Football has become a new string for Deezer’s bow in the last year, thanks to its addition of live audio commentary and podcasts in some of its key markets.
Now the streaming service is expanding that with a high-profile partner: English football club Manchester United. It has appointed Deezer as its “exclusive audio streaming partner”.
What does that mean? While no details are available on the commercial terms of the deal, it will see Deezer integrated into the club’s various digital channels – website included – as well as providing match-day playlists for home games at the Old Trafford stadium.
There are clear potential marketing benefits for Deezer too: Manchester United claims a “global community of 659 million followers” around the world, which should give Deezer a bump up in brand awareness as it faces competitors like Spotify and Apple Music.
Deezer currently has more than 10 million active users globally – a figure that includes its free listeners and paying subscribers. Earlier this year, the company said it had six million of the latter.
Deezer launched its Deezer Football section in October 2015 with live commentary for England’s Premier League and Germany’s Bundesliga as well as a catalogue of podcasts, fixture information and football-related playlists.
The company expanded the section to 15 more countries in December 2015, while in June 2016 Deezer launched an original football podcast called Deezer Balls Up for the Euro 2016 tournament.
Deezer is promoting its Manchester United partnership with a video starring players Jesse Lingard, Paul Pogba, Morgan Schneiderlin and Ashley Young, as well as former player Rio Ferdinand.
Ferdinand has previously been associated with Spotify, creating public playlists for Deezer’s rival and building a following of more than 450,000 fans on the platform.
Big things happening at Spotify & I’m happy to be part of it! Soon you’ll be able to follow my playlists & check out what I’m listening to!
— Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) December 7, 2012
That was a more informal relationship between a player and a streaming service, but Deezer’s deal with Manchester United shows how these kinds of partnerships are becoming formal agreements.
“This is a digital cooperation: we will become their official digital partner,” Deezer’s chief commercial officer Golan Shaked told Music Ally ahead of the launch.
“This means not just having a banner on the pitch, but integrating throughout their digital spectrum, for both global brand awareness and engagement worldwide.”
Shaked told Music Ally that Manchester United is an example of a third strand of partnerships for Deezer sitting alongside its traditional telco deals and its newer hardware deals with firms like Sonos.
“The reason we’re going for direct-to-consumer brand partnerships is not necessarily just for the brand visibility, but more that those brands have digital outlets where we can insert our product and create interaction,” said Shaked.
“The big brands bring you out to where consumers are, and if we are able to inject music into that experience and make ourselves visible, but also give people an ability to interact with the product, that gets us closer to conversion.”
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