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Naming rights and the search for new avenues in Brazil

The practice of license of rights on the use of a mark for naming stadiums and events has shown fresh perspectives in Brazil. With the advent of the World Cup and of the Olympic Games, Naming Rights have occupied an increasing space in the sports segment, owing to the great opportunity for the companies to explore a platform of communication and visibility before the consuming public.

In Brazil, the milestone of the practice was the naming of the Creditcard Hall, in 1999 for one of the greatest performance houses in Latin America, located in São Paulo. After over a decade, without any exploration to the extent of those in other countries, Naming Rights breathe life into the practice with the constructions of new stadiums and sports center for the international events which will take place in Brazil.

In the above regard, foremost corporate groups, such as the insurance companies, brewery and assemblers are now involved in a race for the negotiations of millionaire contracts, with a view to insuring their marks to be firmly present in the consumers´ minds. In this connection, Group Petrópolis, ranking second as a brewery in Brazil, signed a contract for associating the mark “ITAIPAVA” with the football stadium in the City of Salvador, the now Itaipava Arena Fonte Nova. Another instance is the football stadium of Palmeiras Club, in São Paulo, which is now named Allianz Parque , following a contract of R$300 million or so for 20 years, extendable for 10 years, as it has been largely advertised in the Brazilian press.

A sensitive issue, however, is the relation between the rights of the company which heavily invested towards having its name or mark stamped in the stadiums and the media, mainly the television media which acquired the right to broadcast the event and sold portions of the broadcasting to several advertisers.

It is reported, however, that the media have just removed the names from the stadiums or sports complexes by replacing them with popular names, as they had been known. In addition, for the worse, the advertiser may be a competitor of he who paid for the rights of having its name stamped in the stadium.

Hence, fresh commercial strategies have been discussed, in Brazil, by highly famous media, towards offering special contracts to the holders of Naming Rights, with a view to finding a way to have their names or marks stamped in the advertisements besides the regular ones.

Brazil, therefore, moves to new avenues in the issues dealing with Naming Rights, by attracting foreign investors and compelling the media, sports entities and law professionals to study new strategies and forms of negotiating to address satisfactorily the interests of all the parties involved.

Carmen Sánchez-Puelles