There is nothing more important to a business than the strength of its marketing plan and companies spare no limit when it comes to using creative and often outrageous techniques in order to sell their products.
There is nothing that can build a company's image better than an endorsement from a well-known celebrity and because of their global following, professional athletes stand out among the best. It is not surprising that the top 10 athletes listed in Sports Illustrated in 2012 were names that brought home considerably more income from endorsements than they did from their actual participation in a sport.
Forex Brokers Jump In
Not to be left behind, Forex brokers have jumped on the bandwagon and are discovering that PR stunts by international sports figures work very well with Forex trading and their appearances on broker websites and television are having quite a bit of success in promoting their brokerage houses.
Only recently, UFXMarkets, a London-based online trading platform announced its partnership with Mike Tindall, outside center and former Captain for Gloucester Rugby. Tindall, whose reputation as a successful rugby player and individual team coach will go far as a spokesman for UFXMarkets, promoting its image as one of the few online brokers offering its traders customized training and personal one-on-one coaching. In fact, Captain Tindall will be using his own tailored trading strategy, made exclusively for him by UFXMarkets.
Oftentimes, an entire team is used as a firm's PR representative. Last year, Easy-Forex, an Australian Forex broker, ran a competition and offered as its top prize a trip to Sydney to meet the legendary National Rugby League team, the Canterbury Bulldogs at their final home game. Yes, part of the prize was a neat $1 million, but the big attraction was the chance to ‘meet the players.' Interestingly enough, the winner of the prize was a 29 year old business networking student, Shivanand Swami ,from Parbahni in rural India, who never heard of the Bulldogs, never heard of Rugby League and certainly never kicked a football in his life.
Last February, Alpari, another U-based broker, renowned for its sponsorships of the NBA's New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets, signed a multi-year, multi-million dollar partnership to sponsor West Ham United of the English Premier League. To kick off the deal, members of West Ham United visited Alpari's UK trading floor and held a trading competition.
FXDD, a Foreign Exchange Dealer headquartered in New York City, uses its partnership with Aim Autosport as a means of promoting its brokerage. FXDD today won the 2012 GRAND-AM Rolex GT Sports Car Series by racing its Aim Autosport Team FXDD, back in October.
FXPro, a front runner with sports sponsorships, has just completed its 3-year contract as a Commercial Partner with the Premier League Aston Villa Football Club, a deal which came in at over £10 million. Since that time, FXPro has teamed up with several other high-profile sports sponsorships including the Fulham Football Club, the Virgin Formula 1 team, the BMW Sauber Formula 1 team, the IRC rally team, the WRC rally team, the FXPro Rally Cyprus and the "?super star" Sunday golf tournament.
And AFX, a leading trading and investing firm out of Cyprus has been the title sponsors of the AFX Sailing Team.
And the list goes on and on. These well-known sports teams and celebrity athletes such as Mike Tindall are all internationally recognized and have become one-person brands. Sports has the capability of going beyond what happens on the field and sports sponsorships reach people in countries where the sport may never have been played. What is certain is that the combination of marketing and sports will continue to play a vital road in the success of many Forex companies.