Category: Blog


Scally Rally Adventure: looking back 3rd October, 2010

I recently took part in one of our client’s exciting marketing campaigns – the Scally Rally.  An adventure all in itself with teams participating in a four day race across Europe raising money for charity. Our team consisted of three cars with teammates from the Pure360 email marketing team in addition to their friends – the DMA, Content & Motion, and myself.  Throughout the Scally Rally, Pure360 was stopping along the way fighting spam and providing fantastic email tips, which you can check out on Pure360TV.

Starting Out

On September 23rd we set off in our car that, by Scally Rally rules, had to be purchased for under £100 – our first stop was Calais, France.  Needless to say, it was not surprising that our car broke down as we were getting on the ferry to Calais and we had to push it on.

Fortunately, our car named Bel, started miraculously and we were able to get to the starting point.

Our Journey

Our journey took us from Calais to Basel, Basel to Lake Como, Lake Como to Cortina, and finished in Rimini.  Along the way, we were able to take part in the Scally Rally challenge, although most of the time was spent trying to overcome our own ‘challenge’ of learning how to read a map and inputting foreign postcodes into the sat nav (which most other Scally Rally teams considered cheating, although they still always seemed to make it to the finish point of the day before we did).  Pure360 also managed to shoot a significant number of email tips, my favourite one can be found here.

We finally made it to the finish point after an exhausting and yet very exhilarating four days of driving.  I am exceptionally grateful I did not hit another car and also that I took part in an epic over 40s disco night.  We also saw some amazing sights.

Including the not so amazing sights of hairpin turns on the sat nav and flat tires, which conveniently turned out to be the same day our car Bel broke down.  And the day we got lost.  And the same day I was in a car for a total of 14 hours.  On the positive, we did have a Michael Jackson tribute sing along!Special thanks goes out to the entire Pure360 Scally Rally Team for inviting us along on this adventure as well as their fantastic company during the entire trip!

For more on our Scally Rally, be sure to check out the Pure360 Blog, Tristan Garrick’s blog posts on the DMA’s Email Marketing Blog, and the hilarious blog post by Content and Motion.

For all those that donated and supported Slingshot Sponsorship on this journey, thank you.  And for all those who have not yet donated, be sure to help support us by donating here.

Ciao!


Tower Bridge Bascules Sponsorship Debate 1st October, 2010

I couldn’t help but want to comment and get involved with the great debate surrounding the proposed sponsorship advertising board on the bascules of Tower Bridge.  A repainting scheme has been launched in the preparation of the 2012 Olympic Games and this advertising stunt has been proposed to reduce the cost of the restructuring.

Of course many people feel strongly about the historical landmark, but is this building sacred?

Personally I don’t believe so.  The banners requested are going to cover the scaffolding. Which is worse – having a huge piece of dirty white cloth visible over the Thames or a marketing campaign promoting the 2012 Olympic sponsors covering the scaffolding?

Corporations aim to generate as much exposure as possible, sponsoring every single activity of our daily lives – from our favourite sport to our favourite concert and now even our favourite television shows.  Sponsorships such as these help organisations create goodwill amongst their consumers and also build a strong brand relationship through affinity.  Brand engagement can be so strong that logos are no longer vital in associating feelings with the brand.  Slogans such as “every little helps” are enough to remind consumers why they love them.

I’m sure it won’t be hard to find a prospective sponsor that is willing to sponsor the bascules of Tower Bridge – the attention alone given by the media will repay the investment!  So what is the harm in providing this sponsorship opportunity to raise sponsorship funds for the City of London Corporation during the restoration of London’s historical landmarks.


Day Four of Scally Rally 27th September, 2010

After four days of solid driving I can say I’ve experienced more during this trip then I’ve ever experienced in four days.

I have mounted a horse, road a cable car, drove for 14hours straight, jumped on a water plane, watched someone change a flat tire, drove through four mountain passes, used the loo in a cow/cheese factory, broken into boat sheds, got yelled at by a French woman, escorted out of an Italian toy shop, almost got ran over by a tram, and (my personal favourite) danced at an over 40s disco.

Along the way, our team Pure360 have been posting email tips along our route and at all our stops.  Make sure to check all the Pure360 email marketing tips on our journey through Europe on YouTube.

I’ll be taking my experiences back to the Slingshot Sponsorship office in a couple days. Looking forward to creating some interesting sponsorship proposals!

Be sure to follow our last day of the Scally Rally with team Pure360 on Twitter #scallyrally.


How SMEs can utilise Sponsorship to Grow 24th September, 2010

Sponsorship gives the impression that only international brands and high salary footballers can benefit from these strategies, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Sponsorship by its nature is a partnership opportunity for two organisations to create synergy.  Synergy creates savings for both businesses and so should really be something every company should undertake – especially in an economic climate such as ours.  Small businesses are even better organisations to undertake sponsorship initiatives as they are more flexible providing them the opportunity to leverage their sponsorship activation strategy when and as it is needed with the opportunities that arise.

Small Business Sponsors Supporting the Community

Sponsorship works for businesses who understand their target audience.  This needs to be the starting point.  Once you understand your target audience, you then have to consider where this audience communicates and how you can communicate with them.  Community sponsorship programmes are a great starting point, especially in the ways of sport.

