Tag: Blog

A Week At Slingshot 17th October, 2013

We get up to a lot at the Slingshot offices, so we thought we’d give a bit of insight into our daily goings on. Our very own Jamie Dey willingly offered his services. Having joined the team four months ago, Jamie has a fresh take on Slingshot’s agency life; so here’s a week with Jamie.

Monday

Having spent the weekend in Cornwall which was subsequently followed by the mandatory slog along the A303 late into the night, Monday started with a coffee firmly by my side. It doesn’t take long, however, until I’m off and going with a diary update to see what lies ahead.

With the cobwebs swiftly shaken, the first task is a catch up with the Slingshot team, which gives everyone the chance to catch up with one another’s business – more often than not this turns into an open forum with everyone contributing on strategy and areas in which campaigns can be improved upon (very ambitious for a Monday morning, indeed!).

The rest of day is filled with analyzing new business requests, and looking at what future projects we can get involved in. Each proposal is sent around the team, we offer advice on every inquiry no matter how big or small, it’s important to feedback on every request as you never know what it can lead to.

Tuesday

The day starts briskly by jumping straight into talking with brands that are looking to sponsor the What Car awards? The awards themselves have been a real success over the past two years, and the platform has developed considerably, making it a great account to work on.

Brainstorming possible activations for brands gets the blood pumping and definitely an area of the job I enjoy, this takes up the day and with progress made, the week is looking good. It’s great to see new clients coming on board and the process which is involved from inception – the run up to Christmas looks busy!

Wednesday

Wednesday is dedicated to on-site duties for Silverpop at the Festival of Marketing, this is a chance to get out of the office and see how our work is doing in practice.

Our work with Silverpop as a B2B brand keeps me on my toes as it goes away from our usual consumer focussed platforms. This broad range of experience has really helped me look at each account with an open mind; this is one of Slingshots strong points and has made the agency dynamic in its approach within the industry.

Thursday

Hump day is gone and it’s the back part of the week – that said, the day is spent sitting in on one of Slingshot’s key services, the sponsorship Bootcamp. The Bootcamp is a one or two day service which aims to provide organisations with an insight into the sponsorship industry with a focus upon developing sponsorship proposals and approaching and securing sponsorship.

Today’s Bootcamp is tailored around an international TV show, which I worked directly on alongside our MD Jackie Fast. Presented by Jackie, the Bootcamp seeks to give insight but most importantly to spark inspiration and discussion, which it looks as though we’ve done! The month’s work prior to today has been demanding, but it’s great to see my strategy warmly received and to know that there is a high chance of it being implemented.

Friday

The morning is spent going through sales and prospecting for Digital Unite and their Spring Online event next year. This has proved a real success over the past 18 months and a fantastic example of a well engaged campaign that is making a significant difference across the nation.

The Friday ritual starts early with Tina Turner howling from the office speakers, giving us all the motivation to finish off our weekly progress reports in time to make a dash to the pub.

How Sports Sponsorship is helping to bring Communities together 16th May, 2013

Last Thursday I attended the Innovation in Sports Business Summit, which was focused upon the theme of last weekend’s Euroleague Final Four. It brought together sports experts from various fields such as media, gaming, digital content, marketing, sponsorship and social responsibility. In times where marketing and CSR budgets increasingly overlap, the second panel, “The Power of Sport. How can Sport create a legacy?” was especially poignant . Headed by former Chelsea FC legend Graeme Le Saux and Simon Cooper, Head of Sport at Mayor’s London Office, the panellists discussed the influence and more importantly, responsibility that sport has on communities.

The European Sponsorship Association’s market trends survey revealed that CSR is increasingly becoming an integral part of sponsorship campaigns. Whereas in the past businesses and brands tended to spend their CSR budget on supporting arts or environmental based causes, they are beginning to acknowledge the power that sport has in terms of reaching and engaging with people on an emotional level.

There are many examples of how sports rights owners and brands are beginning to collaborate as a means to make a difference in people’s lives rather than just purely about the sponsorship – which in turn, is creating true value within the campaign. Here are three of my favourite sports sponsorship & CSR partnerships.

1. One Team – Euroleague Basketball & Turkish Airlines

The One Team CSR Marketing Programme was, of course, a focal point of the second panel at the Innovation in Sports Business Summit. Launched in 2012 in collaboration with Euroleague’s main sponsor, Turkish Airlines (their Founding Patron), the programme is additionally supported by eight Founding Partner Clubs and seven further Euroleague basketball clubs (by 2014 this will be extended 24 clubs in total).

