Category: Blog

McCain Foods to Partner with London Irish End of Season Party 21st April, 2011

McCain Foods & London Irish partner to encourage more families to get more active more often.

The last London Irish Big 5 game, End of Season Party, will kick off on April 23rd promising to be another wonderful day for families with activities and live entertainment alongside the last league game – London Irish vs. Northampton Saints.  To provide a unique experience for London Irish fans, The Big 5 event series combines activities and entertainment to support the exhilarating rugby games held throughout the year.  Many brands have been taking advantage of the opportunity, activating experiential campaigns and reaching an engaged audience of London Irish rugby fans and young families.

McCain Foods, principal partner of UK Athletics, has signed a partnership deal with the event and will be bringing its interactive McCain Track and Field road show experience to the London Irish End of Season Party. The McCain Track and Field roadshow will give youngsters the unique opportunity to try out the different basic elements of athletics in a fun environment. McCain ambassador and 400m hurdler Perri Shakes-Drayton, who won bronze at the European Championships last August and is a 2012 hopeful, will be on hand throughout the day to offer tips to youngsters taking part in the day.  

 The London Irish End of Season Party promises to be a great family day out and we are pleased to be bringing a taste of athletics to the event. As principal partner of UK Athletics we are committed to getting more families more active more often, and the McCain Track and Field Roadshow experience is an ideal introduction to the sport.

Bill Bartlett, Corporate Affairs Director at McCain

With an event expecting over 12,000 supporters in attendance, the last home Premiership rugby game is set to be a memorable one.  Additional brands involved with End of Season Party include Grosvenor Casinos, EA Sports, Equifax and Hilton Hotels.

The deal was secured through Slingshot Sponsorship.

End of Season Party tickets are selling fast, be sure to book your ticket today! 

Call the Ticket Hotline on 0844 249 1871 or click here to buy tickets.

Silverpop appoints Slingshot Sponsorship to manage events and sponsorship 14th April, 2011

Slingshot Sponsorship, the thriving new sponsorship agency, has recently signed new client Silverpop®, the only provider of a scalable, integrated email marketing and marketing automation platform.  Slingshot Sponsorship will assist Silverpop with their event management and sponsorship efforts.   

 As an industry thought leader, Silverpop has a strong presence at UK events and has chosen to work with Slingshot Sponsorship in order to optimise these opportunities.  Slingshot Sponsorship will be working with Silverpop across the top level digital marketing events they are sponsoring such as the Marketing Week Awards and Internet World London.

 We are delighted to be working with Slingshot Sponsorship in order to ensure that we are effectively connecting with marketers at key industry events in order to share with them our expertise in helping them take their marketing efforts to the next level.

Richard Evans, Director of Marketing – EMEA, Silverpop 

About Silverpop

Silverpop is the only marketing technology provider that offers a powerful marketing automation solution built atop a scalable email marketing platform. The company has more than a decade of experience empowering marketers to deliver highly relevant communications that efficiently drive revenue while also building brand loyalty. Companies rely on the Silverpop Engage platform to create and manage sophisticated multichannel marketing campaigns that nurture customer and prospect relationships from interest to conversion and beyond. Silverpop’s industry-leading thought capital, strategic counsel and customer service, combined with an extensive ecosystem of world class partners, allow its customers to quickly and cost-effectively automate even the most complex campaigns-improving marketing results and increasing ROI. With a presence in the United States, Europe and Australia, Silverpop is trusted by leading brands around the globe. Visit www.silverpop.com for more information.

Sponsorship Competitions: Hilton Hotels & London Irish Case Study 8th April, 2011

We recently put together a great sponsorship campaign utilising social media, print and events for official sponsor of premiership rugby Hilton Hotels within the London Irish Rugby Club’s Big 5 events.  By acting as a sponsor of the events, Hilton Hotels were able to access the London Irish fan base through their more engaged channels: the London Irish Facebook page, the St. Patrick’s Party, and local paper Reading Post.

The aim of the Hilton campaign was to promote the Hilton Hotel Spring Sale.  Working with London Irish, we created three different promotions through three different channels:

  • 2 tickets for the Fan Fair rugby game plus one nights accommodation at Hilton Reading promoted on Facebook
  • 2 tickets for the Fan Fair rugby game plus one nights accommodation at Hilton Reading promoted at the popular St. Patrick’s Party 
  • 4 tickets for the Fan Fair rugby game plus lunch with the players promoted through Reading Post

Facebook & Sponsorship

Social media can act as a sponsorship platform to reach an engaged online audience.  We promoted the competition as a free offer for fans of the London Irish Facebook page enabling users to share with their friends.  By positioning the offering within the social context of sharing Facebook provides, it added value to the user experience rather than becoming a disruptive advertisement.  The 5,000+ fans of the Facebook page loved it, achieving the main objective of promoting the Hilton sale, but also driving traffic and generating more Facebook friends for the London Irish Facebook page.

