The Olympic Legacy 17th September, 2012

Within the sponsorship arena there has been much discussion about how worthwhile short-term partnerships such as the Olympics are in terms of a return on investment for sponsors. As the excitement surrounding the Olympics and Paralympics begins to fade, attention has moved away from what sponsors are doing in terms of activation surrounding the games to how they will move forward and look to maintain the legacies of their Olympic involvement.

Olympic sponsors who have achieved their short term goals of an increase in revenue should now look to consider how they can maintain an Olympic association in the future. A continued involvement with the development of sport in the Olympic aftermath will show that these brands were not just involved with the Olympics solely to profit financially, but as a commitment to a longer journey.

Gillette’s ‘Great Start’ campaign is an example of Olympic sponsor Procter & Gamble’s determination to maintain Olympic association through a commitment to sport. Their ‘Great Start’ campaign aims to inspire the younger generation of Olympic athletes by encouraging young people to pursue careers in coaching. With six time gold medallist Chris Hoy as one of the brand ambassadors for the campaign they have partnered with ‘sports coach fund UK’ to fund coaching qualifications by awarding ‘Great Start’ grants. Existing and new coaches can apply via http://www.facebook.com/GilletteUK.

The improvements the Olympics have bought to less prosperous areas of London are an example in itself of how the games have had the capacity to change the lives not only of those competing but also of local communities. With continued involvement in sport and the community brands have the chance to play a vital role in maintaining the legacy of London 2012 through helping people to continue to enjoy and take part in sport. This in turn will maintain awareness of involvement with the iconic event whilst increasing brand loyalty on a long term scale.

Experiential: 3 Ways to Maximise Your Assets 20th January, 2012

With the London 2012 Olympics fast approaching we are due an influx of experiential campaigns in 2012. With headline sponsors of P&G, Coke and McDonald’s taking the majority of the London 2012 marketing opportunities – both in sponsorship as well as ramped up advertising campaigns, other brands will be engaging in shorter term experiential marketing to capitalise on this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Experiential marketing at its basics is a live brand marketing campaign allowing consumers to experience the product through their senses.  It occurs in real time and is a two way communication between the brand and consumer – creating a lasting connection with the brand, which is then amplified through other marketing channels. Experiential activation offers a great way to showcase a brand’s products, or simply demonstrate what the company can offer with immediate feedback.  Some examples of experiential campaigns we’ve run include Tracker’s Photo Booth for the What Car Awards 2012 and the EA Sports’ Game Hub at the London Irish Rugby Club’s St. Patricks Day Party.

Maximising Assets for Experiential Sponsorship Campaigns

1) Brand Positioning

With immediate feedback, experiential activities first need to ensure their audience is the right audience to be receiving feedback from.  Ensure that you are very clear who the target audience is first and then decide how best to reach them and more importantly where to reach them.

Being relevant to the right consumers will provide both the correct feedback, but also will enable you to drive the communications further through additional marketing campaigns.

2) Engagement is Essential

You have to be engaging in activity consumers can relate to and want to engage with. The message and positioning should be clear and concise ensuring cut through.  Providing people an experience that is on brand for the experiential activation, on brand for the company and also on brand for the sponsorship platform will create a cohesive message with all parties building resonance with the audience.

3) Make it Last

Even if your experiential activity is a one-off campaign, ensure you are making the most of it and that you have resources to support this.  If the objective is to create a viral campaign through the experiential activity, do not forget to include a social strategy that will drive this communication forward through user networks and your own company network through user generated content, videos, competitions, etc.

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!