中國某體育基金向英超曼城俱樂部的母公司城市足球集團注資4億美元購買其股份，這無疑能推動足球的發展，特別是中國的足球，在未來將會受益于對方對職業足球管理、運營等方面的知識和經驗。但是，這個新聞很快就會失去熱度，投資商的名字也會被大部分人遺忘，當然對投資公司而言也許并不重要。

然而，會有一大部分中國的公司希望投資國際足球產業，并且希望得到贊助帶來的最大化的曝光度。但問題是，這些企業往往不知道如何有效地將贊助貨幣化。在中國，如果企業付錢讓其商標出現在俱樂部的比賽隊服上，它便視其為沉沒成本。是的，企業會得到球員穿著印有企業商標服裝的照片，并小小地炫耀，但是他們并沒有真正“激活”贊助權益。

所以，當我審視一個在歐洲的贊助機會時，最初的成本可能會比在中國贊助類似賽事要貴上一些，但是，曝光度和利用贊助費的機會將會是巨大的。讓我們來舉一個例子

在英格蘭，聯賽杯是第一至四級職業聯賽全部92支職業俱樂部參加的淘汰制杯賽。賽事將會以贊助商名字命名，現在的冠名贊助商是信用卡公司CapitalOne，所以杯賽被稱為Capital One杯。不僅僅在英格蘭，在全球其他各個地方的電視、紙面和廣播媒體中，也包括球迷中，賽事都被稱為Capital One杯。聯賽杯每年都會在全球190多個國家進行直播，有大約6億球迷觀看超過5,000個小時的比賽直播和報道，意味著這些人都對Capital One耳熟能詳。

在每一場比賽，Capital One在賽場內、觀賽手冊等各個地方遍布球迷的視線。聯賽杯的比賽涉及所有英格蘭職業俱樂部，因此Capital One名字上與英超頂級俱樂部如曼城，下至英乙小型俱樂部如Morecambe的92家俱樂部相聯系，毫無疑問的是，它與地球上最好的聯賽體系共同發展。如Capital One這樣的贊助商，商標在各個方面的曝光度完全能夠覆蓋支付的贊助費用，也許獲得了十倍贊助費的媒體價值！

除了企業的名字和商標的大量曝光，冠名贊助也包括和所有俱樂部的合作，運作線上活動，邀請客戶現場出席比賽等眾多選項。所以我想問一個問題：為什么一家擁有國際野心的中國企業不在下個賽季贊助聯賽杯？不將品牌與多家世界頂級足球俱樂部相聯系而只花費購買一家頂級俱樂部的零頭？

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Thenews that a Chinese investment fund will put $400M into the company that ownsManchester City is good for football and particularly football in China thatshould benefit from the knowledge transfer that will come as a result in time,but quite soon, this news will stop being current and the name of theinvestment company will be forgotten which probably does not matter to them atall.

However,there will be many Chinese businesses that want to invest in internationalfootball and want the visibility that it can bring, but the problem for most isthat they do not know how to effectively monetise sponsorship. In China if Ipay to have my company name on a club shirt, I see this as a sunk cost. Yes Iwill have pictures of players with my companies name across their chest and Ican show off a little but none of these businesses really ‘activate’ their sponsorship.

So ifI now look at a sponsorship opportunity in Europe, the initial cost might behigher than what I will need to pay in China, but the exposure and opportunityto leverage that money is huge. Let me use and example.

InEngland, the League Cup is a knock out tournament that involves the 92 clubsfrom all four professional leagues. The competition is named after the titlesponsor, which is currently the credit card company Capital One, so thetournament is called The Capital One Cup. This name is seen on the TV, in theprint media, on the radio and amongst the fans, not only in England but, aroundthe world including China. The TV viewing figures alone cover over 190countries and almost 600 million people who watch almost 5,000 hours of matchcoverage. That's a huge number of people seeing the CapitalOne name in a year.

Ateach match the Capital One name is also seen around the ground, in theprogramme and in multiple places. Because the matches involve all the Englishclubs, Capital One have their name associated with huge Premier League teamslike Manchester City and small league teams like Morecambe,but its association with some of the best football on the planet is undeniable.To the sponsor like Capital One the cost of the sponsorship is returned in themonetary value of its name being seen everywhere, which is worth maybe tentimes the actual cost they paid.

Inaddition to its name being seen all the time, it can be involved with all theclubs, run online competitions, invite its customers to attend matches, theoptions are big. So I ask the question; why wont a Chinese company that hasglobal aspirations sponsor the League Cup next season, it would associate itsname with top class football and costs a fraction of the money needed to investin or buy a professional club. It also links the company name to Englishfootball and 92 clubs, not just one?

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聲明：文中觀點僅代表作者本人觀點，不代表懶熊體育。