5 Sponsorship Predictions for 2011
5th January, 2011
We anticipate that 2011 is going to be a great year with a lot of changes in sponsorship. Not only for Slingshot Sponsorship, having recently signed some exciting clients including Haymarket and London Irish, but also for the sponsorship industry as a whole. With the Olympics around the corner, an interesting shift in marketing that has occurred as cause of the recession last year, as well as public funding cuts, we think sponsorship will take on a whole new meaning in 2011. We anticipate it will be a shift for current sponsors, rights holders, and brands alike looking to break into sponsorship. We can’t wait!
But before the year starts, we thought we’d put some of our 2011 predications together and then see how they play out!
- More Engaging Sponsorship Campaigns: following the trend seen in 2010, we anticipate that the industry will become more creative in regards to creating brand engagement campaigns through sponsorship. Especially with the 2012 Olympics around the corner, everyone will be vying for the title of activation champion and devising some thought provoking campaigns to catch the attention of brands.
- Decrease in Brand Ambassadors: after the backlash of negative publicity surrounding Tiger Woods and Wayne Rooney, we expect that we’ll see a decrease in the sponsorship of individuals and signing of brand ambassadors. Especially considering that the economic climate is still difficult, marketing directors are finding more red tape in regards to negotiations with the leading sports and music stars.
- Increase in Sponsored Events and Tournaments: as a result of the decrease in brand ambassadors, brands will be looking to for new sponsorship opportunities to align themselves through main sponsorship of the events and/or tournaments. This will provide brands the opportunity to align themselves to the sport while minimising the risk of negative individual publicity.
- Increase in Digital Sponsorship: digital sponsorship activation is starting to really take shape and drive sponsorship opportunities. In 2010, we saw an increase in iGaming companies sponsoring sports – especially premier league football. The introduction of these sponsorship deals has helped develop the rights owner’s digital strategy with the sponsor, enabling them to create synergy of digital resource. Our favourite digital sponsorship campaign in 2010 was the Manchester United vs Manchester City online campaign with slogans that fans could submit online for the promotional campaign produced by Betfair. This showed a great leap in digital sponsorship activation led by a digital sector based sponsor.
- Cluttered Market for Public Funding: due to public funding cuts in the United Kingdom, we anticipate that there will be an influx of adequately written sponsorship proposals for fantastic CRM programmes sent directly to brands. As such, this will make it harder for sponsorship proposals to really stand out from the crowd. This creates a great opportunity for sponsorship agencies to help educate the market and aid in creating credible and sustainable sponsorship programmes in 2011.
Whatever 2011 holds, we’ll be sure to keep you posted on our Slingshot Sponsorship Blog. To ensure you don’t miss anything, please sign up on the right hand side of this post.
Slingshot Sponsorship wishes you all the best for 2011!
