Tag: Football

Australia – Australia’s professional men’s football league, Australian Professional Leagues (APL), has recently announced new hires, to take the helm of its marketing and sponsorships business as well as its digital development efforts and media rights. 

Ant Hearne (picured left), former chief commercial officer at sports streaming service, Kayo, assumes the same role in APL; while, Michael Tange (pictured right), former strategy consultant at Rugby authority, Rugby Australia, is appointed to the position of Strategy and Digital Director. 

The appointments are the first of the ones to come ahead, following the league’s announcement of the unbundling of four professional football leagues from Football Australia in December.

Hearne joins the team to set up and lead all commercial activities for APL, including user experience, marketing, and content, as well as sponsorships, rights negotiations, and other revenue opportunities. 

Aside from Kayo, Hearne also stood as CCO to other streaming services of pay television company Foxtel such as BINGE, WatchAFL, and WatchNRL. His career in Australia, Asia, and the US incorporates senior marketing and commercial roles in telco, digital media, marketing tech, and sports entertainment. 

Meanwhile, Tange is charged with leading strategy, digital development, and media rights for APL. He brings with him 15 years of experience managing global roles with sports, data, and technology companies. He joins from Nielsen Sports in New York where he spent a decade working on commercial strategy, broadcast, digital, and fan development with leading properties such as the NBA, NFL, MLB, PGA TOUR, and Major League Soccer.

“With full ownership of the four leagues, we have an ambitious vision for the growth of the game at every level. The new, expanded executive team [has] been tasked with unleashing the APL’s commercial and entrepreneurial capabilities, and we now have a structure that will enable them to deliver the right outcomes for all of Australian football,” said Paul Lederer, chair of APL. 

Meanwhile, Hearne, the new CCO, reiterates the sport’s growth opportunity in Australian sport, having twice as many participants as any other game in the country. 

“It’s now time to deliver commercial outcomes that will fuel the sustainable growth of the game. Our teams are playing exciting, fast-paced, uncompromising football in front of the most passionate fans and it’s the APL’s mission [to] take that direct-to-consumer in order to unlock the power of the fan and ultimately grow the whole game. It’s going to be an exciting ride,” said Hearne.

APL Commissioner Greg O’Rourke continues to lead the operational side of the business in conjunction with Deputy Commissioner Tracey Scott.

Singapore – Rewards and discovery platform ShopBack in Singapore has tied up with Spain’s professional football league LaLiga for a joint marketing amplification, which will include giveaway contests within the platform.

At large, the partnership will see a release of an official campaign video of LaLiga, in-app and website pushes, social media engagement, and out-of-home advertisements. A video shoutout by LaLiga ambassador and former football player Gaizka Mendieta will also be released. 

Video, courtesy of ShopBack.

One of the main marketing initiatives within the partnership is a social media contest which will give away a football fan an all-expenses paid trip to Spain for two to catch a LaLiga match live. 

LaLiga spearheads Spain’s two national professional football competitions LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank, where both have already started its 2020-21 season on September 12.

In order to participate, ShopBack users must visit the LaLiga page on the platform starting 27 November and click on the “Submit Entry Now” button to be redirected to an Instagram post. In the post, users must comment on why they deserve to watch a Laliga game in Spain, share it to Instagram, and tag their intended travel buddy. Lastly, those interested must make a purchase on any ShopBack selected brands

The competition will run from 27 November to 31 December 2020, in line with ShopFest, ShopBack’s annual mega shopping festival that spans the entire year-end shopping season. 

In a press statement, ShopBack said that through the partnership with the sports association, it aims to “portray its value of togetherness just as football brings people together.”

ShopBack Co-founder Joel Leong said, “We are excited to kick off this partnership with LaLiga to bring football fans and shoppers together. With the sporting world still gradually being reinstated to normalcy, the upcoming football matches in Spain promise to be that rush of adrenaline and the perfect opportunity to bring people together.”

LaLiga’s Managing Director for SEA Ivan Codina commented, “Alongside our fans, we long for the time when we can return to the stadiums and celebrate the passion of live football action of LaLiga in person. In this situation, together with ShopBack, we wish to remind our consumers that we are ‘better together’ despite being physically apart. With the pent-up demand to travel and experience live sports continuing to build, the grand prize is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we know would excite fans.”