Allianz launches Champions League campaign

Allianz is to launch a marketing campaign to promote its title sponsorship of the stadium that will host the UEFA Champions League final this weekend after all non-sponsors of the tournament were forced to remove their branding from the venue.

Allianz

The financial company sponsors the Allianz Arena in Munich but has no official ties to UEFA’s premier tournament. It means that Allianz along with other Bayern Munich sponsors such as T-Mobile and Burger King have had all branding removed from the stadium until after the match this Saturday (19 May) between home team Bayern Munich and Chelsea.

The game is expected to attract more than 100 million television viewers around the world. Last year’s final between Manchester United and Barcelona drew a worldwide audience of 178 million, the highest of any sporting event in 2011.

To keep its profile high ahead of the match, Allianz is running a ‘Hoam Sweet Hoam’ print campaign this Saturday to promote the arena as the home of the company and not just that of resident clubs Bayern Munich and TSV 1860 Munich.

Adverts, created by advertising agency Grey, will appear in both German and English magazines and will be backed by a virtual 3D tour of the stadium on the company’s site.

It marks the latest part of Allianz’s ‘Destination Allianz Arena’ global campaign. Last weekend, (12 and 13 May), the company set up a 3D art installation at Westfield, London with former Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Germany midfielder Dietmar Hamann.

Allianz has also used its Facebook page to host a series of competitions and polls around the final.

Dr Christian Deuringer, head of global brand management of Allianz SE, says: “No one knows the Allianz Arena better than Allianz but we knew not everyone would make it out to Munich to experience the game.

“We wanted to share our world famous football stadium with all football fans in London and beyond, so this artwork is a fantastic way to be part of one of football’s biggest events.”

Elsewhere, UEFA’s official Champions League sponsors, Sony, Heineken, Mastercard and Ford are set to launch a raft of advertising campaigns this weekend in Munich in a bid to exploit the level of public interest the match will generate.

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