To go to a show at Allianz Parqueyou can board at the station Carrão – Assaígo to the end of the line and catch a bus. If by chance you want to watch a film on Reag Belas Artesdisembark on the metro Paulista – Pernambucanas. Sometimes we are in doubt whether we are giving a cultural tip in the city of São Paulo or whether it is an action merchandising the kind you see in soap operas. But in fact, it is just the growth of the marketing strategy called naming rights.
More and more public places are being renamed after big brands. This is because companies see an advantage in paying to have their brands linked to places such as subway stations, sports stadiums or concert halls. The important thing is that they are high-traffic or iconic places in the city.
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The figures to achieve this right vary depending on the location, of course. And it could be thousands, or even millions of reais. If there is any doubt that this is a good strategy… Well, if you have heard of “Credicard Hall”, no “Antarctica Park”, or has already started calling the São Paulo Futebol Clube stadium “MorumBis”, is a sign that the company has achieved its objective.
“Associating the brand name with a highly visible location increases recognition and adds reliability to the brand”, recalls specialist Murilo Moreno, partner at the consultancy firm Sequoia Strategy and Marketing. “Through naming rights, brands can connect with the positive emotions and experiences associated with the location.”
The naming rights strategy was born in the mid-20th century in the United States, where almost every event venue nowadays has a brand in tow. Here in Brazil, it gained strength in the mid-1990s.
Even the Metro got on board
In the most recent wave of naming rights, in which Mondelez appointed MorumBis and the Free Market negotiated the biggest contract in the country with Pacaembuthe São Paulo Metro also saw an opportunity to add new revenue to the cash register.
The company, subordinate to the State government, has been looking for new forms of revenue in addition to transport fares. In this context, Silvia Tomaseli, business manager at Metrô, says that the state-owned company has been studying the initiative since 2019.
After in-depth studies and analyzing the examples of New York, Dubai, Madrid and Lisbon, which also negotiated the name of their stations, the company closed its first station “surname” in June 2021, “Carrão – Assaí Atacadista”.
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Since then, two others have already been negotiated: the “Health – Ultrafarma” and to “Penha – Besni Stores”. For this “surnaming rights”, the companies pay a monthly fee – which varies from R$72 thousand per month for Ultrafarma to R$170 thousand per month for Assaí – for a 10-year contract.
“The Metro needs other revenue and we are thinking about business models in which we can reduce our operating costs”, says Silvia. “The companies that buy the rights are responsible for investing in modernizing the station’s visual communication and guaranteeing us important revenue.”
In this investment, says Murilo Moreno, the strategy is not to create a positive memory in the consumer – something that public transport does not usually awaken in people –, but here the game is to convey practicality to the public. “When the company associates itself with the name of a station, the public comes to know that they do not need to drive to access that brand’s service. In a city like São Paulo, this means saving time.”
Silvia says more station names will be auctioned soon, but not all. “We want to maintain the attractiveness of the product, so we cannot trivialize it”, he reinforces. For this new batch, some adjustments were made to better serve potential partners, such as reducing the contract period to five years, extendable for another five years. In the notices, it is not allowed to place the names of people at stations, much less alcoholic beverages or betting shops.
a veteran
In terms of naming rights, the German insurance company Allianz Insurance is the veteran. The company has one of the longest-running naming rights in the country at the Palmeiras stadium – in 2013, Allianz closed for around R$300 million, according to news at the time, the right to name the arena for 20 years, being the largest investment in brand already made by the group in Brazil.
“Allianz Parque’s naming right is one of the actions that contributes to our spontaneous brand recognition indicator (UBA, in English) reaching 20% in the country,” said the company, in a statement. Longevity, in fact, is a characteristic of naming rights contracts. “It takes time to establish itself in the public’s memory, so naming right cannot be considered for short-term strategies”, reinforces consultant Murilo Moreno.
For Maria Clara Ramos, executive director of marketing at Allianz Seguros, the movement helped to show that naming a stadium “is much more than investing in a outdoor privileged”. “It’s about creating a physical space for an emotional and direct relationship with the consumer.” Since the stadium opened in November 2014, Allianz Parque has welcomed 14.5 million people, including more than 400 football matches and 270 concerts.
In addition to contact with the general public, Murilo Moreno also remembers that naming rights also become a means of accessing customers to close deals. “With the purchase of rights, companies can carry out commercial activations at the location and also have boxes to take guests and promote relationships”, he says.
