Tag: brand partnerships

The Age of Digital Sponsorship 26th June, 2012

Media platforms are becoming increasingly fragmented and consumers are able now more than ever to control how they get their information and how they engage with brands. This has led to digital media becoming the driving force in the implementation of many of the most successful sponsorship campaigns. Digital media provides a means for brands to reach out to the widest possible audience whilst engaging with them across new levels not previously available.

IBM brings digital to Wimbledon

IBM through their partnership with the Wimbledon Tennis Championships have created an augmented reality phone application. The app acts as an onsite guide and interactive map for Wimbledon, allowing users to simply point their phone to navigate around the Wimbledon site as well as allowing users to stream live feeds. The IBM Seer Aggregator enables fans to receive Wimbledon tweets to their phones from sources including players, commentators and a team of IBM scouts. Fans can also keep up-to-date with live feeds and information about matches played on any court transforming how fans can keep up with the action as it happens and enriching their experience of Wimbledon.

Johnnie Walker invites fans to ‘Step Inside the Circuit’

Johnnie Walker joined forces with McLaren in 2005 and have since created the innovative ‘Step Inside the Circuit’ campaign via Facebook. The campaign invites consumers to go behind the scenes and follow the progress of Lewis and Jenson on the track as well as their lives away from it. The campaign includes an online video ‘Drive of a Lifetime’ on the company’s Facebook page. The video puts users in the shoes of the drivers taking them from pre-race activities to stepping into the car before the start of the race. The Facebook connect function then personalises the film using photos and details from the user’s Facebook account, together with text-to-speech technology and video input from the user’s webcam transporting fans into the glamorous world of F1.

Digital media has become the most successful means with which to make sponsorship campaigns more interactive and to create a deeper relationship with consumers. With so many innovative digital campaigns already paving the way within sponsorship, it is inevitable that campaigns will continue to become more exciting and interactive as brands strive to stand apart from their competitors.

More than Cold Hard Cash: How to Get More From Your Brand Sponsors 7th June, 2012

What Else Should Sponsoring Organisations Be Getting Out Of Their Sponsors?


This blog actually comes from a question I received on Twitter last week – always a great source of inspiration for posts.  Although I’ve alluded to the answers throughout our blog, I have never written a blog about what the property rights owner should be getting out of their sponsorship.  The reason being, the most obvious answer is money.  However, a sponsor’s investment should not end there – there’s so much more they can offer to benefit the rights owner.

Brand Awareness

As a rights owner, you tend to focus on issues that are of the most immediate concern. Once all sponsors are on board you’ve then got to focus on ticket sales and the invites (and let’s not forget the small matters of sorting out catering, setting up the venue etc.). Before you know it the event has finished and you are back to square one of renewing the event’s sponsors and the cycle starts again.  Time is needed to integrate departments and partners and typically with the urgency of sales and action during a slow economy, there is little time to do much else.

By integrating the objectives of the sales and marketing departments you can make the cycle much smoother for everyone involved and add value to the sponsors of your events.

Brand sponsors tend to have significantly larger customer databases than the rights owners they sponsor.  As such, it can be a cheaper way to bring brand awareness of the event in question through effective marketing campaigns.  These campaigns can then drive ticket sales without the added costs of advertisements and new creative.  Furthermore sending communications to the sponsor’s database helps the sponsor as they want to bring awareness to their customers of the events that they are involved with – that is why they have got involved in the first place.

Joint communication is just a starting block, but once you start thinking more integrated you can come up with a range of communications that benefit all parties, saving you time and money.

Physical Space

One of the things we have started to really push with our sponsors and rights owners is physical space.  For larger brands, they tend to have an abundance of space with the presence of roof top terraces overlooking the Thames that are rarely used to whole floors that no one is working in.  This presents a fantastic opportunity to integrate the brand and the rights owner.

