Spotlight On Sponsors: Essendon Maintain Long Running Partnerships Despite Bombing Out Of The 2023 Season

Spotlight On Sponsors: Essendon Maintain Long Running Partnerships Despite Bombing Out Of The 2023 Season

In round 17 last year, the Essendon Football Club seemed poised to take a shot at finals glory, but that all came to a crashing halt with the club losing their last two games by a combined 197 points and falling from 5th place to a disappointing 11th.

Welcome back to B&T’s Spotlight on Sponsors series, where we unpack all the major sponsorship news from each NRL and AFL team in the lead-up to the new season.

After a rough 2023, the Bomber’s sole focus is redemption as they step into trials for the 2024 season. Luckily for Essendon, their sponsors remain steady and dedicated to continuing their partnerships with the team.

B&T has you covered on all the latest partner news from the Essendon camp.

Yakult

At the start of the 2022 season, Yakult announced a three-year extension of its already 17-year strong partnership with the Bombers, making the probiotic milk brand its longest-serving partner. In line with the new deal, the beverage brand continued as the training ball and interchange bench sponsor until the end of the 2024 season and is the official partner of the prestigious Crichton Medal.

Yakult also supports the Tackling Childhood Cancer match that sees Essendon dedicate one game a season to long-serving charity partner Challenge. This not-for-profit organisation supports children and families living with cancer or blood disorders.

Darcy Parish and Jake Stringer with cars were donated to Challenge Cancer by Yakult. (Photo credit: Essendon FC)

“To work in partnership together for over 17 years is something both organisations should be incredibly proud of. In recent years, we’ve seen Yakult align with our charity partner Challenge to present our annual Tackling Childhood Cancer Game, which highlights the partnership going from strength to strength and for the betterment of others beyond our organisation,” said former Essendon CEO Xavier Campbell at the time.

TRADIE

Iconic Australian brand Tradie first signed on with Essendon in 2022. At the start of last year’s season, the brand penned a new deal that would extend the partnership for four years. The deal solidified the Tradie logo’s positioning on the teams’ playing and training shorts.

Credit – Essendon FC

The partnership also included a brand new mural created in Napier St Essendon of Bombers superstar Sam Draper showing off his Tradie underwear and has seen the brand sponsor a number of the Essendon Podcast episodes.

Dutton Automotive

At the end of 2023, Dutton Automotive announced they would be signing on with Essendon as a co-major partner and the official automotive partner of the Bombers. The three-year deal sees the automotive brand’s logo appear on the front of the teams playing and training jerseys and will also feature extensively on club assets.

“We are proud to be partnering with the iconic Essendon Football Club as we take our next step forward as a business. Essendon and Dutton both celebrate a rich history and journey of growth,” said Dutton Automotive CEO Matt Hanson. “In 1911, when Essendon Football Club won its third VFL Premiership, A.O. Dutton opened his first garage on Burnley Street, Richmond. Driven by an obsessive focus on customer experience, today, Dutton Automotive operates from 24 dealerships throughout Australia”.

Major Partners

Apparel Partners

The Hangar Naming Rights Partner

Guernsey Partner

  • Liberty

Coaches Partner

  • Palo Alto Networks

Official Partners

  • House of Marley
  • Liberty
  • HoMedics
  • AIA Australia

Watch this space for a breakdown of the sponsorship from each AFL team in the lead-up to the 2024 season launch next month.

Did you miss our last article? Check it out now for all the sponsor news from the Geelong Cats.




Latest News

Seven Network Expands NSW Sales Team With Two New Group Business Directors
  • Media

Seven Network Expands NSW Sales Team With Two New Group Business Directors

The Seven Network has announced the appointment of two new group business directors, James Mielnik and Julia Scales, effective 1 May. The new recruits report to Seven’s NSW sales director, Dan Sinfield, and will be responsible for leading Seven’s relationships with advertisers and their media agencies. A highly experienced sales manager with a media career […]

New PR Subscription Changing The Game For Aussie Start Ups
  • Advertising

New PR Subscription Changing The Game For Aussie Start Ups

A new subscription service is changing the game for Australian start-ups for a fixed cost of less than one thousand dollars a month. In this economic climate we know that start-ups are finding it difficult to afford advertising as well as robust public relations campaigns. Project Ignite empowers these Founders to get some initial cut-through […]