London Irish St. Patrick’s Party

The popular St. Patrick’s Partyattracts a sell out crowd each year.  With live entertainment and experiential campaigns run throughout the stadium, we wanted to ensure that any additional promotions could cut through and make an impact.  To win the Hilton prize, fans were put on stage for a ‘dance-off’ with the band while the Spring Sale information was displayed on screens.  By engaging the crowd through an audience vote, we ensured that the competition was impactful with the lively audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reader Offer with Reading Post

The local paper, Reading Post, providing a prime front page position to promote both the London Irish Big 5 games as well as the Hilton Hotels Spring Sale through a reader competition.  By working with this publication, we were able to compliment our earlier promotions of online and experiential by supplementing our reach to an older and local demographic.

 

 At Slingshot Sponsorship we aim to add value through partnerships ensuring that any sponsorship campaigns we create build brand engagement.  The combination of diverse channels and integrated sponsorship rights from both parties ensured a successful and engaging response from London Irish fans – creating value not only for the sponsor and the rights holder, but also for the fans.

 

“We Have a Great Cause, Why Aren’t We Securing Sponsors?” 4th April, 2011

Charity Sponsorship: Top 3 Reasons Why You Aren’t Selling

I am often asked to provide consultancy to charities on how they can make their sponsorship propositions more attractive to brands.  The charities are often well known and have great causes – with well-planned and well-attended events.  Understandably, it’s difficult to understand why more brands aren’t getting involved. 

After experience and investigation with a number of our charity clients, I’ve discovered that there are some very simple tips to help make charity sponsorship proposals more attractive to secure sales.

1.  Is your sponsorship package worth what you are asking? 

Just because you need a certain amount, that doesn’t mean that your package is worth that amount.  Far too often I see sponsorship proposals that are clearly not valued based on their tangible benefits.  Of course there is a certain amount of association with the charity that is ‘priceless’, but this is not the sole (or even usually the key) reason marketing directors will align their brand to your cause.  However, the weight of sponsorship investment is assumed to be the majority of the charity association with media assets such as PR and print ads ‘thrown in’.  This is definitely not the approach to take when putting together your sponsorship proposition.  Marketing directors are a savvy bunch and they want to see tangible benefits to prove effectiveness.  Which brings me to my second point…

2.  Marketing directors are busy

Marketing directors receive thousands of proposals, opportunities, and ideas that they can choose from to promote their brand.  Your sponsorship proposal is not only competing with other charity proposals, but also all the other available marketing platforms that the brand can align themself to.  It is a cluttered market and you have to be clear and transparent.  Although beautiful powerpoint presentations with great pictures tend to look great – they make for impractical sponsorship proposals. 

Of course the sponsorship proposal will depend on your programme as this format can be effective for selling emotive campaigns.  However, more often than not, it is rarely the most suitable option.

3.  Make more time

Charities tend to work with limited resources and find it difficult to put all the plans in place well in advance.  As such, they don’t start approaching sponsors until they have all of the event information confirmed – typically 3 months before the event takes place.  This is typically the time they think it is appropriate to approach sponsors.

Although the event could be absolutely ideal for a brand’s positioning and objectives, very few brands have spare funds within their marketing budget or the additional resource to make use of the opportunity.  Marketing budgets are typically planned at least 1 year in advance.  Regardless of how much they may want to get involved, they will not have the budget to do so. 

As such, charities need to either:

a) start working on the events plan earlier,

b) start approaching brands earlier, or

c) aim to only secure sponsorship for the annual events that have a clear direction and plan in place.

We have recently signed some great charity clients (such as Mencap) and will be blogging more charity sponsorship tips throughout the year.  Make sure to check back often or subscribe to our newsletter so you don’t miss anything!

Velti sponsors Mobile Category at the DMA Awards 2011 31st March, 2011

The Direct Marketing Association (UK) has signed Velti as the sponsor of the Mobile Category at the DMA Awards 2011.

Held in December at Old Billingsgate, the DMA Awards are the best known and most sought after awards in the marketing industry calendar.  Award winners and supporters enjoy extensive media attention and widespread industry recognition for their success. The DMA Awards are the only marketing awards to inspire and demand both clients and agencies to deliver on all aspects of their campaigns: Strategy, Creativity and Results.

