Tag: Sponsorship

Korean Tourism Organisation Partner with GB Taekwondo for 2014 18th December, 2013

The Korean Tourism Organisation (KTO) has been announced as the ‘Preferred Destination Partner’ for the Olympic gold-medal winning, GB Taekwondo for 2014. The year-long partnership will see KTO run a number of initiatives throughout the next year, starting with a presence at the inaugural World Taekwondo Grand Prix at Manchester Central between 13-15^th December. The event, which saw 250 of the world’s top athletes compete for valuable qualification points ahead of Rio 2016, was used by KTO to launch a unique sports package that will take holiday-makers to places of sporting interest across Korea, including the T1 Stadium (the world’s first taekwondo specific complex).

Ramy Salameh, PR Manager of the Korea Tourism Organisation said: “As ‘preferred destination partner’ we open a new chapter to an already long-standing relationship with GB Taekwondo. Korea’s national sport has grown to new heights in the UK thanks to London 2012 successes. Korea will open a new Taekwondo Park in 2014, which has already attracted interest from sports tour operators and will enable sports fans to visit the ‘home of Taekwondo”.

As Preferred Destination Partners KTO will run a number of joint promotions with the Manchester-based team in 2014; including utilizing athlete appearances to promote the launch of the T1 Stadium in Korea, offering travel promotions to GB Taekwondo’s database and further integration across GB Taekwondo communications.

Steve Flynn, GB Taekwondo Operations Director, commented: “We’re delighted to announce the Korean Tourism Organisation as our ‘Preferred Destination Partner’ for 2014. They have been really supportive of us over the years so we’re looking forward to further promoting Korea and its new purpose-built Taekwondo Park as a tourist destination to an ever growing taekwondo audience in the UK”

The World Taekwondo Grand Prix took place at Manchester Central on December 13-15, 2013.

A Personal Touch: Using sponsorship to engage consumers locally 13th December, 2013

The increase in the number of communication channels between consumer and brand has brought with it a greater amount of choice for the public when purchasing products and services. In order to cater towards this, brands have looked to put the consumer first, engaging them on a personal level to retain their loyalty. Here are four key criteria that brands have built into their sponsorship strategy to develop customer loyalty, and where it has been done effectively.

Limited Edition Offers: O2 have set the standard for this over the past five years with their Priority Moments, which was initiated to increase customer retention and reduce churn. They’ve achieved this thorough giving customers a more personalised bespoke service, offering VIP tickets and first refusal on anything from music to rugby tickets. Having recently teamed up with Nike, they now offer a comprehensive range of perks to reward the loyalty of their customers.

Tapping into Passions: Tapping into people’s passions can propel brands into the hearts and minds of the consumer. However associating with specific fans is a risky business, because you can easily alienate groups by associating with their rivals. McDonald’s avoided this with their sponsorship of Euro 2012; this was geared around harnessing people’s passions for their individual team, where they then competed against one another through an online app. By staying completely bipartisan but engaging with each fan made this app the most downloaded throughout the tournament, building a strong rapport amongst followers of Euro 2012.

Regionalising the Model: The football club Manchester United have developed an unprecedented regional sponsorship campaign whereby they have developed regional partners in order to promote their brand overseas. Associating with more local companies has allowed them to engage with fans on a local level, creating greater recognition.

Second-Screen Engagement: Having consumers directly interact with brands content can provide lasting exposure which could either cost millions to build, or years to develop. Coca-Cola created the Coca-Cola Polar Bowl which provided a second screen experience game during the Super Bowl, where fans from either side would tune in to watch two bears live reactions in relation to what was happening on the pitch. This generated nine million views with an annual watch time of 28 minutes, systematically giving Coke unparalleled exposure, and kudos amongst fans.

With brands such as Vodafone who announced this week a shift in their sponsorship strategy from a corporate badging exercise to a locally engaged model, it shows consumers are driving the need to be listened to and engaged with. Keeping brands on their toes and opening the door to more versatile partnerships.

Connecting with the Youth- Successful Sponsorship Strategies to Young People 3rd December, 2013

Digital media proliferation has led to social media platforms becoming paramount to successful sponsorship strategies directed at the youth. Younger consumers also tend to be far more receptive to campaigns based around their passions, of which sport and music are the most universal.

Deloitte and Further Education

Sponsorship campaigns in Universities are becoming increasingly common, with the most well-known examples coming through sport. Deloitte’s collaboration with the British Universities and Colleges Sport body (BUCS) is particularly successful. The 5-year partnership deal focuses on a ‘Leadership Academy’ model which delivers events to BUCS members to experience and develop leadership and communication skills.

