Who: Emirates Airline

Objective: To create a high profile sponsorship with a brand that complemented and enhanced its own. As well as building awareness of the airline, it planned to leverage the partnership in areas such as affinity marketing, hospitality, and more.

Solution: Sponsorship and naming rights of Arsenal Football club’s stadium Rationale: “Arsenal is an ideal sponsorship property for Emirates in many ways,” says Stuart Priestley, manager of group sponsorship at Emirates Airline. “In addition to being a successful football club, it is an ambitious, innovative business and as such, its core values closely reflect our own. The opportunity to sponsor a newly-built stadium meant that Emirates’ naming rights over the stadium had a realistic chance of adoption by fans and commentators alike.”

Evaluation: “We evaluate all of our sponsorships with a mix of quantitative and qualitative analysis of their performance, and we have data which suggests our partnership with Arsenal has been a tremendous success,” says Priestly. “We see anecdotal evidence of this success all the time. During the summer I attended [pre-season tournament] Emirates Cup, the buzz of the fans and the global media coverage around the event suggested the world has really embraced the Emirates Stadium.”