UniCredit announces renewal and extension of partnership with UEFA until 2018

• UniCredit will become Official Bank of UEFA Club Competitions
• Sponsor of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Futsal Cup Finals, UEFA Super Cup, UEFA Women's Champions League and UEFA Youth League
• Sponsorship results once more proof of success: UniCredit generated an average return on comparable costs of 225% after five sponsorship seasons of UEFA Champions League

Today UniCredit announced the renewal and extension of their partnership with UEFA for the 2015 - 2018 cycle after six successful  UEFA Champions League sponsorship seasons. UniCredit's sponsorship rights were extended to all major European club football tournaments. Consequently, UniCredit will become Official Bank of UEFA Club Competitions and support the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Futsal Cup Finals, UEFA Super Cup, UEFA Women's Champions League and UEFA Youth League. "We are proud to announce that UniCredit will become the Official Bank of UEFA Club Competitions. Over the past years the partnership with UEFA has been a driving factor in achieving our set objectives. More than 300 UEFA Champions League related campaigns initiated across our Group show the appreciation of our markets and divisions for this sponsorship. Having effectively established our brand, the augmented rights package allows us to shift our focus to support the daily business and empower the local brands. It will enable us to reach even more football fans across Europe, granting us additional sales and relationship management opportunities." said Federico Ghizzoni, CEO of UniCredit. Guy-Laurent Epstein, Marketing Director of UEFA Events S.A. added: "UniCredit has been one of our sponsors for six years now, and we are delighted that we were able to agree on the extension of this partnership. Their renewed and extended support and contribution, particularly in the promotion of our competitions across Eastern Europe, is highly valued. The UEFA Champions League continues to be an invaluable platform for our sponsor partners, and with the addition of the UEFA Europa League we are extremely confident that UniCredit will obtain excellent opportunities to benefit from this partnership across their key markets."

To date, the success of UniCredit's sponsorship engagement in terms of 'brand awareness', 'brand image', 'customer and employee engagement' and 'propensity to buy' has greatly contributed to the Group meeting their ambitious expectations.

Extension of sponsorship rights package allows focus shift on support of daily business

The future role as Official Bank of UEFA Club Competitions grants UniCredit and its local markets access to even more football fans thanks to the extension of the UEFA Europa League package. The new rights package will guarantee an augmented appearance on media which also implies an increase of visibility on LED boards for local banks brands and products. Furthermore, it allows UniCredit to shift its focus to support the daily business as the Group will be entitled to run UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League related promotions for an increased range of products, including promotions for payments and co-operations with insurance companies and money transfer service providers. For the next sponsorship cycle UniCredit will additionally obtain a new sole and exclusive on-pitch right, which allows UniCredit to enable up to five kids to accompany the referees onto the pitch ahead of every UEFA Champions League match. In addition to the returning UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour, UniCredit gained the right to activate the UEFA Europa League Final Trophy Tour if the Final is held in one of UniCredit's core markets.

Javier Zanetti is excited about being UniCredit's Official Ambassador for the UEFA Champions League Final

"UniCredit has been a reliable partner of the UEFA Champions League for six years. As I can look back on a long and successful career playing in Europe for a single top club after having left Argentina, I have experienced the significance of loyalty and the power of a strong partnership. I'm delighted to contribute to this weekend and UniCredit's partnership with the UEFA Champions League," says Javier Zanetti, Official UniCredit Ambassador for the UEFA Champions League Final 2015.

UniCredit and UEFA Champions League value six years of strong partnership

Pushed by exclusive assets and a comprehensive marketing plan, UniCredit generated an average return on comparable costs of 225% after five sponsorship seasons and managed to achieve a steady increase of 'brand appeal' and 'propensity to buy'.

Market research data collected across UniCredit's countries of presence assessing the effectiveness of UniCredit's sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League has again yielded strong results. The UEFA Champions League is one of the main ways in which those who are not customers of our Group interact with it. In all of our countries of presence save one it is among the top three points of contact with the Group, mentioned by almost one third of interviewees.

The sponsorship is thus a relevant way in which non-customers acquire familiarity and build up preference towards our brands (both familiarity and preference are higher on average by almost 20 percentage points among interviewees who are aware of the sponsorship).

Looking at those who are already customers of UniCredit, the sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League increases their preference towards the brand as well as the propensity to recommend it (higher on average by over 10 percentage points among interviewed customers aware of the sponsorship).

Furthermore this year UniCredit presented exclusive attractive activation opportunities including:

• The sixth Trophy Tour with stops in Slovakia, Austria, Croatia and Serbia that generated roughly 650 million gross contacts.
• Panini co-operation, the engagement on the UniCredit Champions Facebook channels related to the UEFA Champions League Virtual Collection increased by 296% compared to the previous season.
• Official UEFA Champions League Match Coin, the exclusive opportunity to hand over the coin to the referee shortly ahead of the game next to the pitch, activated by 12 UniCredit markets.
• Final Confetti, UniCredit has again activated the right to distribute the actual celebration confetti that will rain down on the winners of the 2015 Final.
• "Road to Berlin": HypoVereinsbank, member of UniCredit Group, launched an exciting Final related campaign in HypoVereinsbank branches and on social media. UniCredit and HypoVereinsbank  will offer the opportunity to special guests to play in the Olympiastadion the day after the Final.

Milan, Berlin 6^th June, 2015

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