Aiteo's Football Sponsorship Strategy in Nigeria

• Aiteo football Sponsorship strategy recieved high Scores at the Sport marketing round table held this weekend - March 2018

• Aiteo has ramped up its sponsorship efforts in 2017, with title sponsorship of Federations cup, Super Four, Caf Awards and associate sponsorship of  Nigeria National team.

• Football sponsorships make Aiteo more of a household name in Nigeria and deepen its relationships with government, football fans as well as would-be customers globally.

The Federations Cup and the women's Challenge Cup, perhaps Nigeria's most popular football competitions and oldest tournament in the country, which have been struggling over the years, finally receives a great financial boost from a new title sponsor: Aiteo

And for the first time in Nigeria football history, in 2017, winners of Aiteo cup, men recieved N25 million while winners of the women challenge cup went away with a financial reward of N10 million and the runners up N5 million.

Again Aiteo made another landmark deal with NFF, a N2.5 billion five years associate sponsorship deal,  where it singles out to takes care of “a critical area”  of NFF expenditures.  An area that has been a big challenge and draw back to Nigerian football over the years... The issue of prompt payment of National team coaching staff salaries and players bonuses. For the first time, Nigeria will be going to Russia 2018 World Cup rest assured there will be no uproar protest from either players or the coaching staff regarding welfare.

Aiteo took over from Glo, in the title sponsorship of Caf Awards...signing a $30 million USD three years deal with CAF, extending its brand awareness, not just in Africa, but globally.

It was all high scores as sports marketers analyzed the Aiteo promotional strategy at the Sport Marketing Round Table held over the weekend at Main Conference hall, Digital Bridge Institute, Oshodi Lagos Nigeria.

Indeed, it was a smart way to get to the heart of government and the people of Nigeria, by sponsoring their most passionate and first loved sport: Football.

“As part of an overall promotional strategy across a number of platforms and formats, we’ve identified sports events such as the Caf African player of the year awards, Nigeria's Federations/ Challenge Cup and association with one of Africa's biggest sporting brands: Super Eagles of Nigeria, as excellent ways to create goodwill in a brand's business environment and to reach the company's global target audience,” said Benson Chukwueke, in his speech at the Round table.

 “Aiteo's marketing strategy is driven to meet Nigerians in their first love, with a unique focus on brand awareness and goodwill marketing...and they have scored high in meeting these corporate brand objectives within a short period.”

Aiteo Group, a Benedict Peters founded  integrated, global-focused
Nigerian energy conglomerate founded in February 2008. The company is the successor entity to Sigmund Communnecci Limited.

Aiteo Group has significant business interests in oil and gas exploration and production; bulk petroleum storage; refining of petroleum products; trading, marketing and supply as well as power generation and distribution. Its subsidiaries are Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company Limited (AEEPCo) and Aiteo Power.

Aiteo Group headquaters are in Lagos and Port Hartcourt, but it conducts businesses from several locations in Nigeria, including international offices in United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland and Brussels.


1. Enjoying Goodwill: 
Following the area of their business: power, oil and gas, a very critical area in the Nigeria polity, Aiteo's management has shown great insight by sponsoring both local and continential football, thereby drawing goodwill from the government and people of Nigeria.

Already, they won the annual "Business Day Awards" as the leading energy company in Nigeria. And Aiteo Group expect to win more contracts from their deepened relationship with government and people of Nigeria.

It will not be out of place for Aiteo Group to enjoy some tax rebate, because of their investment in football development in Nigeria.

2. Brand Awareness: 
Our research shows that 92% of our respondents did not know the Aiteo brand before 2017. And in just one year or so, the Aiteo Group has become a household name, especially among football fans across Africa and the world at large. The brand awareness has given the company a lot of positive image and more people will be favorably disposed to do business with them.