Forex Magnates has learned that Cypriot broker, IronFX has agreed to pay nearly three million euros for a sponsorship deal with the Spanish football club, FC Barcelona, so that the broker can use the club's and players' images in its advertises anywhere in the world, other than in Spain.
Sports club sponsorships are usually a very expensive deal and thus serve as a way for companies to show potential clients that they are well established in their markets and must earn enough in order to spend on such arrangements. However, such very high costs are hard to explain when the primary focus of advertisers in the FX industry right now is to lower the costs of client Acquisition via targeted online campaigns and signing on successful Introducing Brokers.
Being associated with a worldwide respected image such as that of FC Barcelona can definitely be a major boost to any brand, but only time will tell if such a mass marketing approach would ever actually be beneficial enough to cover the costs and not just become a net loss for IronFX.
Javier Faus Santasusana, Senior Vice President, FC Barcelona and Markos Kashiouris, CEO Iron FX
Other examples for FX brokerages that sponsor sports team are, Alpari which signed a 3-year deal with West Ham United in 2011, GAIN Capital’s sponsorship of Manchester City, and FXTCR partnership with Galatasaray Sports Club to Launch GS Forex. Notable examples besides football are Saxo Bank and FxPro that sponsor Formula 1 car racing teams. Forex Magnates reviewed the practice of sport's sponsorships last year.
