PROPOSAL AND

MARKETING PLAN
“Cruyff Foundation sponsorship activation project – Cruyff Court”

Sport Sponsorship: Let Them Play

Word Count: 1505

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 1
2.Project proposal ........................................................................................... 2
2.1. Why ‘’Nike’’? ........................................................................................... 2
3. Implementation and conclusions ............................................................ 3
3.1. External activation................................................................................ 3
3.2. Internal activation ................................................................................. 4
4. Implementation and conclusions ............................................................ 5
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1. Introduction
This report will aim to present feasible sponsor activation solutions to ‘’Cruyff
Foundation’’ in regard to the staging of an international competition at a Cruyff Court.
The Foundation was established in 1997 by football legend Johan Cruyff with the vision
that sports and play are essential elements of children’s development. ‘’Cruyff
Foundation’’ aims to have an impact on four key aspects – health, liveability, personal
development and participation. The institute bases all its activities on Johan Cruyff’s
main values:

➢ Professionalism
➢ Self-will
➢ Involvement
➢ Positivism
➢ Connection
➢ Accessibility
➢ Passion

There are more than 200 Cruyff Courts around the world and more than 200, 000
youngsters have had the opportunity to play sports. Such numbers demonstrate the
desire of the foundation to be a constantly growing charity and develop a globally
dominant unique business model.

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2. Project proposal

After a comprehensive research and a careful analysis of potential sponsors, ‘’Nike Inc.’’ were seen as
the most appropriate fit for a sponsorship activation at an international event at a ‘’Cruyff Court’’.

2.1. Why ‘’Nike’’?

‘’Nike, Inc.’’ is a global sportswear brand established in 1964 which aims to ‘’do everything
possible to expand human potential’’. The company achieves that by creating groundbreaking sport
innovations, by making more sustainable products, by building a creative and diverse global team and
by making a positive impact in communities. ‘’Nike’’ is based on purpose, growth and innovation with
an ongoing commitment to creating an environment focused on equality, inclusion,
empowerment and respect. Their main purpose is to:

‘’Unite the world through sport to create a healthy planet, active communities and an equal
playing field for all.’’

What is more, the brand is globally recognized both by children and adults and have had
community at the core of their business. Similarly to Cruyff Foundation, ‘’Nike’’ make investments
and work with partners and employees around the world to help promote equality, level the playing
field for all and provide play- and sport-based programs to kids. The corporation believes that active
children do better in all aspects of their lives. And making play and sport more accessible and
approachable across the globe will allow everyone to reach their greatest potential. According to
‘’Nike’’, only 1 in 5 kids globally gets the physical activity they need, and girls are less active than
boys. In this regard, the company has worked with schools and local organizations around the world,
to find solutions and create positive, long-term change.

One of their key initiatives is the ‘’Made To Play’’ activity which is focused around getting children
to be active and play sports. ‘’Nike’’ argue that children are at the centre of their work and along
partners, they support support insights-driven, locally relevant programming in key cities to address
the unique challenges kids face to getting active. ‘’Nike’’ also invest in programming that specifically
helps remove barriers to play and sport for the least active kids (e.g., girls, kids in underserved areas,
kids with different abilities, etc.).
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3. Implementation and conclusions

This section will elaborate on two types of sponsorship activation for ‘’Cruyff Foundation’’ and the
organization of an international event at one of their ‘’Cruyff Courts’’.

3.1. External activation

Sponsorship activation is described as ‘’communications that promote the engagement,
involvement, or participation of the sponsorship audience with the sponsor’’ (Weeks et. al, 2008).
The external activation with ‘’Nike, Inc.’’ will ideally be an international youth competition at a ‘’Cruyff
Court’’ in Barcelona, Spain. The rationale for the location is based on the affiliation of Johan Cruyff with
Barcelona as a city and the football club where he spent a large part of his life as a player and then, as
a coach, concluding his coaching career as a manager of the Catalan national team. What is more,
‘’Nike’’ also have a strong connection with the city with head office in the city centre as well as their
long-term partnership with FC Barcelona and some of their star players through the years like Andres
Iniesta, Ronaldinho, Carles Puyol, Sergio Busquets, Gerard Pique etc.
The suggested event would be the final of an international competition amongst 5-a-side teams from
all the other global locations of ‘’Cruyff Courts’’. In all the ‘’Cruyff Courts’’ around the world, there will
be youth tournaments and the eight best teams will travel to Barcelona, Spain for the grand finale. The
slogan of the competition will be ‘’Cruyff Global - Made to Play’’ intertwining the foundation’s
international outlook with Nike’s ‘’Made to Play’’ initiative. The winning team will receive tickets to a
FC Barcelona football match and meet-and-greet with the FC Barcelona superstars at the ‘’Ciutat
Esportiva Joan Gamper’’.
As a main sponsor of the competition, ‘’Nike, Inc.’’ will cover the following costs:

Player kits and shoes (8 teams of 8 players – 5 + 6,400€

3 substitutes)
Flights for the eight teams 12,800€

Official photographs and videos of the event 1,000€

Promotional items (flags, banners, flyers, 3,000€

advertisements etc.)
Complimentary food & drink (teams + 1,500€
attendees)
Teams’ accommodation 13,440€

Total 38,140€
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3.2. Internal activation

As we saw in the MOOC, internal activation is also of paramount importance to the sponsor. It is
all about motivating the employees or the workforce. In some cases when the employees are not
involved in sponsorship programmes they might get a little bit demoralized or lack motivation to do
their job. In the case of the ‘’Cruyff Global - Made to Play’’ initiative by ‘’Cruyff Foundation’’ and
‘’Nike’’, the incentive of making employees of both companies active and participate in sports is just
as important as doing so with adolescents. A research on the benefits of sports on the human body
concludes that different metabolic and cognitive functions are improved by and after physical
exercise. They include prevention of certain mood impairments such as depression, strengthening of
the immune system to cope with certain diseases or reducing stress subjective perception and
disability causes by specific pain (Garcia-Falgueiras, 2015). In this regard, it would be paramount for
‘’Cruyff Foundation’’ and ‘’Nike, Inc’’ to make their employees part of the sponsorship activation and
encourage them to be active.

For ‘’Cruyff Foundation’’ there might be internal competitions, quizzes and giveaways related
to sport where the prizes will be ‘’Nike’’ sport outfits or trainers to stimulate the winners to get active
and play their favourite sport. What is more, employees of both companies can attend the ‘’Cruyff
Court’’ competitions around the world as well as the international final held in Barcelona – there they
can form their own 5-a-side teams and play between the real matches to demonstrate that sport is
essential for the wellbeing not only for the youngsters but to people of all ages.
Attendees of the events can also be encouraged to participate by promotional games such as scoring
a goal from the centre of the pitch, scoring a penalty, hitting the crossbar etc. as well as football trivia
competitions with rewards from ‘’Nike’’.
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4. Implementation and conclusions

The timeline for all three objectives includes an initial promotional period of three months
via advertisements on TV, radio and social media and build-up tournaments in the period up to
April 2021. The final tournament in Barcelona, Spain will be held in May 2021 with the winning
team receiving tickets for a home La Liga game of FC Barcelona and meet-and-greet session
with the FC Barcelona team at the ‘’Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper’’. The prize will be secured
by ‘’Nike, Inc.’’ as long-term partners of FC Barcelona and some of their key players. The
corporation will also cover the provisional costs of the organization of the international final of
the competition ‘’Cruyff Global - Made to Play’’. If the competition proves a success on an
international level e.g. attracting more children to participate in the build-up tournaments
around the world and raise attention to the importance of adolescents being active and playing
sports both for their physical and mental health, ‘’Cruyff Foundation’’ should extend their
partnership with ‘’Nike, Inc.’ to organize more similar competitions and potentially use the
global power of ‘’Nike’’ to establish more ‘’Cruyff Courts’’ around the world and attract more
and more children to healthy lifestyle and sports participation.

In conclusion, ‘’Nike, Inc.’’ is an internationally recognized sporting brand that values

innovation, youth participation and community. The corporation has experience working with
more than 90 partners worldwide to promote healthy lifestyle and sports activities and one of
their key community initiatives – ‘’Made to Play’’ is very much similar to what ‘’Cruyff
Foundation’’ wants to achieve – attract more youngsters of different backgrounds and with
different needs to sports and emphasizing on the positive impacts that sport can have on both
the mental and the physical development of children. In this regard, ‘’Nike, Inc.’’ looks like the
perfect fit for a sponsorship activation with ‘’Cruyff Foundation’’ given the global awareness of
the brand, their experience with such causes and their financial power which can eventually
turn them into long-term partners of the foundation and an increased expansion of the ‘’Cruyff
Courts’’ and the values that Johan Cruyff believed in.