The aim of One Team is to use the power of basketball to change lives. All 15 clubs involved in the initiative tailor and invest their community outreach with the aim to challenge key social issues faced by their communities. The clubs use an innovative methodology of assessment, outreach and results oriented analysis to create the maximum impact and results.

When discussing the success of the programme, panellist and architect of this European-wide development programme, David Butler, pointed to the importance of having the right measurement: “When asked ‘how is it going’, organizations tend to talk about increasing numbers, more children, more projects, more people, more scale, more geography. But that does not answer question properly. The question should be asked: ‘how much impact are you having? And how much positive change is happening?'”

Each one of the clubs works with disadvantaged individuals from their communities, with basketball as the integrating tool. An overview of all the different projects can be found here.

Temel Kotil, CEO of Turkish Airlines, expressed the importance of initiatives such as these stating “At Turkish Airlines we believe that sport is a unique language that can inspire and One Team uses that language to talk to those who most need to hear its message of positive values.”

2. NBA Cares – NBA & Kia

One of Euroleague’s benchmarks was the NBA Cares programme. Similar to Euroleague’s One Team programme, NBA Cares is a community outreach initiative that addresses important social issues such as education, youth and family development as well as health and wellness. Since 2005, the league has partnered with NBA teams in order to support a range of programs, partners and initiatives that strive to support children and families on a global scale. So far, more than $210 million have been raised for charity and more than 2.3 million hours of hands-on service has been provided by the National Basketball Association and its clubs. Through TV-Spots (such as this one featuring Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade) at every NBA game, the league uses this content as a marketing tool to raise awareness about the issues surrounding many communities. Click here to see how the different teams and players are currently supporting NBA Cares.

Due to this success, the NBA has created a new sponsorship platform within the NBA Cares programme: the Kia Community Assist Awards that honour the NBA player who best reflects the passion that the league and its players have for giving back to their communities. This sponsorship deal is one step ahead of Euroleague’s partnership with Turkish Airlines as it engages with fans on a far bigger scale using Social Media channels such as Facebook.

3. Hamburger SV – “Hamburger Weg”

Football is probably the sport which has naturally the strongestbond to local communities. Hamburger SV is a very traditional football club in Germany and was one of the first clubs in the world who integrated sponsors into its CSR plans. The “Hamburger Weg” is a partnership between the football club Hamburger SV and local companies. The programme combines classical sponsorship with CSR, through donations. The club donates 1/11 of its sponsorship revenue to local organisations and charities to help them find the right footing in life. Hamburg’s sponsors are specifically branded with white logos on a blue perimeter advertising background which adds an additional affiliation between brand, charity and club.

Warranty Direct is Associate Sponsor of the What Car? Green Awards 2012 13th September, 2012

The What Car? Green Awards 2012 will take place on September 19 at the Imagination Gallery, London, and Warranty Direct will be associate sponsor as well as sponsor of the executive car category.

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

Warranty Direct managing director Duncan McClure Fisher said: “Society is becoming more and more concerned with its environmental impact. Motorists are constantly seeking ways to lessen their personal carbon footprint, and that’s why it is important to highlight greener, low-emission car options to the consumer. Green technology may throw up new reliability challenges, but at Warranty Direct we will protect customers whatever their choice of car. We are, therefore, delighted to be associate sponsor of the What Car? Green Awards.”

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.

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.

Beginner's Guide to Social Media for Small Businesses 27th February, 2012

Social media is a topic we often cover, both with clients and the sponsors we manage. So we thought we’d provide some more insight into the most recognised platforms and more specifically how it relates to small businesses.

From a sponsorship rights holder’s perspective, providing the opportunity for potential sponsors to integrate with you on social media is as important as ensuring that those channels are also engaging the audience. And the same can be said for small businesses.

Small business owners should not expect immediate success throughsocial media. A survey from the Chartered Institute of Marketing has revealed: 34% of 1,500 marketers questioned deemed their social media activity in 2011 was ‘not at all effective’, while only 13% said it was ‘extremely effective’. However, small business owners should take note that the majority of those polled saw it as a tool of engagement (37%), or as support to other channels in a campaign (46%). Having a presence on Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin is unlikely to result in immediate sales. What social media does allow you to do is promote your brand to an audience who is interested in hearing from you.

