Nissan debuted its "Engineers of Excitement" campaign platform at Tuesday’s UEFA Super Cup match, "kicking off the brand’s lucrative four-year sponsorship of the Champions League with a 10 second teaser of what’s to come," according to THE DRUM. With "innovation and excitement lying at the heart" of Nissan’s Champions League program, the activity -- which stars new brand ambassadors Andrés Iniesta and Thiago Silva -- "aims to harness excitement both on and off the pitch." Nissan Europe VP of Marketing Bastien Schupp revealed the brand’s sponsorship of the Champions League was a “massive and a logistical challenge” that Nissan needed to embrace because “not many people have a bad opinion [of Nissan], but most are quite indifferent.” Schupp said, “By using this massive platform we can explain what innovation and excitement mean as part of the Nissan brand.” Iniesta and Silva "will help the brand introduce new innovations to
football fans, playing a leading role" in the brand’s advertisements. Schupp: "We needed to find a way to link Nissan to football and we didn’t
want to just advertise cars in the middle of the matches." Of Nissan’s partnership strategy, Schupp said, "We look for big
properties that have a strong media value and we look for sports that
are accessible as we don’t want to be seen as elite or very exclusive. Football is a territory we think fits well with our brand and this is by far the biggest sponsorship we’ve ever signed" (THE DRUM, 8/12).
