Until recently François Pinault was the only one among the great French fortunes to own a football club, Stade Rennais, acquired in 1998.
In October, the family of his rival Bernard Arnault created a surprise by announcing that they were “entering into discussions” for the acquisition of the Paris FC football club, valued at “around fifty million euros”, according to a source close to the matter. to the AFP.
The buyout must be finalized soon, club president Pierre Ferracci said on November 20, during a press conference detailing the outlines of the new shareholders’ project.
“It’s different from other investments and at the same time it’s not really in the family’s habits to waste money,” Antoine Arnault, son of Bernard Arnault and future leader of Paris, told AFP. FC.
At the same time, LVMH headed by Bernard Arnault was this year an official partner of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games (for 150 million euros, according to a source close to the matter) and announced a 10-year partnership with Formula 1 (“less 150 million per year”, says a source close to the matter).
Before that, only some of its brands (Louis Vuitton, Tag Heuer, Moët Hennessy, etc.) were partners of sporting events, such as their competitors Rolex in tennis and F1, Omega or Puig in sailing, Cartier in horse riding…
Announcements made while the global luxury market is experiencing a slowdown after flourishing post-Covid years requiring new growth drivers.
“When you look for places where there is a huge audience and new customers to seek out, sport is a factor in traffic and audience,” underlines to AFP Joëlle de Montgolfier, director of the luxury division at consulting firm Bain and Company.
“We don’t discover the world of sport”
“Before,” she continues, “we took elitist sports – sailing, golf -, today the lines are moving towards more popular sports”, such as football, which attract a diverse clientele and remain “a factor of attraction of new generations.
“It’s not new, the association of luxury and sport, whether for events or cross-products, but today there is a turnaround,” Julie El Ghouzzi, author of “Handbook of luxury”.
“Twenty years ago, when luxury began to make associations with new sports, it was a movement of democratization, to seek out new customers,” she analyzes.
“Today, sport is the best ally in the strategy of raising houses: being associated with a sporting event means having boxes in which we will be able to invite VIPs (personalities, editor’s note)”, according to Julie El Ghouzzi.
“What interests the VIP today is not the sneaker (sports shoe, Editor’s note) for 2,000 euros, it is to be treated differently, to have access to exclusive things, sport allows that”, she observes.
“Partnering with different sports also means being able to reach the niche of the rich almost everywhere, depending on their culture. 50 years ago, it was +horse riding, golf and polo+ because we were addressing a niche of people who looked similar,” adds Julie El Ghouzzi.
Speaking to AFP, Antoine Arnault recognizes “a small acceleration” in partnerships recently. But “we don’t discover the world of sport,” he notes.
“People need to come together while watching the same event,” according to him, and “in terms of marketing, sport is the only vector that brings all these people together at the same time, which transcends generations and geographies.” .
“It’s a win-win in economic terms, in terms of value and modernity – associating with sport is associating yourself with a form of ‘cool’ -, in ‘experiential’ terms for VIPs but it also brings people together in front of their live TV: so it’s a win-win in terms of development for luxury in a somewhat complicated period,” summarizes Julie El Ghouzzi.
Do you have a real estate project in mind? Yakeey & Médias24 help you make it happen!