Many school and community sporting events/teams are desperate for sponsorship to provide their athletes with new equipment.  Sponsoring these teams can be a cost-effective way to build brand awareness to your community.  This works especially well if you are a business who deals with customers within your area – such as restaurants, flower shops, etc.  If you considered the amount of people who are attending the games (both home and away!) and compare that to an advertisement spend in your local paper, I’m sure you will see the benefits.  In addition to providing a CSR programme for your company and its employees. 

Getting involved with community sponsorship programmes such as sport can also bring an additional element of staff engagement to your business.  If this is your objective, speak with the organisers of the event(s) you are sponsoring and see what opportunities you could create.  It might be that your local pizza shop provides pizza for the team when they have won a game or that your staff help out at practice.  This will give your staff the opportunity to be a part of something bigger – part of the community and part of your company – through your sponsorship.

Contra Agreements to Provide Your Services

Your business offers a great service or product which others need.  A great way to get involved with sponsorship with little investment would be to provide your services or products for free in return for sponsorship of an event/programme or perhaps your branding within their communications to their clients.  The key to choosing the right sponsorship contra agreement is to make sure that the event you are sponsoring and the sponsorship proposals you are considering have a large enough audience for you to gain the benefit of reaching them.

Another great example of SME sponsorship is from one of our current sponsors Phil Stannard Associates.  A small audio visual company, but with great potential, they approached the DMA Awards to get involved.  Through a contra deal, they are now the Judging Event Sponsors – an event that brings together 200 of the most influential people in the marketing industry during a four day event.  With no financial investment, they are able to showcase their services and their equipment to the people that are most likely to purchase from them in the future providing them significant ROI moving forward.

These are just a couple of the thousand ideas that are out there on how SME’s can integrate sponsorship within their organisation and utilise the benefits that many of the top brands receive, just at a smaller investment level.  If you ever need further sponsorship tips, be sure to check out our Top Sponsorship Tips on the Slingshot Sponsorship website.


Scally Rally with team Pure360 24th September, 2010

Today is the first day of the Scally Rally with team Pure360. We are dressing up as superheros and fighting email spam by providing top tips throughout our trip via videos on YouTube and Twitter.

I’ll be blogging throughout the trip, but if you want to keep posted on our adventure make sure to follow #scallyrally on Twitter and search Pure360 TV on YouTube.

Stay tuned!


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Surge in Digital Sponsors 21st September, 2010

Sponsorship is gaining footing in the digital sector, where sponsors know how to best maximise ROI from these channels.  By its nature sponsorship creates ideal digital marketing opportunities.  It has the flexibility to provide platforms for brands to create exclusive content and online experiences as well as being able to engage directly with their audience.

One of our clients, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), has some surprising figures in this regard.  Seen as a more traditional marketing organisiation, you’d be surprised to learn that over 50% of their sponsorship comes from digital marketing partners!

Marketers are desperately searching for new and economical avenues to create stronger relationships between their brands and target audiences. One avenue that’s resurgent is sponsorship, which is proving a powerful way to engage with consumers. At a time when people are constantly marketed to through an increasing number of channels, consumer engagement is vital for marketers to get their messages across.  When reaching its target audience, sponsorship provides an ideal medium to facilitate this engagement by providing tangible “touch points” for the consumer.

For example, when Silverpop, a U.S.-based organisation that provides worldwide web-based solutions to its clients, was interested in building brand awareness among the top marketers in the United Kingdom, it chose to incorporate a bespoke DMA sponsorship programme within its marketing mix to do so. Silverpop chose to sponsor the DMA B2B Email Marketing Event in London. This sponsorship has allowed the right’s owner the DMA to provide new training for the B2B email sector while also providing the sponsor Silverpop with the best platform from which to showcase its expertise.

For Silverpop, the many touch points and benefits of their sponsorship proposal included:

  • A speaking opportunity at the event
  • Production of a joint press release to associate themselves with the DMA
  • Increased profile among delegates throughout the promotional campaign

This sponsorship provided the perfect platform from which to increase brand awareness and engagement among the people that matter most to the company. 

If you haven’t yet thought about integrating sponsorship into your marketing mix, or felt it wasn’t useful to your type of business, you might want to take a fresh look at your current marketing and what your competitors are doing—it may surprise you.


Email in Motion 14th September, 2010

Usually the last person picked for school teams, I jumped at the opportunity when asked to join the Pure360 team for their upcoming Scally Rally.  Perhaps it was because of my experience of driving on the other side of the road or my love of road trip snacks, either way, I have made the cut!

The team includes email marketing specialists from Pure360 along with their partners and friends, myself included  With a range of specialities in email, search and social media from product development and commercial management, you can be sure that the top email tips that we share will be worth following.  Not to mention keeping informed on who crashes the car first!

Our race through Europe starts in Calais, France and ends in Rimini, Italy.  Throughout those four days (based on the car not breaking down), the whole team will be sharing email marketing tips along the way through videos, blogs and tweets.  We will be spreading the word of email marketing across Europe, so be sure to follow our adventure.

