Scotiabank’s chief marketing officer John Doig doesn’t care if you call it football or soccer; for him it’s just good business.
The financial services company announced Tuesday it has become the official bank of the soccer governing body CONCACAF (the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football), adding to an already robust sports sponsorship portfolio.
As part of the four-year deal, the financial services company becomes the title sponsor of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the Champions League and the Caribbean Nations Cup.
Scotiabank has operations in 34 of the 41 countries that comprise CONCACAF, many dating back more than 180 years, said Doig. Scotiabank operates in 55 countries worldwide.
While CONCACAF includes both the U.S. and Canada, Doig said the real allure for Scotiabank is Mexico, where it operates 671 branches through its Grupo Financiero Scotiabank Inverlat unit.
“The fact we get the Canadian and U.S. rights is nice, but we won’t do much with the U.S., and the Canadian rights we’ll use for hosting opportunities,” said Doig. “It’s about getting better brand awareness and connectivity with the consumer outside of Canada, particularly in Central America and Mexico.”
As part of the deal, Scotiabank will provide support for several CONCACAF-sanctioned youth tournaments, including the 2016 Olympic qualifying events and both the men’s and women’s under-20, under-17 and under-15 tournaments – beginning with the CONCACAF Men’s Under-20 championship, which gets underway in Jamaica in January.
“Our goal is to get close to the consumer and get connected and more relevant to customers in those key markets, particularly in Mexico,” said Doig via telephone from Mexico City, where he had participated in a morning news conference announcing the new four-year deal at the Mexican stock exchange (the first time a sports announcement has been made at that venue).
The deal further underscores Scotiabank’s longstanding commitment to sports, which Doig estimated accounts for between 65% and 70% of its total sponsorship activitiy.
In Canada, it is a leading sponsor of hockey at both the grassroots and professional level, while it also supports cricket in the Caribbean and baseball in the Dominican Republic.
It became the official sponsor of the Chilean Primera División earlier this year, and also sponsors several individual teams in Mexico. “We’re most definitely entering that space in Mexico and South America, and the push is to do many of the things we’ve done in the Caribbean and Canada with kids – giving more kids access to the game and in doing so becoming more relevant to the consumer,” said Doig.
While Scotiabank’s involvement with Canadian hockey is significant, encompassing 5,000 youth teams, all seven Canadian NHL franchises and a league sponsorship, as well as smattering of Canadian Hockey League and Canadian women’s hockey, Doig said it doesn’t come close to the excitement generated by the announcement in Mexico City, which was attended by some 50 media outlets.
“The passion and excitement around this announcement makes our hockey stuff look like a paper route,” he said. “It’s incredible the passion that drives the consumer in those markets.”
Doig said Scotiabank would utilize best practices from its hockey programs, as well as its decade-plus involvement with the “Kiddy Cricket” program in the Caribbean, to activate against the CONCACAF sponsorship.
He said the company would look to activate against the sponsorship with broadcast deals similar to the ones it has struck with Rogers Communications around its NHL rights deal.
