Tag: Music

My Top 3 Digital Sponsorship Campaigns 25th March, 2013

Sponsorship campaigns have always relied on brand synergy and mutually benefitting concepts but now it is imperative to incorporate the partnerships through a digital platform. Here are three of my favourite digital sponsorship campaigns…

Nike and Apple (Nike+)

The Nike+ sponsorship campaign stands out for simply the sheer size of the two brands involved, as corporate logos go, few are as identifiable. For Nike and Apple there was no case of ‘clash of the titans’- merged products (shoes, sensors, kit) allowed joggers to be notified of progress by iPod prompts as well as tracking distance and duration. The data could be uploaded to a Mac or PC, and then on to Nikeplus.com, giving people the chance to record progress, set targets and share results.

For Apple, the sponsorship allowed them to target consumers from a different angle and created a much more fulfilling exercise experience thanks to their technology. For Nike, the sponsorship helped them shift their brand image away from bad press concerning labour ethics and high-profile court cases previous to 2006. Aligning to Apple, which had a very clean reputation at the time, aimed to help add credibility to some of the promotional tags that Nike were trying to shed.

Vice and Intel

Vice is brash, incisive and radical, which is exactly why Intel bit, their aim was to diversify their brand image. John Galvin, director of Intel’s partner marketing group, admitted that “if we give music fans the opportunity to have this amazing experience, maybe they will think about Intel differently, becausewithout our technology, this wouldn’t be possible.”

Having Intel as a sponsor not only associates Vice to a global brand but it also acts as a service for their multiple digital ventures. Intel has now partnered with Vice on two of their most impressive subsidiaries, The Creators Project and Noisey. The collaboration has a real sense of synergy – Vice finds fresh talent and creative pioneers in order to distribute the content and footage while Intel supply cutting edge ways for fans to engage digitally.

Kopparberg and Spotify

Independent cider brewer, Kopparberg partnered with Spotify and Last.fm in 2012 to create the Kopparberg Festival Player, which helps UK festival-goers plan their schedule of bands they want to watch over the summer based on Spotify playlists, the app featured playlist sharing and chances to win tickets to the most sought-after festivals in the UK.

The appeal of this campaign is Kopparberg’s chance to connect with fans through music, rather than direct, brash marketing which festival-goers tend to disapprove of. Furthermore, the partnerships drives awareness of the brand and drinking Kopparberg before they even get to event, which cuts out the competition and resonates with the customer. With their involvement at more than 15 UK festivals and major events in 2012, this became a key reason for their sales success.

Slingshot Sponsorship Announced as Exclusive Sponsorship Agency for Children's Charity Rays of Sunshine 22nd February, 2013

Slingshot Sponsorship has been announced as the exclusive sponsorship agency for Rays of Sunshine Children’s Charity’s 10th Anniversary Concert, which will be held at London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall 6 July 2013.

Set in one of London’s most beautiful and exclusive venues, the Rays of Sunshine Concert promises to be a night of unprecedented music and entertainment.  With past line-ups featuring a host of Britain’s most treasured pop stars ranging from JLS to Pixie Lott, Rays of Sunshine’s Concert is shaping up to be as unique as the children themselves.

Granting its first wish in 2003, Rays of Sunshine Children’s Charity was formed with the aim of granting wishes to children with serious and terminal illnesses.  The charity’s promise is to grant wishes however impossible it may seem.  Ranging from hospital ward wishes, to organising events and outings for large groups, Rays of Sunshine has granted trips to Disney World and even meetings with superstars like Beyonce and One Direction.  What is more, Rays of Sunshine will be celebrating its 3,000 wish in line with its 10th Anniversary.

Jackie Fast, Managing Director of Slingshot Sponsorship stated:

Slingshot is delighted to be working alongside Rays of Sunshine for their annual Concert.  As a charity, Rays of Sunshine changes lives, and it is a privilege for our agency to be working with this highly unique organisation.  We are excited to explore the prospect of delivering partnerships that will enhance this special night for the children.

Rays of Sunshine’s Concert is one of many wonderful events the charity organises throughout the year, to raise money for children at their time of need.  One mother stated after attending the event, “I have never seen Ria like this before, she has so much energy and charisma, I cannot thank Rays of Sunshine enough for granting her the opportunity to attend a once in a lifetime event.”

Jane Sharpe, CEO, Rays of Sunshine commented:

We are proud to be working with Slingshot Sponsorship.  The expertise that Slingshot has crafted around events similar to Rays of Sunshine’s Concert will help us to deliver an event that will stay with these children forever.  The concert has become an integral part of our calendar and we have every confidence that alongside Slingshot, we will deliver the best concert in its history.

