Aon and Manchester United: An Engaging Matchup

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This summer will be a hot one for Aon Corporation. On June 1 the world’s largest provider of risk services and human capital solutions becomes the new global shirt sponsor of U.K. football powerhouse Manchester United – the most valuable brand in the most popular sport on the planet. In July, at the same time it introduces the new shirt featuring Aon’s logo, the company will launch a master brand effort for all of its businesses around the world.

Join Phil Clement, Aon’s global chief marketing and communications officer, and 600-plus national BMA “Engage” conference attendees at the Swissotel on Thursday, June 3, as he keynotes BMA’s last MarketingMasters Luncheon Seminar of the program year. He will explain how this four-year sponsorship investment will enable Aon to engage and unite its employees, customers and prospects around the world at the same time it unifies its brand globally.

“Like Aon, Manchester United has a truly global reach. The club has a great pedigree and shares our passion for worldwide appeal and our pursuit of excellence,” Clement said. “This partnership allows us to bring the Manchester United brand into our core business areas and will help us to grow in emerging insurance and reinsurance markets, in places like Asia, for example, where the Manchester United brand is very strong.”
 
Aon, which reported total revenue of $7.6 billion in 2009, is the leading global provider of risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human capital consulting, with an employee base of 36,000 people working in 500 offices in more than 120 countries.

But like many large financial services firms, Aon did not reach its size through organic growth alone. Since 1987, when the company selected the name “Aon” after Ryan Insurance Group merged with Combined International Corporation of America, more than 440 acquisitions have followed. Some of those companies have continued to operate under their original names. To create a consistent brand image, Aon is launching a new global master brand effort. The company expects the simultaneous Manchester United sponsorship to propel its brand globally.

“We feel that tremendous benefits will arise from having our brand exposed to the millions of passionate fans across the world who follow this team every day,” Clement said. “Aon will benefit from Manchester United’s increasing global fan base, which is testament to the appeal of the brand and the players.”

That global fan base is now estimated to be 333 million strong and growing—and with good reason. The team’s Web site has 60 million Web page impressions per month, and 70 percent of those are from outside the United Kingdom. What’s more, Manchester United sells more shirts than all 32 teams combined in the U.S. National Football League, creating millions of walking billboards each year around the globe.

If history is any indicator, the Manchester United shirt with the Aon name will have a tremendous impact on Aon’s brand awareness. In 2007, the team’s previous shirt sponsor, New York-based AIG, rocketed into the annual BusinessWeek/Interbrand survey of the top 100 global brands to number 47, previously unranked and only one year into the sponsorship. That same year AIG also placed 30th in the Barron’s “Report of World’s Most Respected Companies.” In fact, since Aon announced its sponsorship in 2009, the company jumped to 13 in the Barron’s report, up from 113 in the previous year.   

For Aon, the Manchester United sponsorship fits nicely into a larger, internal initiative.  Branded inside the company as “Aon United,” the effort is intended to unite the company’s global workforce around the Aon brand as well as the sponsorship.

With the luncheon occurring in the middle of the BMA National Conference, this event is likely to sell out, so please sign up soon. To register online, go here. (Please note that this event is in conjunction with the BMA National Conference. To register, you will go through the national BMA Web site. The option to register for the luncheon only will be available after you click “register online.”)

About Phil Clement
Philip B. Clement is the global chief marketing and communications officer for Aon Corporation, a leading risk management and reinsurance broker with 36,000 employees in 500 offices located in 120 countries around the world. He has responsibility for all of Aon’s marketing, which includes branding, external and public market analysis, and demand creation. He is also responsible for driving many of Aon’s programs in the areas of sales, sales systems and innovation.

Previously, Clement was a managing partner of The Clement Group, a management consulting firm that he founded in Chicago. In that role, Clement served a wide variety of clients from the Fortune 50 to venture-backed startups as an expert in revenue-oriented growth strategies, particularly in marketing, sales processes, go-to-market channels and new product launches. He is an advocate of “value marketing” and has an impressive track record in leading rapid-growth initiatives at professional services firms, ranging from “Inc. Fast 50” companies to the largest global consulting companies.

Prior to starting The Clement Group, Clement was senior vice president of global market development for Inforte Corporation.

He has served as an instructor at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy. He also has served as an adjunct professor at the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University.

Clement received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business and a Master of Public Policy Analysis with a concentration in statistics from the University of Chicago’s Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Analysis. His undergraduate studies were at the University of Southern California, where he received a multidisciplinary certificate in journalism, documentary filmmaking and anthropology.

He is a past president of the Business Marketing Association’s Chicago chapter; board member of the Better Government Association, the nation’s oldest government watchdog organization; a board member of St. Chrysostom’s Day School of Chicago; a board member of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago; and a member of the Visiting Committee of the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Public Policy.
 

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