Neymar's Intel flash: what it says about internet of things

Barcelona's $25m deal with Intel kick-starts a sponsorship revolution, says Simon Chadwick

neymar.jpg
(Image credit: 2013 Getty Images)

WHEN Neymar scored for FC Barcelona against Villareal in a recent Spanish La Liga game, it was a momentous occasion. As the Brazilian international turned to celebrate, he pulled up his shirt to reveal Intel’s logo on its inside. This was the first time during a game that the world had seen evidence of Barca’s recently signed $25m sponsorship deal with the American tech corporation.

Given that 100m people or more are likely to have seen the logo, this was an immediate return on investment for Intel who are one of several tech giants recently taking an interest in sport. Last July, the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys signed a $20m stadium naming rights deal with AT&T. The previous month, Yahoo reached an agreement with the San Francisco 49ers to become “the exclusive online sports content, social networking and photo and video sharing partner” of the American football team’s new stadium.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
TheConversation.com is a not-for-profit independent publication which sources articles from the academic and research community. The articles appearing here have been republished with the permission of TheConversation.com.