Standard Chartered Bank sponsors Liverpool FC

FC stands for football club, or soccer for American readers. No amount was mentioned for the value of the sponsorship deal between Standard Chartered Bank and Liverpool FC today except to say it was the ‘largest commercial agreement in Liverpool’s history’.

Keeping in mind what players cost these days a reasonable guess might be $100 over four years, and not giving a figure just opens up the field to such speculation. Is this money well spent?

Eyeballs

The bank trots out impressive figures about the number of hours that its logo will now be seen on the players shirts on TV and mentions en passant the estimated 60 million Liverpool fans in China, a slightly improbable number bigger than the population of the UK.

Surely though this sponsorship deal will mainly raise the bank’s profile in the UK where its operations amount to little more than a modest headquarters in London.

However, this sort of sponsorship is also a matter of prestige. It screams out success at a time when most global banks are licking their wounds from the global financial crisis. Standard Chartered Bank can still afford a ticket to the big game.

But then to be fair without knowing the cost of the sponsorship – which has nothing to do with ownership or building a new grandstand – it is hard to evaluate its global advertising value.

Personally I think sports branding is greatly over-rated by executives who like sport. You can usually spot the company with a CEO who likes golf or sailing or for that matter football.

Sports fans

Many people never watch football and for them this branding is a complete waste of money. Likewise Standard Chartered Bank makes a good deal of money from wholesale rather than consumer banking, although traders do like to keep their eyes on the ball.

But this can also be seen as a danger signal. Standard Chartered Bank has kept its head in the recent crisis and mainly done so as a result of extremely prudent management.

The bank has kept out of the way of exotic lending instruments and highly leveraged clients. It has also never spent a penny on extravagant advertising or marketing, until perhaps now.

Success can go to even the most level heads. But in current markets the bank may have driven a particularly hard bargain for this sponsorship deal.