I’m watching my favorite football team (as in soccer, for you Yanks) Aresnal take on Man U in the UEFA Champions League tonight, and at one point the camera focused in on the center of the jerseys of two opposing players. Most European club teams have a jersey sponsor, primarily for two reasons: 1) European soccer players are paid exorbitant salaries that are only rivaled by MLB baseball players, and 2) there are no commercial breaks in soccer games save halftime – another reason the sport is superior to most lethargic North American sports – so the teams need to find revenue elsewhere.
Emirates Airlines is Arsenal’s jersey sponsor, and AIG – yes, the much-maligned insurance company – is Manchester United’s sponsor. This makes sense, because no small business or startup could afford such premium space. Simply put, you can’t compete with on-jersey tactics. So what do you do when you can’t afford the jersey? Find something off-jersey, where nobody else is looking, and give them a reason to look. This could be the guys in the stands who are painted your corporate colors of orange, green and blue. Or the fellas with your logo shaved onto their scalps.
Off-jersey tactics work because they are the unexpected. Everyone expects to see a logo on a jersey, but not a guy with a logo on his head. The catch is that money buys big brands the easy way out. Off-jersey tactics are anything but easy, but when they work, they work better than anything else.
