Tag: sponsor

How Sponsorship Impacts Sport Participation in the UK 11th August, 2015

After the 2008 Beijing Games and the backdrop of London 2012 there was a dramatic policy change by the new Conservative government. The Department for Culture, Media & Sport changed their focus from sport as a social intervention to that of a performance and excellence goal. Entitled ‘Game Plan’, a strategy for delivering the governments sport and physical activity objectives saw a policy named ‘Playing to Win’ introduced. This created a new era in British sport and looked to redefine it. Instead of creating success through mass participation of sport in the country, ‘Playing to Win’ looked to increase participation through success for top level elite athletes. Funding was redirected from lower level and grassroots sport to fewer but higher level athletes. The next superstars of British sport. This decrease in funding saw the reduction of sports being available to the average child.

Sport in a young person’s life is vital, it can enable a healthy lifestyle and plays a vital role in gaining social skills. Sports that have had a funding cut need to find resources from elsewhere in order to continue providing opportunities for young people. Sponsorship is not only crucial, but innovatively at the forefront of enabling grassroots sport to be made possible.

The Laureus Project, a foundation that looks to use sport to engage youth is a great example. In some of central London’s most violent areas they run The Midnight Basketball League. Held from 10pm – 6am, the aim is to use sport to reduce social issues such as conflict and crime. In order for the program to continue, Laureus use large corporate sponsors to fund coaches, venue hire and equipment. Mercedes-Benz and IWC Schaffhausen are the global partners and have both provided funding in excess of €60 million since the foundation began.

Another example can be seen with Street League, a football program that uses sport to engage youth in education, training and work. Youths from 16 – 24 attend the program which requires each individual to complete two hours in the classroom and two hours on the football field. The program has several partners such as Barclays, Capital One and Hyundai, helping support the interaction with over 1,000 young people each year.

Corporate sponsorship is demonstrating the substantial value and potential to the economy this platform can deliver, over and above traditional motivational aims. Nowhere is this more prominent than with grassroots sport. Due to the government’s policy change and grassroots funding cut, sponsorship is displaying a stark example of how it is bridging the gap where the government has left. If sponsorship wasn’t providing these resources and subsequent opportunities, young people would not take part in sport.

How to Capitalise on Sponsorship 14th July, 2015

One of the most common mistakes brands make when entering sponsorship is expecting that by simply aligning their name and logo with a property the ROI will come. Many brands spend a great deal of time planning and selecting which sponsorship would be most beneficial for their business but once the deal has been signed, brands should focus their efforts into making sure they capitalise on the sponsorship.

Create your own noise

A key reason why brands are often unsuccessful in sponsorship is because they fail to capitalise on the opportunities afforded to them once the deal has been signed. Brands spend months analysing the assets of a property and at the point of the handshake it is then up to the brand to exhaust all assets available to them. Unfortunately, a common trend is that sponsors expect the rights holder to create the ‘noise’ during the partnership – this is not always the case. There is a responsibility on the rights holder to support as much as they can, but it is not the rights holders’ primary focus to truly create the impact. Communications of the brand to the audience should be collaborated on rather than isolated to create the best outcome.

Save budget for activation

Another common error is that sponsors spend the entirety of their budget on the sponsorship fee, leaving no additional budget for brand activation during the partnership, therefore brands are unable to capitalise on the opportunities available to them. In essence, the sponsorship fee is the price for rights to utilise the assets. As part of the planning phase sponsors should weigh up the potential costs involved in order to take advantage of the assets e.g. entertaining, promotional products and activation costs. Sponsors must take this into account before committing to any sponsorship or risk an ineffective investment.

Experiment and be creative

The majority of brands stick to what they know best. If a brand continues a one dimensional approach to sponsorship and fails to experiment with different properties and channels they will inevitably miss out on opportunities to progress and reach new audiences. Sponsors should always make use of every vehicle available to them. Through the use of analytics and measurement tools, brands can now assess their success post sponsorship better than ever – considering a property is only as good as its assets, a brands’ success alongside that property is only as good as their determination to make the best use out of the assets purchased.

In the world of sponsorship, bigger isn’t always better 5th December, 2014

Throughout the year there have once again been rumblings that the NBA (United States National Basketball Association) are set to announce the opportunity for sponsors to appear on team jerseys for the first time. The cost of this 2½ inch by 2½ inch spot – an estimated $100 million. Whilst this might appear to be an excellent opportunity for sponsors there is the potential for oversight. Brands often strive for the largest assets with a ‘bigger the better’ focus without fully equating how this will impact the brand or the potential response from the public, instead of looking to maximise their current rights.

Rarely do sponsors fully utilise the assets available to them. There are a wealth of activations available to engage with their audience yet for many these remain unused, mostly due to a lack of creativity.

