U.S.-Based Aon Corp. Signs Four-Year Deal As ManU Shirt Sponsor

By Terry Lefton, Editor-at-Large

Sources Value ManU's Four-Year Deal With Aon At About $30-32M Annually

Global insurance giant Aon Corp. is replacing fellow business-to-business insurer AIG as the jersey sponsor of EPL club Manchester United, arguably the world's most renowned team sports brand. Sources put the four-year deal between $30-32M per year. The Aon logo is not scheduled to appear on the ManU kit until next June. However, the new jerseys could appear at retail late this year, in time for holiday shopping, depending on the supply maintained by Nike, another one of ManU's biggest sponsors. The deal includes digital perimeter and fixed signage at Old Trafford and TV units, along with tickets and hospitality. AIG has been the shirt sponsor for ManU since '06, but following AIG's bailout by the U.S. government, the company announced in January that it would not renew the deal after it expires following the '09-10 season. Despite some industry speculation that ManU would have trouble finding a new sponsor, the team not only replaced AIG but replaced them with a sponsor from the same category, and one headquartered in the U.S. AIG calls itself the world's largest global insurance broker, and its worldwide reach included 36,000 employees working in more than 120 countries. ManU claims to have more than 300 million fans worldwide. "Aon is the world's number one global reinsurer, ManU is the worlds top team, so this deal just made a lot sense," said TSMGI President Jordan Bressler, whose nine-year-old Illinois-based sports marketing firm negotiated the deal for Aon. "This should make Aon one of the most recognized brands in the world very quickly. It did that for Vodafone, and in fairness, it also did it for AIG." Revolution Senior VP/Research Darren Marshall said that his firm estimated the media exposure value of a ManU shirt deal at $70M annually. "You have to be willing to pay the freight, which is considerable, but there's almost nothing that rivals ManU as far as global reach," he said.

GIANT LEAP INTO PROMINENCE: One of the more intriguing parts of the deal is how quickly TSMGI, a relatively unknown motorsports agency, took Aon from almost no sports sponsorships (this season it began a car sponsorship in the British Touring Car Championship) to what may end up being the biggest sponsorship deal of the year. Bressler said that while original contact with ManU was made three months ago, the deal was actually done in three weeks of negotiations, across two countries and four cities. "They have been looking to build their brand," he said. "This offer accelerated things."