CGU has become a Premier Partner of the Collingwood Football Club in a record 7 year partnership agreement believed to be the longest in Australian sport.
Collingwood today announced the new agreement and launched its new guernsey for the 2011 AFL Season. The guernsey will not only promote the CGU logo, but also the 2010 AFL Premiers logo which is displayed on the guernsey of the reigning AFL Premier.
Collingwood President Eddie McGuire said, “We are tremendously proud to be able to represent CGU, one of Australia’s leading insurers. Today’s announcement caps a wonderful year for Collingwood, a record year and a record sponsorship agreement! It is a terrific coup for our club, not just because it provides strong financial security, but because it aligns Collingwood with CGU, one of Australia’s most powerful and respected brands.”
CGU General Manager Retail Mark Searles said “We are delighted to be Collingwood’s Premier Partner, and look forward to a long association with the Club. This is a true business partnership that will allow CGU the opportunity to create strong brand awareness across national media with a club that shares a rich and successful heritage in Australia. CGU also has a long and successful history as a leading insurer in Australia since 1851 and is a proud Victorian-based organisation. Together we will seek further growth and success.”
Collingwood will support CGU’s marketing strategy, not only providing national brand awareness but a program of benefits to support the promotion of CGU products and services and enhance relationships amongst CGU employees, intermediaries, business partners and customers.
CGU will also be insuring the 2010 AFL Premiership Cup and helping Collingwood in hosting a national tour for the Cup. Collingwood will be taking the cup to regional areas of Victoria and Australia not only to celebrate the 2010 AFL Premiership victory but also to raise funds for charities and community organisations.
To celebrate the partnership announcement, CGU is running a competition offering the chance to have the 2010 AFL Premiership Cup at your workplace/home for the day.
Collingwood now has four Premier Partners in long term agreements with the club. They are Emirates Airline, Westpac, adidas and now CGU.
About Collingwood's record year
Trophies
McClelland Trophy, Anzac Day Trophy, Richard Pratt Cup, Peter McCallum Cup, Westpac Community Cup, Lou Richards/Jack Dyer Cup.
Membership
• all time AFL membership record of 58,156, which was a 24.9% rise from 2009 and is the largest increase of members from one season to the next Collingwood has ever experienced. A rise like this is generally only seen after a club has won a Grand Final.
• the average membership for all AFL clubs is 38,391.
Attendances
• The average AFL attendance per match in 2010 was 36,908.
• The average attendance for Collingwood Home games was 63,256, with the average crowd at the MCG for Collingwood games this year exceeding 74,000; this is second in the world only to Manchester United.
• the first Grand Final was attended by 100,016 people with the Grand Final Replay attracting 93,853 people. This took Collingwood’s total attendances for 2010 to almost 1.7m people, which is an all time AFL/VFL total attendance record.
TV Ratings
• The first Grand Final was watched by 3,674,878 people around Australia with the Grand Final Replay watched by 3,566,605.
• This took Collingwood’s total TV audiences for 2010 to more than 27m people.
Internet
• more than 2.5m page views and 367,678 unique visitors in September, which is the highest in AFL club history.
• highest number of page views and unique visitors every month from January-September in the AFL, which is also a first in AFL club history.
• there were 186,828 video views in September (compared with an AFL club average of 26,912)..
• 95,473 Facebook fans (highest in AFL) with 94% of our fans interacting with the page in the month of September.
• 9,328 Twitter followers (highest in AFL).
About CGU
CGU Insurance is the largest provider of general insurance to Australia’s regional and rural communities, a leading workers’ compensation provider and one of Australia’s leading commercial insurers. CGU offers a comprehensive range of commercial, rural and personal insurance products through a network of over 1,000 insurance brokers, authorised representatives and Financial Institution and affinity gorup partners. CGU has been operating in Australia since 1851, and is part of Insurance Australia Group (IAG). More information is available at www.cgu.com.au