Venue costs are typically the area where most events fall down on – especially charities.  Charities tend to be very rich in terms of content – with celebrity brand ambassadors and a meaningful cause; however, tend not to be able to put on the events they wish they could based on up-front costs such as venue hire.  We have started working with our sponsors more directly and have hosted a number of events within sponsor buildings instead.  This not only saves the charity (or rights owner) money, but also shows a truly integrated approach to brand partnerships.  Furthermore, this provides the brand an opportunity to showcase their own building, their culture and their internal teams.

People

Another benefit that sponsors can bring to rights owners is actual people.  In terms of staff engagement, this tends to work best in charities and is often a key reason that brands get involved with national causes – to get their teams working together on something greater than the 9 to 5.  It also helps create a team environment even with their staff are based all over the country.  Staff engagement or volunteering for the sponsored charity is a key benefit that charities should try and incorporate within their sponsorship proposal whenever possible.  This not only provides additional volunteers for the charity which is always needed, but also can go a long way in terms of securing internal buy in from the brand itself – future proofing the financial investment.

These are just some of the benefits that sponsors can bring to organisations apart from cold hard cash, but there are many more.  The key is to find the synergies between the rights owner and the brand sponsor – understanding every party’s objective and collaborating with each other to help achieve something that is greater than the sum of its parts is what a true partnership is all about.

Slingshot Sponsorship Partner with Scandinavian-based BITE Agency 23rd January, 2012

Slingshot Sponsorship and BITE have formed a strategic alliance that will see a union of expertise from two of the biggest prospects in sponsorship and brand management respectively.  The innovative partnership will work with brands and rights owners to truly grasp building a brand and then creating commercial opportunities from that foundation.

Having launched in the UK in 2010, Slingshot Sponsorship has quickly gained significant market share within the rights owner community working with diverse organisations including Haymarket Consumer Media, Mencap, and the London Irish Rugby Club.  Unlike other sponsorship agencies, Slingshot helps organisations build up their assets in order to become viable marketing platforms for brands.  As such, branding and brand identity is vital to ensure success with creating a sustainable sponsorship programme.

Based in Scandinavia, specifically Oslo, Norway, BITE is a newly formed team of international brand innovators, facilitating strategic brand activation through non-traditional methods.  By working together, both agencies will be able to follow their customers through their brand building and exploitation journey and help them realise their full commercial potential.  The ability to also access two unique markets will provide Slingshot/BITE clients with data that has not been available previously.

Jackie Fast, managing director of Slingshot Sponsorship commented:

This is such an exciting development and a natural progression on what we do.  By ensuring we have experts identifying and developing the core brand proposition, we will be able to help our clients become more successful when integrating commercial opportunities.  This has been a gap within our current clients marketing mix and so we are delighted to be able to fill this gap.

Robert D B Leinders-Krog, managing director of BITE commented:

In recent years we have clearly seen a major shift in the international marketing and brand sphere, with companies and organizations needing to holistically approach their marketing and branding strategies. This unique partnership will ensure our clients competitive advantage internationally with a profound base in concrete brand strategy and in-depth commercial exploitation. Our international approach combines European expertise with renowned Scandinavian innovation practices and will give our clients unique platforms of activation. We are very excited!

The partnership will enable clients to reap the benefits of a single agency who can manage the entire journey of brand strategy, activation and commercialisation from a completely unique market position.  That both companies are experts in their own field guarantees clients are provided with a tailor-made service, comprising the best from sponsorship and brand-management.

Top 3 Sponsorship Predictions 2012 9th January, 2012

Following the mulled wine and too many Quality Street sweets over the Christmas period, I thought it would be important to kick start the year with some predictions on the sponsorship industry for 2012.  With so many new things happening this year, it may prove to be a unsettled year for many organisations and difficult for anyone to predict much; however, here are my top 3 predictions:

1.  The Olympic Predicament

To sponsor or not to sponsor events during the London Olympic Games period – that is the question on everyone’s mind.  Although most of the big brands have taken one road or the other, many brands still have not yet decided how to take advantage of the opportunity of millions of people descending upon London providing a fantastic opportunity to reach a global community locally.

The nervousness lies in history as well as legalities.