The All Blacks, New Zealand’s national rugby team was at the centre of a similar occurrence in recent years. As the most successful national rugby team on the planet with perhaps the most iconic jersey, which has always been sponsor clean (barring the small placement of Stienlager during part of the 90’s); a fact that filled fans with immense pride.

However this all changed in 2012 when AIG confirmed its place as Major Global Sponsor of the All Blacks. Included within this multi-million pound deal was the prime of place upon the legendary All Blacks shirt for the first time ever. On the one hand a ground breaking coup for AIG, yet the public outcry was huge with many New Zealanders speaking of boycotting AIG’s services, creating substantial adverse PR for the brand globally. This was not seen as a sponsor utilising an asset but instead a brand defacing that famous jersey.

Despite the fact that AIG used a logo 2/3 smaller than the norm this was not enough to dissipate the fallout. If the badging was crucial to AIG’s sponsorship (almost all other All Black’s sponsors have managed without this) they may have done more to quell the public’s uproar. They had the opportunity to engage with fans and to ask them how best the logo might be displayed on the jersey – allowing the fans to feel as though they were consulted on the matter, sparing some of the fallout.

One of the most severe effects from this may well have been the effect on AIG’s revenue. Not considering the additional sponsor fee for the badging opportunity, the impact from the boycotting of services and negative PR will have taken an impact on the businesses bottom line – one of the very things the sponsorship aimed to increase.

Ironically, the All Blacks was also one of the best utilisation of assets provided – by cereal brand Weet-Bix. As a long standing sponsor of the New Zealand rugby team (12 years), Weet-Bix took the opportunity to be creative with the assets they held rights to instead of opening the cheque book to acquire more branding. Parents were encouraged to visit the Weet-Bix website and enter their child’s birth date. Birthday cards were sent to the children with personalised messages ‘signed’ by the New Zealand players.

Weet-bix provides a prime example for how a sponsor can maximise the rights available to them. Electing to take a creative approach instead of opting for a badging the brand engaged emotionally with over two million people in New Zealand building the brand message, providing emotive moments for children and parents alike.

Whilst the drivers behind each brands’ sponsorship of the All Blacks may have been different, Weet-Bix shows how creatively utilising sponsorship rights can maximum emotional benefit instead of seeking bigger brand visibility and badging.

For all brands that are considering that $100 million NBA outlay, more consideration needs to be made on maximising current rights available, better engagement with a fanatical audience, and how to truly align with the sport to drive emotional buy-in.

London Twenty What? Brands opt for sponsorship flings as opposed to the ball and chain 28th July, 2014

Whatever happened to legacy? During the 2012 London Olympics we could scarcely move for the word, and in regards to sponsorship there is very little evidence of it. Since 2012 there have been four major global sporting events and yet still very few campaigns follow on after the life of an event. And why not?

As Lucien Boyer explains, the buzz of an event doesn’t last forever and as such brands should look to the long term if they want their partnership to provide an effective return, rather than being accused of ‘cashing in’. Sponsorship should be seen as a marriage between the event, marketing, and its values and vision. A long-term partnership sets a clear direction for a company’s future marketing, allowing the brand to develop a strong message and engage with the target audience consistently over time.

The London Olympics and subsequent 5 years offered a plethora of global athletic events all located within the UK; first London 2012, now the Glasgow 2014 Games, and soon to follow the London 2017 World Athletic Championships (not to mention GB competing at Rio 2016). If a brand had wanted to align themselves with the values of athletics and use global sport as a means to engage the audience (UK or abroad) there might rarely have been a better opportunity.

Sainsbury’s serves as a prime example in delivering sponsorship this way. Having sponsored the 2012 Paralympic games to great effect (as the only ‘big four’ supermarket to make gains in market share during this period posting a 5.6% increase YOY), Sainsbury’s didn’t stop there. They finalised an agreement to partner with the British Paralympic Association for the next four years and also to sponsor the British Athletics Major Event series, including the Anniversary Games and British Grand Prix in August. In addition to this they launched a one million pound scheme to provide coaching and facilities to help disabled children lead more active lives providing an ROI that “will not just be measured in pure marketing terms”.

So having returned this week from a jaunt north of the boarder to indulge in the Commonwealth Games, I couldn’t help but hear that word again on everyone’s lips. One of Glasgow’s major sponsors SSE is looking to change this. As an Official Partner to the games, SSE used an onsite Twitter leader board to engage on Twitter and experientially at the Green Zone. Furthermore, they had a number of brand ambassadors from the home counties, provided long term naming rights for the SSE Hydro (hosting the netball and gymnastics), and are looking to continue the long term effects by increasing the funding for the SSE Next Generation programme giving support to aspiring athletes in the UK. Only time will tell with how much vigour brands will continue to engage now the curtain has closed on Glasgow. Who knows, come Rio 2016 perhaps the word ‘legado’ will never even be uttered.