Engaging with your customers is not going to be easy and it certainly won’t happen overnight. But if you put in an hour a day and approach it correctly you will be rewarded with subscribers, friends, or tweeps who understand who your company is, what it does and potentially why they should engage with it – hopefully leading on to them becoming brand advocates.

Whilst every company can benefit from some form of social media, not every form of social media will fit your company. It is therefore important to choose the platform where your audience is, not the platform that may get the most press. The main platforms small businesses are currently using:

Facebook

Set to hit 1 billion users in August, Facebook is undoubtedly the king of social media. With the average user spending over 15 minutes generally surveying their Facebook terrain, you would think it was the perfect tool for smaller companies to engage with their target audience. Yet a quick look and you’ll find countless business pages with 50 likes and fewer comments. Sarah Orchard, from Orchard Marketing Associates, makes the point that:

‘Facebook is a social space, so users are not as receptive to business-orientated messages. The question you have to ask yourself is: “is my business one that can tap into the emotional side of people’s lives?”

If your business fits this criteria then really try to make your Facebook page an interactive, enlightening and most importantly a worthwhile experience for the user. If you put on an annual music festival, comedy show or quiz night in the local pub, get attendees to sign up to join your Facebook page as they leave. Then, use your page as a hub for anything interesting related to your event to create publicity.

One stand-out example of utilising Facebook and making each visit exciting is one of our newest clients: Croatian-based music festival Outlook. Only 5 years old and Outlook already has 54,000 likes on their Facebook page. With the build-up to festival season already under way, Outlook will continuie to use their Facebook page as an ideal marketing tool hosting DJ competitions, posting reviews of artists scheduled to play and uploading videos from last year to create a buzz around the event.

Linkedin

With much more focus on business networking, Linkedin is a great tool tokeep in touch with former colleagues and find new prospects. The Q&A function is a great way to both highlight what your company does and how it does it, as well as gaining useful advice to better run your own business. Being a member on Linkedin also allows you to start, join and participate in group discussions. If you provide unique insight on a given topic on a consistent basis you will become an authority on your area of interest – (you can even become a Linkedin designated ‘expert’!). A potential client may be looking for information on your area of expertise, stumble across a post of yours that really connects with them and contact you as a direct result.

Pinterest

The site allows users to post images of your company’s product and link themback to your website. It acts as an online catalogue, except that images can be (much like Facebook) commented on and ‘re-pinned’ to other user’s boards. It may be relatively new – the site was launched in 2010 – but Pinterest is already being touted as the most valuable marketing tool for smaller businesses on the web. There are already 7 million registered members on Pinterest with a report from Shareholic claiming that more traffic is driven to company websites and blogs than Linkedin, Google+ and YouTube combined. The major drawback of the site is that if your company’s product or services are not particularly visual, you may struggle to get across exactly what you offer. On the other hand, it gives you a chance to be more creative, using evocative images that intrigue other users into finding out more about your company. Here are 15 of the most popular pictures on Pinterest.

Twitter

Twitter is a great way to keep people interested in your business or project and remind them of what you are doing. Your followers will be able to see your tweets on their ‘twitter-feed’. The great thing about this is that they do not have to consciously go to your page for you to get your message across to them and already have chosen to be receptive to your messages by actively following you. With clear and informative tweets you have the power to reach your client-base and build up a picture of exactly what your company does, which creates brand exposure.

Business Blogs

Business blogs are a no-frills way of sharing your company’s expertise and knowledge with a wider audience. The software is incredibly easy to use (e.g. WordPress, Blogware etc.) and cheap (and in most cases free) to run, meaning you don’t have to learn HTML or spend huge amounts on a web designer. If you post interesting content, people will return to your blog, retweet it or share it on Facebook. A couple of great examples of blogs giving real value to the business are Gizmodo (gadget magazine) and Stony Field Farms (Organic Dairy Products).

And of course do not forget to sign up to the Slingshot Sponsorship blog so you can keep up to date on great tips just like these!

Do Social Media Benefits Really Benefit Sponsors? 15th September, 2011

Social media has not only changed the way an audience can interact with a sponsorship property, but also with how they can interact with the sponsors of that property and vice versa. Without fully understanding social media for the organisation in question, it would be impossible to try and deliver value to a sponsor associated.

