Tag: Emirates


Sir Bradley Reminds Us It’s About More Than A Logo 24th July, 2014

Sir Bradley Wiggins’ comments on the eve of the Commonwealth Games that the Emirates branding on the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow might have left Sir Chris feeling a little “done over”.

For those of us in the sponsorship industry though, Wiggins’ comments provided another reminder of just how important it is for sponsors to clearly demonstrate the value they’re adding to an event.

For Emirates, who have activated their sponsorship pre-event by spreading the excitement of the Games across the Commonwealth through the Queen’s Baton Relay and unveiled a new Emirates Lounge at Glasgow Airport just in time for the Games, it will be interesting to see how the airline actively engages audiences now the Games are underway.
The recent World Cup in Brazil pushed digital and brand engagement to the fore and further supported the premise that effective sponsorship is more than just a collection of logos and branding at an event. Sponsorship should help to actively engage with consumers allowing the audience to interact and create an emotional tie with a brand.

We’ve seen major brands and sponsors bend-over-backwards at recent global sports events to use meaningful and relevant activation to bring their brands as close to the action as possible. Here’s our selection of podium placers from recent global events where engagement was king.

P&G – ‘Thank You Mom’ (London 2012 & Sochi 2014)

To much critical acclaim P&G executed a clearly defined and emotionally charged message through an integrated“Thank You Mom” campaign, encompassing a host of digital channels, athlete ambassadors including the likes ofVictoria Pendleton and Jessica Ennis-Hill and the release of an app allowing over 50,000 of us to say thank you to mum too!

Beats – London 2012

Beats was just one of a number of  brands who managed, temporarily at least, to evade the brand police and creatively engage with audiences at London 2012 without sponsoring the event. Not only supplying (what seemed like) every athlete with a custom pair of Beats, they also created a pop-up space in Shoreditch House allowing 4,000 people including Olympic athletes from all over the globe to interact with the brand, watch the Games and make use of a photo booth which was used to generate content for poster shots later in the campaign.

Budweiser – ‘Rise as One’ (FIFA World Cup 2014)

Budweiser made sure to engage with its audience whether they were in Brazil or not.  Fans from all over the globe were encouraged to get involved via Twitter with users urged to tap #ManoftheMatch tweets from @FIFAcom which generated Budweiser branded player photos and a  tweet and vote mechanic. Many fans lucky enough to make the trip to Brazil were greeted with rewards in the form of the Budweiser Hotel which hosted parties and events throughout the tournament and acted as a hub for over 3000 satellite Budweiser parties all around the world.

With 1.5 billion people tuning in to the Commonwealth Games let’s hope brands involved make it equally engaging!

Are naming rights getting out of hand? 31st January, 2013

Naming rights aren’t a modern introduction to the world of sport, brought in as an additional revenue stream over the past twenty years to help pay the inflated wages of our beloved superstars.  In fact, stadiums named after an associated corporation or sponsor far precede the internationally broadcast versions of basketball, football, rugby and baseball that we know and watch today.

Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, was named after its owner’s realty company all the way back in 1912. Perhaps more commonly known, William Wrigley, founder of the chewing gum company and owner of the Chicago Cubs, aptly named his club’s stadium Wrigley Field in 1926. Since then hundreds of stadiums have followed the naming rights model, from the Veritas Arena in Finland to the De Beers Diamond Oval in South Africa to UK properties as the Etihad and the Reebok Stadium.

Yet despite this illustrious history, a couple of recent stories surrounding potential name changes to Wembley Stadium and Ibrox, two of the most revered institutions in British football, have made me question – have naming rights gone too far?

Naming rights deals are a fantastic marketing medium, but they have to be implemented in the right way, on a suitable property, for them to be perceived as a success.  In my eyes, there are five essential factors for any brand considering a naming rights deal:

1. Longevity: Sponsorship is all about developing and changing perceptions and simply renaming a stadium for four years is not going to make anyone think differently about a brand.

Football grounds are considered ‘home’ for millions of fans worldwide, a feeling developed over years of shared memories with fellow supporters  – as an Arsenal fan it took me a long time to call The Emirates home, but as the stadium has been so-called for so many years the name now rolls of the tongue as naturally as Highbury ever did.

