The alliance between a football institution, a shipping giant and a heavyweight in French rap, with Marseille as the common denominator. OM announced at the end of 2022 that it had signed a new sponsorship contract with the shipping company CMA CGM, before formalizing the presence of the D’Or et de Platine label, by rapper Jul, on the sleeves of his jersey until the end of the season. Partnerships forged locally for popularity and internationalization purposes.
The CMA CGM, a “natural” partnership to shine internationally
In Marseille, it is often said that there are two things that count: OM and the port. And guess what? The club and the CMA CGM, one of the three global shipping giants, headquartered in Marseille, formalized their union last November, through a sponsorship partnership. These “two important institutions of the local fabric”, in the words of President Pablo Longoria, join forces “to send a strong message at the local level, not only through sport, but also to develop social actions around foundations, to Marseille and for the territory”.
“There is a lot of relevance in seeing these two players join forces, since they share values, a destination, with the desire to please the people of Marseille and to celebrate Marseille through the fundamentals of the city. Both will be used,” said Bertrand Chauvet, managing director of Brand Finance France, which specializes in brand valuation. “It says something about Marseille, it’s a destination partnership with common values around the Mediterranean, a success story, there are a lot of interesting converging elements”, considers him, Lionel Maltese, lecturer at the University of Aix-Marseille, and a specialist in sports economics.
He recalls that OM and CMA CGM are “two strong markers of the territory and serve its attractiveness”, to the point of becoming “the place to live, to work”. But the maritime carrier, “a major company in an important sector of activity such as logistics”, also shines internationally with its boats present in all the ports of the world, “the partnership with Air France for cargo planes” or even their “partnership with the next Olympic Games in Paris”.
A “notoriety accelerator” and a “logic from a public point of view” who will say to himself “”ah well yes, it’s logical this partnership with the CMA CGM, this company born in Marseilles with a success story at international”, summarizes Bertrand Chauvet.
Jul “an emblematic figure of the city” and a popular craze
While waiting for the CMA CGM logo on the OM jerseys next season, it is that of D’Or and Platine, the label of rapper Jul, which adorns the sleeve of the Marseille tunic until the end. of this season. “Thanks to this collaboration, OM demonstrates its ability to unite around the club. With the support of an emblematic figure of the city such as Jul, we will continue to strengthen the bond which unites us to our community”, savored Pedro Iriondo, the director general of strategy and development of Olympique de Marseille, during from the announcement in mid-January.
“Here we are more on a concordance with the people, the culture in the broad sense of the term because it is popular rap, and OM is a popular club. There is a convergence through a local attachment, but also a national one. We play less on the economic side, more on the star-system side, ”says Bertrand Chauvet. With the desire to develop the mutual popularity of OM and Jul, “through membership, loyalty, social networks and the association of different economic players with the aim of making 1 + 1 = 3”, continues the marketer.
This “color”, “popular” side is important for the new generation which has not necessarily known an OM title, since the last dates back to 2012 [en Coupe de la Ligue]. “The popularity acquired in the 1990s, a little less in the 2000s, must not fall asleep, a bit like Saint-Etienne or Bordeaux. Jul is in this line, since he fills the Vélodrome stadium, without forgetting a desire to diversify OM, which manages the marketing of the Vélodrome stadium. We are in a brand logic, on the popular side, with two markers of Provençal culture, ”says Lionel Maltese.
OM a strong brand, expanding, but no revolutions
These partnerships are part of a logic of expansion of the OM brand, “a very strong brand, valued in 2022 at 145 million euros, which therefore weighs more heavily than OL, for example”, more than in a resale logic. “The sale of the club is not topical, we are discussing projects for the next five years”, had also swept Pablo Longoria, as to the rumors of a possible sale after the announcement of the partnership with the CMA CGM . “This partnership is an anchor, a full takeover would be much more surprising. The CMA CGM has the means, but it must be remembered that a football club is an SME that is difficult to manage, very media-rich, with a lot of sporting competitiveness, with a lot of turnover. The savings of CMA CGM and OM are incomparable”, considers Lionel Maltese.
These partnerships with the shipping company or the music label, whose contract is estimated at 600,000 euros according to Provence, which is below market prices, should not push OM into another dimension. “For the CMA CGM, we are very far from the sums committed by other jersey sponsors, such as Ethiad, Accor or Emirates. But it must also be said that OM does not box in the same category as the clubs sponsored by these entities. OM can qualify for the C1, but far from the top 8, so far from these amounts, ”underlines the specialist in sports economics.
But for the first time, the sponsor CMA CGM, will appear on all the jerseys of the different categories of the club, the men’s and women’s professional team, but also among the young people. “There is this project to structure several competitive teams, the women who are only in D2, or the training center still lagging behind”, advances Lionel Maltese, who would also welcome a diversification of the OM in other sports such as “handball, basketball, judo or athletics”, as can PSG or OL.
A strategy to be explored more than others, such as that of music, through the OM Records label, inspired by former president Jacques-Henri Eyraud. “OM is a sports brand, it’s not easy to go into a field that has nothing to do with sport and which is not your core business. You don’t have to do everything at once,” recalls Lionel Maltese. The label has since been put on hold, and OM has signed Jul, the most streamed French rapper in history.