Here are some top tips and questions to ask yourself before you consider integrating sponsorship benefits within your sponsorship proposal.

Do You Have an Online Audience?

Many sponsorship proposals include social media activation with their audience for prospective sponsors; however, this is typically even before they’ve even set up the account. Many rights owners do not realise that it can take a significant amount of resource to develop and manage social networks so make time to do your research before you promise brands something you aren’t able to deliver at the point of signing the contract.

The benefit of social media is that it is instantaneous, but if you haven’t developed your social network before you offer the rights over to a sponsor, you aren’t offering much of anything.

Is Your Social Network Engaged?

Once you’ve built your social network, you need to ensure that the users are engaged with your content. If you don’t have an engaged audience then there is no benefit to a sponsor of your property because their message will be falling on deaf ears.

5 Tips to Creating Engaging Content:

Be relevant
Provide insight
Offer competitions or money-can’t buy benefits for engaging with you
Provide exclusive content they can’t find anywhere else
If possible, try to be genuinely funny

Does Your Social Network Want to Hear From Your Sponsors?

Your network is important and needs to be treated with care. Do not sign them up and then bombard them with messages that they do not want to hear. This rings true for any and all communication, but especially with social media as it far easier to individuals to block messages online than it is through the post.

Make sure to listen to your audience and provide them content that they find valuable. As long as your sponsor’s messages fall in line with these guidelines you can ensure that you are truly delivering the benefits you are offering.

To connect with Slingshot’s social networks sign up to our Blog or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Sponsorship in the Push/Pull Dynamic 9th August, 2010

Upon opening the many newspapers London provides, you will undoubtedly find at least one article announcing the loss of sponsorship funding endangering a sports team. This has created an impression that the sponsorship industry has been dealt a severe blow by the Credit Crunch. However, while many of these multi-million pound sponsorship deals are indeed drying up, there is a surging interest in B2B sponsorship. New partnerships are announced daily integrating brands that are not natural competitors, but nonetheless share the same target audience. Thomas Cook has just signed up to sponsor Kiss FM’s Saturday night ‘Kissalicious’ show, their very first media spend on their Club 18-30 brand in four years. The Co-operative is the new sponsor of the next installment of the High School Musical franchise, their second deal with a Disney-owned series. The reason for the surge in new sponsorship deals is partly due to the marketing shift in the industry – the push/pull dynamic.

Traditional push media such as TV, billboard, radio, and newspaper/magazine spreads are identified as a one way communication between the brand to the consumer. In the past these have proven effective alone. However, at a time when people are constantly marketed to through an increasing number of channels, this is falling onto deaf ears. Although push marketing is still a factor in spending decisions, it is now becoming increasingly crucial to engage your audience. Consumer engagement is the pull. Pull marketing is interactive, identified as a two-way communication between the brand and the consumer. This is being made increasingly more effective and successful by the digital era, which has introduced internet marketing, social media, RSS, blogs, forums, etc. This push/pull dynamic is easily created with a sponsorship programme as it incorporates the best of both marketing methods.

Push Marketing

Sponsorship ensures that the push marketing you do use has an impact. Aligning a brand with something about which the target audience feels passionate can serve to create goodwill. It is an age old fact that people tend to favour others who like the same things as they do; this dynamic is no less true when it comes to forming a relationship between brand and audience. Through sponsorship the target audience can be ‘primed’ to be receptive to the brand.

Pull Marketing

In addition to making sure your push marketing is effective, sponsorship will inevitably create pull marketing through tangible ‘touchpoints’ for the consumer to come into contact with and interact with a brand. However, without consumers wanting to engage with your brand, your marketing regardless of the platform will remain a one-way communication. The receptivity gained through the initial sponsorship makes pull marketing not only possible, but also simple.

Once engaged, the conversations and activities are facilitated through the valuable tools and concepts online. New social networking sites like Twitter and LinkedIn allow you to engage with each of your consumers on a platform that they are comfortable with – assuming your target audience wants to be communicated to by you in this way. The combinations of digital marketing platforms are endless and work exceptionally well within a sponsorship programme as your customers are already ‘primed’ to engage with your brand.

Although sponsorship is not the only way to facilitate this push/pull dynamic, it is certainly one of the easiest which is why we are seeing a surge in these partnerships. If you are relying too much on push media and not achieving the results you are after, it may be time to consider sponsorship as a way to help incorporate this push/pull dynamic with your brand.

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