2.  Sponsor integration: For all the criticism they receive, media impressions are obviously still a huge factor in any naming rights deal. However, it is now essential for a brand to develop a relationship with fans both at the ground and online on an emotional level more than before to achieve true value on a naming rights deal. Whether that be through priority on concert tickets (O2), discounted flights for members (Emirates) or even free orange juice (Minute Maid Park), the sponsor is engaging with the potential customers it spent so much money to reach.

3. Emotional attachment to the stadium: One of the reasons Arsenal fans were more inclined to give ‘The Emirates’ a chance was the fact that they were moving to a brand new stadium.  I would have been far more sceptical, and potentially opposed, to any corporate sponsor coming in and renaming Highbury.  As Wonga were well aware, any plans they had of naming Newcastle F.C’s stadium to something suitably daft (Wonga Arena) would have been met with derision from the club’s supporters and they (cleverly) reinstated St James’ Park as the stadium’s official name.

4. The Name: Too long and the fans will simply shorten it (Friend’s Provident St Mary’s to St Mary’s) or too corporate and the fans will revert to a more familiar name (Capital One Field to Byrd Stadium)

5. The Investment: Sports fans (myself included) are by and large fickle creatures.  If they believe that the money invested by sponsors is helping the club pay wages and higher transfer fees, then they are far more likely to accept the brand as part of the club.

Given the five factors listed above, I think any naming rights deal of Rangers’ Ibrox Stadium would be greeted with a resigned acceptance from its fans.  Ibrox obviously has a long and cherished history, but if a well-aligned naming-rights sponsor comes in and invests money that could potentially save the club from further financial strain, then I don’t think there will be too many dissenters.

In contrast, I can’t see a proposed partner (Everything Everywhere) and Wembley fulfilling any more than 3 and 5 of the above and as such can’t see it working particularly well. It is only suggested that it will be Wembley ‘in association with EE’ anyway, which media and fans alike will inevitably shun. Lastly and  in this instance most importantly, Wembley, more than any stadium in the world, evokes memories and emotions of a by-gone era that many people still cherish. As such any potential naming rights partner will face far more opposition to get past than on a regular stadium.

I’m not sure it’s worth it.

My Top 5 Sponsorship Campaigns 4th January, 2012

In the ever-busy world of brand marketing, using the strength of brand partnerships to forge new channels and platforms is essential to generating sales, showcasing the brand and in some cases uniting millions.  Here are just five of my favourites:

1. Jay-Z & Bing – ‘Decoded’

With Jay-Z’s autobiography ‘Decoded’ due to be launched in November 2010, the rap mogul teamed up with Microsoft search-engine Bing to stir up some little needed hype.

Each of the book’s 320 pages was printed and placed in a different position across 13 major cities.  Locations were selected based on the contents of each page – for example, a reference to Jay Z’s youth in Brooklyn could be placed on a Cadillac, a restaurant plate, a basketball net or even on the bottom of a swimming pool!

Utilising social media, clues were released via Facebook & Twitter revealing the location of the secret pages in a draw to compete to be the first to unlock each one of the 320 pages.  Users were driven to Bing.com/Jay Z where they were directed to specific locations, while the first people on the scene texted a code to reveal the page to the whole community.  Within a month of the campaign going live, users had unlocked every single page of the book before it was even available for sale.

Bing received an 11.7% increase of visitors while the campaign was live with an average player engagement of 11 minutes.  Jay Z’s Facebook page received 1 million ‘likes’ in under a month and his autobiography reached 3rd in the New York Times Best Seller list.

The level of detail that went into turning every single page of Jay Z’s book into a real life installation was staggering, completely integrating and engaging the content of the book with readers.  Unlike most interactive campaigns where the user’s interaction ends at the computer screen, ‘Decode’ actively encouraged the consumer to venture out into the world and sample Jay Z’s life in person.  All sections of media were used, giving the individual a rich and unique understanding of Jay Z’s life that a purely internet-based campaign couldn’t have done.  Through Jay Z, Bing created the biggest online game the world has even seen.

