Author: Slingshot Team

Music Festival Sponsorship: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly 17th April, 2012

We have been talking a lot about music sponsorship here at Slingshot. Mainly because we are knee-deep in a couple of very exciting music projects, but also because everyone is gearing up for festival season. Mostly I have been consumed with which festival to go to for our agency’s second birthday, but I have also been having some interesting conversations with both brands and rights holders on what is coming up this year and the current state of music festival sponsorship.

The Good

Festival sponsorship has always been a great platform for brand engagement – especially in the UK market with the English music lover’s ability to bare rain, sun, sleet, and a muddy tent with a smile on their face. It not only provides the perfect atmosphere for a receptive audience, but also the space to really leverage brand experiences. Festival-goers walk away with memories they cherish forever, which can provide a significant amount of brand recall for future years to come. Consider V Festival – the name so synonymous with Virgin Media it surprises many when you find out they don’t actually own this festival, but just act as the Headline Sponsors.

The Bad

Because festival s has been such a great sponsorship platform, brands have flocked in droves – creating a cluttered market. Instead of engaging with a couple brands, festival goers are often bombarded by marketing messages,samples, activations, offers and more. One festival had so many pre-sale sponsors that most people didn’t know where to purchase tickets and so opted to not do it, which consequently saw the festival getting cancelled as they couldn’t underwrite the loss nor project the future sales of tickets for a show that saw a disjointed initial promotion.

The Ugly

Not only are festivals becoming more cluttered making it difficult for brands to ensure cut through, more festivals are entering the market and then being cancelled for a variety of reasons (see above). This creates nervousness for Marketing Directors who really need to be confident that their marketing budget is safe and working for them. Plans, resources, campaigns are in place well in advance and having a significant portion of their plans cancelled at the last minute is just not an option in the current economic climate where budgets are scrutinised and sometimes wrong decisions can place your job in jeopardy. Last year alone saw 42 festivals cancelled and already this year many major festivals are also calling in the towel.

But all is not lost!

This is not to say that sponsoring music festivals is a bad idea – far from it. But there needs to be careful consideration into which music festivals brands do choose to partner with and also a solid strategy in which to activate. When both the brands and the rights owners work together amazing potentials can be created and tend to drive not only the experience for the muddied music lover, but also create brand advocates and sustain the festivals that can deliver these innovative types of sponsorship collaborations.

The Evolution of Sponsorship: speaking at Bournemouth University 14th March, 2012

I was recently asked to present at the sixth annual Mike Warne Annual Marketing Communications Lecture at Bournemouth University in partnership with the CIM. My presentation was titled The Evolution of Sponsorship: A Sponsorship Agency Perspective (view on SlideShare here).

Arriving at Bournemouth University, not only was I amazed at how crowded the lecture hall was, but more importantly amazed they managed to secure a sponsor for their event – an energy drink Little Miracles. I was truly impressed by the whole evening!

My presentation provided a view of how sponsorship is shifting alongside the shift in marketing – how one way communications are now two way communications and what that means for the sponsorship industry. How traditional forms of sponsorship are becoming integrated messages utilising multiple platforms and how this development in integration is creating loyalty and cut through amongst the many consumer brand messages we receive each day. As a sponsorship agency, one of the areas we often discuss is how sponsorship is more than just signing off on the sponsorship proposal and ensuring that your logo is placed on the right billboard. Although this does form part of sponsorship, it can be so much more – truly uncovering synergies between brands to create something truly unique. For some examples of great sponsorship campaigns make sure to check out the Coca-Cola Polar Bowl and the JayZ & Bing collaboration.

The keynote of the evening was Jeff Dodds, Executive Marketing Director of Brand and Marketing Communications at Virgin Media, whose presentation showcased not only their sponsorship platforms, but more importantly uncovered the reasons behind why they chose to invest in those specific platforms. Alongside my favourite answer of WWRD (what would Richard do?), Jeff explained how sponsorship was used to demonstrate how being a Virgin Media customer and leading the Virgin Media life is better than leading their competitors. They activated this through the experiences that Virgin Media customers receive during their sponsored events – for example, Virgin Media customers receive VIP access and free stuff at V Festival just by being a customer. This is an excellent example showcasing how sponsorship can be used to increase loyalty and develop brand experiences beyond logos.

To get a complete run through of the event and what was discussed make sure to read Rebecca Crafts Blog here.

