VietNamNet Bridge – Cooperating with foreign soccer teams to promote their brands is a strategy followed by many Vietnamese bankers.

The Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Bank (SHB), for example, on July 1 signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Manchester City Football Club, under which SHB can use Man City brand in its business, including Visa card issuance.

SHB’s customers will have the opportunity to visit the UK to watch Manchester City’s matches. Meanwhile, SHB’s President Do Quang Hien said he is considering inviting the British squad, the current champion of the Premier League, to Vietnam in next year during the summer.

In Vietnam, Hien is known as the businessman who has reaped biggest fruits in the investments in football.

According to Hien, this is just the very first step of his plan to cooperate with the giant club in the UK. He said the two sides will consider taking other steps, possibility opening Manchester City’s football academy in Vietnam.

By “borrowing” Manchester City’s name, SHB will have the opportunity to promote its images in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, where the bank is present.

Many British football teams are partners of Vietnamese bankers and powerful conglomerates. The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), for example, “shakes hands” with Manchester United, while VietinBank with Chelsea FC and Eximbank once invited Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany to Vietnam in a brand promotion campaign.

However, the businessman who kicked off the movement of cooperating with foreign football teams was Doan Nguyen Duc, President of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, one of the country’s richest millionaires.

Duc joined hands with Arsenal to set up the Hoang Anh Gia Lai – Arsenal football club, which provided the majority of the footballers to the U19 squad which was successful last season.

Vinamilk, the Vietnam leading dairy producer, has recently advertised a coffee brand by using the image of Arsenal.

Analysts have commented that joining hands with foreign football teams is now in fashion in the Vietnamese business community.

A common feature in all the cooperation deals is that bankers issue co-branded international cards. Thus, Vietnamese banks can expand their card markets and promote their brands.

Unofficial statistics showed that 20-30 million Vietnamese watch Manchester United’s matches. Vietnamese now also like Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City, which is a great advantage for Vietnamese bankers.

The analysts pointed out that large Vietnamese corporations now tend to cooperate with foreign football clubs instead of Vietnamese ones, even though they have to spend much more money on the deals.

Vinamilk, for example, needed Arsenal’s image just to advertise Moment, a new coffee brand which marked the presence of Vinamilk, a dairy producer, in the coffee market.

Meanwhile, BIDV and VietinBank, both are major players in the banking sectors, but they do not sponsor domestic male teams.

BIDV has poured tens of billions of dong into the national female soccer squad. In early 2013, it signed a five-year sponsorship contract with Manchester United.

Meanwhile, Vietinbank became the first Vietnamese enterprise establishing relations with Chelsea FC.

Manh Ha