Industry Shorts: Uefa, Soccer Aid, Laliga
UEFA has announced that Expedia Group will continue as the Official Travel Partner of the UEFA Champions League for the 2021/22 season.
The one-year deal will see Expedia Group – with its brands Expedia and Hotels.com – continue to sponsor the UEFA Champions League, as well as taking rights for the UEFA Super Cup, UEFA Youth League finals, and the UEFA Futsal Champions League finals.
The brands will leverage their League sponsorship through multi-market brand campaigns, highlighting the ‘enormous power travel has to strengthen connections, and unite football fans with their teams’. Hotels.com will celebrate the ‘unique experience’ of the UEFA Champions League, providing exclusive access to pitch-side experiences throughout the season, while Expedia will showcase itself as the ‘ultimate travel companion’ via content and campaigns ‘combining football, travel, and companionship’.
Charity football match Soccer Aid for UNICEF has announced Primark as a Principal Partner for the 2021 game – the second year in a row that the high street fashion brand has linked up with the event.
The deal will see Primark customers given the chance to donate in UK stores until the match on 4th September, while the brand will also provide suits from its formal range to be worn by the players on match day.
The partnership is part of Primark’s long-standing support for UNICEF, which has seen the fashion retailer donate over £4.5 million since 2018.
LaLigaTV has officially unveiled its broadcast line-up for the upcoming season, following the announcement that coverage would be fronted by Gary Lineker.
The channel – which offers UK and Ireland fans of the league live matches as well as a host of other content – has ‘revamped’ its line-up of studio shows, and announced former Real Madrid defender and Middlesbrough manager, Aitor Karanka, as a pundit, as well as Eva Marcela, formerly of Mexico’s TV Azteca and more recently of LaLiga Xtra as a new presenter.
Marcela will host a daily recap of major headlines and developments across LaLiga Santander, while Lineker will present key fixtures for the channel, as well as featuring regularly on its VIVA LaLiga studio show.
Meanwhile, LaLiga has also announced a partnership with KORE Software, which will ‘optimise’ its approach to partnership and activation management globally, according to the league.
LaLiga’s 11 global offices and all of its partners will have access to the software which provides enhanced service, collaboration, and insights to help manage global sales initiatives and sponsorship deals.
The league says the solution will provide it with real-time partnership success measurement for commercial deals across different countries and currencies, helping it more efficiently build multi-market activations.
