Global Fútbol

CD Leganés have long been recognised as being a truly innovative club. Now, thanks to their spirit of developing and promoting disruptive initiatives in a variety of areas, they have opted for a unique strategy in their sponsorship department that will open the club up to new markets and increase business opportunities.

They have adopted a rotational strategy for the club’s main sponsor, one motivated by the current market situation and the highly competitive offering in this sector that CD Leganés and other professional clubs operate in. As such, Los Pepineros have decided to use this model, through which they are currently displaying the logo of ‘Malawi, The Warm Heart of Africa’ on the front of their kits.

This sponsorship agreement has been struck with the Malawi Ministry of Tourism and was in the works since last September, when CD Leganés president Jeff Luhnow met with Malawi’s president Lazarus Chakwera to begin strengthening ties and seeking opportunities in the country.

This novel sponsorship strategy, whereby the sponsor changes throughout the season, has been in place since the start of the current campaign, just when the club welcomed new ownership in Blue Crow Sports (a group with extensive experience in the sports sector in the United States). In fact, the ownership group were the first company to appear on the front of the shirt this season. They were then followed by Rainbow Sports Global, an African talent scouting company, and now by the ‘Malawi, The Warm Heart of Africa’ tourism campaign.  

José Luis Botana, the director of sponsorship at CD Leganés, explained the rotational main sponsor strategy by stating: “The rotating system allows each brand to have an ‘aggressive’ impact and positioning in the short term, which might be closely linked to a desire to achieve immediate sales. This makes it ideal for seasonal products such as tourism, the launch of new products, such as a mobile phone, or other industry trends.”

The rotational main sponsor vs the traditional main sponsor

Comparing this with a more traditional sponsorship, Botana stated: “The classic system advocates a linear brand recognition in the medium and long term, allowing you to work on more of the aspects and opportunities that sport offers, such as shared values, corporate social responsibility, a sense of belonging or campaigns of continuous impact.”

In the view of the club, deciding between these different types of sponsorship will depend on the product and the brand strategy. They explained: “For example, a blockchain, crypto or NFTs brand, which are increasingly present in football, wouldn’t fit so well into a five-match rotating main sponsor like the one we run. That’s because of all the prior work on product development, analysis of a club’s fanbase and the desire to provide social education for the product involved.”

With their approach, the club look to link up with institutions and entities from different sectors and countries during the same season, generating new business opportunities. Discussing the current main sponsor, the club said: “More doors have opened up to us a little more on the African continent, thanks to the partnership with the Malawi tourist board.” It is true, though, that the club had already made inroads in some African countries, such as Nigeria or Cameroon, as well as in Japan, thanks to way players such as Kenneth Omeruo, Allan Nyom and Gaku Shibasaki brought the club closer to new fans.

Although this rotational sponsorship strategy isn’t very common in Spain, there have been similar cases. As Botana recalled: “Atlético de Madrid used the rotation strategy to put different movies that were coming out on the front of the shirt, even if that was all done through the same company. That same style of rotational branding, through one company, is also currently being used by FC Barcelona with Spotify, although for the moment they’ve only made one change. Both cases may could be said to be similar, albeit only slightly, to the current strategy of CD Leganés.”

Discussing whether rotational sponsorship can become more of a trend in Spain or in the industry in general, the club said: “This will depend on the needs of each club and on the market opportunities that present themselves, so both forms will always be able to coexist.” What does seem to stand out as a benefit about the rotational strategy is that, in addition to achieving the economic objectives in the same way as with a normal sponsorship, the CD Leganés approach has provided opportunities for the club to build better relationships and to grow the business by developing a greater business network around the club.