February 25 – Short-form video-sharing app TikTok has agreed a multi-year partnership with MLS team Portland Timbers and the club’s NWSL side Portland Thorns FC.
TikTok will be the official sleeve partner for both teams in 2021 the first time it has taken a shirt patch sponsorship. The sponsorship is also the first-ever joint patch sponsorship of a professional men’s and women’s soccer team in the US.
TikTok has moved quickly into football sponsorship having announced last week an official partnership with UEFA for the rescheduled Euro 2020 Championship that kicks off this summer.
TikTok’s football content has boomed with the social media platform reporting more than 40 billion views on the #soccer hashtag and close to 80 million views on the #football hashtag in Europe.
As well as logo presence on shirts and merchandise, both teams have launched an official TikTok account and will produce weekly content, including highlights, behind-the-scenes, in-match, mascots, and fan reactions. TikTok will also have access to players for content creation.
“The partnership is groundbreaking to have equal TikTok representation on both Timbers and Thorns jersey sleeves, and it will give us a unique ability to create and distribute content in collaboration with TikTok,” said Mike Golub, Timbers and Thorns president of business.
As part of its ‘TikTok for Good’ initiative, and in a joint effort with ‘Stand Together’, a percentage of sales revenue from each Timbers and Thorns shirt sold – and four unique club scarves – will be donated to a non-profit organisation in the Portland area.
Harish Sarma, Director, Global Strategic Partnerships, Americas and Oceania, TikTok, said:
“We strongly feel that gender equity in sports is crucial to changing perceptions and progressing for the better as a society. The Portland Timbers and Thorns share this belief, and we are proud that our first soccer team partnership in the US places an equal emphasis on female athletes.”
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