Tag: london olympics


GB Taekwondo appoints Slingshot Sponsorship to develop sponsorship strategy and sales for their Road to Rio Olympics 11th July, 2013

GB Taekwondo, one of the biggest sporting stars to come out of London 2012, has appointed sponsorship specialist marketing agency Slingshot Sponsorship to develop strategy and sales across their commercial properties in the lead up to the Rio Olympics.  The initial activity will allow corporate sponsors to grow with the sport both nationally as well as abroad.

GB Taekwondo’s enormous success of gaining two medals from only four athletes at the London Olympics has presented a huge return for Team GB and an incredible opportunity for brands to align with.  The 2000 year old martial art has over 60 million participants worldwide with over 100,000 in the UK alone.  Slingshot Sponsorship will be working with GB Taekwondo to identify and uncover their assets in order to connect with this diverse sporting audience – contributing to a stronger engagement with brands during the growth of the sport in the lead up to Rio Olympics.

Steve Flynn, Operations Director at GB Taekwondo said:

We are really pleased to be working with Slingshot Sponsorship who are helping us showcase the sponsorship opportunities within our sport. Their expertise will allow us to maximise our commercial potential and amplify our activity – both with the sponsors we are currently are working with as well as identifying new commercial partners that will help us achieve our objectives in the lead up to Rio.

Jackie Fast, MD at Slingshot Sponsorship said:

We are thrilled that GB Taekwondo have chosen us as their sponsorship agency.  Sitting at such a vital turning point coming out of London 2012, we cannot wait to start helping them develop and grow their commercial potential – creating relationships that will help them realise their Rio Olympic goals.

Calling all UK consultants & agencies – Slingshot Sponsorship needs you! 14th August, 2012

We have had the pleasure of working with some amazing clients recently through our One-Day Sponsorship Boot Camp.  Many of whom are on the verge of producing great platforms and strategies that will create sustainable sponsorship programmes.

However, what many of them currently lack is the resource and sales skills to effectively sell their sponsorship packages to the UK market.

Slingshot have collated a sponsorship consultant and agency roster, which outlines all the good and great agencies and consultants who are able to work with projects on a commission-only or small-fee + commission package.  However, with the recent influx of freelancers and agencies into sponsorship following the London Olympics our roster is in desperate need of an update.

We have a number of music festival and charity clients who are currently on the lookout so if you think you might have something to offer, we’d really love to hear from you so we can add you to our roster if you aren’t there already!

For more information and to be considered for our consultants roster, please contact Mark Mylam: [email protected] | +44 (0) 207 226 5052.

The London Olympics: Marking the ‘Coming of Age’ for Sponsorship 25th April, 2012

Sponsorship is undoubtedly an exciting industry to be a part of at the moment – and it’s not just due to all of the outside media attention surrounding the London Olympics and its various sponsors.  Granted that some of the individual sponsorship campaigns around London 2012 are fantastic in themselves; but what stands out, from a sponsorship agency’s perspective, is the universal shift in the way brands are approaching sponsorship and the remarkable levels of engagement that brands can create from such collaborations.  A wide range of companies, from British Airways to McDonald’s, have launched a series of highly interactive campaigns designed specifically to get the customer using, tasting, watching, listening and experiencing their products through the Olympic platform.

Have these campaigns only come about because the need for cut through and ROI is so vital due to the high investment of the Olympic sponsorship rights?  Are creative sponsorship campaigns only to be seen during this period before reverting back to the more ‘conventional’ strands of sponsorship, such as branding & hospitality?

Unlike naysayers in the industry, I believe that the sponsorship campaigns being created are the culmination of a growing trend of brands realising that well-positioned partnerships can offer far more engagement with a highly targeted audience across multiple media channels, than straight advertising or PR alone.

Cadbury’s activation of its Olympic sponsorship rights is a great illustration of this shift.  The ‘Spot vs Stripes’ competition encompasses all forms of marketing and engages with the public far more than an advertisement campaign ever could.  In fact, it all started with an advert – a 2 minute spectacle of animated marine-creatures, divided up into spots and stripes, participating in an underwater frenzy of Olympic-esque competition.   Viewers were then urged to logon (spotsvsstripes.com) to join a team and compete in online games and earn points for their given side.  Players could also earn points through taking part in physical competitions, like crazy golf, as well as downloading games to play offline.  Hundreds of thousands of people took up the challenge and interacted with the Cadbury’s brand, albeit without a chocolate bar in sight!

When the focus point of this campaign – the Cadbury’s Challenge Bar – hit the shelves everyone had already chosen sides and was fully familiarised with the concept, guaranteeing cut-through to an audience that otherwise may have been reluctant to try another new Cadbury’s product.  The bar itself, was divided up into 3 pieces; one piece each with spots or stripes on, with the middle piece tobe contested for via further games printed on the inside of the wrapper.  The winner of the game won the middle piece and was also able to claim points back for their given side online.

From start to finish, this sponsorship activation campaign was a huge success.  Cadbury’s capitalised on their partnership with the Olympics through interaction and competition – engaging with their audience through digital, social and physical.

This is the future of sponsorship.