Sponsorship: Pushing boundaries in an ever changing landscape 24th February, 2012

Sponsorship is a very unique industry, one that is both growing as well as dramatically shifting. At the moment, there seems to be an inertia amongst sponsorship agencies and brands at one end of the scale, while at the other end there is an active driving force pushing the industry into a more ‘grown-up’ and sustainable form of marketing. I’d like to think Slingshot Sponsorship is the latter.

Put simply, sponsorship is a form of marketing. And just like good old fashioned direct marketing campaigns, sponsorship needs to be measured, creative and deliver results for the client. Somewhere along the line, sponsorship campaigns have stagnated, which has created an industry that bases success on logo views making it no different to advertising – except lacking the creativity. This was caused by the reasons sponsorship was signed off initially – typically the CEO who was boosting his own ego and basing brand positioning on access to hospitality boxes and exclusive tickets, rather than marketing ROI.

However, sponsorship is so much more than that and for the brands and sponsorship agencies out there who are willing to work a bit smarter, the returns can be significant.

My favourite example of smarter thinking is with the Direct Marketing Association who dramatically shifted their involvement with sponsorship enabling them to provide more value to their members at no additional cost (view case study here). Rather than just being an add on, this membership organisation now counts sponsorship revenue as core to their business processes and integral to their overall income.

Another smarter thinking client we have is the What Car? Awards, which saw an increase of 1032% on sponsorship revenue this year simply by shifting some of their current activities in order to create value for their sponsors (view case study here). For example, instead of just having sponsors involved with the presentation ball itself, What Car? created new promotional channels including promotion of the shortlist through media sponsor The Metro; providing sponsors a significant amount of national exposure. Neither additional resource nor expense was needed as the shortlist was always part of their programme, but by changing the promotion and involving partners, this dramatically changed the value derived for the What Car? Awards sponsors.

We like to think we are pushing boundaries and making sponsorship work harder and smarter for our clients so if you are interested in pushing some with us, make sure to get in touch or sign up to our newsletter.

Be My Sponsorship Valentine 14th February, 2012

Although I can already hear the grumbles of how Valentine’s Day is just another retail scheme to get our sterling, I happen to love it. And it just so happens that keeping your Valentine happy follows a similar strategy to sponsorship renewals.

Getting sponsors can be tricky; however, keeping sponsors should be relatively easy if you follow our Valentines rules:

1. The little things mean a lot.

Sponsors should be treated as business partners. You should take a keen interest and really embrace their involvement with your platform. If there are ever opportunities for you to invite them to other events or even take them out for coffee when they are in town, do so – don’t wait until the event that they sponsor to try and build the relationship on the night.

2. Find special gifts that are unique to them.

Sponsors’ businesses are ever changing and it would be impossible for you to keep up with their evolution. However, by having an open dialogue and regular communication this will allow you to truly understand their strategies and objectives – making it easier for you to recognise when an added value opportunity within your platform could help their business.

3. Surprise them.

Everyone loves a surprise so try and surprise them with added value throughout the term of the agreement. This could include new promotional advertisements you’ve managed to secure or even a Sponsors Lunch – additional benefits that weren’t on the original sponsorship proposal.

4. Don’t expect the world when you haven’t given it.

All too often sponsors are given the sales pitch about how this sponsorship will go above and beyond; how they will work with the sponsor on PR and put together new ideas throughout the year. However, more commonly the pitch is given, the sponsor signs on this basis, and then never hears from the property again – except of course for when it is time to renew. It is important that when you make promises, you keep them.

5. The relationship should be easy.

Sponsorship should be an easy commitment if you are doing all the above. Ensuring the basics are managed is a simple task and should not be left up to the sponsor. This leaves them with the time to be more creative and work with you on adding value elsewhere. The easier the activation is for them, the easier it will be for everyone.

Good luck with your Valentine’s Day today and hopefully these tips will also come in handy when it comes to sponsorship renewals!

Slingshot Sponsorship Partner with Scandinavian-based BITE Agency 23rd January, 2012

Slingshot Sponsorship and BITE have formed a strategic alliance that will see a union of expertise from two of the biggest prospects in sponsorship and brand management respectively. The innovative partnership will work with brands and rights owners to truly grasp building a brand and then creating commercial opportunities from that foundation.

