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Continental ending sponsorship with FIFA World Cup Soccer

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Continental, the well-known manufacturer of tires from Germany, will end their sponsorship of the soccer World Cup finals and will focus on regional soccer events instead.

“We have nothing more to do with the coming events in Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022”, a spokesperson of Continental AG told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung (HAZ) newspaper. In 2018 the FIFA World Cup Soccer will take place in 2018, while four years later, the global sports event will be played in Qatar.

Sponsorship of World Cup 2014 in Brazil

The company from the German city of Hannover sponsored the past World Cup 2014 in Brazil. They also expanded their portfolio of passenger cars- and products with three special tires, which had the FIFA logo and soccer balls on the side and all transfer- and 32 teams buses were equipped with Continental tires. For the Brazilian market, they developed the ContiGol Urbano bus tyre. The German business was also commercially active during the World Cup 2006 in their home country and the world championship soccer 2010 in South Africa.

Continental changes strategy

Continental, market leader in Europe for passenger car tires, now changed its strategy and will focus on events in certain regions in the world, including Asia, North America and Europe and will work together with regional confederations, such as the UEFA.

In North America, the tire manufacturer is partner of the Major League Soccer (MLS), while they also will sponsor Euro 2016 in France and the European qualification cycle for the World Cup soccer in 2018 and the Asian Cup, which takes place in 2015 in Australia. In the past, Continental was also commercially involved in the UEFA Champions League (1995 – 2000) and the European Championship Soccer 2008, which took place in Austria and Switzerland.

Customer relationships

They use the regional soccer events to strengthen customer relationships all around the world. Continental’s commercial involvement goes further than classic advertising, since they feel that a higher level of involvement is more effective in order to reach their marketing and sales goals. Other marketing activities include informative sport-related websites, apps for smart phones and tablets, sponsorships of soccer festivals and quizzes.

(Sources: InsideTheGames, Sportcal, Rubbernews, Conti-Online, HAZ)

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