Controversy as Benq Becomes Euro 2008 Sponsor

Deutsche Welle reports that German unions are annoyed that it looks like Benq will become a sponsor of the upcoming Euro 2008 tournament despite the fact that their German operation has recently filed for insolvency.

IG Metall union spokesman Georgios Arwanitidis wasn't backward in coming forward with his comments to the Berliner Zeitung: "These plans are tasteless, arrogant and a slap in the face for all those who lost their job,"

Around 2,000 people have been laid off by the BenQ Mobile in Germany at the start of the year after they reportedly lost around $1billion in the last 12 months.

BenQ chairman K. Y. Lee focused on the positives by saying that "the sponsorship supports BenQ’s commitment to Europe and ongoing efforts to make BenQ a household name in the region ... The UEFA European Football Championship is one of the most prestigious and recognizable sporting brands in the world. It has a heritage and legacy with football fans of all ages for the quality of the football and the enjoyment the tournament brings to fans around the world.”

Benq joins Carlsberg, Coca-Cola, JVC, Hyundai-Kia, MasterCard and McDonald’s, adidas, Continental and Castrol as the group of global sponsors. Is there a tournament going on somewhere?

It's going to be a Coke Event!

Brand Republic reports that Coca-Cola have hired a Mango, a major events company, to handle it's presence at the Euro 2008 tournament next year.

They comment that the "agency will handle a range of experiential activity, including the
Coca-Cola fan parks." So I expect this time round we'll see every host city have a fan park as they're expected to significantly increase their spend.

Also "Mango will also handle Coca-Cola's promotional activity, which for the first time will see the sponsor give away the majority of its 12,000-ticket allocation as prizes to fans." Now this can only be good news! So if you don't like Coke now, and you want to go, get liking!

Pic: BBC

Castrol to become a main sponsor of UEFA Euro 2008

Castrol aren't massive when it comes to brand marketing but their press release states that the Euro 2008 audience "overlaps strongly with the brand’s own 45 million engine oil customers" and continued:

"Castrol welcome the opportunity provided by the sponsorship agreement to highlight their product strengths and fierce brand competitiveness, within the exciting atmosphere of sporting passion. The partnership with UEFA EURO 2008 provides an ideal showcase to project the brands' commitment to the values of passion, technical progress, performance and teamwork that it shares with football."

Lars-Christer Olsson, UEFA CEO, said:

“We welcome Castrol as a new sponsor to our global family supporting the UEFA European Football Championship. The addition of Castrol proves what a strong property the UEFA EURO has become in the global sports market. It is the second biggest sporting event globally in terms of TV viewers and continues to attract massive participation and involvement from fans and non-fans alike, drawn to the drama and excitement that comes with top national team football.”

Castrol weren't on my list of probable sponsors. You would have thought a big telecoms company such as Vodafone, T-Mobile or a global retailer would have. But good luck to them.