Corpses in the closet
Gouden Gids takes an intelligent and professional approach when entering into a sponsorship contract. Because of the Belgian sister company’s bad experiences with the then basketball champions, a book check was carried out first in Feyenoord, looking for dead bodies in the cupboard. unique at that time. In addition, achieving brand awareness is not the first priority of the Golden Pages – unlike the Ajax sponsor TDK, for example. For this reason, in addition to advertising T-shirts, a large number of other considerations are recorded. Such as tickets for home games, access to the lounges after games, player posting in the Yellow Pages advertisers’ shop slots, twice a year stadium availability for events, fifty footballs with autographs and also billboards on the most popular eye-catching spots in the stadium.
So the preconditions are well met. “But things really only improved with the arrival of Johan Cruyff in the second year of the agreement,” says Albers. “That was, of course, an unexpected bonus. Feyenoord’s sporting score provided a nice introduction to our representatives each week. If Feyenoord won, it would have been a rewarding subject for the Rotterdam fans, if they lost, there was often gloating among Ajax supporters.”
The sponsorship generates an unprecedented amount of free publicity for Gouden Gids. From now on, Feyenoord no longer played their away matches in green, but in Yellow Pages. She even gained international fame in the Golden Pages when Cruijff graced the cover of La Gazetta dello Sport in Feyenoord’s outfit. Albers: “This is why our sponsorship has also attracted attention in international circles. For example, our French sister company Office d’Annonces followed our example by being a sponsor of FC Nantes.”
