Out of Sight, but Not Out of Mind
24/5/23
Blog
Inter Milan played the semi-final of the Champions League wearing blank football shirts. A top club in a top game without a shirt sponsor. It was a peculiar sight. "Where is Pirelli?" crossed my mind. Internazionale's iconic blue and black striped shirt is indelibly linked to the tire manufacturer in my memory. After all, for pretty much my entire life as an active football follower, Pirelli has adorned Inter's shirt. In reality, this association has been absent for two years now.
I was aware that the partnership between Pirelli and Inter ended in 2021, but it hadn't fully sunk in. The fact that Pirelli and Inter Milan are still intertwined in my mind is a phenomenon we often see in studies on long-running sponsorships. When a contract is terminated and a sponsor is no longer visible, the effects of sponsorship does not end immediately. Sponsors continue to benefit from the memory structures that have been built. Generally speaking, the longer a sponsorship has lasted, the longer its effects persist after it ends.
This phenomenon is known as the "decay memory effect." Anyone interested in learning more about this should definitely seek out the recently published scientific article by Remco Beek, head lecturer of the Sports Marketing & Management program in Rotterdam. His publication clarifies how sponsorship works for brands, even after a sponsorship is terminated. Remco's scientific analysis of the decay memory effect applies to me as well. When I see Inter, my memory still immediately connects it to Pirelli, even after two years.
So, it wasn't Pirelli that was missing from the shirts in the semi-finals against their city rivals, AC Milan. The story goes that the tire brand ceased its sponsorship two years ago because the Chinese owners of Internazionale demanded a much higher fee for the main sponsorship. Eventually, the club found what it was looking for: a crypto company willing to pay a substantial sum for the front of Inter's shirt. It seemed like a great deal. However, the agreement with DigitalBits turned out to be a pipe dream: a year and a half later, much too little (possibly even nothing) of the promised €85 million has made its way into the Italian club's bank account.
So, Milan can kiss their money goodbye. Removing the logo from the shirt seems like a futile tactic. The chances of the new sponsor returning to Inter's shirt during the Champions League final against Manchester City are extremely slim. This means that on the Italian side, no main sponsor can benefit from one of the most valuable football matches in the world. That's a real shame. In the meantime, that empty shirt extends the decay memory effect for Pirelli a bit longer. For free. Still a decent deal, but not for Internazionale.
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