Real Madrid And Microsoft Announce Digital Platform Deal

Microsoft has signed a four-year deal with Real Madrid to undertake what it calls a “digital transformation” at the Spanish football giant.

This week bth parties held a press conference to announce that they have come together in a partnership which will see the Spanish giants receive an estimated £20 million over four years

A digital platform will be launched, which has a heavy emphasis on data and analytics and will offer fans “exclusive, personalised and customised” content that can be accessed online, the software company said. This will be powered by Microsoft’s Power BI for Office 365.

Microsoft will also be supplying players and staff at Real Madrid with Surface Pro 3 tablets.

Florentino Pérez, the Whites’ chief,  offered his positive assessment of the agreement:

“Today we seal a powerful alliance and the creation of a gigantic digital platform capable of changing the relationship of millions of fans with Real Madrid. It is essential to remain at the technological cutting edge and for this reason we have chosen Microsoft to lead this commitment to the future.”

This isn’t Microsoft’s first foray into sports. In 2013 it announced a $400m, five-year deal to supply Surface tablets to teams in the NFL to use on the sidelines during matches.

This also isn’t the first deal between Microsoft and Real Madrid. In May 2013 the two companies struck a deal to promote social projects to help children across Latin America through sport and technology.

My Opinion?

I strongly believe that we will see more similar parterships within sports sponsoring. Content marketing seems to become the main objective emphasizing sponsorhips more and more. Looking forward for the results of this one.

What About You?
What do you think of this sponsor deal?

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About the Author
Laurens Bianchi is an online marketing professional from the Netherlands and has been blogging on ViralBlog since 2008. Laurens is specialized in social media and content marketing in the sport, event and entertainment market. Follow him on Twitter or contact him on LinkedIn.