Category: Blog

When Sponsorship Goes Green… 10th September, 2012

With the increasing prominence of environmental issues, event organisers can no longer neglect such concerns when planning for their respective event. This has led to ever more sophisticated green strategies, as well as a number of award shows, conferences and competitions dedicated solely to sustainability; the Tree-Athlon, the What Car? Green Awards and the International Green Awards to name a few.

In his latest blog post “Olympic Sponsorship: Remember the Positives”, Nick Anderson mentioned such “sponsorships [were] becoming dangerously close to having an adverse effect on certain brands”: McDonald’s and Coca Cola were both heavily criticised in the early stages of their Olympic sponsorship. Nevertheless their Recycling program is playing a big part in achieving LOCOG’s goal to hold the most sustainable Games ever. At the beginning of the Games, Coca Cola placed 4,000 branded recycling bins across the venues and the Olympic Park, committing to recycle every soft drink bottle that was put in the bins into a new one within six weeks. Furthermore all Coca‑Cola products currently sold at the Olympic and Paralympic Games are in 100 per cent recyclable PET packaging containing 25 per cent recycled plastic and 22.5 per cent plant-based plastic. Those are just two examples of many actions that Coca Cola took ahead of the Games to implement their sustainable strategy.

Another example of this development is the recyclable McDonald’s restaurant that was built on the Olympic site. With this initiative, McDonald’s aim at reusing 75% of the restaurant and recycling almost everything else by re-allocating all the furniture and equipment to McDonald’s UK restaurant estate after the Games.

But it is not just sports events that are concerned by this green movement. Music festivals and their sponsors are increasingly trying to integrate sustainability within their sponsorship strategies. According to a Havas Sports & Entertainment Research, 80 per cent of European festival goers strongly feel that sponsors need a green strategy. The Glastonbury Festival in the UK seems to have it right, through partnerships with WaterAid, Oxfam and Greenpeace as proofs of its environmental commitment. The 2012 Reading Festival, which took place two weeks ago, followed this trend as well by launching a Recycling Champion competition two months before the event. The Student Recycling Champion worked with Every Can Counts to help promote the recycling of drinks cans and he got a chance to get backstage access to this major music event.

A benchmark example in the US comes from the Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago that dedicated a whole area within its site, called the Green Street, to showcase various environmental initiatives from different organisations and to engage festival goers. The Lollapalooza Festival included several charities and environmental groups in its sponsorship portfolio and gave them the chance to promote their environmental projects.

As the Havas Sports & Entertainment Research study proved, it is important to understand that “green sponsorship” is vital to every right owner and sponsor, no matter which age group they target. A decade ago sponsors with a green strategy were unique. Nowadays it has become a fundamental requirement of any sponsorship strategy. Thus whether you are a right owner or a sponsor, don’t miss out on the sustainability trend and seize the opportunity to make something unique out of it.

Are UK Music Festivals Created with Cookie Cutters? Outlook Festival Proves Not 4th September, 2012

The Slingshot Sponsorship team just got back from an amazing week in Croatia at Outlook Festival – Winner of the UK’s Best Overseas Festival 2011. It was an amazing event and we arrived home – albeit a bit dusty, sun burnt and tired – with so much enthusiasm for next year’s festival and sponsorship opportunities around it I wrote this blog en route.

But before I begin, I will first explain that the term ‘cookie cutter’ means the same thing as carbon copy or effectively just the ‘same’. Apparently (which I’ve just found out from my British colleagues) you do not use this term in the UK. It makes a better picture than carbon copy, so we’ll use ‘cookie cutter’ for the time being.

Now that is cleared up…

During our trip we spoke to a number of brands who came out to join us and the same conversation kept coming up – that UK music festivals so often mirror each other and rarely offer a truly unique experience – they are cookie cutters of themselves. Same stage, similar line ups, same parks, and even the same brand sponsors! Now, of course, this doesn’t include every festival, but on the whole the feedback we’ve had is that brands have started to fall out of love (which equates to a loss of ROI) from something that has been a stronghold in our sponsorship industry.

Because of this, brands who are interested and align themselves to music have started to consider new platforms in music and other music events that feature a UK audience, but position themselves in a different environment whether that is music genres or geological location. Outlook Festival combines both.

Engagement with a more unique event can be tailor-made for sponsors and the experience stands these brands out from their competitors in an often uncluttered market as they are more forward thinking and attract less bandwagon followers. This allows sponsors to showcase and create a more genuine, forward-thinking, and most of all memorable brand experience.