With many brands having never been involved with initiating marketing campaigns during the Olympics, it can be almost impossible to decide whether sponsoring events or even increasing marketing during the London Olympic Games will pay off or if you will just get lost in the brand mass.

Although I can’t predict whether or not every brand should go for it as it will always be brand dependent and also dependent on the activation and platform you will be pushing your marketing through – I can say that the London Olympics is providing an opportunity that won’t be coming around again in the near future and if you are able to take advantage, then you should get on board.  However, I’d recommend deciding how you’ll participate sooner rather than later in order to make the most out of your sponsorship and marketing campaigns during this period.

2.  Brands are Working Together

I mentioned this in last year’s prediction post, but it still rings true today.  More and more, brands are working together and creating synergy of resource.  Most often this is because it is cheaper, but more importantly brand partnerships achieve more together than they can apart.  This is a huge benefit of sponsorship, but you can also achieve the same benefits through in-kind partnerships and joint strategies – for example, getting a Print Partner or a Media Partner on board with your event.

Furthermore, more agencies will be looking to work together rather than treating each other as competitors.  We’ve even gone done this route recently teaming up with Brand Innovation Agency BITE in order to provide their Scandinavian-based clients with sponsorship services and our clients with branding services – benefiting both sets of clients!

3.  The Sponsorship Market will be Cluttered!

With a significant number of public funding organisations losing their funding this year, I anticipate there will be an influx of sponsorship proposals being sent out to brands.  This means a number of things for rights owners, but mainly:

  1. Rights owners will have a harder time selling sponsorship.
  2. Great proposals and pitches will differentiate the competition rather than platforms due to lack of resource.

And for interest, you can also read my 2011 Predications Blog and find out whether I was right.

Good luck with 2012 – regardless of whether my predications are right, I can bet it will be a very interesting year for everyone.  And of course, don’t forget to sign up to the Slingshot Sponsorship Blog in order to track my predication progress!

My Top 5 Sponsorship Campaigns 4th January, 2012

In the ever-busy world of brand marketing, using the strength of brand partnerships to forge new channels and platforms is essential to generating sales, showcasing the brand and in some cases uniting millions.  Here are just five of my favourites:

1. Jay-Z & Bing – ‘Decoded’

With Jay-Z’s autobiography ‘Decoded’ due to be launched in November 2010, the rap mogul teamed up with Microsoft search-engine Bing to stir up some little needed hype.

Each of the book’s 320 pages was printed and placed in a different position across 13 major cities.  Locations were selected based on the contents of each page – for example, a reference to Jay Z’s youth in Brooklyn could be placed on a Cadillac, a restaurant plate, a basketball net or even on the bottom of a swimming pool!

Utilising social media, clues were released via Facebook & Twitter revealing the location of the secret pages in a draw to compete to be the first to unlock each one of the 320 pages.  Users were driven to Bing.com/Jay Z where they were directed to specific locations, while the first people on the scene texted a code to reveal the page to the whole community.  Within a month of the campaign going live, users had unlocked every single page of the book before it was even available for sale.

Bing received an 11.7% increase of visitors while the campaign was live with an average player engagement of 11 minutes.  Jay Z’s Facebook page received 1 million ‘likes’ in under a month and his autobiography reached 3rd in the New York Times Best Seller list.

The level of detail that went into turning every single page of Jay Z’s book into a real life installation was staggering, completely integrating and engaging the content of the book with readers.  Unlike most interactive campaigns where the user’s interaction ends at the computer screen, ‘Decode’ actively encouraged the consumer to venture out into the world and sample Jay Z’s life in person.  All sections of media were used, giving the individual a rich and unique understanding of Jay Z’s life that a purely internet-based campaign couldn’t have done.  Through Jay Z, Bing created the biggest online game the world has even seen.

2. Ralph Lauren & The New York Times

In September 2011, Ralph Lauren bought out a one-month, solo sponsorship of the New York Times iPad application.  The app takeover included online shopping, videos, a letter from Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren’s car collection, poems, details of how Ralph Lauren jewellery is made and the principles of the brand’s craftsmanship.  An online shopping bag, built directly into the app’s adverts, allowed consumers to shop straight away, rather than having to click through to a website – essentially making it easier than ever to buy Ralph Lauren.

