In a first for English football, the city of Birmingham is becoming a sponsor of its two major clubs.
Marketing Birmingham, the destination marketing agency for Birmingham has announced its biggest signing to date, sealing a three year contract with Aston Villa and Birmingham City. The deal is the first time the rival clubs have been involved in a joint initiative, which will see the visitbirmingham.com brand heavily promoted, with the aim of boosting tourism.
Marketing Birmingham will invest up to £1.4m over three years, with exposure for the visitbirmingham.com brand estimated at £7.5m, representing a return on investment of 18:1.
Neil Rami, Chief Executive of Marketing Birmingham said: “Football has a global audience of 3.13bn and is a major influence on tourism, helping to shape people’s perceptions of a city, particularly with international visitors. Through these new partnerships we will be promoting the visitbirmingham.com brand, to encourage people to find out more about Birmingham, go online and plan a visit.
“Aston Villa and Birmingham City have massive fan bases and attract a high media profile. By pushing the message that the clubs are based in Birmingham and proud of the city, people will be encouraged to find out more.
“The URL will be promoted on perimeter boards around the pitches at every home game, in match programmes, on media interview backdrops, screens at the grounds, and through both clubs websites with direct links. The managers, players and executive boards will also be working with us on activities to add profile and show their support for Birmingham.
“This is a great result and is truly pioneering as it's the first time that a city has supported its football clubs in this way and we’re very excited about the project. Football has a captive audience and Villa and Blues are giving us the chance to tell that audience about Birmingham.”
Visit Birmingham is the name of Marketing Birmingham’s new leisure tourism campaign which will launch in September and aims to attract more visitors to the city. 31.9 million people visited Birmingham in 2007, an increase of 1.5 million on the previous year.
Find out more about Visit Birmingham and each club;
Aston Villa Pride of Birmingham
Birmingham City at the Heart of the City
Birmingham City Council has granted Marketing Birmingham funding to support the clubs for an initial period of three years.
Mike Whitby, Leader of Birmingham City Council said: “Today’s announcement is a first in the UK and marks an exciting new direction in the promotion of our city. Bringing Birmingham’s two big football clubs together is something of a coup for us and demonstrates their belief in the importance of working in partnership to achieve global recognition. Tourism is essential to supporting the regional economy and with challenging economic times ahead it is more important than ever to maximise on existing big profile brands associated with the city to improve perceptions and attract visitors.”
To launch the partnership Marketing Birmingham became match sponsor for the first game of the Championship season last weekend [9th August] which saw Birmingham City secure three points against Sheffield United, and will sponsor the first game of the Premiership season this weekend at Aston Villa [17th August] against Manchester City. Televised games will project the visitibirmingham.com brand into the homes of millions of people around the UK and overseas, where the Premier League alone is broadcast in 205 countries.
Martin O’Neill, Aston Villa Manager said: “Since joining Aston Villa, I’ve come to realise what an amazingly diverse and exciting city Birmingham actually is. Aston Villa’s fan base includes people from all over the world and it is wonderful they can come to England’s second city to enjoy its hospitality and watch Premier League football.”
Alex McLeish, Manager, Birmingham City FC said: “Since coming to Birmingham from Scotland I have been able to appreciate and enjoy what this city can offer. I’d always heard that Birmingham was an exciting city but I didn’t know how exciting it was until I came here. Birmingham is a great city for people to visit for more than just a football match.”
Additional Quotes:
Paul Faulkner, COO of Aston Villa said: “Aston Villa is a football club that takes its position within a strong community very seriously and is delighted to be playing a part in showcasing the City of Birmingham to a wider audience. The excellent transport links into the heart of England make it easy for fans from across the country, the continent and from even further afield to visit Birmingham and watch Premier League football. Everyone at Aston Villa is delighted with this partnership.”
Karren Brady, Managing Director, Birmingham City FC said: “Birmingham City FC really is at the heart of the city. Here at the club we are constantly striving to promote Birmingham with community activity through the unique and passionate power of football. As a club we are proud to bear the city’s name and through this partnership, with Marketing Birmingham, we can all work together to promote this great city.”
Aston Villa player Ashley Young said: “The Marketing Birmingham partnership reflects how much Aston Villa means to the city and how important the city is to Aston Villa. We’re proud to be associated with this partnership.”
Lee Carsley, Player, Birmingham City FC said: “As a born and bred Brummie it’s great to return to the city I am proud of. There is so much pride and passion not only at the football club but also in the city as a whole and through this partnership we can promote Birmingham for what it really is.”
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