My music festival sponsorship tip – If you are a brand sponsor, consider looking outside of the usual. If you are a music festival in need of sponsorship, start considering how important differentiation of your festival is to ensure you are able to effectively drive brand relationships with your audience.

And just to share, here are some of our Outlook Festival Instagram moments from the team:

EDF Energy Signs as Headline Sponsor of the What Car? Green Awards 2012 29th August, 2012

The What Car? Green Awards 2012 will take place on September 19 at the Imagination Gallery, London, and will be sponsored by EDF Energy.

The What Car? Green Awards include the best green cars in each category, as well as an overall winner. The What Car? judging team evaluate more than just CO2, because cars emit a whole concoction of polluting gases, including nitrous oxides and particulates. The judges will also evaluate whole-life costs, driveability and reliability.

Awards will be given for the best supermini, small family car, family car, executive car, MPV, alternative-fuel car, SUV, fun car and an overall winner.

“Electric vehicles demonstrate important developments that have been made in low-carbon motoring,” said Angus Wilby, Head of Energy Services at EDF Energy. “As the largest producer of low-carbon electricity in Britain and provider of electric vehicle recharging solutions for homes and businesses, EDF Energy’s sponsorship of the What Car? Green Awards is the perfect opportunity for us to demonstrate our commitment.”

As Britain’s largest producer of low-carbon electricity and with considerable electrical and engineering experience within its workforce, EDF Energy is playing a leading role in facilitating the development of PIV recharging technology and infrastructure. This is being achieved by working and consulting widely with motor manufacturers, chargepoint manufacturers, and central and local government offices to help bring about effective recharging solutions.

What Car? publishing director Andrew Golby said: “The What Car? Green Awards advise an increasing number of motorists looking for greener motoring. The industry is delivering ever-greener and cleaner cars, and our awards will help narrow down the choice for consumers in what can be a complex arena.”

What Car? named the Vauxhall Ampera its overall winner in 2011, as well as the best alternative-fuel car.

What Car? Announces Sponsorship Deal with Mondial Assistance 21st August, 2012

What Car? has announced that Mondial Assistance UK will continue its sponsorship of the executive car category in the 2013 What Car? Car of The Year Awards.

The What Car? Car of the Year Awards are the most coveted accolades in the automotive industry. The Awards are presented to cars that set the highest standards in their sector after being put through the toughest, most rigorous tests by the most experienced team in the business.

Andrew Golby, What Car? publishing director, said: “We are pleased to be working with Mondial Assistance. It will help deliver our target to reach as many motorists as possible with the What Car? Car of the Year Awards news.”

The benefits of the sponsorship deal includes the alignment with the most authoritative and trusted brand in motoring, brand positioning and awareness, extensive PR opportunities, networking and brand association with the awards via a multi-channel promotional campaign.

Lee Taylor, Automotive Sales Director for Mondial Assistance in the UK said: “The sponsorship of the What Car? Awards is an important platform for us to build awareness of our change of name to become Allianz Global Assistance later this year. The automotive market remains an important part of our business and we will continue in our delivery and development of support services to vehicle manufacturers and their customers. Continuing our support of What Car? and its Car of The Year Awards demonstrates our commitment to the UK motor industry and enables us to communicate with the growing What Car? audience”.

Andrew Golby continued: “Winning a What Car? Award is good for a car maker’s business. The authority of the What Car? brand sells cars, plain and simple. It adds power to advertising and marketing campaigns and is a huge draw for customers.”

The What Car? Car of the Year Awards event is attended by more than 1000 leading industry figureheads alongside the most influential motoring correspondents from the wider media.

The event is to be held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on January 9, 2013 with top-class entertainment yet to be announced. Previous headline acts have included Jonathan Ross, Jimmy Carr, Al Murray and Jo Brand. For more information and table bookings visit www.whatcarawards.com

Digital Unite Appoint Slingshot Sponsorship as Exclusive Sponsorship Agency 20th August, 2012

Following the use of Slingshot’s insightful one day Sponsorship Boot Camp, Digital Unite and Spring Online, the UK’s leading digital inclusion platform, have appointed Slingshot Sponsorship as their exclusive sponsorship agency.

Slingshot Sponsorship will be working with Digital Unite in order extend and exploit the commercial opportunities presented by the Spring Online campaign which features over 2,500 events nationwide between April 22^nd – 26^th 2013 as well as additional commercial opportunities within Digital Unite as a whole.

