FNG Exclusive Interview… Many of the world’s leading Retail FX and CFD brokers continue to utilize sports sponsorships as a key pillar of their global branding efforts. Deals have varied from shirt sponsorships with Tier-1 European football clubs, to backing local athletes.

In helping explain the perspective of both the broker and the sports team, FNG is pleased to present the following conversation with Hannah Hill, Head of Brand and Sponsorship at Axi alongside Tom Boyle, VP Global Partnerships Marketing and Operations at Premier League club Manchester City. Axi is, of course, official online trading partner of Man City.

Why have sports sponsorships continued to be popular among brokers?

How do brokers approach measuring ROI on sports sponsorships?

How can brands leverage their partnership assets for maximum value?

We think you’ll enjoy the conversation – here is what Hannah and Tom had to say.

FNG: Hi Hannah, and thanks for joining us today. There have been a flood of FX broker sponsorships of European soccer clubs, particularly super clubs, announced lately. Why do you think that is? What is Axi’s perspective of the phenomenon?

Hannah: We’ve certainly seen a noticeable increase in football partnerships in the online trading space recently. I think there’s several reasons for this; the first one being common values and ambitions; both football and trading are fast paced, competitive fields and keeping ahead is challenging. There’s also strong alignment in key markets; the Premier League and Manchester City of course have a global following but have large fan bases in regions where trading is widespread. The combination of factors make football a clear choice for growing awareness and delivering experiences and activations to customers in relevant markets.

FNG: Axi have partnered with Manchester City almost three years now, since your rebrand in 2020. What have you learned from the experience?

Hannah: Our partnership with Man City has helped us boost awareness globally, but where we’ve really started to see traction is utilising our assets on a regional level. Developing regional strategies alongside global objectives helps us to ensure we get the most out of our individual rights whilst leveraging off the global exposure we get from assets such as the LED.

Clear and consistent messaging has also been key for our success, and creating a strategy specifically for sponsorship helps us ensure we’re creating campaigns, activations and content that resonates.

FNG: If you had to pick 3 highlights from the last 3 years / seasons of your partnership with City, what would they be?

Hannah: The first highlight for me was probably the start of the second season of our partnership. The first season fell at the height of Covid with the majority of games being played behind closed doors. We had some strong branding opportunities during this time but the start of the second season when we could bring guests to games, create engaging pieces of content with the players and really start to leverage our assets, was an exciting time.

Our first piece of content shot with the players post-Covid was definitely a highlight too. The City Slickers campaign used a fun quiz theme to showcase Axi’s product offering. We saw great engagement from this, and the piece received two award nominations.

Lastly, the trophy tour enabled us to run some targeted activations in key regions – a stand out example being an event we ran in South Africa with City Legend Joleon Lescott and the Premier League trophy. Although on a smaller scale, these types of activities are so valuable in regions where football is so popular but less accessible.

FNG: Your extended partnership includes Manchester City womens team, can you tell us about the motivation behind this direction?

Hannah: The decision to include the women’s team for our future term was an easy one for us. Women’s football is becoming increasingly popular and we’re proud to be able to support this growth. Similarly, trading is becoming more and more popular among women, further echoing the alignment between Axi and Manchester City’s values and growth ambitions. It’s important to us to resonate with our audience as a whole, and our partnership with the women’s team will give us the opportunity to create relevant and engaging experiences and activations. We’re really excited about this addition!

FNG: Will Axi look to build out it’s sponsorship strategy in future?

Hannah: Sponsorship is something we see real value in and we wouldn’t rule out expanding our strategy in future. Many brands in our space have developed regional strategies to support larger scale, global plays which is a smart way of creating a targeted approach for a key market. Value is key for us, so if we continue to see value in our partnerships then who knows what the future holds!

FNG: How does Axi look at ROI in sports sponsorships, like with Manchester City?

Hannah: We have a variety of ways in which we measure value. Awareness is key. We track a variety of metrics to measure our brand awareness, both on a global scale and a regional one, using qualitative and quantitative methodology

Aside from awareness we also need to see tangible value, and an eventual impact on growth. This includes engagement as well as new customer acquisition, loyalty and retention.

FNG: Hi Tom, and welcome to FNG. Can you tell us a little about Manchester City’s commercial strategy and how this has developed in recent years?

Tom: We’re very proud of our partnership portfolio, one of the best in the world of sport and entertainment, with a fantastic mix of global blue chip and start up challenger brands looking to utilise Manchester City as the platform for their marketing objectives.

Just like on the pitch, we set high standards and have resourced accordingly to ensure our partnership marketing outputs are best in class, steeped in a combination of creativity, strategy, collaboration and expertise.

We pride ourselves on our partnership renewal rate and are in the business of long term successful relationships, some of which are now in their 3rd or 4th term.

FNG: Great to hear about the success of your partnership with Axi over the last 3 years. In your experience, what makes a successful partnership?

Tom: In my opinion, successful partnerships are built on a number of things but sharing ambition and values, in addition to setting clear objectives and metrics for success and collaborating for high creativity and ideas – integrating rather than simply adding IP to existing assets is key.

FNG: What would you say have been the main drivers behind the success of this partnership in particular?

Tom: Collaboration is key. The team at Axi has impressed us and we’ve enjoyed working collaboratively to produce assets and exciting content with first team players to successfully increase brand awareness and drive real positive business change in key metrics.

It also helps that Manchester City and Axi share values such as high performance, ambition and innovation.

We understand each other’s businesses and what mutual success looks like.

FNG: How does the women’s team feature in your commercial strategy and are you seeing an increase in interest from brands looking to build out partnerships here given the increase in popularity of women’s football?

Tom: Women’s football has continued to grow, particularly after last summer’s Euros, not only in terms of commercial interest but also in ticket sales, retail sales and more and we’re proud to be one of the pioneers and leaders within this space as a club.

Commercial appeal in the women’s team and women’s football in general has certainly seen an increase. It’s an exciting product and its fantastic that Axi recognise this and will be joining us on this journey, alongside a number of other club partners.

FNG: There’s an increasing number of online trading brands embarking on sports sponsorships; football in particular. Could you share your thoughts as to why you think this could be?

Tom: Sports partnerships are a fantastic asset for any brand, whether B2C or B2B focused. For the Trading industry in particular, there are many synergies that can be brought to life around football, from training to matchday, plus, as a digital first sector, the huge social media audiences that major rights holders possess are of real appeal. Of course on top of that, there are fantastic “Money can’t buy” experiences that can be created and utilised for customers and stakeholders.

FNG: You have a number of long-term partners, what it is about Man City partnerships that drive longevity?

Tom: We’re proud to have a high value retention rate (81% since 2018) with many of our partners in their 3rd and 4th terms with the club. We provide a full service for our partners with a dedicated Partnerships Marketing team and our in-house creative content facilities in City Studios allows us to provide a full 360 service from creation to delivery to reporting, resourced with expertise across each department.

We get under the skin of our partner businesses, understanding their objectives, strategy, challenges and opportunities and pride ourselves on our flexibility and creativity, able to pivot mid contract alongside the needs of our partners

FNG: In your opinion how can brands leverage their partnership assets for maximum value?

Tom: I’d suggest:

• Match assets to objectives and strategy
• Clear KPIs and success metrics
• Lean on the rights holder for over-delivery, experience and support
• Understand the different platforms and audiences

FNG: What’s next for Manchester City? What can we expect from the next season, both on the pitch and off?

Tom: We will continue as always to strive for success and be the best-in-class across all areas, innovating and pushing boundaries. We like to test ourselves and will continue to do so focusing on the short, medium and long-term future.

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