The Big Interview – Thomas Cook Sport

Danny Talbot, managing director at Thomas Cook Sport, talks to Sportindustry.biz about the number of Premier League Clubs in the brand’s portfolio, and expansion to the UAE.

Thomas Cook Sport (TCS) has a number of deals with top Premier League clubs – is it a case of the more the merrier or are they specifically targeted?

I suppose if you look at the Premier League table, we are the travel partner to many of the clubs in the top half of the league, which we are very happy about. Although in the past we have worked with clubs in the lower half of the table as well, even clubs who have been relegated. 

It’s certainly not a case of the more the merrier – we feel that where we are right now is a good place to be. When we are looking at a club we have to think: Does the club have an international ambition for the brand and their team travel – both competitive and pre-season; Does the club have a good size database and a good track record of fan engagement with their sponsors products; Do they understand we want to engage in all their travel needs from the team and execs to the supporters’ annual summer holiday.  Geography is important as well. 

We are a worldwide company, and we are well spread nationally and internationally. In the UK there are almost 1,200 Thomas Cook & Co-operative travel stores, and it is important that we’re not seen as too London or Manchester-centric.

Regarding European travel, our clubs have a great track record in Champions League & Europa Cup competition over the years and it’s very exciting to be seen as an integral part of the clubs travel operation from the team to the supporters. 

So there are a number of factors: yes we’re happy with the number of clubs we’re working with right now; geographically in the UK the clubs we have are important to us; and last but not least, the ambition of travel is important as well. We are a travel company, after all, so it’s important to us to work with clubs that have international plans.

Are the deals worth different amounts – to both the club and to TCS – or does it depend on factors such as European football given that TCS is a travel brand?

They’re not all the same, but they have a lot of similarities and we take a lot of factors into consideration and so do the clubs as well. We reach those mutual valuations of contracts and away we go. 

What do you want as a brand from your association with football clubs? Is it about association, or about directly driving business?

Well as you would expect it’s both; football is such a dominant sport in the country, it cuts across so many demographics – and that also ties in with what we want at Thomas Cook. We take people away to everything from budget holidays to luxury top-end trips, which match the range of demographics throughout a club’s supporter database. 

For those reasons we like the association with football, it is hugely popular in this country and all over the world. It will always have a section in the evening news, and normally an interview with Sir Alex or Harry Redknapp will invariably have Thomas Cook branding around those guys. That association at that top level is really important for us, and the international exposure is significant. 

However branding we feel works on a sub-conscious level, we are a travel company that takes many millions of people away every year. So therefore as a business driver, with all the ways that we can access the supporters – in stadia, TV, online, through membership schemes, social media, email – we can engage with them and offer unique discounts. 

We also take supporters to go and see the team domestically and internationally, which actually drives business for the company as well. So, to conclude, it’s both really – it does drive business but the brand association with a sport as massive as football is vitally important to us too.

You’ve just expanded into the Middle East after announcing a new deal with MMI Travel – is this something you hope to develop further?

Thomas Cook is a worldwide company, we’re in about 22, 23 countries, but there are parts of the world where we don’t have an outbound operation. One of which is the UAE; we have business in Egypt but not the United Arab Emirates, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Also in South Africa – we take lots of people there, but we don’t have an outbound operation. 

We have a very popular product called Match Breaks, which includes a ticket to one of our clubs’ games, one or two nights in a hotel, stadium tour, museum trip, matchday programme, that sort of thing – sometimes a discount voucher in the club shop as well. This is very popular internationally, more so than domestically and everyone involved likes the package. The clubs like it because they get a new customer to their club, who invariably tends to have a higher spend on their visit as well because they are more likely to go to the club shop and buy a shirt, some snacks or food and beverages from the outlets in the stadium, so it’s very popular internationally.

Where we don’t currently have a strong presence though, we are looking for good sports travel tour operators that want to get involved in these packages and help us grow them internationally. It’s about meeting people like MMI and others in places where we haven’t got a strong presence ourselves, and combining to bring a lot of people on an inbound tourism project. 

I was in Liverpool for the weekend – two great clubs there, three if you include Tranmere! It’s a great city to go and have a good time in, whether you’re primarily there for business or for the football, and then there’s London where of course you can have a great time too. So these weekend breaks, where you can experience the city, maybe some theatre, along with the football, is an idea that is very popular.

How do ‘home’ competitions, such as the Six Nations with the Welsh Rugby Union, compare with international deals such as Formula One for your business?

Yes the Six Nations is obviously a largely domestic based competition, although a lot of people love to travel to France and Italy and want that flight, hotel and ticket included. As travel partner to the WRU we are very proud of their Grand Slam success this year. Domestically, we are also the Official Short Break Provider for the London 2012 Games.

Then there’s Formula One which, apart from Silverstone, is obviously an outbound programme – but that’s where we are as Thomas Cook Sport, we have a real mix of outbound and inbound business. 

Formula One will be very exciting this year with Sky Sports involved; if you remember 20 years ago when they came into football and revolutionised the way we watched football with different angles, big screen and everything else they brought into the game, what impact will they have on F1? We certainly hope they can take the sport to the next level, and if they can we will be right there to capitalise on that newfound enthusiasm. 

And that is the key for us; being there. It’s great all the HD, 3D stuff available, and everyone likes to sit in the living room with a nice cup of tea, but being there is the ultimate – there is nothing like it.

Do you have plans for future sports deals or is the plan to concentrate on maximising what you have?

We are certainly happy with what we have for now, but that doesn’t mean we’ll ever close our eyes and ears to the market. From a UK perspective, particularly football, there’s only so much room within the UK for development as a commercial entity, so all of the clubs want a more international aspect to them – which is fine in most respects but it does mean they will have to make the effort to travel to different countries and engage with fans abroad. 

For instance, it was announced that two of our clubs – Arsenal and Manchester City – will face each other in the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing on the day of the Olympic Opening Ceremony. That’s very interesting. OK, it starts as a friendly game, but where is that going? The development of the NFL holding competitive games in Europe has demonstrated that if executed well it can be very beneficial for the sport, but I do get a real fear of fans not accepting it in this country. It’s important clubs get the execution of this right when it comes to supporters, whether this be in 3, 5 or 10 years time. It’s an interesting aspect to the football business. 

With any of these sports, we are interested in seeing where it goes internationally, if that means a commercial deal then great, if it means travel to those events then that’s fine as well. 

We keep watching, we keep developing. Sport is very exciting, it constantly evolves and we strive to make sure we are there at the cutting edge to ensure we are in line with that change.