#14 Marijn Luchtman, Just Eat Takeaway – Sponsoring the UEFA Champions league & key lessons from 2024
Marijn Vredendaal-Luchtman is the Global Head of Sponsorships at Just Eat Takeaway.com, one of the world's leading online food delivery marketplaces. Known for its memorable TV advertising campaigns (Did somebody say…), Just Eat Takeaway last year extended its sponsorship of UEFA’s men’s club competitions, including the Champions League and Europa League, until 2027.
Marijn faces the challenge of activating one of the most complex rights packages in world sport across 11 months of UEFA club competitions each year, culminating in the Champions League final—the most-watched game in team sport, reaching a global audience of 450 million viewers.
In an ultra-competitive industry, Just Eat needs to convert eyeballs into orders. Live sport is a natural fit for food delivery firms, but how do they make it work?
In this episode, Marijn shares her insights on making sponsorship activations speak to football fans all across the world, leveraging influencers to extend the value of media rights, and using UEFA football as a platform to help grow women’s sports.
You’ll learn:
2:21 How to truly connect with a global football fanbase
4:50 How UCL sponsorship rights allow Just Eat to align with live sport
6:14 Creating unique content with influencers
8:46 How Just Eat ensures brand visibility throughout the customer journey
13:34 2024 Champions League Final: Blending digital and physical experiences
16:40 Integrating Just Eat’s regional teams into sponsorship activities
19:17 UEFA’s women’s competitions and creating a more responsible sponsorship ecosystem
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26:06
#13 Jasmine McCrawford, Jacksonville Jaguars — “We've lowered average season ticket member age by 10 years"
Jasmine McCrawford is Director of Brand & Strategic Initiatives at the Jacksonville Jaguars. One of the NFL's youngest teams, the Jaguars are executing a bold strategy to reach and engage fresh audiences in ways other teams haven't yet dared.
The most-travelled NFL team, with a decade of international games at Wembley Stadium in London, the Jags puts equal focus on maximising engagement on home turf, battling against powerhouse college teams and leading NFL franchises.
In this episode, Jasmine deep dives into how the Jacksonville Jaguars target demographics ranging from female fans to international audiences, with insight-driven marketing strategies. Micro-influencers and lifestyle brands all play a role in the Jags’ inventive strategy, as the NFL team continues to redefine what it means to be a Jaguars fan – from London to Jacksonville itself.
In episode 13 of The Fan Engagement Podcast, you’lll discover:
1:39 How the Jags fanbase is rapidly changing – and why
4:22 How the NFL team is tapping in to the growth of female fandom
6:57 How the Jags are luring fans away from the NFL’s most-followed teams
9:32 The power of brand and how the Jags partners with brands to strengthen affinity
11:08 How the Jags tailor fan experiences for the UK market
13:24 How the Jags builds lasting fan connections all around the world
14:51 How the Jags' exclusive merch drop is converting loyal fans into buyers
16:26 How the Jags uses social listening to discover micro-influencers
19:56 How on-field activations fuel digital engagement & sponsor activation
22:45 The key KPIs driving the Jags’ marketing strategy this NFL season
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24:04
#12 Stuart Wareman, Accor – Paris 2024, FIFA World Cup & PSG: Maximising global sponsorships
Stuart Wareman is Global SVP Experiences, Events & Sponsorship at Accor. Accor is one of the world’s largest hotel groups – made up of a global network of over 50 brands, including Ibis, Sofitel, Novotel, Orient Express and Mercure.
Accor has cultivated brand partnerships with some of the most prestigious names in sport, including the FIFA World Cup, Rugby World Cup, PSG, the America’s Cup, Tour de France, Roland Garros and Kylian Mbappe. This year, Accor took on its biggest challenge yet as a Premium Partner of the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics, which includes managing the athlete and media villages.
Exactly how does Accor measure and maximise its sports sponsorship activity? What exciting new opportunities did the Paris 2024 Olympics present? And how Accor unlocked the power of sport to grow loyalty with its customers?
