Tom Whiteside, Aviva’s Group Head of Sponsorship, explains how the company uses venue sponsorship to connect brand, people and place.
What was the strategic thinking behind taking on the naming rights for the Aviva Arena?
Aviva Arena becomes our third sponsored venue alongside the Aviva Stadium in Dublin and Aviva Studios in Manchester. Our strategy has been to build the UK’s most diverse portfolio of sponsored venues spanning sports, music, arts, culture & entertainment, which reflects the interests and passions of our almost 22m customers in the UK and Ireland.
As one of the UK’s largest institutional investors, these sponsorships are very much aligned with our commitment to continue to back the UK. These are long term, city-based partnerships which will deliver economic, social and community benefit and become a natural extension to our placed-based approach to social action.
Aviva Arena will be one of the largest venues in the country and a first of its kind for the West of England. The Arena is expected to host more than 120 major events every year, with an estimated 1.4 million people expected to attend live music, sports and entertainment there each year. The opportunity also aligns well with Aviva’s strategy – with the project supporting the UK through creating more than 2,000 jobs during construction, with up to a further 500 permanent roles once the arena is operational, and it is expected to contribute an estimated £1 billion to the wider Bristol economy over the first decade of operation.
Bristol is an important city for us too – Aviva has an historic and ongoing connection to the region, employing 1,700 people in Bristol, and has operated in the city for more than 200 years.
How do you ensure that all naming sponsorships communicate the same core values?
We have been very selective in the venues that we have brought into our portfolio – working with rightsholders, like YTL and Factory International, who share our organisational values and aligning with new-build venues that are a catalyst for wider urban regeneration.
Whilst we tailor our approach to activation to the venue type and the city, each partnership is underpinned by a commitment to social action, to sustainability and to best-in-class experiences for the millions that pass through their doors each year.
How do stadium sponsorships support long-term brand-building?
Aviva is an inherently intangible brand in that we have not physical products or retail footprint, so our venues give us a really powerful opportunity to bring our brand to life physically for our customers year-round.
With over 325 years of history and the UK’s most valuable insurance brand, Aviva takes a long‑term view of how we invest in and protect our brand. Consistency is fundamental — in how we show up, how we act and how we do business — and our sponsorship approach follows that same principle. Long‑standing partnerships like the Aviva Stadium, alongside our commitments to Aviva Studios in Manchester and Aviva Arena in Bristol, allow us to build enduring associations, deliver consistent experiences, and create social action initiatives that are focused on real, measurable impact.