This partnership highlights the failure of countless companies to fully utilise what’s available to them when they form a brand relationship.  Amongst the online shopping the reader is drawn to the beautiful imagery, the highly detailed information about the production of the clothes, and interesting little known facts about Ralph Lauren himself.  At no stage do you ever feel as though you are being led down the path to purchase.  It is always a gentle stroll, past a wonderfully crafted tweed suit, before you reach the checkout.

3. McDonald’s & 2008 Beijing Olympics – ‘Cheer For China’

With large sections of the Chinese population finding the Games remote and out-of-reach McDonald’s developed united sponsorship initiatives under the slogan  “Cheer for China”, which allowed the nation to become part of the Chinese Olympic dream.  In-store cheering stations, viral videos, interactive/click through banners and celebrity blog partnerships were just some of the ways that the ‘everyman’ was encouraged to participate in this episode of people power.

Through the cheering stations and online entries, the 10 best cheerers were chosen to take part in ‘The Cheer For China Online Reality Show’ that attracted over 7 million unique visitors to its website.  To conclude the show, the 10 best cheerers were whittled down to 5 winners who led 1,200 people at the Olympic Stadium to set a new Guinness World Record.  Throughout the campaign the Cheer For China website had over 25 million unique visitors and 1.2 million cheering entries.

This campaign illustrates how a well-thought out and flawlessly executed brand partnership can quite literally change a nation.  Faced with Olympic indifference millions of people, from Guangzhou to Changchun, were instilled with the Olympic spirit – no mean feat for an American fast-food chain.

The multi-pronged approach of the campaign also ensured that it didn’t fizzle out – once all the cheering entries were in, a fly on the wall documentary emerged, which preceded winners dancing  in the Olympic stadium setting a new world record.  Continuity was key and ensured that the entire nation not only cheered for China, but continued to do so long after the Games were finished.

4. The National Theatre & Phillips ‘Sense and Simplicity’

In 2007 The National Theatre teamed up with Phillips to help reduce the amount of electricity that the Southbank location used.  This partnership saw Phillips replace and enhance the National Theatre’s internal lighting system with state of the art, energy-efficient design costing approximately £500,000.  In addition to the immediate visual improvements in the theatre, the long term aims were to reduce the amount of energy of lighting up the iconic ‘fly towers’ by 70%, which in turn will save £100,000 a year.

While this campaign may not have everyone marvelling at its ingenuity, the simplicity allowed consumers to fully engage with the campaign and helped both organisations achieve more together.  The National Theatre was able to produce more productions and Phillips utilised a highly targeted audience platform to showcase their exceptionally high-quality lighting.  In addition, a substantial amount of energy will have been saved by the end of the 5 year deal, paving the way for other heavily lit buildings in the city to focus on their own energy consumption.

5. Emirates Airline & Transport For London

With Transport for London’s state-of-the-art cable car more than doubling its budget in a year (from £25 – £60 million), Fly Emirates intervened in what was one of the shrewdest sponsorship moves of 2011.

The 10-year deal costing Emirates £36 million provides the Dubai based airline naming rights on what is bound to be one of the focal points for the London Olympics.  It will be the first urban cable car of its kind in the UK, connecting Greenwich Peninsular over the river with the Royal Docks.  The new system could provide a crossing every 30 seconds carrying up to 2,500 passengers per hour in each direction, equivalent to the capacity of 50 buses.  Users will be able to pay with oyster cards, as they travel at a minimum height of 52m over the Thames.

With the travel concerns high amongst visitors as well as residents, the Emirates Cable Car will not only be highly publicised, but also one of the few central transportation links.  In addition, it will remain a prominent part of the capital’s skyline for decades. Greenwich has a constant stream of tourists, throughout the year, who will all want to take a ride and witness the panoramic views that the cable car offers.  As a result, Emirates’ brand will be directly showcased to a large portion of the 30 million international visitors the capital attracts annually long after the London Olympics have left.

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