How to sponsor like a Rockstar 15th April, 2016

How buying rights is half the battle

There are many persuasive reasons why sponsorship is worth the money. Notably, sponsorship gives a brand a dominant platform for leverage however, if you want to invest – you have to make your investment work. Buying sponsorship rights is only the half of it. When you buy any sponsorship package you are buying an opportunity – not results. It is leverage that provides the results. A great case study in how to leverage rights and effective sponsorship can be seen with Rockstar Energy’s recent sponsorship of Snowboxx 2016.

The weeklong winter event is set in the heart of the Alps in one of France’s premier skiing resorts, Avoriaz. The event plays host to some 4,000 adrenalin junkies who turn up for great powder and equally great music artists. With top performing DJs and live artists such as Stormzy, Sigma, Paul Woolford, Mella Dee and Grandmaster Flash – everything from the heaviest grime, hip hop and house could be heard at over 1800ft.

When you think of rockstars, your mind is instantly drawn to The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Gun’s n Roses! The definition of partying like a ‘rockstar’, as stated by the Urban Dictionary – is where ‘someone can stay up and party hard all night long’ – so when you see Rockstar Energy sponsoring a winter music festival offering consumers the opportunity to party like a ‘rockstar’ you wonder why and how they can do so?

Rockstar Energy, the third biggest energy drink brand in the world and the last non-corporate owned energy drink on the market – chose to sponsor Snowboxx 2016 in order to give its consumers a taste of what it’s like to party like a Rockstar. Here is how they attempted it:

Customer Experience

The most important aspect of the sponsorship opportunity for Rockstar Energy was customer experience, the energy drink took VIP to a new level by offering 26 competition winners the ultimate experience for any music lover, the opportunity to party like a rockstar! The lucky winners were treated with a week’s holiday in Avoriaz, including flights, festival ticket, ski passes and the best VIP access to stages and artists. Now that’s a rockstar experience!

POS

In order to drive excitement and interest, Rockstar created bold and exciting structured POS to be used through key retail partners. This was effectively achieved with the use of a competition to win VIP festival tickets to support the customer experience and was present in the UK, Finland and the US providing a reach much greater than the festival itself.

Branding

Throughout the festival site, Rockstar Energy was seen as ‘the’ energy drink. Branding on and around the mainstage framed every artist’s epic performance, whilst POS encouraged purchase throughout the resort. Rockstar became a significant part of the visual elements of the festival.

Customer touch points

Ensuring maximum exposure to the captive audience, Rockstar was stocked exclusively throughout all bars onsite. In addition, Rockstar made use of the key times of pre and post piste to activate a sampling campaign in order to revitalise the festival attendees. This meant the only way to regain your energy to party like a rockstar, was to drink a can of Rockstar Energy. On top of this they hosted their own DJ (Bunch of Deckheads) to play at an intimate gig in the Avoriaz stash park (freestyle area) based on the side of one the breath-taking mountains.

Content

Keen to amplify the onsite activity to the 90,000 social media followers outside the resort, Rockstar hosted exclusive supporting content across all digital platforms. This included images and videos of sweeping mountain landscapes and high adrenaline action shots from some very talented freestyle skiers – on top of all this, Rockstar even interacted with other sponsors – Coors Light and Jungfrau, ensuring no possible social news feed was left untouched.

Conclusion

Having set out with a clear sponsorship plan, with clear ideas of success – Rockstar Energy were able to leverage their key assets on a number of platforms to ensure an effective delivery to their captive audience.

The VIPs may well have lived like rockstars, but Rockstar Energy sure do sponsorship like one!

From rags to (relative) riches, what does this mean for Africa’s marketing mix? 30th March, 2016

Africa’s economic evolution over the next few years will be exponential – now home to more than 1.1 billion people, continued commodity-fueled growth combined with new energy discoveries and Africa’s ever growing role as a food producer for an expanding global population will certify increases in economic output for years. These revenues will increase per capita incomes and consumption demand. How can brands unlock this market and is sponsorship the answer? Historically lucrative sponsorship deals in Africa have been confined to sports such as football and rugby with deals ranging from $100, 000 to $5, 000, 000.

What will newly rich Africans spend their money on?

In the lowest-income group, consumption decisions are based on fulfilling basic needs; people in this category typically live from hand to mouth with near to nothing for savings. As people begin to shift away from an existence lifestyle, output per person rises moving them into the middle income group resulting in their brand consciousness emerging – resulting in more emphasis placed on quality.