The Pure360 Scally Rally Team is also raising money for a group of charities including Barnardo’s, The British Heart Foundation, The Woodlands Trust and many others.  We would love to swap your sterling for email tips – donations can be made here.

To find more information on the Pure360 Scally Rally team, their drivers, the route, or the charities, as well as following us on our blog, please check out: http://www.pure360emailmarketing.co.uk/scallyrally


Need Sponsorship? Our top tips will show you how! part II 13th September, 2010

Our last blog gave you some tips for sponsorship seekers and here are some more for you to take away with you!

Tip: Internal buy-in is key

There is only so much one individual can do to make the sponsor feel like a partner.  It is imperative that the whole organisation recognises and realises the benefit of sponsorship for the organisation and doesn’t look at it as a hassle or more work.  If you cannot get your team to work with you and your sponsor, you will be unable to provide one of the core objectives of the sponsorship – mutual benefits through partnership activity.

Tip: Look beyond logo placement

Sponsorship is about engaging an audience and creating a meaningful experience.  By understanding the sponsor’s objectives you can work together to create this.   I cannot stress this enough, sponsorship is not about putting your sponsors logo on your marketing.  It needs to go beyond logo placement to create brand engagement and touchpoints with the audience so the partnership resonates.  Only then will sponsorship be successful.

Tip: Understand your prospects

Tailored sponsorship proposals are the only option when you are looking to generate significant sponsorship funding.  Understanding your prospect’s business and budget timelines is key to building these relationships.  With so much information available, there should be no excuses for not doing your homework and really finding the value underlying the proposition.

Tip: Account management

Account management is the key to a successful and sustainable sponsor relationship.  Ideally, you should be looking to have long-term sponsors who continually fund your sponsorship proposals because they find value in their relationship and they enjoy the positive working relationship you provide.  Making your sponsor feel like a partner by involving them in every step of the way will enable stronger engagement by them with you and your sponsorship platform.

Tip: Get help

Sponsorship can be very complex and it is simply not about asking for funding because you have a great proposition.  When done properly, it will not only help to fund your activities, but will also create a meaningful relationship between your organisation, your sponsors and your audience – significantly adding value to your whole business.  Information on how to create sponsorship proposals or information on how to create sponsorship opportunities can be found online, through forums, blogs, and books.  Specialist sponsorship agencies like Slingshot Sponsorship can also provide training and consulting to help integrate a successful sponsorship department into your organisation.


Jackie Fast Launches Slingshot Sponsorship 7th September, 2010

Specialist sponsorship agency secures the Direct Marketing Association UK (DMA), Periodical Publishers Association (PPA), UK AWARE, iheartfashion, and the Data Publishers Association (DPA) as first clients.

London, 7 September 2010 – Jackie Fast, the former head of the DMA’s sponsorship and affinity partnership department has launched her own agency, Slingshot Sponsorship Ltd (localhost:8080/slingshotsponsorship.com).  In response to the growing need of expertise in sponsorship strategy, the agency is pioneering a new wave of marketing specialising in sponsorship that communicates across all vertical sectors and channels.

Slingshot Sponsorship will be using both national and international sponsorship experience as well as innovative marketing techniques with a focus on brand engagement through digital channels and social media.  Jackie has worked with major brands including Royal Mail, Equifax, Xerox and ITV building sponsorship campaigns in the marketing services sector.

Slingshot Sponsorship specialises in corporate funding and asset management for music artists, professional associations, sporting competitions, as well as arts and cultural events.  In addition, they will be working with leading consumer brands and international agencies to help enhance and negotiate future sponsorship campaigns.   

Jackie Fast, managing director at Slingshot Sponsorship comments, “The market is shifting towards partnership marketing approaches and creating synergy between organisations.  This shift created a surge in mid-market sponsorship during the recession, which has caught on with atypical rights holders.  Whereas in the past sponsorship would only be sourced for large consumer events such as Formula1, we are now seeing brands take advantage of smaller and more engaged platforms generated through professional associations, music tours, and bespoke events.  Instead of corporate excess of hospitality, this new wave of sponsorship brings a high level of engagement with the brand at a fraction of the cost of advertising.”

Jackie continues, “Slingshot Sponsorship aims to help rights owners effectively take advantage of this shift.  Not only ensuring that the rights owner can develop a sustainable new revenue stream, Slingshot Sponsorship ensures that the programmes in place add value to all parties involved – propelling the brand, adding value to the audience, and providing additional capital to the rights holder.  Furthermore, with the increase of sponsorship opportunities now available, Slingshot Sponsorship will help brands consolidate the opportunities to choose the right fit for their objectives.”

At launch, Slingshot Sponsorship has been selected by the Direct Marketing Association to manage and develop all of their current sponsorship opportunities including the DMA Awards.  For UK AWARE and iheartfashion, Slingshot Sponsorship will manage all of their partnerships and consult on PR, media and communications. The DPA & PPA have also come on board as first clients of Slingshot Sponsorship who have been tasked with managing corporate sponsorship sales.

Slingshot Sponsorship is based in Central London, UK and works with both national and international clients.

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