TITANS KICK OFF WITH NEW SPONSOR

THE Gold Coast Titans today announced a ‘multi-million dollar’ three-year sponsorship deal with Robina-based builder Coral Homes.

Titans managing director Michael Searle (pictured) wouldn’t elaborate on the value of the sleeve sponsorship agreement but says it’s reflective of the organisation’s increasing market value.

“It’s a three-year, seven figure deal,” he says.

“We don’t like to get into more detail than that, but it will certainly go back into a lot of our community programs and also working with the Gold Coast community to make sure we deliver good branding outcomes for Coral Homes and similarly achieve some of our objectives in the local market.

“It’s fair to say it reflects the market value of where we are now. We’re all very pleased about the outcome and certainly we’ll deliver the outcomes in multiples back to Coral Homes.”

Previous sleeve sponsor ABC Bricks Sales elected not to renew its contract but Seale, also putting the Simcorp debacle behind him, says the position was taken up within one week.

“Last year we had a 43 per cent increase in the recognition of ABC Bricks and Andrew and Katie Mills have been great supporters of the club. They just elected that their timing and branding needs have just changed over,” he says.

“The inventory was on the market for four days and Coral Homes, being a great local business has been supporting the club through hospitality from day one.

“To be able to see that relationship come together says a lot about the strength of Coral Homes and the fact that the Gold Coast is moving forward into the right direction. From our point of view it was nice to see another Gold Coast business step up and that’s good for our city.”

Coral Homes was founded by Paul and Viki Sweeney in 1990 and employs 180 full-time staff and ‘many hundreds’ of contractors. Working with developers including Stockland, FKP and Devine, the company builds around 1000 homes each year with 200 currently under construction.

In announcing the partnership alongside Searle, national sales manager Mike Baran highlighted the need for proactive marketing during the property sector’s sluggish recovery. ABS statistics released on Tuesday show housing development approvals are at the lowest point since August 2009.

“It’s very important to engage in marketing whether times are good or bad. Even when it’s quiet it’s still very important to have that name branding and exposure out there,” says Baran.

“There is still huge demand for housing in lots of areas that we build in. Unfortunately much of the construction is focused in mining areas which doesn’t help the mainstream building companies.

“It has been tougher times but the strong ones will survive and unfortunately some won’t. Coral Homes, after 20 years in the business we’ve seen many highs and lows and we’ve certainly got things in place to confirm our growth of where we want to be in the future years.”

Baran says Coral Homes will consider extending the agreement in three years time regardless of the Titans’ on-field performance.

Despite the rising profile of AFL’s Gold Coast Suns, Searle is confident the club’s commanding market position isn’t under threat.

A report collated by national brand analysis company Repucom Australia shows Titans’ sponsors are enjoying an unprecedented 41 per cent sponsorship recall – compared to the average for Queensland sporting teams being just under 23 per cent.

The Coast’s NRL franchise also recorded 16.3 million total viewers for free-to-air games and has more than 5500 ticketed members for the 2011 rugby league season.

“We’ve had some incredible outcomes from season 2010 and on the back of that we’ve had an incredible kick-start into this season,” says Searle.

“Already we’ve exceeded our 2010 ticketed membership numbers and that’s very exciting considering we’re four months off the start of the new season.”