Food: As people get richer, they first increase their caloric intake before they begin to diversify the kinds of foods they may eat and then, later begin to attach significance to certain brands and convenience

Beverages: Alcohol consumption follows a similar suit to food. Sales of beer (the cheapest brand) expand first – then consumers start to favour branded beer, then spirits and wines begin to gain market share and imported beers gain popularity.

Household items and vehicles: In Africa television penetration is below 20% in poor countries like Malawi and Mozambique, and rates are around 90% in the richer countries like Tunisia and Mauritius. The overall household television penetration rate has gone 42.4% in 2009 to around 50.8% in 2016. Vehicle ownership begins to increase also, incomes of US $2,500 to US $12,000 show there is double-digit growth in vehicle purchases as the product becomes more accessible.

Where to begin in marketing to Africa

Africa is huge continent – finding the right customers in the market can be a laborious process with as many as 53 countries. The future of marketing in to Africa could be compared to what western brands have done in India and China as a result of increasing incomes when those countries saw per capita gross domestic product (GDP) rise quickly in the 1990s and 2000s.

Chinese Marketing in the 1900’s and 2000’s

Due to its fast economic expansion and Open Door policy, China has become a lucrative market for Western companies that are seeing a decreasing market demand in their home countries. China’s rapidly expanding middle class is expected to triple their spending over the coming years, reaching $6 trillion by 2020. Although China offers many opportunities for Western companies, the Chinese market presents obstacles to Western marketing managers too.

Many of these barriers originate from the Chinese culture, which can be difficult for Western marketing managers to understand. The culture influences consumer buying and adoption behaviours, and Western marketing managers are challenged to gain insight into the Chinese consumer. By following these 3 examples brands may not trip up in a foreign market.

1. Make your brand more socially and culturally acceptable:
   • Back when Coca Cola entered the Chinese market it was struggling to attract the same consumption it sees in its home markets, one idea fashioned by the company was to change the brand name. Coca Cola’s Chinese name, 可口可乐 Ke Kou Ke Le, loosely translates to “happiness in the mouth” and also sounds like Coca Cola.

2. Know your market:
   • The success of China’s Taobao versus eBay determines the importance of knowing your target market. Both have the same basic service in which someone can sell products to another, yet it was the platform and methods which Taobao used that captured the Chinese market. EBay required customers to pay online using a credit card, something that is standard in the west. Taobao, knowing that many Chinese do not like to use credit cards online either because of they don’t own one or because of security concerns, allows customers to pay with cash on delivery.

3. Advertise through effective experience:
   • Advertisements have been ineffective because they depict people and/or situations that are unfamiliar to the Chinese audience, such as a blonde family of four vacationing on a sunny California beach.

For western brands to take advantage of a growing economy they should look to emulate the marketing techniques of those in China, then they will emerge victorious within a new and expansive market.

Coors Light Announced As Official Beer Supplier For Snowboxx Festival 2016 29th February, 2016

Coors Light have been announced as the ‘Official Beer Supplier’ for Snowboxx Festival 2016 with the agreement brokered by Slingshot Sponsorship.

In a new development for 2016, Snowboxx is creating something never before seen at winter festivals, its own ‘Snowboxx Village’. Based in Avoriaz, the heart of the Port du Soleil ski region, Snowboxx Festival will host a plethora of events from main stage performances, off-the-wall festival features & local food and drink stalls.

Coors Light partnership with Snowboxx further supports the brand message of #DammeCold and the positioning as the ultimate in ice cold refreshment.

The partnership will see Coors Light as the exclusive beer supplier to the festival with retailing across multiple bars onsite in addition to inclusion in all promotional activity across Snowboxx’s digital and social channels and a bespoke Igloo party hosted onsite during the week-long snow festival extravaganza.

Rachel Twemlow, Brand Manager for Coors Light commented: “Coors and Snowboxx have a natural affinity through the shared passions of music and the cold nature. Snowboxx 2016 is set to be the biggest and best yet and this will provide a super platform to launch our relationship as well as the opportunity to capture great content and engage with our core demographic.”

This year, Coors Light will be in the acoustic company of headline acts Sigma, one of the biggest acts of 2015 and DJing royalty Grandmaster Flash for what will be a week of unforgettable music, skiing and partying.

Aden Levin, Managing Director, Snowboxx remarked: “Coors’s partnership with Snowboxx is testament to the shared vision of both brands. With the event growing year on year we’re excited to be able to start this relationship and look forward to what will be the biggest ski festival of the year.”

Register your interest for Snowboxx 2016 now at http://snowboxx.com/