For Aon, a new partnership with ManU "will go even further in answering the big question challenging the company's marketing department: What, exactly, does the company do?" according to Michael Sebastian of AD AGE. That is why content marketing is a key component of Aon's eight-year, $240M sponsorship of ManU "that was signed in April 2013." Aon Global Chief Marketing & Communications Officer Phil Clement said, "Without content marketing, we can't explain what we do." Business-to-business marketers like Aon "are embracing various forms of content marketing, from producing articles and videos for their own sites to working with publishers to create and run so-called native ads, which seek to mimic editorial content." To understand why Aon feels the need to explain itself, "go back" to '09, when it announced a deal to appear on ManU jerseys. Clement said the initial four-year placement created an "explosion in brand awareness." Last year, the company signed its current deal with the club, "giving Aon naming rights to the team's practice facility and putting the Aon logo on the team's practice kits and making it a presenting sponsor for off-season tours." Clement said, "More people on the planet recognize our brand than don't. They just don't know what we do" (AD AGE, 7/24).