Through the partnership, Deloitte has first-hand access to thousands of graduates which enables them to maintain their position as one of the top graduate employers (#2 in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2013). It also gives Deloitte an opportunity to build a rapport with students, making them a leading choice for career-searching graduates.

Spotify and Bacardi on Tour

Consumers tend to be more receptive to campaigns that draw upon personal interests. ‘Spotify on Tour’ tapped into this by teaming up with Bacardi to bring music based experiences to fans across America. They created intimate gigs and festivals with renowned artists such as Ed Sheeran and Kendrick Lemar with an emphasis on musical discovery for real music lovers.

The project was supported by a dedicated ‘Spotify on Tour’ which enabled sharing of tour dates, exclusive images and video content. The campaign resonated with the younger generation, which in turn helped Spotify increase its Facebook ‘likes’ to over 2.7 million.

Coca-Cola – Fusion of Music and Sport

Sporting events also represent golden opportunities to engage with young people. Coca-Cola directed its sponsorship of London 2012 towards the youth with the innovative ‘Move to the Beat’ campaign. ‘Move to the Beat’ celebrated British talent by combining the critically acclaimed architects Pernilla & Asif and award winning DJ Mark Ronson. It was based over four different platforms: the Coca-Cola song, documentary, Facebook app and the Coca-Cola Olympic Games pavilion, and had the overall objective of bringing ‘teens closer to the Olympic Games by fusing sport with their passion for music’. The campaign generated a vast amount of online activity including 245 million search impressions, an additional 1.5 million Facebook likes and 21,000 Twitter followers. In addition, Coke became the 2^nd most talked about brand during the London Olympics.

Much of the success of these campaigns can be attributed to the use of highly relevant content for young people and the right platform for the market. Given the significant changes to the way young people are now marketed to it will be fascinating to see how the sponsorship landscape continues to evolve and how brands adapt to this fertile marketing demographic.

Is Following your Passion Leading us Astray? 2nd December, 2013

I recently had the pleasure of guest lecturing for the amazing students at the University of Northampton. I have been fortunate enough to have spoken at a number of Universities this year including Cambridge and Westminster and always find it invigorating – mostly because it was not too long ago that I was on the other side of the lectern. However, this recent presentation included an opportunity to sit down with the students afterwards where I was able to ask them questions about their views on sponsorship. When asked what their plans were after graduation, one student’s reply particularly peaked my interest – she wanted to work in football. When I dug a bit further, I found she was so passionate about football that she would be happy with any role just as long as it was working in football. Digging further still I queried whether she would take a similar role at a cricket club? Her reply was unsurprisingly ‘no’.

Passion is what makes our industry different. Our ability to tap into consumers’ passions – whether it is for sport, music, art, or even their own industry awards, enables us to derive value based on a connection to the audience. It is what separates our marketing strategy from above-the-line campaigns. It is what makes our industry unique.

However, I would argue that our biggest strength can also be our biggest weakness. Far too often I meet Commercial Directors at sport clubs whose last role was on the pitch; Artist Liaisons and Media Managers for festivals that previously were lead singers of failed bands. To make matters worse, there have been multiple occasions where we have lost pitches to other sponsorship agencies because we were ‘not passionate enough’ about sport or music – and in one bizarre case, yoga. It seems that the criteria for being employed in sponsorship can sometimes be judged based on passion for the activity rather than the skill set required to do the job.

We have therefore hit the core part of the problem: the skill set is ill-defined and vague at best. Sponsorship encompasses so many different types of roles in so many different industries that it is almost impossible to define who would excel or even who would enjoy the type of work. In our agency alone, not one person entered the industry with the intent to become a sponsorship professional (I wanted to be a mathematician). And even with the clients that we are working with, some of our most creative and successful work comes from industries/organisations I didn’t even know existed until a couple years ago; and therefore had never had the chance to become passionate about.

Though our industry is built out of passion; passions, unfortunately, do not create the pathway to success in sponsorship. More needs to be done within the industry to define and communicate the attributes and skill sets of a successful career. In addition, the industry needs to work closer with educators and course leaders to highlight opportunities that may be overlooked, in order to help realistically hone graduate passions into a career that they love. This not to say however, that a passion for football won’t lead to success within football sponsorship – far from it. Many incredibly successful sponsorship professionals have a strong passion for the industry they work in (whether it be sport, art, or music). But it is experience in doing sponsorship – regardless of industry – that will prevail. As Gladwell states in Outliers: The Story of Success ‘You need 10,000 hours of experience to become an expert’.

