and writers compile an annual list ranking businesses across 35 industries and every region in the world.

Manchester-based Fanatics, shortlisted for the Cutting Edge Sport Award at the BT Sport Industry Awards 2019, was listed as the second most innovative company in Sport behind one of its partners, the NBA, and ranked at number 40 in the overall list. 

The company was particularly recognised for its ‘vertical commerce’ model which combines a tech platform with an agile supply chain and on-demand manufacturing to create a broad and responsive assortment of high-quality merchandise for sports fans around the world.

Snickers has been named as the official protein bar partner for the 2019 Tough Mudder UK event season. 

As well as handing out bars to finishers, Snickers More Protein will also be sponsoring The Block Ness Monster Obstacle out on the Tough Mudder course, which is designed to test participants’ teamwork and communication. 

The agreement adds to Tough Mudder’s portfolio of partners for 2019, which includes Lucozade Sport, Toyo Tires and Soap & Glory.

The Six Day Series has announced Phynova as title sponsor for the inaugural Manchester event held at the HSBC UK National Cycling Centre on the 22nd-24th March. Phynova, the natural healthcare products manufacturer, partnered with Six Day London in 2018 to become the first London race title sponsor and has now committed further to the international series.

The brand joins a number of new and returning series sponsors for Six Day Manchester including Singapore Airlines and Kalas.

Six Day claims the three-day event is headed for a sell-out, with a field that includes Laura Kenny, Great Britain’s most successful Olympic female athlete.