For the second time in history, the Allianz Arena, home of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich, will host a regular National Football League (NFL) match. In 2022, Bayern hosted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks. This Sunday, the Carolina Panthers defeated the New York Giants 20-17 in front of 70,132 fans.

The impact of the NFL games in Germany is significant. Last year, about ten million people in the United States watched the game between the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs in Frankfurt. Receiving that kind of marketing platform in the United States was important for the city of Frankfurt and for Bundesliga side Eintracht.

Both the Bundesliga and the NFL hope to benefit from playing matches in each other’s markets. As a result, they signed a far-reaching partnership agreement in 2022 to help each other grow in their respective markets. Bayern bosses hope this year’s edition of NFL Germany can drive further growth for both entities.

“It’s very attractive to have the NFL guys here, to hear and learn how they enter a market,” Bayern Munich board member Michael Diederich said. “In 2022, when the NFL had their first game in Munich, I was very impressed with what the NFL did all week. It was something Munich had never seen before.”

Carolina Panthers is a ‘startup brand’ in Germany

The NFL has taken the NFL Germany Game to another level this year. The league hosted activations throughout the city, with the Giants, for example, taking over the Hofbräuhaus for an interactive fan experience. But the two teams involved in the match were not the only ones on the ground. Across the street from the Hofbräuhaus, at the Hard Rock Café, the Seahawks had set up their own interactive fan experience for the weekend.

In addition, the NFL also had a watch party at the SAP Garden, the brand new home of the Red Bull Munich hockey team and the Bayern Munich basketball team. “The impact is enormous,” Diederich said. “This is enormous for the city and the appeal of our club.”

In other words, hosting an NFL game in a Bundesliga stadium is a smart advertising strategy that benefits both the city and the host club in the United States. It’s not a one-way street. The Panthers and Giants also feel like they benefited greatly from being in Munich this weekend.

“We’re an upstart brand here,” said Carolina Panthers Chief Strategy Officer Jake Burns. “Part of the reason we chose Germany was because there were approximately 820,000 NFL fans here who had not yet picked a team. Our strategy is to reach them early and often so they can experience our brand and our Panthers culture.”

The Panthers have been incredibly proactive in this regard. In addition to the match in Munich, the Carolina Panthers also have a cooperation agreement with Eintracht Frankfurt. “We have a great relationship with Eintracht and certainly share our best practices with them.”

NFL Germany Game: Bundesliga wants to increase brand awareness

Ultimately, these partnerships should increase awareness and brand awareness for both parties. For the same reason, Bayern has a partnership with the Kansas City Chiefs and recently also with Major League Soccer club LAFC through the Red & Gold Partnership. “If you want to enter a market like the United States, you need a local perspective and a local partner to help you navigate all the do’s and don’ts,” said Diederich.

While Bayern and the Panthers have built local partnerships, the New York Giants aren’t quite there yet but have identified Germany as a key market. The New York club played an exhibition game against the San Diego Chargers in the Olympiastadion in Berlin in 1994.

Now they want to make a more permanent trip. “Our involvement in entering the German market began approximately two years ago when the NFL launched what is now called the Global Market Program,” said Russel Scibetti, New York Giants vice president of strategy and business intelligence. “We identified Germany as what we felt was the strongest market to enter.”

Part of that process began when the New York Giants hosted RB Leipzig at their training facilities this summer while the Bundesliga club was on tour in the United States.

“A lot of these clubs want to be in the New York market,” said Nilay Shah, New York Giants SVP of marketing and brand strategy. “Whether it’s Bayern, who we have a relationship with, or RB, it represents a unique opportunity that other markets may not have. New York is such a central point in their business that we think delivers great synergies and can play both games to help.” growing at national and global levels.”

While the NFL ultimately determines which clubs play international games and where they take place, the Giants now see games in Germany as part of their long-term strategy. “We want to convert fans into Giants fans,” Shah said.

Ultimately, Bundesliga teams offer NFL teams a glimpse into how to tackle a foreign market. “People here have been international longer than we have,” Scibetti said. “So we learn how they started their social channels and the way they held camps in different places. We can look at what they have done, especially in the US, and use that to grow our brand internationally.”

It’s all a learning process that both parties hope to benefit from. The NFL hopes to gain access to Europe’s most lucrative market by capitalizing on the success of the Bundesliga in Germany. In return, the Bundesliga hopes to use the NFL to grow in the United States, a market where the league still trails the Premier League by some margin. Ultimately, it is a fascinating plan that promises to be a win-win situation for all parties involved.