You better get started.

A Week At Slingshot 17th October, 2013

We get up to a lot at the Slingshot offices, so we thought we’d give a bit of insight into our daily goings on. Our very own Jamie Dey willingly offered his services. Having joined the team four months ago, Jamie has a fresh take on Slingshot’s agency life; so here’s a week with Jamie.

Monday

Having spent the weekend in Cornwall which was subsequently followed by the mandatory slog along the A303 late into the night, Monday started with a coffee firmly by my side. It doesn’t take long, however, until I’m off and going with a diary update to see what lies ahead.

With the cobwebs swiftly shaken, the first task is a catch up with the Slingshot team, which gives everyone the chance to catch up with one another’s business – more often than not this turns into an open forum with everyone contributing on strategy and areas in which campaigns can be improved upon (very ambitious for a Monday morning, indeed!).

The rest of day is filled with analyzing new business requests, and looking at what future projects we can get involved in. Each proposal is sent around the team, we offer advice on every inquiry no matter how big or small, it’s important to feedback on every request as you never know what it can lead to.

Tuesday

The day starts briskly by jumping straight into talking with brands that are looking to sponsor the What Car awards? The awards themselves have been a real success over the past two years, and the platform has developed considerably, making it a great account to work on.

Brainstorming possible activations for brands gets the blood pumping and definitely an area of the job I enjoy, this takes up the day and with progress made, the week is looking good. It’s great to see new clients coming on board and the process which is involved from inception – the run up to Christmas looks busy!

Wednesday

Wednesday is dedicated to on-site duties for Silverpop at the Festival of Marketing, this is a chance to get out of the office and see how our work is doing in practice.

Our work with Silverpop as a B2B brand keeps me on my toes as it goes away from our usual consumer focussed platforms. This broad range of experience has really helped me look at each account with an open mind; this is one of Slingshots strong points and has made the agency dynamic in its approach within the industry.

Thursday

Hump day is gone and it’s the back part of the week – that said, the day is spent sitting in on one of Slingshot’s key services, the sponsorship Bootcamp. The Bootcamp is a one or two day service which aims to provide organisations with an insight into the sponsorship industry with a focus upon developing sponsorship proposals and approaching and securing sponsorship.

Today’s Bootcamp is tailored around an international TV show, which I worked directly on alongside our MD Jackie Fast. Presented by Jackie, the Bootcamp seeks to give insight but most importantly to spark inspiration and discussion, which it looks as though we’ve done! The month’s work prior to today has been demanding, but it’s great to see my strategy warmly received and to know that there is a high chance of it being implemented.

Friday

The morning is spent going through sales and prospecting for Digital Unite and their Spring Online event next year. This has proved a real success over the past 18 months and a fantastic example of a well engaged campaign that is making a significant difference across the nation.

The Friday ritual starts early with Tina Turner howling from the office speakers, giving us all the motivation to finish off our weekly progress reports in time to make a dash to the pub.

How to Make an Impact through Social Media: Slingshot Sponsorship Partner with That Lot 16th October, 2013

Slingshot Sponsorship is delighted to announce a partnership with That Lot Creatives to provide a Bootcamp service on how to make an impact through social media. The Bootcamp aims to provide organisations with an insight into the sponsorship industry with a focus upon developing sponsorship proposals and approaching and securing sponsorship. Over the past three years, Slingshot Sponsorship has developed the Bootcampto become a highly tailored service suited to all organisations.

Jackie Fast, Managing Director, Slingshot Sponsorship stated: “We have successfully delivered tailored Bootcamps for over 50 organisations. The success of the Bootcamp has been through Slingshot’s insight into the development of the sponsorship industry and it felt like a natural progression to advance the offering into the digital sphere. Social Media has become an ever increasingly important tool and we are thrilled to be working with That Lot to develop an astute Bootcamp for future clients.”

That Lot is a new social media agency, headed by writer, comedian and Twitter obsessive David Schneider (150,000 followers and counting) and the UK’s foremost professional tweeter, David Levin (@BBCApprentice and @BBCTheVoiceUK).

David Schneider commented: “David Levin and I have worked closely with Slingshot to create informative, enjoyable workshops that give individuals and companies the tools to really cut through online platforms. We want to make sure that people leave our course inspired and able to tweet and post with impact and humour.”

The courses form part of the Bootcamp offering from Slingshot and can either be added to the current Sponsorship Bootcamp or provided on a standalone basis.