With over 8 million people still digitally excluded in the UK, many of which being over 55, Spring Online provides a free, safe, and enjoyable environment for those people who consider themselves digitally excluded to receive free IT tutorials – these including lessons in how to use such key communication tools as Skype and Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family as well as how to use the internet for a range of everyday tasks that many of us take for granted including shopping, banking and watching television.

Slingshot Sponsorship will be extending the commercial assets offered by the campaign, adding value to brand partnerships with key benefits including nationwide exposure, unique CSR opportunities and the chance to establish an early relationship with a growing age demographic.

Jackie Fast, Managing Director of Slingshot Sponsorship, commented:

Following the success of our recent work with Digital Unite at our introductory Slingshot Sponsorship Boot Camp, we are thrilled to be working on next year’s Spring Online campaign and to have the opportunity to contribute towards narrowing the digital divide.

Spring Online is a highly unique campaign, proving testament to the ever increasing number of ways in which sponsorship can be utilised and leveraged in order to improve businesses as a whole. Given the value and scope for involvement offered by the platform, we are excited to explore the prospect of some truly ground-breaking partnerships in 2013.

Emma Solomon OBE, Managing Director of Digital Unite, commented:

We are delighted to be working with Slingshot Sponsorship on our award-winning Spring Online campaign.

Over the last eleven years, Spring Online has been instrumental in helping tens of thousands of people understand and engage with computers and the internet. Local events held right across the UK reach people from a wide cross-section of society, from the over 55s who have never been online to existing users of all ages who want to brush up on their existing skills and learn more, from rural to inner-city areas. Our fantastic Spring Online event holders provide that essential support and help show learners how digital technology can be relevant for them.

“We continue to develop Spring Online to make it bigger and better each year. Our vision is that ever increasing numbers of local events support more and more communities across the UK to make the most of the digital world – and to really enjoy it too. We are thrilled to be working with Slingshot and to be developing the creativity, dynamism and reach of Spring Online with them.

Calling all UK consultants & agencies – Slingshot Sponsorship needs you! 14th August, 2012

We have had the pleasure of working with some amazing clients recently through our One-Day Sponsorship Boot Camp. Many of whom are on the verge of producing great platforms and strategies that will create sustainable sponsorship programmes.

However, what many of them currently lack is the resource and sales skills to effectively sell their sponsorship packages to the UK market.

Slingshot have collated a sponsorship consultant and agency roster, which outlines all the good and great agencies and consultants who are able to work with projects on a commission-only or small-fee + commission package. However, with the recent influx of freelancers and agencies into sponsorship following the London Olympics our roster is in desperate need of an update.

We have a number of music festival and charity clients who are currently on the lookout so if you think you might have something to offer, we’d really love to hear from you so we can add you to our roster if you aren’t there already!

For more information and to be considered for our consultants roster, please contact Mark Mylam: [email protected] | +44 (0) 207 226 5052.

Kari Traa Brand Activation – Red Bull Cliff Diving, Norway 2012 9th August, 2012

Our Norwegian partners BITE AGENCY made the case for the very well known female sports brand, Kari Traa of Norway, to work with the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Championship.

As cliff diving is traditionally a male dominated sport, it was necessary to create a viable link for Kari Traa to be a part of the event as a main sponsor.

THE link:
Women will, as of next year, be an official part of the Red Bull Cliff Diving Championships. So far so good.

Then we went looking for one of the few female cliff divers worldwide. We found Anna Bader who was willing to be a part of the sponsorship – however, as females jump from 20m (rather than the 27m the men dive from), we managed to create a teaser dive a few days ahead of the event, together with Red Bull’s Orlando Duque, 7 times world champion cliff diver.

As a result, a very organic story was created, with Anna opening the doors to females as of next year, Kari Traa (the double Olympic Gold Medalist Skier) endorsing her in a male dominated sport and the clothing brand Kari Traa as a product item.

During Show
During the event we showed an event clip about Anna Bader, her dive and the story behind it on the 70m2 screen to the audience, Kari Traa was sampling from a boat on shore and all in all the brand was extremely visible during the day to the local and international press and the audience present.

Follow Up
Anna Bader will be a part of the Kari Traa Extreme Team, Kari Traa extends cooperations with Red Bull and Kari Traa’s German efforts might very well be based around Anna in 2013.

The video clip of the event and an own-production video will be launched through KariTraa.com and national media in the course of August to match follow ups of Cliff Diving and international exploitations regarding the clothing brand.

Check out the footage from the event.

