SCB hosts first live viewing of a Liverpool match

Standard Chartered Bank has gone a notch higher in promoting its international brand around the world by hosting a live viewing of one of Liverpool’s English Premier League matches, at the Kairaba Beach Hotel in Senegambia on Saturday.

The bank as an international financial intermediary signed a four-year deal to be the main sponsor of Liverpool Football Club from the start of the 2010/11 season, which commenced on 1 July 2010, with a comprehensive rights package.

The sponsorship of “this iconic football club” is meant to provide SCB with a platform to significantly accelerate its brand awareness across its core markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

“Even our Customer and Wholesale Business strategies are now built around the fact/hope that we will attract new clients who are die-hard Liverpool fans!” said SCB Gambia Managing Director Humphrey Mukwereza, while launching the maiden brand awareness programme at the Kairaba Beach Hotel on Saturday.

Mr Mukwereza said further: “All new Liverpool football shirts have ensured that Standard Chartered’s logo and  trust mark is highly visible around the world,  and has been a key component of the bank’s international  brand awareness campaign since 2010, in conjunction  with our ‘Here for good’ brand promise.”

He continued: “’Here for good’, our brand promise, is as inspirational as it is aspirational. We have challenged our Managers and staff to live up to this promise, and you our Customers are at liberty to challenge any of us when you feel we are not delivering the goods. We have made the brand promise a contract with the public, therefore we have essentially burnt the bridge behind us. There is no turning back.”

Since 2010, there has been a step change in Standard Chartered Bank’s brand visibility and recognition, the SCB managing director disclosed, saying that more than one fifth of the world’s population are football fans!.

Banked on this reality and on the fact that Liverpool is one of the world’s most famous football clubs, with a huge following around the world, Standard Chartered Bank are hopeful of substantial increase in their number of clients around the world.

It is difficult to deny the brand exposure offered by Liverpool, since it is a leading club in the world with strong position in the English premier league.

MD Mukwereza again: “Liverpool has driven positive appraisal of our brand amongst our own people, and with our external stakeholders.  It has also brought more focus to our CSR initiatives.”

The match shown by the bank on Saturday was between Liverpool and Arsenal, a game which Liverpool unfortunately lost 2-1 to Arsenal.

The audience/spectators at the venue of the live show, who included SCB clients, staff and other invitees, were given the opportunity to predict the result of the match, which Baboucarr Joof, an Arsenal fan, won and was given the grand prize of  the day – a bouquet of items including small footballs, drinking cups with SCB logo, and Liverpool-SCB T-shirts.

Many of the attendees, who provided correct answers to the bank’s multiple-choice questions on Liverpool FC, also went home with bits of similar items by the end of the event.

In his vote of thanks on the occasion, SCB’s Liverpool Ambassador Lamin Jammeh said the bank intends to launch a Liverpool fan club in The Gambia to promote the bank’s brand and customer-increase campaign through promoting Liverpool FC.

Mr Jammeh, who is also SCB’s Corporate Bank Relations Manager, also disclosed that the bank will organize a 12-month programme that will seek story entries from the general public on individual’s work and contributions in their various communities to promote Liverpool FC.

“The entries of the 12 winners from the each month’s draw will be sent to Liverpool in the UK for assessment/judgement and a final verdict taken to get the final or a single winner of the entries who will be taken to Liverpool to watch one of Liverpool’s essential matches.