What I’d Pitch Allianz For FC Bayern

👋 Welcome back to Sponcon Sports, a weekly newsletter dedicated to sponsored content strategy in the sports industry!

If your brand has an in-venue feature that engages fans during games, make sure your team is there to meet the prize winners.

Check out this example from Los Cuernos Wine. They sponsor the San Jose Earthquakes’ Mom of the Match at PayPal Park.

The Los Cuernos team captured the moment they awarded the prize to a winning fan, only to discover she was a customer. They invited the family to join them in their suite and, surprise, it was the winner’s son’s birthday.

What an incredible memory created through a local sports partnership!

In Today’s Edition:

• Digital Partnership Ideas For Allianz 💡

• Must-See Red Bull Photo Shoot BTS ☀️ 

• How To Plus Up Wallpaper Wednesdays 🕐️ 

🏊️ DEEP DIVE
What I’d Pitch Allianz For FC Bayern

We’re launching a new series called “What I’d Pitch.”

Subscribers submit the rights holder, the brand, and the goals, and I provide the ideas.

This series aims to show my thought process and how I create proposals. Plus, you get a set of free ideas to inspire your next pitch.

As a reminder, my guide to brand partner research can be found here, and this week, we’re putting it to good use.

I LOVE this week’s submission. I was asked to provide full-funnel concepts for Allianz for a pitch from FC Bayern.

Allianz is a multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is one of the world's largest insurance and asset management companies.

I'm excited to tackle this proposal's challenges: no physical product to feature, the “boring” perception of insurance and asset management, and the difficulty of [expensive] customer acquisition - especially through a sports-focused audience.

FC Bayern x Allianz Partnership Overview

Allianz has been a long-standing partner of FC Bayern since 2000, with a 10-year extension announced last year until 2033.

The Munich-based company has been the naming-rights partner of Allianz Arena since its opening in 2005 and the women’s team’s shirts since 2013.

As noted in the partnership extension press release:

• Allianz will continue to work with FC Bayern to promote young footballers at the Allianz Junior Football Camps at Säbener Straße and the FC Bayern Campus.

• The Reds’ first team squad is presented at the Arena every summer at the Allianz FC Bayern Team Presentation.

• Allianz introduced the first individual and free financial coaching course for ambitious female athletes aged 18 to 22 during the ‘23 - ’24 season. The coaching sessions can be booked online.

To learn more about Allianz’s activation on Bayern digital channels, I:

• Visited the team’s website and app.

• Used Meta’s Branded Content Search tool to spot Facebook and Instagram sponcon.

• Searched “@Allianz” on X using my secondary account which follows most professional teams and clicked “People you follow” to uncover sponsored content from Bayern teams and other teams in the industry.

Those steps highlighted some great information:

• Allianz is the presenting sponsor of FC Bayern’s mobile app.

• Allianz is the men’s team’s sleeve partner, with the badge combining the company logo and QR codes for exclusive raffles and content.

• Allianz sponsors long-form content with Football Club (FC Bayern Campus Stories - youth team profiles) as well as Bayern Basketball (All Eyes On - player profiles), Minnesota United FC (The Path - player profiles), Juventus FC (Rituals - supporter spotlight), and Formula E (Get Ready For The Best - team staff features).

Areas of Focus

Before diving into what I’d pitch, we should acknowledge one big assumption: as a naming rights and jersey sponsor, almost all Bayern fans are likely aware of Allianz as a brand.

The biggest opportunity I see is in the consideration phase of the marketing funnel. We need to align Allianz with high-performing digital assets that educate fans about their services while providing the content fans want to see from the team.

We need to go beyond branding so that when fans are ready to make a purchase, Allianz is top of mind. I also want to avoid one-off concepts and instead focus on opportunities to build comprehensive 360 campaigns.

Digital Partnership Goals:

• Drive awareness of Allianz’s product offerings during relevant Bayern moments.

• Keep Allianz top of mind among fans when making purchase decisions.

• Increase traffic to Allianz product web pages.

Looking at Allianz’s product offerings, I’ll focus on Travel Insurance, Asset Management, and Financial Literacy and Planning. Each of these areas has a strong connection to soccer content.

Travel Insurance

Allianz offers travel insurance that covers cancellations, delays, medical bills, car rental issues, and more.

They’ve partnered to create content around this offering before.

The foundation of the campaign will be social media coverage of FC Bayern’s travel to road games (occurring once per road game). Currently, this content series is unsponsored.

How did I know that? I used X's advanced search tool to see what they posted leading up to road games and found the exact dates to input via the team website.

The best way to integrate Allianz into this content is through a logo lockup, such as:

• FC Bayern Travel covered by Allianz

• FC Bayern Travel protected by Allianz

• Travel Coverage provided by Allianz

I’d recommend working with a company like Slate Teams (not sponsored) to make the integration look seamless and avoid sending ad-like signals.