For more information on this innovative partnership – feel free to contact:

BITE here or Slingshot here

What Car? Awards Safe and Secure with TRACKER 8th August, 2012

TRACKER, the leading provider of vehicle tracking and telematics systems, is to be an associate sponsor of the annual What Car? Car of the Year Awards, which takes place on January 9, 2013. TRACKER will also sponsor the luxury car category.

What Car? publishing director Andrew Golby said: “It’s great news that TRACKER is to be involved with the What Car? Awards again next year. The Awards grow in importance year on year and the influence of any company being involved is hugely beneficial and far-reaching.”

The What Car? Car of the Year Awards are the most coveted accolades in the automotive industry. They are presented to cars that set the highest standards in their sector after being put through the toughest, most rigorous tests by the most experienced team in the business.

TRACKER managing director Stephen Doran said: “TRACKER is proud once again to be involved with the What Car? Car of the Year Awards. What Car? has long since promoted the power of working together to beat car criminals and our sponsorship of the Awards enables us to reinforce our message to its growing readership of the importance of vehicle security.”

“Our recently launched Mesh Network is the latest innovation that places TRACKER at the forefront of stolen vehicle recovery solutions. It brings together the motoring community to support the police in identifying stolen vehicles and returning them to their rightful owners.”

TRACKER has been leading the way in the field of vehicle tracking and telematics since 1993, with more than a million market-leading security and award-winning fleet management systems fitted to vehicles including cars, motorcycles, HGVs, LCVs and plant and construction equipment.

The What Car? Car of the Year Awards event is attended by more than 1000 leading industry figureheads alongside the most influential motoring correspondents from the wider media.

The event is to be held at the Grosvenor House in London on January 9, 2013. For more information and table bookings visit www.whatcarawards.com.

EPL, Bendtner & Nalbandian: How Branding IS Still Relevant, No Matter What The Cost 2nd August, 2012

I wrote a blog a few months ago called ‘Sponsorship – More Than Just Branding’. Whilst it’s palpable that sponsorship has evolved into far more than straightforward logo placement, it’s important not to forget that branding – be it via naming rights, advertising hoardings or shirt sponsorships – is still relevant within our industry and most importantly, still deemed hugely valuable in the eyes of sponsors.

On Monday, General Motors signed a colossal £175 million deal with Manchester United that will see the Chevrolet logo replace Aon on the front of the club’s shirt for the next seven years. Chevrolet will be provided with numerous additional benefits from their shirt sponsorship (via advertising, hospitality etc.) but primarily their logo position on United’s shirts will promote brand perception of ‘success, speed and superiority’. Further it will automatically garner favour with United’s 659 million followers worldwide, as General Motor’s VP for N. America states: ‘this is about connecting the brand with Manchester United and its passionate supporters around the world.’

And it’s not just the Premier League’s most famous teams that are seeing such significant returns on shirt sponsorships, with the likes of Sunderland attracting substantial investment from their lucrative partnership with Invest in Africa. Recent figures reveal a 25% increase in English Premier League shirt sponsorship to £147 million, dampening fears that the EPL as a brand would suffer as the British economy entered its second dip in four years.

Now, while these shirt sponsorships represent the more expensive side of branding within sponsorship, a couple of incidents a month or so ago, illustrate that (clever/accidental) logo placement can still generate positive brand perception and awareness on a budget.

Firstly, David Nalb(r)andian took out a knee-height Nike hoarding, along with an umpires shin, after failing to return a base-line shot from Marin Cilic. This was followed shortly by the boxer-gate affair surrounding Nicklas Bendtner’s Paddy Power lined briefs, which he revealed after scoring his second goal in Denmark’s 3-2 defeat to Portugal.

Both men were disciplined accordingly – Nalbandian receiving disqualification from Queens and Bendtner receiving a hefty fine – and received their fair share of press attention. Granted the Nike hoarding board was not the focal point of such attention over Nalbandian’s kick-out, but it was in Bendtner’s case, and Paddy Power got a huge amount of publicity and engagement out of it.

Their Facebook page was awash with comments from users acclaiming their ‘genius’ marketing strategy and the story was covered byevery major broadsheet. While I don’t conform to the consensus that a distinctly average footballer wearing a green pair of briefsconstitutes exceptional intellectual aptitude, it was rather clever.

For just £80,000 (the price of Bendtner’s fine, which Paddy Power agreed to pay) the Irish bookmakers got nationwide exposure and saw thousands of additional online users flock to see what other mischief Paddy Power have been up to.

Obviously Bendtner’s boxers can’t be compared with Chevrolet’s United sponsorship in terms of worldwide reach, but you’d be hard pushed to say that it’s not better value!

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