Sponsorship opportunities for the Rays of Sunshine Concert are currently available.

Mencap’s Little Noise Sessions 2012 in Association with Toshiba 3rd December, 2012

Slingshot were back at Mencap’s Little Noise Sessions to witness one of our agency’s favourite events of the year.  We always have a great time over at the St-John-at-Hackney and this year was no different with Gary Barlow, The Maccabees, Ollly Murs, Amy Macdonald (pictured) + many more performing in this truly spectacular venue.

An added dimension for 2012

This year saw Toshiba come on board as Headline Sponsors, in what was their first venture into music sponsorship.  Given it was their first foray into partnering with a music event Toshiba got some great engagement through the platform, utilizing an extensive range of channels to truly leverage their sponsorship of Little Noise.

‘Little Noise Sessions’ app – Creating Excitement

Toshiba’s ‘Little Noise Sessions’ Facebook app held competitions, quizzes and artist bios that got excited fans even more excited during the build up to the week long series of gigs. With the Little Noise Sessions now in its seventh year, the page was full of interesting pieces of information on a range of legendary artists that have performed at the series of acoustic events.

Driving traffic through Pre-Sales & Auctions

In addition to Toshiba’s Facebook app, Toshiba also ran a number of pre-sale ticket promotions to give fans the chance to get their hands on the prized Little Noise tickets, which could be accessed through their Facebook page.  These pre-sales not only drove fans to the fun and interactive content held at ToshibaUK, but meant Toshiba were rewarding the hardcore fanbase that attends Little Noise each year, ensuring higher levels of brand engagement.

Spotify Partnership

In addition to their own activity Toshiba teamed up with one of the other sponsors Slingshot brought on board – Spotify.  Toshiba used Spotify playlists in the build-up to Little Noise to illustrate the calibre of acts that have played in the previous six years, as well as providing more content for their Facebook fans.

On-site Activations

This Spotify partnership supported by an amazing Toshiba ‘section’ full of Toshiba products, some of which held a playlist competition. Users selected a song, with the chance for their song to be played as the opening track for the evening’s entertainment, as well as the chance to win a Toshiba tablet.

There were also promotional staff in the Toshiba section, showing people how to use the latest Toshiba gadgets, along with a photobooth, which gained extensive traffic in between acts.  Check out the photos from all 6 nights here.

Overall, there were 563 photobooth photos uploaded to Facebook, which with an average of 2.5 people in, means 1,400 used the Toshiba Facebook photo booth.  Given that around 9,000 people attend the events, about 20% of those that attended used the Toshiba photobooth over the six nights.  Users got a Polaroid of themselves and were encouraged to go onto the Toshiba Facebook to tag themselves in the uploaded images.

In terms of their digital engagement, Toshiba saw their Facebook following increase from 28,000 – 40,000 in the space of a little over a month.

Charity tie-in

One of the most important aspects from Toshiba’s perspective was the opportunity to get involved in helping out Mencap as a charity.  Not only did Toshiba run a number of fund-raising initiatives during the events (e.g. selling lanyards that contained exclusive Little Noise content), but also got their entire marketing team to volunteer at a local Mencap centre to help a number ofpeople with learning difficulties.

In short, Toshiba’s sponsorship Little Noise allowed extensive engagement through a fantastic music platform, while supporting an extremely important charity.

A huge thank you must go out to everyone at Mencap, Toshiba, Spotify, Jo Whiley and a whole range of other contributors who made the event possible.

The line-up from the six nights:

Monday 19/11/2012 – Gary Barlow, Laura Mvula + Josephine + Nell Bryden

Tuesday 20/11/2012 – Olly Murs, Lawson + Loveable Rogues

Wednesday 21/11/2012 – Richard Hawley, First Aid Kit + King Charles

Friday 23/11/2012 – The Maccabees, Jamie N Commons + Jessie Ware

Saturday 24/11/2012 – Noah and the Whale, Villagers + Lucy Rose + Tom Odell

Sunday 25/11/2012 – Amy Macdonald, Karin Park, Newton Faulkner

Does Sponsorship Enhance the Festival experience?? 18th September, 2012

So it’s the middle of yet another mild British summer and I’m standing in the middle of a muddy field, surrounded by an eclectic array of people listening to very loud music and to cap it all off it’s raining – who would have imagined this would be the perfect environment for brand engagement.