Having launched in the UK in 2010, Slingshot Sponsorship has quickly gained significant market share within the rights owner community working with diverse organisations including Haymarket Consumer Media, Mencap, and the London Irish Rugby Club. Unlike other sponsorship agencies, Slingshot helps organisations build up their assets in order to become viable marketing platforms for brands. As such, branding and brand identity is vital to ensure success with creating a sustainable sponsorship programme.

Based in Scandinavia, specifically Oslo, Norway, BITE is a newly formed team of international brand innovators, facilitating strategic brand activation through non-traditional methods. By working together, both agencies will be able to follow their customers through their brand building and exploitation journey and help them realise their full commercial potential. The ability to also access two unique markets will provide Slingshot/BITE clients with data that has not been available previously.

Jackie Fast, managing director of Slingshot Sponsorship commented:

This is such an exciting development and a natural progression on what we do. By ensuring we have experts identifying and developing the core brand proposition, we will be able to help our clients become more successful when integrating commercial opportunities. This has been a gap within our current clients marketing mix and so we are delighted to be able to fill this gap.

Robert D B Leinders-Krog, managing director of BITE commented:

In recent years we have clearly seen a major shift in the international marketing and brand sphere, with companies and organizations needing to holistically approach their marketing and branding strategies. This unique partnership will ensure our clients competitive advantage internationally with a profound base in concrete brand strategy and in-depth commercial exploitation. Our international approach combines European expertise with renowned Scandinavian innovation practices and will give our clients unique platforms of activation. We are very excited!

The partnership will enable clients to reap the benefits of a single agency who can manage the entire journey of brand strategy, activation and commercialisation from a completely unique market position. That both companies are experts in their own field guarantees clients are provided with a tailor-made service, comprising the best from sponsorship and brand-management.

The What Car? Awards – a Sponsorship Agency Perspective 13th January, 2012

After a long anticipated year working with the What Car? Car of the Year Awards, the event has happened!

Held at the Grosvenor Hotel on Park Lane, the event was a fantastic culmination of the hard work that went into developing and launching the new cars of 2012. With a beautifully dressed room and entertainment from Chris Addison, the event was definitely one to remember.

In terms of sponsorship, we managed to increase the sponsorship revenue by 1032% and increased the number of sponsors from two to nine. To find out more on the strategy employed please visit our case study here.

2012 sponsors that were involved included Hankook, TRACKER, Metro, Mondial Assistance, Green Flag, Cobra, Thule, CNI, and Warranty Direct. For more information on this year’s sponsors please click here. For a full list of the What Car? 2012 winning manufacturers please click here.

If you missed it, we thought the Twitter action summed it up nicely:

Even the sponsors were getting involved…

Some of the wins…

And the big announcement…

And of course, no awards blog post would be complete without photos from the Photo Booth sponsored by Associate Sponsor TRACKER. Here is the Slingshot Team in action:

Top 3 Sponsorship Predictions 2012 9th January, 2012

Following the mulled wine and too many Quality Street sweets over the Christmas period, I thought it would be important to kick start the year with some predictions on the sponsorship industry for 2012. With so many new things happening this year, it may prove to be a unsettled year for many organisations and difficult for anyone to predict much; however, here are my top 3 predictions:

1. The Olympic Predicament

To sponsor or not to sponsor events during the London Olympic Games period – that is the question on everyone’s mind. Although most of the big brands have taken one road or the other, many brands still have not yet decided how to take advantage of the opportunity of millions of people descending upon London providing a fantastic opportunity to reach a global community locally.

The nervousness lies in history as well as legalities.

With many brands having never been involved with initiating marketing campaigns during the Olympics, it can be almost impossible to decide whether sponsoring events or even increasing marketing during the London Olympic Games will pay off or if you will just get lost in the brand mass.

Although I can’t predict whether or not every brand should go for it as it will always be brand dependent and also dependent on the activation and platform you will be pushing your marketing through – I can say that the London Olympics is providing an opportunity that won’t be coming around again in the near future and if you are able to take advantage, then you should get on board. However, I’d recommend deciding how you’ll participate sooner rather than later in order to make the most out of your sponsorship and marketing campaigns during this period.

