DHL intends to expand its global partnership with Bayern Munich into new markets after successfully launching the club’s official online store in China last year. DHL eCommerce, a division of the global logistics company, developed a turn-key solution for the Bundesliga club on Chinese e-commerce platform TMall Global, part of the Alibaba Group. “They were looking at us in helping them to establish a better mousetrap for Chinese fans to receive a piece of merchandise, especially a jersey,” DHL eCommerce Head of Strategy & Business Development Thomas Kipp told SBD Global. “In the old setup, they would have to order it from the Bayern Munich online store in Germany, and then it would take three to four weeks and would cost them a fortune to receive it. That was something that Bayern Munich thought was absolutely unacceptable.” The store, which launched in May ’15, was the first step in Bayern Munich’s attempt to increase its brand in the world’s most populous country. The club recently announced that it will open an office in Shanghai later this year. Kipp said the company fulfilled 6,000 orders alone on Singles' Day -- one of the largest online shopping days in the world -- last year.
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GLOBAL DESIRE: The core of the partnership between DHL and Bayern Munich, besides their German roots, is the “strong desire” of both brands to expand globally, Kipp said. When the two sides agreed to a six-year global partnership in ’14, DHL was about to embark on a new global growth strategy, called “Strategy 2020,” while Bayern Munich opened its first int’l office in N.Y. “Let’s join forces and support Bayern Munich in building a stronger international presence, and support them in their international merchandise sales,” Kipp recalled about the company’s motive behind the partnership. Merchandise is one of the major income streams for professional football clubs, along with TV, sponsorship and ticketing. While the focus of the partnership is currently on China and the U.S., DHL is confident the partnership will expand to other markets in the future. “There’s every reason to believe we can continue to build this partnership going forward in similar ways in other markets,” Kipp said. DHL did not identify which markets they would target next, but the company said the biggest e-commerce markets include the U.S., China, India, Germany and the U.K. DHL and Bayern will decide on the next target market at a given point in time, Kipp said.
AMERICAN SUMMER: DHL is also in discussions with the club to create a stronger online platform in the U.S., however, officials declined to provide specifics. The company is currently using Bayern Munich’s U.S. summer tour to activate its global partnership. The team participates in the Int’l Champions Cup preseason tournament and will play two more matches in Charlotte and N.Y. after kicking off the tour in Chicago on Wednesday. DHL will handle all the logistics, which includes the transportation of equipment from Germany to the U.S., and then from the hotels to the practice fields and stadiums. In addition, DHL will provide fans with a behind-the-scenes look through a fan reporter, along with sweepstakes and activations on social media. The partnership with Bayern Munich is currently the brand’s most established and broadest football engagement after it reduced its deal with ManU to a simple logistics partnership, DHL eCommerce CEO Charles Brewer said. The success of the sponsorship is hard to quantify, but last year DHL earned about $4M in PR equivalent, he added. DHL also signed on as official partner of the ICC and will receive in-stadium promotion in the form of LED banners, interview backdrops and matchball delivery. The company will also run a number of TV commercials across ESPN's channels, which are the official broadcast rights holder of the tournament in the U.S. and Latin America. But the primary focus of the activation is on social media. “We distinctively stay away from the big TV advertising investments because that’s extremely expensive, and you have a lot of loss in reaching out to the respective target groups,” Brewer said. “Whereas in social media you can really target specifically.” DHL is also very active in motorsports, where it has global partnerships with Formula 1, Formula E, MotoGP, and Andretti Autosport in the IndyCar Series.
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