In episode 12 of The Fan Engagement Podcast, you’ll learn:
1:35 Intro to Stuart and his role at Accor
3:32 How sports sponsorship has supercharged Accor’s business growth
4:50 How Accor’s sponsorship of PSG grew global brand awareness by 2/3rds in 18 months
7:07 Utilising access to sporting events as part of Accor’s loyalty programme
9:38 Messi, Mbappe, Neymar and VIP tickets: Leveraging PSG’s IP to engage sports fans
13:15 The Olympics, FIFA World Cup, Rugby World Cup… why sponsor the world’s biggest events?
16:17 The first sponsor to manage athlete and media villages at the Olympics
22:28 How Accor measures the value of their Paris 2024 Olympics sponsorship activations
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26:16
#11 Marcus Mellor, Burnley FC – How one of England’s oldest football clubs is engaging U.S. fans
Marcus Mellor is Head of Commercial at Burnley Football Club, who play in the English Football League (EFL) Championship.
One of England’s oldest football clubs, Burnley FC recently became the subject of U.S. investment, with a star-studded roster of investors including JJ and Kealia Watt and popular YouTube collective, Dude Perfect. Burnley FC is on a mission to leverage its partnerships to drive U.S. market growth.
But how is the club’s U.S. audience engagement strategy playing out so far? How does the club use first-party fan data to attract new sponsors? And how is its partnership with TikTok to stream live women’s matches disrupting sports viewing?
In episode 11 of The Fan Engagement Podcast, you’ll learn:
00:29 Introduction to Marcus and his role at Burnley
02:33 Who are Burnley FC?
03:30 The impact of American investment in English football
04:11 Why Burnley is focusing on expanding its fan base in the U.S.
05:46 How to engage new casual fans and avid loyal fans
07:20 JJ Watt and Dude Perfect – leveraging partnerships for U.S. growth
09:00 Communicating Burnley's core values at home and abroad
11:25 Burnley women's team’s unique streaming partnership with TikTok
14:09 How Burnley leverages fan data to engage new and existing fans
15:46 The importance of first and third-party data in Burnley’s growth
17:31 How Burnley uses data to attract new sponsors.
19:01 Burnley’s Take Me to Turf competition in the U.S.
20:25 Explaining promotion and relegation to U.S. investors
23:23 What the data says – Burnley's digital growth
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26:20
#10 Manny Puentes, Genius Sports – The cookie is crumbling… what’s next for sports advertisers?
Formerly CTO of MediaMath, Manny Puentes is General Manager of Advertising at Genius Sports. A leading voice in the advertising world, Manny has spearheaded the development and growth of many high-profile programmatic advertising solutions across the last 25 years.
With Google planning to phase out the third-party cookie, the advertising sector is set to undergo its biggest transformation of the last 20 years – but what does this mean for sports advertising?
In this episode, Manny discusses how sports advertisers can get ahead of the cookie phase-out, the growing importance of fan identity solutions, why it pays to be privacy-conscious with your audience engagement strategy and how sports and brands can deliver enriched, personalised fan experiences – in a world without third-party cookie data.
In episode ten of The Fan Engagement Podcast, you’ll learn:
2:13 Third-party cookie phaseout – what’s changing for brands and fans?
7:20 What does cookie depreciation mean for sports advertising?
9:36 Enhancing the fan experience through contextualised data and content
12:07 Leveraging fan identity graphs to create personalised experiences
13:02 Addressing the challenge of cross-device fan fragmentation
How do the world’s biggest sports, teams and advertisers engage fans? And what are the secrets to monetizing the world’s most in-demand audiences?
The Fan Engagement Podcast, by Genius Sports, brings you in-depth conversations with the smartest minds in sports marketing.
Our host, award-winning journalist Megan Cain, quizzes senior leaders from brands, rights holders, betting companies, broadcasters and more to bring you actionable insights on fan engagement.
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