West Ham’s sponsors show the battle between sponsorship and authenticity
When you agree to sponsor a football club, you’re making a big decision. Football is a big-money business, and you can get yourself a lot of exposure – but if you’re going to make it work, you’re going to have to put some thought and creativity into it.
The best football sponsors boost their name and their brand whilst also engaging with fans – there’s a huge football following on social media and they’re hungry for new and exciting activations around their club. For most fans, just seeing their club’s name written down on screen triggers some sort inexplicable emotional reaction, so if you can get your brand to tap into that, then there’s a lot of exposure to be had.
And so when betting company Betway sponsored West Ham United, they decided to do it properly. They have a big online presence, and engage – due to the nature of their field – with a lot of football fans. They even sponsored a pre-season friendly between Juventus and West Ham to inaugurate the new stadium – the iconic Olympic stadium. And they created some very good online content around it, which was in turn viewed by thousands of fans.
Betway have produced lots of content across social media channels to do with the club – they’re an active sponsor. And they can be, they’re not a financial services company that most football fans haven’t heard of, not like Standard Chartered who sponsor Liverpool, for example. A betting company may not be the brand everyone would like to see associated with the image of their football club, but there’s no denying that the sponsorship makes sense.
But when you do undertake that sponsorship as a betting company, you lose a little bit of authenticity on social media. This tweet from Betway – interestingly not deleted – sums it up:
Antonio has been an accident waiting to happen in defence, #WHUFC fans will hope that's the end of the experiment. pic.twitter.com/IeGp4zz1qM
— betway (@betway) August 15, 2016
When West Ham attacking midfielder Michail Antonio has to fill in at right back for his club, most fans are expecting the worst. Betway tried to tap into that, but when you’re an official sponsor, you simply can’t criticise the club. And that led to this statement:
RE: Chelsea v West Ham United pic.twitter.com/X5YdXunedC
— betway (@betway) August 16, 2016
But this is an interesting story because, whilst West Ham fans aren’t always happy to see Antonio play at full back, it’s not that they don’t like him as a player. West Ham fans love Antonio, as it happens – they just want to see him play in a different position.
So whilst Betway upset the club enough to have to make a public apology, the comments from West Ham fans underneath the tweet are telling:
@betway Yeah, but what you said was true anyway
— Tom Wells (@TomWellsDFWYA) August 16, 2016
@betway don't be sorry you stated the truth
— West Ham Hub (@WHUFC_HUB) August 16, 2016
@betway You were 100% right. Well said, everyone's thinking the same.
— West Ham South West (@WHUSouthWest) August 16, 2016
Betway, as West Ham’s official sponsors, have put themselves in the tough position most sponsors find themselves in: they are trying to resonate with fans, but they are also supposed to be 100% behind the club.
The thing is, most fans would tell you they’re 100% behind the club even if there are decisions they don’t agree with. The majority of West Ham fans love their manager and love the player in question, but it also seems they’re of the same opinion as the Betway social media executive who tweeted the ‘offensive’ tweet.
On the other hand, you can understand the club’s desire to project only the best possible image, not to mention protect its player and his confidence.
There’s a balance to be struck between authenticity and sponsorship. The very nature of sponsorship means that the club and the sponsor tend to want different things – the club wants a sponsor who support the club unconditionally, whilst the sponsor tends to want access to the club’s fervently loyal fanbase.
Sponsors risk angering their clubs if they’re too authentic, yet they won’t make the most of their sponsorship if they’re not – because if you’re not authentic, you don’t resonate with fans. The balance is a difficult one, but it’s simply one that needs to be struck.
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