If you look closely at Aston Martin’s F1 cars, you’ll notice the Citi logo. But it doesn’t take an eagle eye to notice the financial institution’s name on the Queens skyline.
From the 2009 opening of Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets, to more recent sponsorship deals like the ones with Aston Martin and the Ryder Cup, Citi is putting its fingerprints on some major sports properties.
While Chief Marketing and Content Officer Alex Craddock, who joined Citi from BlackRock in April and became the company’s first CMO, has been with the company for less than a year, he’s already worked to “redefine the sponsorship strategy…to make sure that the sponsorship portfolio we have supports the business growth ambitions that we have going forward here in the US and around the world,” he told Marketing Brew.
We spoke with Craddock about that new playbook and how Citi approaches some of its individual sponsorship deals.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What are your top considerations when picking the teams, leagues, and sports you want to sponsor?
Is it something that is going to be a passion point for our client? Is it something that we think our clients would be interested in engaging with, either at scale or in person? What’s the footprint in terms of geography? We have 95 offices around the world, and I want to make sure that what we have in our portfolio is not too US-centric. I want to make sure we’re reflecting the client base and our office footprint. We then think about whether it’s a good brand fit, and how we can contribute to each other from a brand perspective. And then last but not least, what are the activation opportunities?
How do you go about setting different goals or KPIs for each of the events and the teams you sponsor?
We have a set of KPIs that fall into three categories. One is around business outcomes, one around brand outcomes, and one about audience engagement…We need the audiences to engage and to be passionate about the property and how we’re activating it to really be able to drive the brand and the business outcomes.
How did Citi go about building equity and love with Mets fans when Citi Field replaced Shea Stadium?
It’s not as simple as just sticking your name above the stadium and hoping that everyone will get excited about it. I think there are probably three big things that we really focused on: One is obviously around prominent branding in and around the stadium, but I think more importantly is, how do we actually bring value to the fans of the Mets and fans of other teams that are attending games at the stadium? That’s where I think you start to really feel the value from a sponsor, and you start to experience the sponsor as more than just a logo, but actually a part of the fan experience.
Get marketing news you’ll actually want to read
Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.
Citi is a sponsor of the Ryder Cup, and you’re far from the only finance brand in golf. Why is there such synergy between golf and financial sponsors?
When you do the analysis and you look at your client base, there is a huge intersection with golf. It’s a passion point playing, and it’s a passion point watching…I think the second thing is that it’s highly global…Golf presents a lot of different opportunities to activate at scale and on the ground in terms of real, hands-on experiences, so I think that fits really nicely with how financial services think about being able to deliver either benefits to cardholders—in our case, in terms of access to tickets, access to merchandise, access to unique experiences—or then at the other end of your client spectrum, hospitality for some of your very best clients, where you’re giving them an experience that money can’t buy.
Why did Citi want to get involved with F1 and Aston Martin ahead of the 2023 season?
It goes a little bit back to what I shared earlier on in terms of strategy—how does it check those boxes that are important to us? And I think it checks all of those boxes. I think the other piece that has happened to F1, particularly in the last three or four years with Drive to Survive, is its popularity has exploded…It’s exciting to be a part of the sport. It’s a highly passionate, engaged fanbase…The other thing as well that I think was a catalyst is we had a long-standing relationship with [Aston Martin driver] Fernando Alonso, probably one of the most successful Formula 1 racing drivers, incredible history, and he’s actually a client of the bank.
What’s one of the events on the 2025 sports marketing calendar that you’re most excited about?
I think the big one for us, honestly, is the Ryder Cup. It only happens every two years, it’s an amazing golf tournament, it’s at Bethpage Black [Course], which is in New York, which is kind of our backyard, and it’s a phenomenal course…When it comes along, there’s a passion…which is unlike any other golf tournament.
Read the full article here