Paul Kent At Centre Of Fresh Scandal After Alleged Street Brawl
  • Media

Paul Kent At Centre Of Fresh Scandal After Alleged Street Brawl

In this week’s edition of sports professionals behaving badly, controversial Daily Telegraph NRL journalist and host of Fox Sports’ NRL 360, Paul Kent, is in hot water (again) over a video posted to social media allegedly depicting him in a violent brawl outside Totti’s in Sydney’s Inner West. The clip allegedly depicts Kent engaged in […]

DiDi Taps Disney’s Tim Farmer For Head Of Brand Marketing Role
  • Marketing

DiDi Taps Disney’s Tim Farmer For Head Of Brand Marketing Role

DiDi has appointed Tim Farmer as head of brand marketing in Australia and New Zealand. Prior to his new role at the rideshare company, Farmer spent eight years at The Walt Disney Company, rising from a partnerships lead to become its marketing director responsible for Disney+, Marvel, Pixar, Searchlight and Nat Geo. “One of the […]

As Sure As Night Becomes Day, The End Of Third-Party Cookies Has Been Delayed
  • Technology

As Sure As Night Becomes Day, The End Of Third-Party Cookies Has Been Delayed

Last week, Google took the not-unexpected step of delaying the end of third-party cookies again. Citing “ongoing challenges” and “divergent feedback” from different corners of the digital advertising industry, Google delayed the end of third-party cookies from the “second half of Q4” to early 2025. Much of the dragging has come from Google having to […]

Fast 10: Scoundrel’s Tim Bullock Explains What Shane Warne & Salt-N-Pepa Have In Common
  • Advertising

Fast 10: Scoundrel’s Tim Bullock Explains What Shane Warne & Salt-N-Pepa Have In Common

In this latest instalment of the Fast 10 series, Greg ‘Sparrow’ Graham chats with Tim Bullock, director and founder of production house Scoundrel. You know Bullock’s work, even if you don’t know his name, having directed huge spots for the likes of VB and Toyota, working with creative agencies such as The Monkeys and Saatchi […]

Outbrain Snatches Chris Oxley From Foxtel Media
  • Advertising

Outbrain Snatches Chris Oxley From Foxtel Media

Outbrain has appointed Chris Oxley as the country manager for Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. Bringing over 18 years of experience in digital media, Oxley will lead the charge in driving the expansion of Outbrain’s advertising business across ANZ and Singapore. In his role, Oxley will oversee the development and implementation of Outbrain’s commercial strategy […]

oOh!media & POLY Partner With Greening Australia For OOH Awareness Campaign
  • Campaigns

oOh!media & POLY Partner With Greening Australia For OOH Awareness Campaign

To mark oOh!media’s community partnership with Greening Australia, creative and innovation hub, POLY has developed a two-phase campaign that leverages weather triggers and dynamic digital executions to drive brand awareness and donations. Greening Australia is a national not-for-profit organisation with over 40 years of experience restoring Australia’s diverse landscapes and protecting biodiversity. oOh! announced its […]

Are Media Cares For The Carers In Its Latest Social Change Campaign
  • Campaigns

Are Media Cares For The Carers In Its Latest Social Change Campaign

Are Media together with Carers Australia and a coalition of carer support and advocacy groups, are joining forces to call on both the Federal Government and the Opposition to add superannuation to the fortnightly Carers Payment. Last month, The Inquiry into Unpaid Carers recommended the Australian Government consider options to incentivise and recognise the impact […]

In A Fragmented World, Engagement Is King
  • Partner Content

In A Fragmented World, Engagement Is King

Media executives from Australia’s top agencies sat down with B&T TV to discuss how media fragmentation is impacting advertising spend. Few will deny that measurement is key when it comes to deciding where to allocate ad dollars. With media more fragmented than ever, which metrics to use is less clear. As Nik Doble, Mindshare’s national […]

Partner Content

by B&T Magazine

B&T Magazine
Sydney Comedy Festival: Taking The City & Social Media By Storm
  • Media

Sydney Comedy Festival: Taking The City & Social Media By Storm

Sydney Comedy Festival 2024 is live and ready to rumble, showing the best of international and homegrown talent at a host of venues around town. As usual, it’s hot on the heels of its big sister, the giant that is the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, picking up some acts as they continue on their own […]

Global Marketers Descend For AANA’s RESET For Growth
  • Advertising

Global Marketers Descend For AANA’s RESET For Growth

The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has announced the final epic lineup of local and global marketing powerhouses for RESET for Growth 2024. Lead image: Josh Faulks, chief executive officer, AANA  Back in 2000, a woman with no business experience opened her first juice bar in Adelaide. The idea was brilliantly simple: make healthy […]