A sponsor that dropped its logo for a fan’s name

Via Marketing-Interactive

Sponsors pay big bucks for their logos to be writ large. However, in a fairly interesting move, StarHub, the official sponsor of Singapore’s LionsXII football team, decided to dropped its logo from the Lions jersey and put up a fan’s name instead.

According to StarHub, it wanted to pass the limelight onto one die-hard LionsXII fan, Akbar Hashim. Hashim’s name replaced StarHub’s logo on the official team jersey at the LionsXII versus Sime Darby FC match.

“Like us, these fans invest their time, effort, money and emotion in the LionsXII. They wear their hearts on their sleeves, so we want to wear their names on our jerseys,” Jeannie Ong, CMO, StarHub said.

Minutes before the start of the match, the LionsXII players came onto the pitch with a specially-commissioned jersey bearing Hashim’s name. Hashim was then presented with a commemorative jersey signed by all the players, as well as LionsXII coach and legendary local football star, Fandi Ahmad.

(Akbar Hashin pictured second from the right)

53 year-old Hashim has been an avid supporter of Singapore football for over 40 years. He attends every game, home or away, and has not missed a match in years. Many of the LionsXII players and coaching staff are very familiar with Akbar, as he also helps to arrange for fans to attend away games, said StarHub.

Over the next three months, StarHub will be on the search for three more diehard LionsXII fans to reward them with special perks such as a trip with the team.