QPR draws up shortlist for season ticket brief

Queens Park Rangers Football Club has started a pitch for its season ticket campaign, which will also encompass broader brand positioning work. The club has shortlisted Newcastle-based Cravens, Dawson & Partners, B-street, and design agencies ‘Cuda and Cre8.

Two of the shortlisted agencies have already worked with the club. Cravens created QPR’s season ticket drive last year and Cre8 works on the club’s matchday programmes and other publications on an ongoing basis.

The pitch is being led by QPR marketing manager Joe Kyle, who will be joined by deputy managing director Ali Russell for the presentations.

The club hopes to have completed the process next week and that work on the season ticket campaign will begin immediately. Kyle says the campaign will underline QPR’s brand positioning but the core message will relate to season tickets.

The agency appointment is the latest move in an overarching strategy to position QPR as a global brand, as stated by club chairman and Renault’s Formula One boss Flavio Briatore, who took control of QPR in 2007 when the club was on the brink of bankruptcy.

The club restructured its sponsorship strategy by terminating local deals and seeking large multinational companies as partners. At the end of March, the club announced it had signed a five-year deal worth £20m with Italian sportswear firm Lotto Sport Italia as kit manufacturer. The deal is one of biggest in Championship’s history. In June, QPR signed a seven-figure deal with Abbey as financial services partner (MW 19 June, 2008) and in July, a further multimillion pound deal was signed with Gulf Air as shirt sponsors (MW 3 July, 2008).