Sir Bradley Reminds Us It’s About More Than A Logo 24th July, 2014

Sir Bradley Wiggins’ comments on the eve of the Commonwealth Games that the Emirates branding on the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow might have left Sir Chris feeling a little “done over”.

For those of us in the sponsorship industry though, Wiggins’ comments provided another reminder of just how important it is for sponsors to clearly demonstrate the value they’re adding to an event.

For Emirates, who have activated their sponsorship pre-event by spreading the excitement of the Games across the Commonwealth through the Queen’s Baton Relay and unveiled a new Emirates Lounge at Glasgow Airport just in time for the Games, it will be interesting to see how the airline actively engages audiences now the Games are underway.
The recent World Cup in Brazil pushed digital and brand engagement to the fore and further supported the premise that effective sponsorship is more than just a collection of logos and branding at an event. Sponsorship should help to actively engage with consumers allowing the audience to interact and create an emotional tie with a brand.

We’ve seen major brands and sponsors bend-over-backwards at recent global sports events to use meaningful and relevant activation to bring their brands as close to the action as possible. Here’s our selection of podium placers from recent global events where engagement was king.

P&G – ‘Thank You Mom’ (London 2012 & Sochi 2014)

To much critical acclaim P&G executed a clearly defined and emotionally charged message through an integrated“Thank You Mom” campaign, encompassing a host of digital channels, athlete ambassadors including the likes ofVictoria Pendleton and Jessica Ennis-Hill and the release of an app allowing over 50,000 of us to say thank you to mum too!

Beats – London 2012

Beats was just one of a number of brands who managed, temporarily at least, to evade the brand police and creatively engage with audiences at London 2012 without sponsoring the event. Not only supplying (what seemed like) every athlete with a custom pair of Beats, they also created a pop-up space in Shoreditch House allowing 4,000 people including Olympic athletes from all over the globe to interact with the brand, watch the Games and make use of a photo booth which was used to generate content for poster shots later in the campaign.

Budweiser – ‘Rise as One’ (FIFA World Cup 2014)

Budweiser made sure to engage with its audience whether they were in Brazil or not. Fans from all over the globe were encouraged to get involved via Twitter with users urged to tap #ManoftheMatch tweets from @FIFAcom which generated Budweiser branded player photos and a tweet and vote mechanic. Many fans lucky enough to make the trip to Brazil were greeted with rewards in the form of the Budweiser Hotel which hosted parties and events throughout the tournament and acted as a hub for over 3000 satellite Budweiser parties all around the world.

With 1.5 billion people tuning in to the Commonwealth Games let’s hope brands involved make it equally engaging!

The Sponsorship Selfie 1st May, 2014

With June just round the corner, there has been time for a bit of light reflection about what 2014 has served up so far, and what a bizarre year it’s been. The list already includes conflict, flooding, missing planes, #moyesout, little Georgie, twerking and last but certainly not least, ‘the selfie’!

However lauded the ‘selfie’ might be, it can offer quite a good starting point for rights holders looking to gain sponsorship. Such introspection should be the first port of call when beginning the process of sourcing sponsorship, rather than the immediate ‘show me the money’ approach.

Making sure you know what you want to look like before your sponsorship selfie is essential; therefore, forming goals and objectives in order to create a pre-determined strategy will be key. So, how is this broken down – what should rights holders be concentrating on?

Engagement

Engagement is the acid test for any successful sponsorship. Making sure that sponsors are engaging with your audience and increasing the customer experience is essential; logo placement is never enough. This also helps drive other factors such as footfall, PR and unlocking extra assets within your platform. In recent years, O2 have been pioneers in engagement, using it to reduce churn and increase customer loyalty. This was subsequently achieved through priority moments, which amongst many things, offered fans a catalogue of benefits for being an O2 customer.

Added value

Sponsor activation and brand presence, if used strategically, should add value to your property. This has to be done with the brand image and objectives in mind, making sure that there is an authentic fit and your integrity is not challenged. Over the past twelve months integrated stadiums have been a hot topic; none showcase this more poignantly than the rise in Cisco’s investment. This activation fulfils a number of objectives, and ultimately allows the stadium to generate more revenue by offering mobile purchasing of refreshments, and the initial costs are offset by an exchange of assets in return.

Credibility

Having the endorsement from a big brand can revolutionise a rights holder’s public image, and provide the credibility needed to stand in an ever cluttered market place. British Airways’ new partnership with the Rooftop Film Club has done just this; an underground and relatively unknown rights holder has the backing of partner who will add kudos and an air of reputability (watch this space for 2014).

