Standard Chartered Bank is arranging for a visit to Asia by British Premier League soccer club Liverpool next summer as part of the bank’s move to build up its name in the region, a bank executive said on Thursday.
The bank launched a four-year sponsorship deal with Liverpool this summer, signaling a big shift in the London-based bank’s approach to promoting its name, Standard Chartered chairman John Peace said.
The bank has come to realize that a “strong brand is also an important driver,” Peace said, and sponsorship “is a major part of our strategy to build basic brand awareness.”
Standard Chartered wanted more people to know what Standard Chartered stood for and why it was different, he said.
“It’s our intention that in the four-year sponsorship we’ll get Liverpool to our major markets,” Gavin Laws, head of corporate affairs, told reporters.
Asia, Africa and the Middle East account for more than 90 percent of the bank’s annual profits, Peace said, adding that Standard Chartered planned to continue focusing on these emerging markets, which offer significant growth opportunities.
The British bank is aiming to overtake Citigroup to become the nation’s top foreign bank.
It currently leads among foreign banks in Taiwan in terms of the number of branches and in the housing mortgage business. After acquiring Hsinchu International Bank (新竹國際商銀) in July 2007, Standard Chartered now operates 89 branches in the country.
Paul Tyrrell, Liverpool’s head of press, told a media briefing on Thursday at Liverpool’s Melwood Training Ground that an Asian trip was now being planned and would likely take place in July before the beginning of the new season.
After waving good-bye to its 17-year sponsor, Carlsberg, Tyrrell said the soccer team could add more stops in Asia next year.
The players will be sporting shirts bearing the Standard Chartered logo in a four-year deal that began in July and will run until the end of the 2013-2014 season.
The deal is estimated to have cost ￡80 million (US$128 million), marking the biggest commercial sponsorship that Liverpool has ever received, media reports said.
Last year, Liverpool visited Singapore and Thailand, Tyrrell said.
No final decision about the places for this year has been made, he said.
“I will not be surprised that if China is on the list,” Roy Hodgson, who replaced Rafael Benitez as the new manager of Liverpool in summer, told the media briefing.
Last season, Liverpool attracted 75 million TV viewers in Asia alone, with 60 million of them Chinese, according to Standard Chartered.
Asia made up about 25 percent of Liverpool’s global TV audience of 300 million, bank statistics showed.
There are official Liverpool fan clubs in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.
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