Music festivals have become an important and developing platform for sponsorship by larger and smaller brands alike. For the festival organisers sponsorship is an important revenue stream, and from the brand’s perspective, the sponsorship of music festivals and events provides opportunities for bespoke communication and interaction with the predominantly young and receptive festival audience. However, are the brands actually concerned about improving the festival experience or are they just in it for their own benefit?

Whether or not corporate sponsorship activation should be allowed within the festival arena is the subject of much debate, with many events such as the Green Man Festival in the Brecon Beacons adopting the traditional ‘Early Glastonbury’ or ‘Woodstock’ approach of zero-branding. However, the real question that should be asked is whether or not the sponsorship actually benefits the experience of the attendees. After all, this is the sole reason for attending the festival in the first place.

Festival goers are passionate about music but most go to festivals first and foremost for the overall experience, something that can be looked back on for years after the event has passed. With this in mind, surely the primary objective of the festival organiser is to ensure that festival goers have the best time possible and if brand activations can help achieve this then why should they be sidelined?

In a study by Havas Sports and Entertainment of six festivals across six European countries and involving 2,244 respondents, they found that 65% of music festival goers believe brands improve the festival experience; with 60% interacting with two or more brands at festivals and 85% liking the brand activations they visited.

In the case of the Green Man and others, it appears that festival organisers do not want to draw too much attention to the sponsors in fear that this would have a negative effect on the integrity of the event. However, Havas’s study does much to dispel the view that music festivals are a dangerous arena for brand sponsors and suggests brands are a welcome part of the festival experience if they develop activations that add value.

Sponsorship therefore delivers a three-way benefit, as the more attendees that partake in and enjoy the activations, the stronger the relationship with the brands and the event. In the over-saturated and intensely competitive festival market of today, festival organisers are constantly looking for new ways in which to attract and retain their audience. As a result, engagement is becoming increasingly expensive, with sponsorship therefore proving to be a highly cost-effective method in which to enhance the overall festival experience.

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.

The Invisible Brand 17th July, 2012

Sponsorship in the past has focused largely on naming rights and branding. However, increasingly brands are moving their attention away from this approach towards more creative activations and a less ‘visible’ form of sponsorship.

Invisible Sponsorship

Festivals are a good example of where understated sponsorship can be the most effective. With a different music festival virtually every weekend of the summer in the UK, it is no surprise that plenty of brands want a piece of the action.  However, festival sponsorship requires careful consideration on behalf of the brand.

Often a highlight to their summer, people tend to approach festivals with a more relaxed vibe and are therefore more open-minded and receptive which can make sponsorship of these events hugely appealing from a brand perspective. However, too much obvious branding and a lack of relevance to the event could have a negative effect.  Festival goers want to relax and enjoy the music and brands should not make them mistake of trying to get involved if they won’t be perceived as bringing something positive to the experience.

Festival goers complained that gaming brand Xbox’s sponsorship of Bestival was not in line with their outdoor experience and this created a negative perception of Xbox’s involvement with the event. Whereas, alcohol brands have such a good response from sponsorship of festivals because the brand is integrated into the event, and in turn leads to people associating it with their positive experience.

When approaching a sponsorship campaign surrounding an event such as a festival brands should consider:

  • Creating the chance for the audience to experience the brand at the event in a relevant format through experiential activities
  • Amplifying the best attributes of the event through the sponsorship campaign – adding to the experience not taking attention away
  • Providing exclusive content in some form to share with the audience
  • Ensuring the brand has relevance to the event in some format

It is no surprise that the positive environment surrounding festivals continues to entice brands, however, it is important that brands think beyond the obvious message and provide real value to the event in order to gain the crowd’s approval.

The Blurring of Sports & Entertainment Marketing 12th July, 2012

We recently saw the launch of Manchester City and Umbro’s kit for the 2012-13 season with a little help from City’s most famous supporter, Noel Gallagher. This is yet another example of crossover between the two key industries for sponsorship spend which prompts the question: what does this blurring of sports and entertainment really mean for sponsors?

Sport has always been a form of entertainment however the two concepts were once treated as two separate entities. Sport was solely about the display of athleticism whilst entertainment strictly referred to music, film and other performance-based art forms.

Sports stars are now entertainment personas, using their sporting foundations to build brands that extend way beyond their reason for being famous in the first place. Whether this means becoming a commentator, designing their own fashion labels or trying their hand at acting (Michael Jordan in Space Jam has to be worth a mention), sporting personalities along with their sponsors are exploiting markets that lie increasingly further away from sport, thus introducing the industry to new territories whilst continuing to pull the two worlds of sport and entertainment even closer together.

