Author: andrew selby


When Bigger Isn’t Better – Challenger Properties Offering Sponsors Value for Money 13th July, 2015

Amongst the fall-out from the recent FIFA investigations, a number of brands expressed concern at being involved with the prestigious global property. Should those brands re-evaluate their sponsorship, they may well be inclined to look at a lower profile alternative – a challenger property with a solid foundation, set to ascend further into the public eye.

Lower profile properties allow sponsors to have greater access, less risk and a greater opportunity to tailor their involvement helping to facilitate a more integrated partnership with the rights-holder.

An example of this is one of Slingshot’s client’s GB Taekwondo, one of the shining lights of Team GB and golden hopes of Rio 2016. Established in 2002, the team has grown substantially in recent years developing into a team of 27 full time athletes including a school outreach programme, UK hosted international and domestic championships and a clear pathway to Olympic success.

The team has captured medals at the Olympics, World Grand Prix and most recently conquered at the World Championships where Bianca Walkden and Damon Sansum claimed Gold & Silver medals  respectively resulting in national media coverage across the BBC and ITV. Jade Jones also clinched Gold at the inaugural European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Tasting Success

With a challenger rights-holder such as GB Taekwondo the team offers sponsors an extremely flexible and personal platform to associate the brand – reaching multiple objectives in the business.

Hill Dickinson the law firm (a partner of the team since 2014) is a prime example of a company who has leveraged their partnership to great effect, creating tangible new business opportunities, cross company staff engagement and accomplishing multiple CSR objectives within the firm.

The firm was provided such flexibility due to the aligned core objectives of both parties. The team and athletes understood Hill Dickinson’s key objectives and helped facilitate this through their own understanding of their assets – a proactive approach not often taken with some of the more established rights holders. Through this sponsorship, staff have created lasting relationships with Olympic athletes which have grown and developed on the Road to Rio 2016 creating a more holistic partnership than mere branding or hospitality.

Future Opportunities

With challenger properties, brands have the opportunity to truly partner with the right-holders. Enabling the opportunity to reach success across company objectives with smaller companies who may believe sponsorship is out of their budget.

As the property evolves as will the partnership and fees associated. The brand’s objectives and focus will adapt, changing in tune to the success – reaping the rewards on their modest outlay with increased PR, awareness and opportunities. When working in this manner, sponsors find the ROI clear to see with such a cross section of involvement at all levels.

Act now!

In the Road to the Rio Olympics, now is the time to consider how lower profile sporting properties could significantly benefit brands – without the price tag of sponsoring the Olympics.

The GB Taekwondo team has a calendar for 2015/2016 including the World Championships, Baku 2015 European Games, World Grand Prix, the Road to Rio and the crowning glory of the Olympics. Now is the perfect time to engage to access Olympic benefits leading in to Rio 2016, supporting your business objectives over the long term.

*Partnership opportunities are available with both team level with GB Taekwondo, and at the World Grand Prix held on the 16th -18th October 2015 at Sportscity Manchester.


In the world of sponsorship, bigger isn’t always better 5th December, 2014

Throughout the year there have once again been rumblings that the NBA (United States National Basketball Association) are set to announce the opportunity for sponsors to appear on team jerseys for the first time. The cost of this 2½ inch by 2½ inch spot – an estimated $100 million. Whilst this might appear to be an excellent opportunity for sponsors there is the potential for oversight. Brands often strive for the largest assets with a ‘bigger the better’ focus without fully equating how this will impact the brand or the potential response from the public, instead of looking to maximise their current rights.

Rarely do sponsors fully utilise the assets available to them. There are a wealth of activations available to engage with their audience yet for many these remain unused, mostly due to a lack of creativity.

The All Blacks, New Zealand’s national rugby team was at the centre of a similar occurrence in recent years. As the most successful national rugby team on the planet with perhaps the most iconic jersey, which has always been sponsor clean (barring the small placement of Stienlager during part of the 90’s); a fact that filled fans with immense pride.

However this all changed in 2012 when AIG confirmed its place as Major Global Sponsor of the All Blacks. Included within this multi-million pound deal was the prime of place upon the legendary All Blacks shirt for the first time ever. On the one hand a ground breaking coup for AIG, yet the public outcry was huge with many New Zealanders speaking of boycotting AIG’s services, creating substantial adverse PR for the brand globally. This was not seen as a sponsor utilising an asset but instead a brand defacing that famous jersey.

Despite the fact that AIG used a logo 2/3 smaller than the norm this was not enough to dissipate the fallout. If the badging was crucial to AIG’s sponsorship (almost all other All Black’s sponsors have managed without this) they may have done more to quell the public’s uproar. They had the opportunity to engage with fans and to ask them how best the logo might be displayed on the jersey – allowing the fans to feel as though they were consulted on the matter, sparing some of the fallout.

One of the most severe effects from this may well have been the effect on AIG’s revenue. Not considering the additional sponsor fee for the badging opportunity, the impact from the boycotting of services and negative PR will have taken an impact on the businesses bottom line – one of the very things the sponsorship aimed to increase.

Ironically, the All Blacks was also one of the best utilisation of assets provided – by cereal brand Weet-Bix. As a long standing sponsor of the New Zealand rugby team (12 years), Weet-Bix took the opportunity to be creative with the assets they held rights to instead of opening the cheque book to acquire more branding.  Parents were encouraged to visit the Weet-Bix website and enter their child’s birth date.  Birthday cards were sent to the children with personalised messages ‘signed’ by the New Zealand players.

