Etihad Credit Sponsorship for Growth

Four years ago, no-one had heard of Etihad, it was an infant airline. Now it is the world's fastest growing airline, and global marketing chief Peter Baumgartner says it has been sponsorship, not advertising, that has allowed the Abu Dhabi carrier to achieve growth of more than 40 per cent every year.

Many companies put advertising first, Baumgartner says, but the challenge of getting the name of the airline in front of millions of potential customers in dozens of markets required a special strategy.

The answer, he says, was sponsorship.

"We decided to spend a lot of our budget on sponsorship," he says. "Formula One is an example of how we have approached this strategically."

In 2007, Etihad was the sponsor of the Spyker Formula One team, but this year the airline has taken the plunge by linking its name with the biggest brand in the business, Ferrari.

Baumgartner says the fit is a natural one for a company that sees itself as innovative, cutting-edge and technically driven.

"Ferrari is a commanding brand and we felt that Ferrari would bring a lot to us. It all fits together."

The sponsorship-driven element of Etihad is very much strategic, but there also has to be a degree of opportunism in applying such a strategy, he says.

"We have been quite active in recent times and fortunately there have been a couple of opportunities.

"You have to grab these when they are around."

Another of those opportunities was the chance to link up with British football team Chelsea.

It may not be a motor racing team, but the sponsorship works in the same way.

"If you consider Chelsea, it works in a very similar fashion to Ferrari," Baumgartner says. "We are trying to take our Abu Dhabi-based brand to the world and that means more than just placing a logo on a team.

"We have managed internally to build quite a skilled sponsorship team.

"We have also been exploring sponsorship from the very first day." The success of that strategy was on show last month when the airline won the world's best marketing strategy award handed out by Airline Business magazine in Britain.

The magazine lauded the success of the brand's sponsorships, along with its consistent message from the time customers were picked up by its limousines to when they experienced its in-flight service.

Ferrari and Chelsea may be among the biggest sports brands in the world, but that has not stopped Etihad from making some more eclectic deals as well.

Baumgartner highlights the airline's sponsorship of the All Ireland Hurling Championships.

Although the sport may have limited appeal, the fact that the airline has taken an interest in the sport at all has created a bond with Irish fans of the sport, and this has fed back directly into Etihad's success.

"Next to giving us overnight fame in Ireland, hurling is a sport that is very close to the community and has great emotional links with the people of Ireland," Baumgartner says.

Etihad is an airline out to market itself, but he notes that it is also a marketing tool in its own right.

The airline was originally commissioned to help grow awareness of Abu Dhabi as a tourist destination.

A Ferrari-based theme park is under construction there and the capital of the United Arab Emirates hosts its first grand prix sponsored by Etihad later this year.

The strategy has helped to turn Etihad into the world's fastest growing airline, Baumgartner says.

"Getting back to the fact that sponsorship is more than just putting a logo on a shirt or car, the real value is when you tap into the community behind it."

From: The Australian