Virgin and Newcastle United – Can a Brand be Lucky?
Posted on January 16th, 2012 | 30 Comments |
“So we’re a lucky brand, and may the luck continue throughout the rest of the season.”
The words of Sir Richard Branson, (3-love?? – clearly a tennis fan!) the 4th richest person in the UK and 254th richest in the world. Not bad for a bloke who started with a mail order record business in 1970 and who went on to own Virgin Records, Virgin Megastores and now sees over 400 companies in the Virgin Group, including Virgin Atlantic who have that nice ad on the telly with the bonny air stewardesses and Muse playing the old Nina Simone track “Feeling Good” in the background. Impressive music knowledge there eh? His wealth is estimated at $4.2 billion (£2.75 billion) which makes Mike Ashley look like a Sports Shop Owner. He also has class and charisma so we’d better stop the Ashley comparisons now before it gets too silly.
The bloke has either worked his socks off to make a fortune, or he’s been lucky. Probably a bit of both actually. Now at the age of 62 his Virgin Brand has moved into high street banking by acquiring our very own Northern Rock, transforming it into Virgin Money. By a stroke of luck, this move has linked the Virgin empire with Newcastle United, previously sponsored by Northern Rock. Virgin have agreed a 2 year shirt sponsor deal, hopefully that’s just for starters…
Getting back to the question of luck, then. As our new mate Sir Richard pointed out (isn’t it good to be associated with another “Sir” by the way), Virgin is a lucky brand. Strangely enough, that Virgin-sponsored Crystal Palace team which got to the cup final in 1990 and drew 3-3 with Manchester United (but lost the replay) contained a certain central midfield player called Alan Pardew, who we now know, of course, was destined to go on to manage the finest football team in England. Small world eh?
But is it possible for a brand to be lucky? Possibly. I mean look at Manchester United for example. They’ve won the Premiership lots of times, lots of cups etc by being lucky enough to have the best manager, and also by being lucky enough to always get a referee who is afraid to give penalties against them at Old Trafford. Mind you, they got their come-uppance on 4th January 2012 when they were totally dismantled 3-0 by the righteous and just team currently sitting 6th in the Premiership – but I digress.
A lucky brand? Well, it is true to say that “success breeds success” – and the Virgin brand has been and is highly successful. So being linked with them and having “Virgin Money” emblazoned across our players’ shirts is not a bad move at all. It is no co-incidence that since the brand first appeared on our shirts, we have won three games on the trot, beating Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers and QPR, scoring six goals and conceding just one in the process.
So what next? Well, we know they are sponsoring our shirts for the next 2 years at least, maybe they could move up a gear and sponsor the ground too? “Virgin @ St James’ Park” has a nice ring to it, and if they put their signs on the stand roofing where the “T-Shirts-r-Us” ones currently reside, they’d be viewable from any Virgin plane that happened to be passing. And they’d get all that free advertising whenever the Sky cameras were in town. So it all fits. If you ask me, I think they should go for it – in fact I’m going to get in touch with Sir Richard and suggest it as soon as I’ve finished writing this. Might have a cup of tea first though.
Once that’s all in place, perhaps Sir Richard might just find that, to use the phrase from the old Remington shaver advert, he “likes us so much he’ll buy the company”. I mean, most of the Northern Rock staff who have transferred to Virgin at their HQ in Gosforth, for example, will be black and white through and through. No doubt they will spend the next 2 years telling their new boss about the magical city of Newcastle and our famous footy team. If you’re reading this Northern Rock folk – get to it!
Wouldn’t that be something? Is it too much of a dream? too much to hope for? You never know, we might just get lucky!
NUFCBlog Author: UTD111
UTD111 has written 59 articles on this blog.
Don’t Virgin just jump on the band wagon???
Palace, they were riding high, as were Brawn F1 when Virgin jumped on board…