Kelaine Olvera, Director of Marketing at Velti, commented: “The 2011 DMA Awards are a great showcase of talent within the UK marketing industry. Velti is proud to sponsor the Mobile Category as it demonstrates our continued commitment to developing truly innovative mobile marketing and advertising solutions.”

The deal with Velti, brokered by sponsorship agency Slingshot Sponsorship, also includes delivering marketing solutions to the DMA Awards campaign.  Jackie Fast, Managing Director of Slingshot Sponsorship, commented: “Velti’s sponsorship of the DMA Awards showcases their innovative mobile solutions to the niche audience of marketing agencies the DMA Awards engages. Integrating mobile within the awards marketing campaign is a first for the DMA Awards and is only made possible through Velti’s sponsorship.” 

About Velti

With ten years of experience in developing and implementing mobile marketing and advertising solutions and a huge platform for mobile researches, Velti is uniquely positioned to meet the mobile engagement needs of brands, advertising agencies, mobile operators, and media companies ensuring a constant evolution to remain leading edge. For more information visit: www.velti.com

About the DMA Awards

The DMA awards are the best know and most sought after awards in the marketing industry. The DMA Awards are celebrating the ideas that demonstrate your power to innovate and educate, create income and jobs, and enrich our culture and communities. For more information visit: www.dmaawards.org.uk

Sponsorship that Saves the Planet 27th March, 2011

It is common to associate sponsorship with commercial value, fundraising activity, experiential campaigns and brand engagement, but rarely in terms of the environment.  However, we managed to pull off a sponsorship campaign with our client London Irish that did just that!

Alongside the London Irish Rugby Club Big 5 games, Valentines’ Day and Festival of Rugby, the award-winning environmental charity Global Action Plan promoted its environmental youth initiative Climate Squad as a part of a brand experiential campaign through the support of Slingshot Sponsorship.

Climate Squad’s environmental initiatives at the London Irish Big 5 included Operations: Pump It Up and Bust a Flush.

Operation Pump It Up saw young volunteers pumping up fans car tyres in the Madejski Stadium’s parking lot.  It was an opportunity to engage drivers and save carbon by ensuring fan’s tyres were pumped to the correct levels.  The implementation was not only informative, but caught fans when they had time to spare to listen to how such a small activity can reduce their carbon footprint and save them money. 

The second initiative with Climate Squad, Bust a Flush, showed how simple water saving devices and tips to reduce water use could help protect the environment.  With human sized hippos approaching fans and providing free giveaways, this created significant engagement for both children and adults alike.  While children had their faces painted by giant hippos, adults learned how to create a more sustainable future for their families.

The Global Action Plan initiatives were a great way to raise awareness of water scarcity and to introduce simple ways to practically reduce a household’s impact on the environment.  Furthermore, it provided an informative and fun way to engage young people with London Irish before kick-off.

The astounding results through Global Action Plan’s activity during the London Irish Big 5 including:

  • 209 water saving devices over 2 days
  • 1.73 tonnes of carbon saved with Bust a Flush
  • 5.93 tonnes of carbon saved with the Pump it Up

This resulted in a total of 7.66 tonnes of carbon savings throughout the sponsorship programme.   

Jackie Fast, Managing Director of Slingshot Sponsorship commented: “Climate Squad’s Pump It Up campaign was extremely engaging with the London Irish rugby fans.  We had cars queuing up to have their tyres pumped by the young volunteers and get eco-driving tips.” 

Fast continued, “Bust a Flush was also a resounding success. The hippos were a really fun and effective way of getting a message across – and worked exceptionally well with our London Irish Rugby Club’s Big 5 event.  It was great to see so many young volunteers deeply engaging with the fans, giving out devices and tips on how to make simple changes in your home that make a big difference” 

London Irish fan, George Crone further commented, “Bust a Flush was a great way to raise awareness of water scarcity and to introduce simple ways to reduce individual household’s impacts!” 

We pride ourselves in ensuring that all of our sponsorship programmes at Slingshot create value for everyone involved – the sponsor, the audience and the property.  However, in this unique case we were also able to create value for the environment, making it one of the few sponsorship programmes that actually can save the planet!

For further information on Global Action Plan’s initiatives, please contact Louise Groom: 0207 420 4429; [email protected]

London Irish Rugby Experiential Campaigns with St. Patrick’s Party 22nd March, 2011

The highly anticipated London Irish St. Patrick’s Party, event 4 of the Big 5, will kick-off Saturday 26th March at the Madejski Stadium, Reading with a crowd of over 20,000 expected!

