By Martin Vedris
SYDNEY: De’Longhi only yesterday announced a major corporate sponsorship of the South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL team, but the deal has already delivered as promised by De’Longhi general manager sales and marketing, Tom Mitchell.
“I submitted to the company that they would win at least two points in the next two games and they’ve got a bye next week!”
NRL teams receive two points when they sit out a round with a bye, so irrespective of the result of the game against the Warriors at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland New Zealand tonight, the Rabbitohs will deliver the two points that Mitchell promised.
This sponsorship deal is for the remainder of the 2008 NRL Centenary season and De’Longhi will be a major Away corporate partner. The De’Longhi logo will appear on the front and bottom-back of the Rabbitohs away jersey (debuting tonight) and at the top-back of the home jersey.
De’Longhi joins NAB (home sponsor), Virgin Blue (training sponsor) and Trivest (sleeve sponsor) as major corporate partners of the Rabbitohs for 2008 and joining these names were part of the appeal for De’Longhi.
“We saw the 100 year anniversary as a key reason to join and also the Giorgio Armani link as well as the other sponsors, NAB and Virgin, are very like us in regards to aspirational values,” Mitchell said.
While Rugby League is a new code for De’Longhi Australia’s Italian-born CEO, Paolo Albertoni, he is keen to cheer his new team from the sidelines.
“De’Longhi is proud to announce our first major brand sponsorship in Australia of a sporting body, the South Sydney Rabbitohs; a brand that has core values similar to ours,” Albertoni said.
“We wish the management, coaching staff, players, sponsors and supporters a good ‘second half’ to the 2008 season.
“We will be cheering them on from the sidelines, starting this Friday night in New Zealand.”
The deal involves sponsorship for the remainder of this season and an option to extend for a further two years.
“We’ve got to establish that the sponsorship is successful for us as a company and then we would be able to review the options that we have,” said Mitchell.
The Rabbitohs CEO, Shane Richardson, hopes the relationship develops for the long-term.
“We are delighted to have a company with the standing and reputation of De’Longhi involved with our club,” said Richardson.
“De’Longhi is a world-renowned brand that now has a strong link with one of Australia’s iconic sporting brands in the South Sydney Rabbitohs. There is great synergy between both organisations and we are really excited about the opportunities that will open up for both us and De’Longhi through this partnership.
“Our members and corporate partners should be very excited to have a company like De’Longhi coming on board and supporting their club. We hope this can become a long term partnership and we thank De’Longhi for their support in our Centenary year.”
While the Rabbitohs results this season have been lacklustre at best with just one win in 11 games, Mitchell says that there is more to the Rabbitohs than we have seen so far.
“I don’t the think the results of the team truly show the character of the club at the moment but we’re hoping the Warriors game tonight turns that around.”