The posts’ copy should include, “Insert Series Name Here | @Allianz.”

If this content series is not open, consider working with creators to produce travel vlogs to road matches. The costs will be higher going this route but you can limit it to Champions League games to reduce frequency and spending. The creator should integrate a voiceover explaining the benefits of Allianz Travel Insurance in the vlog.

Example: West Ham - Unscripted

Alternatively, fly players’ family or friends to your home city as a surprise and document the journey, again integrating a mention of Allianz Travel in the piece.

Example: Atlanta United FC x Delta Airlines - Giorgos Giakoumakis reunites with his BEST FRIENDS from Greece

We have awareness of Allianz Travel Insurance covered. How can we drive traffic to their website?

Create a travel guide email series sent to fans’ inboxes leading up to road games. The Allianz Travel logo would appear in the top banner of the email and be clickable back to their website. They would also receive a clickable ad placement in the middle of the email for key messaging. Creative can be rotated throughout the season.

Travel Guide Content:

• Game location

• Kickoff time

• Best things to do in the road city (restaurants, experiences, etc)*

• Where to stay

• Car rental or flight offers (if you have applicable partners)

• Information about Fan Club events, meetups, or watch parties

*FC Bayern would likely need to hire a freelance travel writer to compile stories about the best things to do in the road city (or it could be done by paying a Fan Club member). Alternatively, source recommendations from players.

Plus up: work with travel creators (bonus points if they’re Bayern fans) to put together video travel guides you can link to in the email. I love this “72 Hours In ___” format from @calebthill.

This approach works because it enhances the fan experience when they travel to support the team. Allianz’s placement in this email series is contextually relevant and includes services to help fans during their travels.

The final asset of this campaign would appear on the team website and mobile app. Allianz Travel would receive a Presenting Sponsorship of the Schedule Page, including a custom skin, giving the brand 100% share of voice surrounding the fixtures.

Example: White Sox x Wintrust Bank- Tickets Page

If a custom skin is not an option, include an Allianz Travel logo at the top of the page, with a widget next to each road game saying, “protect your trip with Allianz Travel.”

Example: New York Jets x JetBlue - Schedule Page

I love a good name that connects brand partners to the sport. Here’s a list of phrases sourced from ChatGPT that can be used as content series names or within Allianz ad creative:

• Travel Coverage, Booking Protection, Trip Assist, Offside Protection, Cancellation Defense, Tackle Travel Mishaps, Penalty-Free Journey, Red Card Relief, Travel Playbook, Kickoff Coverage, Extra Time Coverage, Trip Defender, Smooth Transfer, Booking Assist, and Travel Hat Trick.

If you checked out my partner research guide, you know Google was my go-to for finding names for sponsored content series. Now, thanks to generative AI, this part of the process has gotten even better.

ASSET MANAGEMENT

When I think of asset management and handling a portfolio of investments, I immediately think of roster moves.

Allianz will become the presenting sponsor of content tied to player signings, transfers, extensions, loans, and call-ups to the first team.

We could take inspiration from the Carolina Panthers and call the campaign “Building The Team with Allianz” or “Roster Moves Managed with Allianz.”

Owning this content is not something I pitch to just any brand partner.

1. It’s a high-value item because of its strong reach and engagement from the excitement of acquiring or retaining players.

2. While it’s a top-performing series, predicting results each year is difficult. “Bad” years still perform well, but there can be a significant gap in results between seasons depending on the number and notoriety of the signings.

When selling a roster moves campaign, I target top-spending partners on long-term deals. These long-term deals allow the team and the partner to focus on the overall impact rather than short-term fluctuations.

Plus Up: Have Allianz sponsor an all-access video series showing behind-the-scenes footage of the team’s pursuit of players during the transfer window.

Example: Buffalo Bills x Northtown Automotive Companies - Embedded

To create more inventory in less active seasons and drive traffic to the Allianz website, we’ll create a Bayern Transfer Window Hub across digital channels.

Custom WhatsApp and Instagram Broadcast Channels: FC Bayern will create a new WhatsApp Channel and Instagram Broadcast Channel dedicated to the team’s Transfer Window (Summer and Winter) activity. This aligns with these channels as fans want to be alerted about this news directly and share it with others.

Allianz will be included in the name of these channels, e.g., “Reds Transfer News | Allianz.”

On Instagram, we’ll include a background image with the Allianz logo, much like they’ve done with T-Mobile in their existing Broadcast Channel. The image could also feature the team jersey with a focus on the sleeve sponsorship.

Website and Mobile App: The Transfer Window Hub will be activated on the team’s website and mobile app, similar to how the Philadelphia Eagles put together their Hub for the NFL Draft sponsored by Deitz and Watson.