David added: “I’m a bit of a Twitter evangelist, keen to spread the word about how to do Twitter better. Working with Slingshot is a great fit for us. I’m not saying that, together with them, we’ll turn every company or individual Twitter feed into @OscarWilde, but we’re confident we can help people grow their influence online enormously.”

Opportunities for the Social Media Bootcamp are currently available.

High Culture; a Thriving Market 10th October, 2013

Sponsorship of the arts and ‘high culture’ is a topic that has been vehemently discussed within the industry for years. Indeed, the industry is one that has been criticised for its choice of partners; see BP’s sponsorship of the National Portrait Gallery and Shell’s long standing partnership with the Southbank Centre. Yet, controversy aside, high culture such as the opera, ballet and classical music has a deep rooted association with large corporates.

It seems, however, that the industry is changing. Over the past few years there has been an influx of new musicians that have begun to open younger generation’s eyes to high culture arts. Take for example, musicians such as Olafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm, both of whom are classically trained, yet they appear time and time again on some of the UK’s most favoured music blogs. Furthermore, in 2011 BBC Radio 1’s DJ Greg James played Ludovico Einaudi’s I Giorni as part of the ‘study break’ feature. The reaction was hugely unexpected with the classical piece reaching number 28 in the Top 40 Chart.

There are also a number of more intimate events and concerts popping up across the country. Ruthless Jabiru is a successful classical orchestra composed and directed by Kelly Lovelady and is entirely made up of Australian musicians living in Britain. Ruthless Jabiru runs a combination of intimate and large events across the country, playing in venues such as Australia House, London and LSO St. Luke’s, and has been recognised for its ambassadorial work by Buckingham Palace.

In the ever more saturated festival market, some brands are beginning to look elsewhere for inspiration. Events such as those hosted by Ruthless Jabiru (see their up and coming event at Union Chapel Monday 14th October) are creating unique experiences for brands to interact with younger audiences.

Kelly Lovelady said, “Classical events like those of my own orchestra, Ruthless Jabiru, are a fantastic platform for brands to interact with consumers on a more intimate level. The passions associated with classical music in the distinctive and beautiful venues in which we perform can really create a unique experience for both brand and attendee.”

This shift in attitude is being helped by a development being seen in the events themselves, with classical artists adopting modern pieces and trading in traditional instruments for electric ones. In light of this shift within the market, Slingshot has compiled two examples of consumer brands partnering with high culture events.

Peugeot and Bond

As always there are of course brands ahead of the curve. The Peugeot and Bond (Bond, not James Bond) partnership is one of the first examples of a big name brand sponsoring classical music band. This was designed to differentiate themselves from other brands and connect with a young, mass market. As part of the sponsorship Bond, a female electric instrument quartet, created a mini album specifically for the Peugeot 308 CC adverts, this was then given away as a free download on the Peugeot website.

Siemens and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields

A different partnership to that of Peugeot and Bond, Siemens sponsorship of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields is a prime example of a partnership based on the wide and international audience of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields as well as classical music in general. The orchestra allowed Siemens to access the typical ABC1 demographic of higher culture arts whilst also providing access to a younger audience through young musicians like Joshua Bell who are part of the St Martin in the Fields Orchestra.

“Enter At Your Own Peril” : Sponsor Association With Controversial Brand Ambassadors 23rd September, 2013

“The role of a brand ambassador – the brand ambassador is a marketing model that employs trusted, credible personalities to promote and give greater visibility to its brand products”

It seems, historically, that sport and scandal have gone hand-in-hand. Over the past five years there have been multiple athletes in the upper echelons of their respected fields that have been subject to a public fall from grace. For the sponsor, the usual protocol will be to run for the hills, and withdraw any association with the respected star. However, there are some exceptions, and brands do, in some cases, stick by or re-invest in their asset – but under what circumstance and why?

Level Of Association

If the player is either an integral part of the sponsors make up, or headline star, then it makes the job of getting rid of them, and keeping to your marketing strategy a lot harder. Woods, of course, has been embezzled with the swoosh his entire career, this can also be said of Wayne Rooney. However Ryan Giggs has not been so fortunate, despite being held up as headline moral ambassador for his maturity, the star ended up being shunned by a number of his sponsors for a comparable offense to that of Rooney or Woods.

Bankability

The commercial revenue generated by any ambassador is integral to their credentials, and can play a significant role in the decision making process. In Woods and Rooney’s case, both EA games and Nike had complete product ranges centered on them, and commercially had too much to lose.