2. Brands are Working Together

I mentioned this in last year’s prediction post, but it still rings true today. More and more, brands are working together and creating synergy of resource. Most often this is because it is cheaper, but more importantly brand partnerships achieve more together than they can apart. This is a huge benefit of sponsorship, but you can also achieve the same benefits through in-kind partnerships and joint strategies – for example, getting a Print Partner or a Media Partner on board with your event.

Furthermore, more agencies will be looking to work together rather than treating each other as competitors. We’ve even gone done this route recently teaming up with Brand Innovation Agency BITE in order to provide their Scandinavian-based clients with sponsorship services and our clients with branding services – benefiting both sets of clients!

3. The Sponsorship Market will be Cluttered!

With a significant number of public funding organisations losing their funding this year, I anticipate there will be an influx of sponsorship proposals being sent out to brands. This means a number of things for rights owners, but mainly:

Rights owners will have a harder time selling sponsorship.
Great proposals and pitches will differentiate the competition rather than platforms due to lack of resource.

And for interest, you can also read my 2011 Predications Blog and find out whether I was right.

Good luck with 2012 – regardless of whether my predications are right, I can bet it will be a very interesting year for everyone. And of course, don’t forget to sign up to the Slingshot Sponsorship Blog in order to track my predication progress!

Let Little Noise Commence 23rd November, 2011

Mencap’s Little Noise Sessions sponsored by ASUS and curated by Mencap ambassador Jo Whiley kicked off with a bang last night. Held at iconic church, St John-at-Hackney, the first of six shows saw Elbow headlining last night and, as many tweeps this morning commented, it was indeed epic.

With the St John-at-Hackney priest blessing the event, it would have been impossible for the gig to not go as well as it did.

The fundraising festival runs from tonight until Sunday and also includes gigs from the likes of rapper Example, pop diva Goldfrapp, Coldplay’s front man Chris Martin, and Scottish Mercury Music Prize nominee King Creosote.

Sponsors ASUS have tied it in with their fantastic campaign In Search of Incredible promoting their new N series of laptops and Zenbooks that have incredible sound systems developed with Bang & Olufsen.

We can’t wait to see how the rest of the week turns out!

Slingshot Sponsorship wins Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2011 28th October, 2011

Jackie Fast managing director of Slingshot Sponsorship has won the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the Camden & Islington Business Awards. The category was open to business owners who have shown exceptional business acumen and achieved consistent business growth since launching.

Slingshot Sponsorship delivers and develops long-term brand strategies that engage targeted audiences through sponsorship rights. Integrated and tailored in each approach, Slingshot Sponsorship diversifies across a range of industries with clients based in publishing, sports, entertainment, media and charities.

Jackie Fast was absolutely ecstatic to win this award, commenting:

It is an absolute pleasure to be nominated, let alone win this category. Since launching Slingshot Sponsorship last year, our business has grown exponentially – which truly shows how valuable our unique business proposition is. And hopefully how it challenges and drives forward the sponsorship industry. It’s fantastic to be recognised by the community for all the hard work put in to developing and launching this agency!

The strict criteria set out for the Camden & Islington Business Awards indicated that only the strongest candidates within the area would be shortlisted for the award. Slingshot’s successful nominations illustrate its capabilities in creating successful partnerships that generate ROI through sponsorship.

The winners of the Camden & Islington Business Awards were announced at the awards ceremony in London on Thursday, 27^th October 2011.

ABOUT SLINGSHOT SPONSORSHIP

Slingshot Sponsorship is a strategic sponsorship agency based in Central London. The sponsorship agency works with brands such as Haymarket, London Irish Rugby Club, the BBC, Mencap and more to manage and develop sponsorship rights. The main focus is on creating long term partnerships with a common goal.

ABOUT THE CAMDEN & ISLINGTON BUSINESS AWARDS (CIBAs)

The purpose of the CIBAs is to recognise and celebrate those business owners in Camden and Islington who have successfully grown and maintained their business positioning throughout 2010 and 2011.

Winning this award is a superb opportunity to raise a company’s business profile and increase PR exposure across London. As the first of its kind in Camden and Islington, it is a great opportunity to meet fellow entrepreneurs, business owners and professionals.

CIBAs’ objectives:

To celebrate the work and efforts of businesses across Islington and Camden.
To encourage and champion enterprising behaviour across the 2 neighbouring boroughs
To boost the awareness of SME business success across London and the UK.
To increase the exposure of the local businesses within the Camden and Islington Area.

OLDER POSTS

NEWER POSTS