Weet-bix provides a prime example for how a sponsor can maximise the rights available to them. Electing to take a creative approach instead of opting for a badging the brand engaged emotionally with over two million people in New Zealand building the brand message, providing emotive moments for children and parents alike.

Whilst the drivers behind each brands’ sponsorship of the All Blacks may have been different, Weet-Bix shows how creatively utilising sponsorship rights can maximum emotional benefit instead of seeking bigger brand visibility and badging.

For all brands that are considering that $100 million NBA outlay, more consideration needs to be made on maximising current rights available, better engagement with a fanatical audience, and how to truly align with the sport to drive emotional buy-in.


National Business Awards Q&A: Jackie Fast, Slingshot Sponsorship 20th August, 2014

Jackie Fast is the Managing Director of UK-based strategic sponsorship agency Slingshot Sponsorship. Her organisation has been chosen as a finalist in the BlackBerry Business Enabler of the Year category at the 2014 National Business Awards; as part of Outsource‘s partnership with the NBAs, we got together with the finalists for this award to ask them a few questions about their activities and the changing nature of partnership and collaboration in a rapidly evolving business environment…

Outsource: In the words of the organisers, “The winner of this award will be the organisation that has best helped client or partner businesses to increase profitability by improving efficiency, develop talent or implement innovation.” How do you think your organisation has managed to do any one of these things to the extent that it has been shortlisted?

Jackie Fast: Our entire business model centres on how successful we are at identifying, uncovering and generating additional income through commercial gaps and sponsorship; therefore, this award could not be more suitable as every single aspect of our business is built on this.

When we launched only four years ago, we anticipated that this model would only suit smaller organisations who either didn’t have the resource to properly commercialise their opportunities or didn’t have the skill set. However, over the years, this applies to almost every business and can take an objective specialist view to really identify the opportunities that are being missed. Since inception, our clients have ranged dramatically from charities such as the British Heart Foundation and the Mayor’s Fund for London, to music festivals such as Outlook and Dimensions, to big B2B events such as the What Car? Awards. Ironically, regardless of the business or industry, the framework put in place is the same.

O: When a buy-side organisation engages with a supplier, how far do you think it transfers responsibility for innovation?

JF: This is a topic much debated at the moment as historically the brand was always responsible for the activation. However, it is in both parties’ interests to actively engage and ensure that the programme, event, or campaign is successful for the audience. Therefore, I would strongly argue that the onus is placed on the rights holder side to ensure that activation falls in line with the overall business strategy to help align objectives.

O: Do you think the very definition of partnership, in a business sense, is evolving and if so how?

JF: The output of partnership is still the same; however, the input of partnerships is radically changing, which is why there are discrepancies around definitions of what sponsorship or partnership is. Sponsorship makes marketing work harder and always has; however, who is involved in that partnership is different now through the advance of digital technology. This will inevitably change our industry.

O: What’s your definition of the perfect client?

JF: A client who understands their business and their reason for bringing on partnerships beyond the financial. A client who isn’t about just selling the logo.

Partnerships can deliver far beyond the investment of rights. When clients understand this implication and its potential, we then have the ability to create sponsorships that deliver value well beyond expectations.


London Twenty What? Brands opt for sponsorship flings as opposed to the ball and chain 28th July, 2014

Whatever happened to legacy? During the 2012 London Olympics we could scarcely move for the word, and in regards to sponsorship there is very little evidence of it. Since 2012 there have been four major global sporting events and yet still very few campaigns follow on after the life of an event. And why not?

As Lucien Boyer explains, the buzz of an event doesn’t last forever and as such brands should look to the long term if they want their partnership to provide an effective return, rather than being accused of ‘cashing in’. Sponsorship should be seen as a marriage between the event, marketing, and its values and vision. A long-term partnership sets a clear direction for a company’s future marketing, allowing the brand to develop a strong message and engage with the target audience consistently over time.

The London Olympics and subsequent 5 years offered a plethora of global athletic events all located within the UK; first London 2012, now the Glasgow 2014 Games, and soon to follow the London 2017 World Athletic Championships (not to mention GB competing at Rio 2016). If a brand had wanted to align themselves with the values of athletics and use global sport as a means to engage the audience (UK or abroad) there might rarely have been a better opportunity.

Sainsbury’s serves as a prime example in delivering sponsorship this way. Having sponsored the 2012 Paralympic games to great effect (as the only ‘big four’ supermarket to make gains in market share during this period posting a 5.6% increase YOY), Sainsbury’s didn’t stop there. They finalised an agreement to partner with the British Paralympic Association for the next four years and also to sponsor the British Athletics Major Event series, including the Anniversary Games and British Grand Prix in August. In addition to this they launched a one million pound scheme to provide coaching and facilities to help disabled children lead more active lives providing an ROI that “will not just be measured in pure marketing terms”.

So having returned this week from a jaunt north of the boarder to indulge in the Commonwealth Games, I couldn’t help but hear that word again on everyone’s lips. One of Glasgow’s major sponsors SSE is looking to change this. As an Official Partner to the games, SSE used an onsite Twitter leader board to engage on Twitter and experientially at the Green Zone. Furthermore, they had a number of brand ambassadors from the home counties, provided long term naming rights for the SSE Hydro (hosting the netball and gymnastics), and are looking to continue the long term effects by increasing the funding for the SSE Next Generation programme giving support to aspiring athletes in the UK. Only time will tell with how much vigour brands will continue to engage now the curtain has closed on Glasgow. Who knows, come Rio 2016 perhaps the word ‘legado’ will never even be uttered.

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