2. Ralph Lauren & The New York Times

In September 2011, Ralph Lauren bought out a one-month, solo sponsorship of the New York Times iPad application.  The app takeover included online shopping, videos, a letter from Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren’s car collection, poems, details of how Ralph Lauren jewellery is made and the principles of the brand’s craftsmanship.  An online shopping bag, built directly into the app’s adverts, allowed consumers to shop straight away, rather than having to click through to a website – essentially making it easier than ever to buy Ralph Lauren.

This partnership highlights the failure of countless companies to fully utilise what’s available to them when they form a brand relationship.  Amongst the online shopping the reader is drawn to the beautiful imagery, the highly detailed information about the production of the clothes, and interesting little known facts about Ralph Lauren himself.  At no stage do you ever feel as though you are being led down the path to purchase.  It is always a gentle stroll, past a wonderfully crafted tweed suit, before you reach the checkout.

3. McDonald’s & 2008 Beijing Olympics – ‘Cheer For China’

With large sections of the Chinese population finding the Games remote and out-of-reach McDonald’s developed united sponsorship initiatives under the slogan  “Cheer for China”, which allowed the nation to become part of the Chinese Olympic dream.  In-store cheering stations, viral videos, interactive/click through banners and celebrity blog partnerships were just some of the ways that the ‘everyman’ was encouraged to participate in this episode of people power.

Through the cheering stations and online entries, the 10 best cheerers were chosen to take part in ‘The Cheer For China Online Reality Show’ that attracted over 7 million unique visitors to its website.  To conclude the show, the 10 best cheerers were whittled down to 5 winners who led 1,200 people at the Olympic Stadium to set a new Guinness World Record.  Throughout the campaign the Cheer For China website had over 25 million unique visitors and 1.2 million cheering entries.

This campaign illustrates how a well-thought out and flawlessly executed brand partnership can quite literally change a nation.  Faced with Olympic indifference millions of people, from Guangzhou to Changchun, were instilled with the Olympic spirit – no mean feat for an American fast-food chain.

The multi-pronged approach of the campaign also ensured that it didn’t fizzle out – once all the cheering entries were in, a fly on the wall documentary emerged, which preceded winners dancing  in the Olympic stadium setting a new world record.  Continuity was key and ensured that the entire nation not only cheered for China, but continued to do so long after the Games were finished.

4. The National Theatre & Phillips ‘Sense and Simplicity’

In 2007 The National Theatre teamed up with Phillips to help reduce the amount of electricity that the Southbank location used.  This partnership saw Phillips replace and enhance the National Theatre’s internal lighting system with state of the art, energy-efficient design costing approximately £500,000.  In addition to the immediate visual improvements in the theatre, the long term aims were to reduce the amount of energy of lighting up the iconic ‘fly towers’ by 70%, which in turn will save £100,000 a year.

While this campaign may not have everyone marvelling at its ingenuity, the simplicity allowed consumers to fully engage with the campaign and helped both organisations achieve more together.  The National Theatre was able to produce more productions and Phillips utilised a highly targeted audience platform to showcase their exceptionally high-quality lighting.  In addition, a substantial amount of energy will have been saved by the end of the 5 year deal, paving the way for other heavily lit buildings in the city to focus on their own energy consumption.

5. Emirates Airline & Transport For London

With Transport for London’s state-of-the-art cable car more than doubling its budget in a year (from £25 – £60 million), Fly Emirates intervened in what was one of the shrewdest sponsorship moves of 2011.

The 10-year deal costing Emirates £36 million provides the Dubai based airline naming rights on what is bound to be one of the focal points for the London Olympics.  It will be the first urban cable car of its kind in the UK, connecting Greenwich Peninsular over the river with the Royal Docks.  The new system could provide a crossing every 30 seconds carrying up to 2,500 passengers per hour in each direction, equivalent to the capacity of 50 buses.  Users will be able to pay with oyster cards, as they travel at a minimum height of 52m over the Thames.

With the travel concerns high amongst visitors as well as residents, the Emirates Cable Car will not only be highly publicised, but also one of the few central transportation links.  In addition, it will remain a prominent part of the capital’s skyline for decades. Greenwich has a constant stream of tourists, throughout the year, who will all want to take a ride and witness the panoramic views that the cable car offers.  As a result, Emirates’ brand will be directly showcased to a large portion of the 30 million international visitors the capital attracts annually long after the London Olympics have left.