Negotiating partnership deals

Client: Chelsea FC
Sector: Sports sponsorship
Deliverables: Interactive Rich Picture

Brief: Major sponsorship deals with top brands are not fixed ‘products’; they involve discussion and partnership, a “what can we do together?” approach. But standard presentation slides were requiring Chelsea Football Club to second-guess the conversation and fix a story in advance. How could they have a more powerful, flexible, modular approach to the sales process?

Process: We immersed ourselves in Chelsea and in football. We met the team, did the stadium tour and reviewed the huge range of material and case studies they had already produced. Then we established the key USPs that really sell Chelsea to potential sponsors.

Solution: Firstly, it had to be aspirational and modern. Visually, we needed to reflect Chelsea’s rank at the top of world football. Secondly, it needed to be flexible. We created a branch-like structure, where you can start with the London location and then move on to the diversity of Stamford Bridge, the Cobham training facilities, and specific sponsorship case studies, or start somewhere else and move on in any order, as each situation requires. We also added our unique ‘drag & drop’ component so that Chelsea can add up-to-date video clips, presentations and documents covering anything and everything from the latest matchday packages through to detailed audience tracking figures.

Result: The sponsorship team love it and use it all over the world. It looks sharp, encourages conversation, and provides the flexibility to ‘up sell’ services in a constantly updatable form.