LAST WEEK TODAY: MOST POPULAR DOESN'T MEAN STAGNANT

MISSING SPONSORSHIP NEWS?

Check out the blog every Monday for a weekly roundup of the past week's most exciting and industry-altering news. These stories cover February 5-11, 2019.

Soccer - or football, if you're anyone besides an American - is the world's sport, and it took over the world of sponsorship news last week. Somehow, some way, despite already being the most popular sport worldwide, it continues to grow - check out those Asian Cup numbers! Stateside, we're still dissecting the best activations of the Super Bowl (and TBH, preparing for the ones to come at Coachella). There were some more updates to our category and event analyses this week, check them out below.

1. The world's favorite sport was in the news all over last week; we'll be covering stories from England, Germany, Italy, and the United Arab Emirates.
   • England:
     • Marketing Week reported on Coca-Cola's marketing launch promoting its Premier League sponsorship. The campaign is called 'Where Everyone Plays' and features everyday fans as well as ManU player Jesse Lingard.
     • Team England's resurgence at last year's World Cup is giving the EFL's youth development league a boost - 20/23 players on the WC squad went through various clubs' programs. Will we see increased sponsorship activity at that level?
   • Germany:
     • Current Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund have signed on with streaming service Deezer. There will be match day and player-provided playlists.
   • Italy:
     • Two very different deals in Serie A over the last week; the first was AS Roma's new deal with Giphy. It's the first Italian club to sign on with the GIF platform; you'll soon see Roma stickers, and player and season highlight GIFs.
     • Up in Milan, Inter and AC Milan signed with Fratelli Beretta as "Official Supplier" and "Official Partner" designations, respectively.
   • United Arab Emirates:
     • The Asian Cup Final was contested on February 1 between Japan and Qatar, with Qatar pulling off the upset. Last week, however, social media engagement numbers came out for the tournament and they're FANTASTIC. Comparing 2019 to the last Asian Cup in 2015, engagement has almost doubled. Nice.
2. Super Bowl stories are still coming out, and Chief Marketer showed us some of the Big Game's most unique sponsorship activations - one of which was new sponsor Pizza Hut, who took over after the NFL and Papa John's parted.
3. UFC has renewed its airline partnership with AirAsia; the deal first launched one year ago. You can check out other airline deals as well in this blog.
4. Tandem's local NBA team - the Golden State Warriors, you may know them - have signed a deal at the team's new arena with Google Cloud. The real question: will this mean better tech for just the team, or the fans too?
5. The reformulating Davis Cup has extended with timekeeper Rolex. You may recall from this blog that Rolex also has a career Grand Slam in addition to its Davis Cup championship. Interested in Rolex and timekeeping specifically? Check out this article by Tandem's Emily Copperud.
6. Weekly Tandem features getting your attention:
   • Wendy's, the 2/7 #SponsorSpotlight brand, is known for blowing up Twitter with its witty and snarky replies. Turns out the brand can do sponsorship too:
     • The fast food brand is jumping in with the NHL, signing with two teams since December: the Tampa Bay Lightening & Columbus Blue Jackets. Not sure about you, but there's not a hockey game I've attended that a Frosty wouldn't make even better.
   • Wondering how to plan an experiential activation? Our latest blog has you covered.

Did we miss any? Tweet @be_tandem to let us know - we hate being behind the times just as much as you do.

Look out next Monday for the usual round-up on sponsorship news.