South coast public relations agency Deep South Media has signed for Premier League football club AFC Bournemouth. The Bournemouth-based consultancy has been named as an official executive partner of AFC Business, the club’s commercial arm.
Deep South, 20 years old this year, is working closely with AFC Business, which has 1,600 members and is the engine for all the club’s commercial activities.
Cherries chairman Jeff Mostyn said: “We welcome Deep South Media’s talented media players into our AFC Business squad and look forward to a long and fruitful partnership. AFC Bournemouth is very much a community club – this is what has driven us forward since the dark days of 2008 and our ethos has not changed since our meteoric rise to Premier League status. We very much appreciate working with local businesses – the lifeblood of our community – and our collaboration with Deep South Media is a perfect example of two leading brands coming together.”
Deep South will have a strong presence at AFC Business events and will also assist the club’s media department with commercial and business activity.
AFC Bournemouth and Deep South colleagues gathered at Vitality Stadium to commemorate the occasion.
The Deep South Media team at AFC Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium. Back row, from left, Cliff Moore, Mike Ribbeck, Alison Latta, Cherries commercial director Rob Mitchell, Ron Wain, Cherries chairman Jeff Mostyn, Debbie Granville, Andrew Diprose. Front row, Scott Sinclair, Debbie Moore, James Tourgout, Kay Sinclair, Ed Baker, Rachel Read
Ron Wain is the managing director of Deep South Media, the UK specialist in cost-effective newsroom services for companies and organisations. He said: “It is a privilege to work for AFC Bournemouth in what is our 20th anniversary year. Deep South’s role will be to help the Cherries raise its profile off the pitch, including with the local community, charities, businesses and organisations. The Premier League is a global sports phenomenon, with 1.2 billion fans, and the Vitality Stadium, as a premier events venue, attracts more than 400,000 visitors annually. There is scope to engage fans and the wider community in the superb things AFC Bournemouth is doing at grass roots level. Research shows that more than a third of Premier League fans claim to be more likely to buy products of sponsored brands, potentially providing a revenue benefit to local businesses through this global media platform.”
AFC Business is AFC Bournemouth’s free-to-join business club which offers a host of benefits to members, such as attendance at regular events and breakfast networking meetings. The next event is the AFC Business Chairman’s Lunch on Wednesday, February 7, with sports executive and former tennis ace and administrator Debbie Jevans as keynote speaker.
