Apollo Tyres bats for a goal to ride the growing popularity of football

The tyre maker looks to score a few points for its brand on the football field, hoping to ride the growing popularity of the sport among the young

Five years ago, when Apollo Tyres formed a branding tie up with the Manchester United (Man-U) Football Club for a few European countries, not too much was set in store by the association. In a cricket-crazy country such as India, brands have rarely found profit in their pursuit of any other sport and it was assumed that the tie-up would be limited to branding initiatives outside the country. But fortuitously for Apollo Tyres, the sport found itself riding the crest of a popularity wave especially among young professionals through 2013-17, giving the brand visibility and recall while helping it to