Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Nine weeks into Europe's soccer season Manchester United tops the English Premier League after dropping to third place last year. The loudest cheers may come from New York, home to American International Group Inc.

AIG is paying England's most successful club 56.5 million pounds ($106 million) over four years to splash its logo across the chests of players such as Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo. The world's biggest insurer, founded in Shanghai in 1919, is using soccer to reach consumers in Asia and give it an edge over China Life Insurance Co. and Prudential Plc.

``The Manchester United sponsorship is intended for its audience far beyond England,'' says Thomas Russo, who manages more than $3 billion at Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based Gardner Russo & Gardner, including 2.39 million shares of AIG.

The tie up defies European advertising industry assumptions that insurance companies and soccer clubs make poor teammates. In Europe, soccer attracts a largely male, working-class audience, and brewers, betting companies and home electronics makers dominate shirt sponsorships. AIG is betting the sport's broad- based appeal in Asia will boost its profile and increase sales.

``Football and insurance companies don't normally fit,'' says Stephan Schroeder, a management board member at Sport Markt AG, a Cologne, Germany-based sports marketing consultant. Insurance sales depend more on needs than emotions, he says.

Manchester United delivers AIG a link with its more than 40 million Asia-based soccer fans, 20 million of whom are in China, according to U.K. market researcher Ipsos MORI.

Wide Appeal

``In Asia, football transcends the normal sports demographic,'' says Seamus O'Brien, head of World Sport Group, a Singapore-based sports marketing company that holds sponsorship rights for Asian Football Confederation matches. ``Everyone from the taxi driver to the private banker will turn on Premier League on a Saturday night.''

Bought by U.S. billionaire Malcolm Glazer for about $1.4 billion in May 2005, Manchester United is the world's second- richest club, behind Spain's Real Madrid, according to Deloitte & Touche LLP. Manchester United reported revenue of 157.2 million pounds in the 11 months through June 2005.

``The major purpose of the sponsorship is to drive revenue, as well as to further globalize AIG's brand recognition, particularly in Asia,'' says Chris Winans, a New York-based spokesman for AIG. ``We'd never done anything of this magnitude.''

Asian Opportunity

Asia's insurance market is growing five times faster than the U.S. as rising wealth spurs consumers to buy policies for the first time. Total premiums in Asia, excluding Japan, grew 16 percent in 2005, exceeding the 3 percent increase in the U.S. and 3.4 percent in the U.K., data from Swiss Reinsurance Co. shows.

AIG is no debutant in the region, which accounts for almost 30 percent of its revenue. Asia is the company's most important life insurance market outside the U.S., contributing as much as 65 percent of its life premiums, Winans says.

The company's shares have dropped 2.6 percent to $66.48 this year as it paid $1.64 billion to settle investigations into accounting and sales practices. London-based Prudential has gained 16 percent to 637.50 pence. The shares of Beijing-based China Life, the nation's No. 1 insurer, have more than doubled to HK$16.68.

Name Recognition

Brand building is crucial for companies such as AIG that appeal to a mass market, says Gordon Perchthold, principal of RFP Co., a Hong Kong-based insurance consulting firm.

``They're picking up a sport to make their name known,'' Perchthold says. ``You want the consumer to recognize the name and feel comfortable that it's a large, stable entity; that their money is safe.''

AIG's challenge is turning awareness of its brand into sales.

``There's no compelling evidence that suggests a direct link between shirt sponsorship and increased sales,'' says Simon Chadwick, director of the Birkbeck Sport Business Centre at the University of London. ``It's one of those things that's very difficult to prove.''

Manchester United's popularity with Asian soccer fans is built on strong results over the past 15 years, well-known players and multiple visits to the region. In July 2005 the club played exhibition games in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Beijing.

Soccer ranks as China's most popular televised sport, accounting for 42 percent of sports programming in 2005, according to market research firm TNS China. While viewer ratings for the English Premier League rank fourth behind matches from Italy, Germany and China's domestic league, some soccer fans are starting to notice AIG's presence.

Tang Jianhua, a Manchester United supporter from Shanghai, says he never considered buying a policy from AIG until he saw the logo on the team's shirts during a televised pre-season game on July 29.

``The game put AIG on my radar screen,'' says Tang, 29, a mechanical engineer. Although he'll consider AIG in the future, for now he's keeping his policy at China Life.

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By Patricia Cheng

To contact the reporter for this story: Patricia Cheng in Hong Kong at pcheng9@bloomberg.net

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