Sponsor’s market place

Accenture was Woods’s big loss in the aftermath of the scandal around his affair. The firm could not justify sporting a star whilst marketing themselves as a trusted Business Consultancy. Brands have ambassadors for a multitude of reasons, but they must be able to link their common values and business goals. In contrast, Alex Rodriguez, was still used by Guitar Hero in their adverts even after he admitted to taking banned substances. The business case for this was that Guitar Hero’s product was not affiliated with his sporting attributes, but his public personality.

The Offense

The line with which most brands have consistently taken when suspending contracts, has been when the ambassador’s actions directly affect the relationship they have with the respected brand’s promotional attributes. In the case of Drugs there has been a 100% termination rate in sport. However, in the case of Kate Moss and the fashion industry, the offence was taken very differently. Although she did lose substantial contracts, Moss managed to retain seven, and go on to re-build her career, something which has never been seen on such a scale in sport.

There is no doubt that trust in ambassadors has publically waned, as such, there has been a shift in how brands market their ambassadors. Recent campaigns by brands such as Nike illustrate that the focus is now upon empowering the consumer, rather than showboating the skills of an untouchable star. Even in fashion, couture designers are collaborating with high street fashion chains to bring their products to a consumer level. This shift undoubtedly showcases ambassadors but does much to bring the star or garment to the consumers level, retaining brand loyalty, which is essential in a very fickle market place.

It’s the end product that matters

As the quote above states, ambassadors uphold the values of the product they promote, and being the lucrative tool which they are, brands will do anything to protect them. However no one is bigger than the brand and on a case-by-case basis, the outcome of each offense is dictated by the relationship between the star and the value of the product they endorse.

The Age of the Guerilla Marketing Campaign is Upon Us 18th September, 2013

A Slingshot favourite, Arcade Fire (yes, they are of Canadian origin – and yes, we are reminded of this each time they grace the office speakers – our MD’s Canadian) recently embarked upon a marketing campaign of epic proportions to promote their fourth studio album, Reflektor. For the past month or so, music blogs alike have been roused by the appearance of guerilla graffiti across the streets of the United States. For months, bloggers questioned the ownership of these cryptic symbols; fans were handed out at both Lollapalooza and FYF Festival emblazoned with the symbols and sightings began to spring up across Europe and through various social media channels. All of this, for an album release.

Gone are the days, it seems, of albums being released through traditional marketing campaigns – billboards being hung weeks prior to the release date and artists trudging around one radio station after another. Of course, these channels are still very much a part of the routine, but it seems that the advance of digital and social technology has disrupted the traditional model – opening a plethora of opportunity for those musicians with a unique vision, or ones (ahem, Katy Perry) that wish to wow with extravagance.

In light of the influx of guerilla and viral marketing campaigns, I have decided to put together my top 3.

The xx – Coexist

In poll position – For the release of their follow up to the critically acclaimed ‘xx,’ The xx embarked upon a marketing campaign that embodied so perfectly the power of word of mouth in the digital age. On 3rd September 2012, The xx gave one fan the location of a website which hosted a preview of the album Coexist. The Coexist streaming site featured a map tracking shares as they occurred with a beautiful visualisation, inspired by Aaron Koblin’s flight patterns. Just twenty-four hours after the stream was shared with a single fan on Facebook, the site crashed from the millions of streams, with the average user spending 2.1 hours on the site and what is more, you were able to see all of this unfold from your computer screen.

Nine Inch Nails – The Year Zero

Fans of Nine Inch Nails had been eagerly awaiting the release of the band’s new album; after examining one of their tour t-shirts fans realised thathighlighted letters from the shirt spelled out the phrase ‘I am trying to believe.’ As it turned out, this was a website filled with cryptic messaging. As fans began to delve deeper into the digital sphere, more and more clues began to emerge, phone numbers were uncovered within tracks and when called, fictional characters answered; flash drives containing the complete album were left in public toilets and Google Maps was utilised to award fans with free tickets and NIN memorabilia. NIN’s marketing campaign brought back the excitement of discovering music, making it all the sweeter.

Radiohead – In Rainbows

Not necessarily as show-stopping as the two previous examples, but the release of Radiohead’s seventh album, In Rainbows, wholly shook up a very stagnant music industry. Never one to shy away from controversy, Thom Yorke et al decided to dispel the on-going issue of illegal downloading and released their album directly to fans, with an offer; wait for it… to pay whatever they wanted. With 3 million downloads in the first year and $10 million in revenue, In Rainbows swiftly became the band’s most successful commercial success to date. What is most significant about this marketing campaign is that it restored faith within the music fan – emphasising that fans really are still willing to pay.

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