The project to turn Paris St. Germain into a global brand started four years ago when Qatar Sports Investments bought a controlling stake in the club. Since then, PSG has more than quintupled its annual revenue and its sponsorship income has increased almost tenfold. And yet, the work is far from over. “We have two big ambitions,” said Frédéric Longuépée, PSG’s deputy general manager. “First of all, our sporting ambition is to win the Champions League. The second objective is to become one of the most famous sports franchises in the world.” The French club believes it has all the right assets to achieve these goals. One is the world famous Eiffel Tower, which is featured in the club’s logo, and the other is Paris, Longuépée said. “Ask someone you know what they know about Paris,” he said. “The answer is Eiffel Tower, fashion, glamor, design, food and elegance. We [as a club] want to encompass all of it.”
A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY: PSG is in a unique position compared to some of Europe’s other top clubs as it is the only top-flight team in the French capital. For the last four years, the club has been reaping the benefits of this ambitious new brand strategy. At the end of the '10-11 Ligue 1 season, before QSI’s takeover, PSG generated $90M in revenues, Longuépée said. In '13-14, the club had a turnover of €474.2M ($524M), according to Deloitte’s Football Money League 2015. Over the same period, its sponsorship revenue increased from $11M to more than $100M, and its matchday revenues increased from $24M to $100M, Longuépée said. To continue this growth, PSG wants to increase its global fan base. Three years ago PSG had 500,000 fans on Facebook and 85% of them were French. Today, the team has more than 20 million fans and 90% of them are outside of France, Longuépée said. The only hiccup in the club's progress was running afoul of UEFA financial fair play rules, which resulted in a €60M fine and a reduction of players available for the Champions League.
INNOCENTS ABROAD: The club understands the importance of taking the team abroad to connect with fans. After touring Asia last year, the club made the decision to come to North America this year and join the Int'l Champions Cup, which is organized by Relevent Sports. Longuépée told SBD Global during the team’s match against Chelsea in Charlotte that it signed a long-term contract with the ICC, which also stages tournaments in Asia and Australia. While not going into any specifics, he said that PSG would be happy to come back to the States or go to Asia as part of the deal. “It’s the best way to expand our footprint and communicate to our fans worldwide.” Despite all those achievements, the French club knows that it is lagging behind its English counterparts. PSG and the French Football League (LFP) are working together to increase Ligue 1’s global media exposure. The club has also identified regions and territories where it believes it can create a stronger presence than its European rivals. Those regions include Western and Northern Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Though it has to play catch-up, PSG considers America an important market that it will keep coming back to sooner or later.
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Frédéric Longuépée
Source: PSG
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KNOW YOUR COMPETITION: The club is also considering opening an office in a foreign country, with Longuépée saying the process is at an early stage. “You need to understand your competitors, the way they work, what they’ve achieved and where they are. Then you need to adapt yourself to the market and become this global franchise you want to become,” he said. Expanding the club’s global footprint has already resulted in regional commercial deals. PSG agreed to regional partnership deals with Indonesian food and beverage company GarudaFood and Swedish frozen pizza producer Billys. The club is also expected to announce a further cooperation with Mexican beer brand Tecate in early September, according to reports. The PSG project, which Longuépée described as the “greatest in the football industry,” has two sides. There is the sporting side, which focuses on winning games and titles, and there is a side away from the pitch. “You don’t want to depend on the sporting results, you want to create something unique,” Longuépée said. “We want to talk to casual fans in order to reach a very large population, and that’s when you become a brand.”