Within the hub, we can provide 100% share of voice for banner ads on these channels with messaging tied to asset management.

Email: When roster moves are made, FC Bayern sends updates to their newsletter subscribers (shown above). Moving forward, Allianz will be the presenting sponsor of these emails.

Below the FC Bayern München banner, we can add the campaign’s logo lockup, “Transfer Window News Managed with Allianz,” which will be clickable back to their website.

The content of the email will mainly stay the same. We’ll add two elements: an Allianz ad placement in the middle of the email and creative at the bottom of the email driving to the Transfer Window Hub on the website or mobile app.

Financial Literacy and Planning

As we saw earlier, Allianz introduced the first individual and free financial coaching course for female athletes last year. Additionally, by looking at Meta’s ad library, we can see the brand is actively helping consumers with personal finance.

These ads link to a Financial Future Hub that offers many resources, including training on consumption, budgeting, investment, and risk protection.

We can repurpose these resources in their Bayern partnership digitally.

I recommend using this outstanding email drip campaign framework shared by SQWAD CEO, Nick Lawson, to drive educational awareness and generate qualified leads.

Given that Allianz’s partnership runs through 2033, this tactic is worth testing and optimizing if it leads to new customers.

As Allianz says at the top of its Financial Future Hub, “it is never too early to start your financial planning for your financial future.

The email drip campaign can work in a variety of ways whether, for example, the brand wants to use this strategy to cast a wide net to all Reds fans or prefers to target parents who attend or are involved in one of their many youth-focused programs (Move Now Camp, Allianz Juniors Cup, Team Presentation).

Have Your Pitch Brought To Life

Want to see what I’d pitch for a sports rightsholder and brand of your choice? Submit your idea here to potentially be featured in an upcoming edition of Sponcon Sports.

🔍 SPONCONSPIRATION
Steal These Ideas

It's awesome to see a brand genuinely connected to the locker room, like Duke Cannon Supply Co. with the Premier Lacrosse League’s New York Atlas, sponsoring postgame speeches.

You have to check out this drone concept from the Chicago Bears, sponsored by Ticketmaster, that builds hype for the new season.

When I saw the “Blocks Pulled” tracker in the New York Jets’ Jenga Challenge, I immediately thought it could be a great idea for a brand partner utilizing the blockchain.

Liverpool FC strikes again with another stellar partnership announcement, this time with their new official groundskeeping partner, Husqvarna.

Red Bull gave us a fantastic behind-the-scenes glimpse of their sundown photo shoot with the Washington Spirit's Trinity Rodman.

This ad from Booking.com is a great example of how to utilize rights to logos and marks from their MLB partnership.

I'm a sucker for a good graphic design timelapse, like this one from the Seattle Kraken and Amazon. More teams should use this format for their sponsored Wallpaper Wednesday activations.

🚨 ICYMI
What To Watch For

NASCAR In The Metaverse: NASCAR partnered with UK metaverse studio, Karta to build a first-of-its-kind integration with Fortnite's Rocket Racing allowing players to race on a custom-built Chicago Street Course [h/t Nick Rend].

NFL’s Creator Strategy: NAB Amplify recapped VidCon’s panel, "The NFL’s Trailblazing Approach to Creator Partnerships," featuring great insights from Ian Trombetta, the NFL’s SVP of social, influencer, and content marketing, and Kim Larson, YouTube's head of creators and gaming [h/t Neil Horowitz].

QR Code PSA: An important PSA about QR Codes from Ashwinn Krishnaswamy that everyone needs to hear.

Carousel App Notifications: Sportian partnered with Pushologies to provide carousel notifications on the LALIGA official app, producing nearly 9 million alerts with drastically increased open rates.

OOH FAQ: Reed McGinley-Stempel, CEO and founder of Stytch, shared his experience of running billboards for his startup. He dove into when and how to run a billboard campaign and how to know if it’s worth it [h/t Lenny’s Newsletter].

IG Highlights Strategy: It might be time to refresh your Instagram Highlights Strategy. [Excerpt from Lindsey Gamble’s Newsletter last week] “Instagram is experimenting with Recent Highlights, showcasing Story Highlights from followed accounts between feed posts. This helps make Highlights more discoverable, alongside other tests like a redesign and linkability from Reels.”

New Instagram Tools: Instagram’s Professional Dashboard is testing new features, including tools to help you find and connect with other creators and tips on Reels best practices [h/t Lia Haberman]

X Bookmark Search: Search for bookmarks on X is LIVE. For anyone like me, who saves tons of content daily, this is a huge timesaver.

Remove Copyrighted Music: YouTube has updated its Erase Song feature. Creators can now choose between two options: "Erase Song," where the platform will attempt to remove only the copyright-claimed audio, or "Mute All Sound," allowing you to mute all sound between the specified timestamps.