Not being blinded by the money is key to utilising any partnership to the full; a truly successful sponsorship deal must comprise all of the benefits above. However, going against the true spirit of the selfie – try not to be vain, consider the ugly duckling partnership. By broadening your horizons and keeping an eye out for the unlikely partnership, like ‘Good Earth Teas’ have formed with music supremo EMI, can launch something new – which is what partnerships are for, right?

Much Taboo About Nothing – Engaging new theatre fans through sponsorship 26th March, 2014

An emphatic drop in arts funding over the last decade has forced public funded organisations to re-think their commercial strategies in a bid to remain profitable. The ever increasing pull of the purse strings, combined with an overcrowded marketplace has lead theatres across the land to seek sponsorship in order to keep up. Yet with most discerning customers around who cannot be fooled or cajoled, the trick it seems, is bagging the right sponsor.

Barriers to entry for sponsors within theatreland have come from different directions; firstly, many see sponsorship as a taboo that can drive away the younger audience, and therefore brands trying to reach this demographic. Secondly, scepticism from the industry plays a vital role, with many wishing to retain ‘artistic independence’ from sponsors, choosing ones which don’t undermine the ethics they promote. However, over the past ten years with the ever increasing need to adjust, and with the need to attract new audiences, there has been an increase in more corporate sponsorships – has this brought the right brands in and has it benefitted the industry?

Subsiding theatre tickets in order to bring in a younger, and larger crowd has been the corner stone of many partnerships in recent years. Travelex’ssponsorship of the National Theatre has lasted for over ten years, offering over 2 million reduced priced tickets, 360,000 of these have been to first time theatre goers. Travelex themselves may not be recognised as the most desirable sponsor, if you only remember them as taking a large commission off your holiday money at the departure lounge; they do, however, offer a break from a corporate dominated market. Whether you like it, don’t like it or are ambivalent, there is no denying that PWC’s investment in The Old Vic has had a considerable impact on the theatre, especially their investment which focusses upon nurturing young talent. Accenture have also been big supporters of the National, choosing to support more grass roots theatre, and showcasing their tech credentials by designing a touch screen behind the scenes tour of the theatre.

Sponsorship by corporates such as Shell and BP, have attracted plenty of criticism over the years with the feeling that this positive publicity is only there to service their corporate image, shining the spotlight away from their environmental records . BP has come under considerable criticism with their sponsorship of the Globe, which has famously been undermined by theReclaim Shakespeare Company who regularly publicise BP’s global mishaps.

Sponsorship is part of today’s theatre makeup, and its clearly better off for it financially; however, if their objectives are to be attracting new, younger or more customers then surely they should be looking for brands which represent this. Travelex is a step in the right direction, and shows this can be built by creating more engaging campaigns.

Leverage vs. Rights: The Evolution of Sponsorship Spend 19th July, 2012

A weekend showcasing two of this year’s biggest boxing showdowns has prompted a blog looking further into sponsorship’s very own rights holder rivalry: the niche underdog versus the undisputed mass appeal property.

As sponsorship history goes, the large-scale established property has always been the primary choice for bigger brands to use as a marketing platform with such rights holders offering more exposure, better hospitality and a more expansive opportunity for activation than the smaller properties out there. However, brands are beginning to adopt a new approach by increasingly taking the power in their own hands via focusing investment towards leverage. No brand has received more success in this area of marketing than Red Bull. By taking ownership of smaller, less mainstream, properties from breakdancing to cliff-diving, the energy drink has been able to take control of brand messaging; completely tailoring their sponsorship, and the property, towards the values of their target demographic. With such success in publicising their presence within the actions sports arena, the brand has even gone one step further with the creation of Red Bull Media House, a platform allowing for extended communication of exclusive Red Bull content across TV, mobile, digital and print.

Where once it was a typical Haye vs. Chisora situation, where all bets and confidence were placed within the bigger name, brands are opening up to the concept of taking the side of the underdog, using their own financial and marketing resources to aggressively infiltrate the market, creating a more Garcia vs. Khan type scenario.

Despite 22% of global sponsors only investing in pure sponsorship rights with no leverage, the ratio of activation investment compared to rights currently stands at an all-time high of 1.7:1. So what is the reasoning behind brands shifting investment towards leveraging their sponsorships? Quite simply, when executed properly, activation spend is inextricably linked to return on investment. The more relevant a brand can make itself to an audience’s personal interests, the more likely the audience is going to buy into the concept. By working its way into the lifestyle fabric of a key demographic, a brand will naturally become the preferred choice among the numerous options available to the consumer.

As an energy drink, Red Bull has created a brand image that personifies stimulation and rebellion, pushing the boundaries in everything they do and showcasing the product’s core function on a truly emotional level. This innovative approach has in turn ensured that the original energy drink has continued to dominate the market, with competitors from Monster to Relentless all playing catch-up to Red Bull’s 42% market share – a true testament to the benefits of sponsorship leverage.

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