The legendary St. Patrick’s Party will include live entertainment and activities for London Irish supporters alongside the London Irish vs Exeter Chiefs game, which kicks off at 3pm.  Activities will include brand experiential campaigns, set up through the support of Slingshot Sponsorship, London Irish Rugby Club’s experiential/event sponsorship agency.  Brands supporting the event include EA Sports, Aviva, Highland Springs, Equifax, Hilton Hotels, Grosvenor Casinos and Pump Technology.

Jackie Fast, Managing Director of Slingshot Sponsorship commented, “By working with brands and the London Irish Rugby Club, we were able to support a series of events that fans can truly get engaged with.  Additional activities alongside the games provide families with a full day of entertainment, which is fun for the entire family.  This level of engagement is the perfect platform for brands to get involved with, ensuring that their positioning is reaching the audience at a time when it is sought.”

Brands involved had the opportunity to participate in sponsorship by providing an experience for London Irish supporters – an unrivalled opportunity to support London Irish Rugby Club as well as engage with supporters through experiential campaigns they were already running.  This provided a great sponsorship opportunity for everyone involved – the brands, London Irish Rugby Club, and most of all the supporters attending.

St. Patrick’s Party tickets are selling fast and with only a handful of seats left be sure to book your ticket today!

Call the Ticket Hotline on 0844 249 1871 or click here to buy tickets.

The Bribery Act's Implications on Sponsorship 17th March, 2011

If you weren’t yet aware, there is a battle in the UK on the draft Bribery Act, currently under review by the coalition government.  Should this act go through, it would have implications on the sponsorship industry.

Some key implications under the Bribery Act:

  • Will introduce a corporate offence of failure to prevent bribery by persons working on behalf of a business. A business can avoid conviction if it can show that it has adequate procedures in place to prevent bribery.
  • Make it a criminal offence to give, promise or offer a bribe and to request, agree to receive or accept a bribe either at home or abroad. The measures covers bribery of a foreign public official.
  • Increase the maximum penalty for bribery from 7 – 10 years imprisonment, with an unlimited fine.

Think!Sponsorship has teamed up with leading sponsorship lawyers Farrer & Co to poll the sponsorship industry regarding the Act and the use of hospitality.

Check out the session on hospitality and the Bribery Act at the upcoming conference on the 12th April 2011.  The session and the results of the poll should give both sponsors and rights holders an accurate idea of how to ensure they are compliant with the proposed Act and to discuss how corporate hospitality might stray into bribery.

Please make sure to participate by taking the survey here.

Results of which will be made available at the end of March 2011.

Slingshot Sponsorship signs leading charity Mencap 13th March, 2011

Mencap appoints Slingshot Sponsorship to act as their exclusive sponsorship agency across their events.

Mencap, the leading UK based charity helping people with learning disabilities, has appointed Slingshot Sponsorship to develop and implement a new sponsorship strategy across their high-profile events.  Slingshot Sponsorship has been briefed to increase awareness as well as increase the commercial value for the charity through creation of sponsorship opportunties.  

Slingshot Sponsorship will be responsible for providing Mencap with consulting and implementation for upcoming events such as April Fools – a stand-up comedy at HMV Hammersmith Apollo and the extremely popular Little Noise music festival.

“We are delighted to be working with the Slingshot Sponsorship agency as our exclusive agency”, states Leo Visconti, Head of Corporate Development at Mencap “As a leading UK charity for learning disability, we have a very specific brief and the tailored solutions Slingshot Sponsorship offers works perfectly with our business.  We are looking forward to working with Slingshot Sponsorship and being introduced to brands for each of our events”.

Jackie Fast, managing director, Slingshot Sponsorship commented: “For charities in the current economic client, a strategic long-term sponsorship strategy is critical.  Mencap is a fantastic charity with amazing events which has huge potential to build brand relationships through tangible sponsorship rights.  We are looking forward to applying our expertise in optimising brand media assets and working with such a great cause.”

 

About Mencap

Mencap supports the 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK and their families and carers. Mencap fights to change laws and improve services and access to education, employment and leisure facilities, supporting thousands of people with a learning disability to live their lives the way they want.

We are also one of the largest service providers of services, information and advice for people with a learning disability across England, Northern Ireland and Wales. See www.mencap.org.uk for more information.

About learning disability

A learning disability is caused by the way the brain develops before, during or shortly after birth. It is always lifelong and affects someone’s intellectual and social development. It used to be called mental handicap but this term is outdated and offensive. Learning disability is NOT a mental illness.

The term learning difficulty is often incorrectly used interchangeably with learning disability.

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