What does this mean for sponsors?

Sponsors are in turn benefiting from athletes promoting their brand in front of a range of audiences, making endorsement deals more valuable than ever. The activity of athletes off the field, court, track or any other sporting arena has also heightened considerably, giving brands a more continual relationship with the personality they are associating with. Social media platforms, especially Twitter, are providing athletes with a voice away from the field of play, resulting in a 24/7 dialogue with fans. Brand association and messaging are therefore becoming significantly more impactful with athletes personally posting images, videos and comments relating to the products they use.

Sport as a whole has also seen a transition as leagues and tournaments have been opened up to new markets; going on tour just as a musician would. With the success of such worldwide exhibitions as the Harlem Globetrotters, the NFL is now staging a season game at Wembley and drawing a sell-out crowd every year. Proposals for the Premier League to go global have also been brought to attention in recent years and with an increasing ratio of international to English players and managers, it would appear inevitable that we can expect to see games from the world’s greatest domestic football league being played in international cities from New York to Hong Kong. This will in turn attract brands with no previous ties to the sport, opening up the game to a whole host of additional markets around the globe.

What to expect for the future

Traditional sports are now experiencing a transition into a genre more similar to that of bull fighting and wrestling with athletes thriving off the opportunity to engage with the crowd. This is in turn broadening the commercial awareness of sporting professionals, making them more susceptible to working with sponsors in order to design, brand and market their products.

Moving forward, we can expect to see a vast change in the existing sports marketing landscape. Athletes and brands will continue to increase their online presence whilst promoting their sponsorships on a truly global stage with (what were) domestic competitions taking place from all corners of the world.

Sports sponsorship is still very much focused around the ideology of winning, success and excellence along with reaching global markets, however, with athletes becoming more of a lifestyle interest, we can expect to see some unusual brands popping up in this arena in years to come. This year we have already seen Rovio, the creator of the addictive Angry Birds app, sponsoring Caterham F1’s Heikki Kovalainen in Monaco as well as The Dark Knight Rises, the latest Batman film, joining forces with Lotus at Silverstone – two true testaments to the convergence of sports and entertainment.

Slingshot Sponsorship Renews Partnership with Mencap for 2012 12th January, 2012

Slingshot Sponsorship secure contract renewal with Mencap for 2012

Mencap, the leading UK based charity helping people with a learning disability, has re-appointed Slingshot Sponsorship to continue to develop and implement a new sponsorship strategy across their high-profile events.  After an extremely successful year together, the renewal will see a continuation of Slingshot’s work to increase awareness as well as increase the commercial value for the charity through creation of sponsorship opportunities.

Slingshot Sponsorship will assist Mencap with consulting and implementation for upcoming events including April Fools – a stand-up comedy night at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo; the Little Noise Sessions music festival – an acoustic and intimate, 6-night music event curated by Jo Wiley; the fantastic swimming event Mencap Mile held at the Olympic venue; and many more.

Leo Visconti, Head of Corporate Development at Mencap:

We’ve had a great first year working with Slingshot, who have delivered some excellent sponsorship deals for us in 2011. We are now looking forward to bigger and better for 2012 and some delivering amazing events with Slingshot’s help.

Jackie Fast, Managing Director of Slingshot Sponsorship:

We are pleased to be working with Mencap again in 2012.  The Little Noise Sessions and April Fools are two events that we are always confident of attracting high profile sponsors for.  We’ve really enjoyed working with all the staff at Mencap and look forward to helping them promote their brilliant cause in the year ahead.

If you are interested in finding out more about what Slingshot Sponsorship do, or want to get involved in one of Mencap’s events, please contact: [email protected], or call us on +44 (0) 20 7226 5052

Let Little Noise Commence 23rd November, 2011

Mencap’s Little Noise Sessions sponsored by ASUS and curated by Mencap ambassador Jo Whiley kicked off with a bang last night.  Held at iconic church, St John-at-Hackney, the first of six shows saw Elbow headlining last night and, as many tweeps this morning commented, it was indeed epic.


With the St John-at-Hackney priest blessing the event, it would have been impossible for the gig to not go as well as it did.

The fundraising festival runs from tonight until Sunday and also includes gigs from the likes of rapper Example, pop diva Goldfrapp, Coldplay’s front man Chris Martin, and Scottish Mercury Music Prize nominee King Creosote.

Sponsors ASUS have tied it in with their fantastic campaign In Search of Incredible promoting their new N series of laptops and Zenbooks that have incredible sound systems developed with Bang & Olufsen.

We can’t wait to see how the rest of the week turns out!

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