Sponsorships
NN Group sponsors many activities, with a focus on supporting the well-being of wider society, sport sponsorships and cultural partnerships. Sport sponsorship as we know it originated in the 1970s.
De Nederlanden van 1845 started early with hosting a chess tournament at the head office at Groenhovenstraat in The Hague in 1966. The draw is done by ‘Miss 1845’ who wears a dress made of flags with the company logo. The tournament is broadcast on TV with the logo appearing for seconds, a good form of free publicity! In 1968, Nedlloyd sponsors a local initiative in Arnhem, the Tour de Frats (named after the Tour de France) for children whose parents have little or no means to go on holiday. Among the young cyclists is the Nedlloyd team. This youth cycle race is still organised today under the name Ome Joop’s Tour.
Sport sponsorships boom in the 1970s. Nationale-Nederlanden sponsors basketball, ice hockey, sailing, horse riding and volleyball. Delta Lloyd focuses on table tennis, volleyball and sailing, which starts with sponsoring the Delta Week in Zeeland, an international sailing event. Delta Lloyd providesa cup and a motor yacht, the start of a long relationship with the sport of sailing.
In 1988 Nationale-Nederlanden starts sponsoring the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) and four years later the Netherlands national football team. Employees also take part in a commercial with the motto ‘Oranje voor Oranje!’ (Orange for Orange!). During the European Championships in 2000, an image of soccer player Edgar Davids is shown the façade of the 150-metre high Rotterdam headquarters. The international exposure of this sponsorship activity earns Nationale-Nederlanden huge name recognition. In 2010, ING takes over the football sponsorships. NN focus on running since 2014 and sponsors the very succesfull NN Running Team but also many running events around the world, amongst them the Rotterdam Marathon.
