Qatar sport COVERMG.indd - Qatar Olympic Committee

PROMOTION
LOOKING GREAT!
In the competitive world of sports and entertainment event management, branding
has never been more important. Qatar Sport discovered The Look Company, which is
bringing Event Look innovation to Qatar’s world-class sports event portfolio.
FOOTBALL EVENTS IN Qatar have
never looked better thanks to the work
of The Look Company (TLC), a global
leader in event branding which has based
its Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
office in high-flying Doha. The company,
which delivered exclusive event branding
solutions for the Qatar-hosted AFC Asian
Cup in 2011, has a permanent staff of 92
people in Qatar, which expands to upwards
of 300 people for large events.
This in-Qatar infrastructure is capable
of undertaking any size project throughout
the MENA region and is therefore perfectly
suited to serving Qatar’s most popular and
commercially mature sport at both club
and national team level – football.
This year, TLC signed agreements with
both the Qatar Football Association (QFA)
and Qatar Stars League (QSL), which will
see the company undertake the branding,
signage and wayfinding for each and
every QFA and QSL event.
The partnership with the
QFA, signed in March
2012, spans two years
until March 2014 with a three-year
extension option. In September, TLC
signed a one-year deal with the Qatar Stars
League ahead of the 2012/2013 season,
which kicked off September 15.
With the 2022 FIFA World Cup on
the far horizon, the deals make TLC the
exclusive partners for all the branding
needs of professional football in Qatar.
Commenting on the QFA deal, Jacob
Burke, General Manager, The Look
Company, said: “As a company that has
been in-country since 2005 helping to
develop sports event branding, we are
very proud to continue to support the
growth of football in Qatar.
“Through this exclusive partnership
with the QFA, we look forward to assisting
Qatari football in continuing to raise the
bar in the branding of its events. We foresee
this as yet another positive stepping stone
for sport in Qatar as we move towards the
World Cup in 2022.”
The agreement with the QSL, which
organises and manages the professional
league (see pages 31-33), as well as prestige
national cup competitions and development
leagues throughout Qatar, is also of
great significance for the company.
“The league has grown substantially
over the years and with the recent signing
of international star players it will help
strengthen the brand of Qatar football,” says
Burke. “We hope to ride the success of our
work with QSL last year and look to make
2012/2013 a memorable season.”
MULTI-EVENT CAPABILITY
Burke, who was promoted to his current
role in March, previously worked closely
with Qatari sport and event clients on
such projects as the Qatar Stars League,
the ATP’s’ QatarExxonMobil Open 2012,
the WTA’s Qatar Total Open
2012, Arab Games 2011,
World Nine Ball
32 | Issue 19 | Qatar Sport