DHL today announced a six-year agreement to become a platinum sponsor and internationallogistics and e-commerce partner for FC Bayern Munich, the five-times European champions and the
most successful club in German football history.As logistics partner, DHL said it had been ensuring for years that FC Bayern Munich merchandisewas reliably passed on to fans. But the football club now also intends to profit from DHL’sinternational e-Commerce expertise.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, chairman of FC Bayern Munich’s executive board, commented: “FC BayernMunich is now a global player whose fan base is constantly expanding in a large number of countriesand on all continents. With DHL acting as our experienced, globally respected partner, we intend tofurther expand our online touchpoints with our fans around the world and thus our internationalmerchandising.”
He said that to reach these fans around the world, teams need logistics – an industry that “creates a game-changing competitive edge for leading clubs like FC Bayern Munich – particularly inthe increasingly critical area of merchandise shipping”. Benefits included deliveries made withinhours on the day an order was placed, flexible delivery and return timeframes, as well as stronglogistics and added-value concepts.
Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL, commented: “We are really looking forward to ourstrategic alliance with such a highly respected partner as FC Bayern Munich. Our services willcreate a strong base that will enable the team to build on its business success both nationally andinternationally.”
He said two strong, internationally respected brands like FC Bayern Munich and DHL would alsoprofit from each other in the sponsoring partnership they had set up.
As part of this arrangement, DHL has obtained broad advertising rights to go along with itsexclusive collaboration in the areas of logistics, full-service e-commerce solutions andtraditional mail operations. These rights include the filming of advertising spots, PR events andthe use of a shared partner logo.
DHL said sponsoring of sporting events had played a key role for several years in the brandcommunications conducted by the two core brands of Deutsche Post DHL, sponsorship that has includedfootball, Formula 1 motor racing, and rugby.
The Group’s Deutsche Post brand has been an important partner of the German Football Association(DFB) and an official sponsor of the association’s national Cup competition and the German men’sfootball team.
In the first phase of the new partnership, fans and visitors to the Allianz Arena in Munich canuse the DHL store to ship merchandise from the FC Bayern Megastore directly to their homes.
