Tag: Sponsorship

Building Brand Awareness Through Sponsorship: Equifax & DMA Case Study 16th May, 2011

We recently put together our case study page on our website, but while we are collating all of our case study material, we thought we share the Equifax one on our blog!

For more case studies, be sure to check out the page here.

Sponsorship Objective

Equifax wanted to target prime users and suppliers of data, where data was the most important factor in the success of the business. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) was approached as having a highly niche audience of senior marketing professionals. Further research showed that 69% of DMA members quoted data as core to their business (see below).

Importance of data within DMA membership

0 = Not important 10= Data is the most important part of my business

Sponsorship Programmes Initiated

Data events/conferences
Youth marketing initiatives including Young Spark and Young Direct Marketing Awards
Online display throughout DMA website
Industry leading research
DMA Awards
BSi Standard DataSeal

Results

Overall brand awareness amongst DMA members increased 29% in 2 years
72% of DMA members are now aware of Equifax
DMA members who have never heard of Equifax decreased by 19% in 2 years

Our Overall DMA Sponsorship had impressive results. It was crucial that we saw a genuine return on our investment in this activity and a 29% increase in brand awareness certainly met that objective. By aligning ourselves with the DMA we also put Equifax in a credible ‘thought leadership’ position on the key issue of marketing data which, undoubtedly, will reap rewards for us going forward.

– Chris Sherlock, Head of Equifax Marketing Service, Equifax

For more information:

www.dma.org.uk

www.equifax.co.uk

Velti sponsors Mobile Category at the DMA Awards 2011 31st March, 2011

The Direct Marketing Association (UK) has signed Velti as the sponsor of the Mobile Category at the DMA Awards 2011.

Held in December at Old Billingsgate, the DMA Awards are the best known and most sought after awards in the marketing industry calendar. Award winners and supporters enjoy extensive media attention and widespread industry recognition for their success. The DMA Awards are the only marketing awards to inspire and demand both clients and agencies to deliver on all aspects of their campaigns: Strategy, Creativity and Results.

Kelaine Olvera, Director of Marketing at Velti, commented: “The 2011 DMA Awards are a great showcase of talent within the UK marketing industry. Velti is proud to sponsor the Mobile Category as it demonstrates our continued commitment to developing truly innovative mobile marketing and advertising solutions.”

The deal with Velti, brokered by sponsorship agency Slingshot Sponsorship, also includes delivering marketing solutions to the DMA Awards campaign. Jackie Fast, Managing Director of Slingshot Sponsorship, commented: “Velti’s sponsorship of the DMA Awards showcases their innovative mobile solutions to the niche audience of marketing agencies the DMA Awards engages. Integrating mobile within the awards marketing campaign is a first for the DMA Awards and is only made possible through Velti’s sponsorship.”

About Velti

With ten years of experience in developing and implementing mobile marketing and advertising solutions and a huge platform for mobile researches, Velti is uniquely positioned to meet the mobile engagement needs of brands, advertising agencies, mobile operators, and media companies ensuring a constant evolution to remain leading edge. For more information visit: www.velti.com

About the DMA Awards

The DMA awards are the best know and most sought after awards in the marketing industry. The DMA Awards are celebrating the ideas that demonstrate your power to innovate and educate, create income and jobs, and enrich our culture and communities. For more information visit: www.dmaawards.org.uk

London Irish Rugby Experiential Campaigns with St. Patrick’s Party 22nd March, 2011

The highly anticipated London Irish St. Patrick’s Party, event 4 of the Big 5, will kick-off Saturday 26^th March at the Madejski Stadium, Reading with a crowd of over 20,000 expected!

The legendary St. Patrick’s Party will include live entertainment and activities for London Irish supporters alongside the London Irish vs Exeter Chiefs game, which kicks off at 3pm. Activities will include brand experiential campaigns, set up through the support of Slingshot Sponsorship, London Irish Rugby Club’s experiential/event sponsorship agency. Brands supporting the event include EA Sports, Aviva, Highland Springs, Equifax, Hilton Hotels, Grosvenor Casinos and Pump Technology.

Jackie Fast, Managing Director of Slingshot Sponsorship commented, “By working with brands and the London Irish Rugby Club, we were able to support a series of events that fans can truly get engaged with. Additional activities alongside the games provide families with a full day of entertainment, which is fun for the entire family. This level of engagement is the perfect platform for brands to get involved with, ensuring that their positioning is reaching the audience at a time when it is sought.”

Brands involved had the opportunity to participate in sponsorship by providing an experience for London Irish supporters – an unrivalled opportunity to support London Irish Rugby Club as well as engage with supporters through experiential campaigns they were already running. This provided a great sponsorship opportunity for everyone involved – the brands, London Irish Rugby Club, and most of all the supporters attending.

St. Patrick’s Party tickets are selling fast and with only a handful of seats left be sure to book your ticket today!

Call the Ticket Hotline on 0844 249 1871 or click here to buy tickets.

The Bribery Act's Implications on Sponsorship 17th March, 2011

If you weren’t yet aware, there is a battle in the UK on the draft Bribery Act, currently under review by the coalition government. Should this act go through, it would have implications on the sponsorship industry.

Some key implications under the Bribery Act:

Will introduce a corporate offence of failure to prevent bribery by persons working on behalf of a business. A business can avoid conviction if it can show that it has adequate procedures in place to prevent bribery.
Make it a criminal offence to give, promise or offer a bribe and to request, agree to receive or accept a bribe either at home or abroad. The measures covers bribery of a foreign public official.
Increase the maximum penalty for bribery from 7 – 10 years imprisonment, with an unlimited fine.

Think!Sponsorship has teamed up with leading sponsorship lawyers Farrer & Co to poll the sponsorship industry regarding the Act and the use of hospitality.

Check out the session on hospitality and the Bribery Act at the upcoming conference on the 12th April 2011. The session and the results of the poll should give both sponsors and rights holders an accurate idea of how to ensure they are compliant with the proposed Act and to discuss how corporate hospitality might stray into bribery.

Please make sure to participate by taking the survey here.

Results of which will be made available at the end of March 2011.

Slingshot Sponsorship signs leading charity Mencap 13th March, 2011

Mencap appoints Slingshot Sponsorship to act as their exclusive sponsorship agency across their events.

Mencap, the leading UK based charity helping people with learning disabilities, has appointed Slingshot Sponsorship to develop and implement a new sponsorship strategy across their high-profile events. Slingshot Sponsorship has been briefed to increase awareness as well as increase the commercial value for the charity through creation of sponsorship opportunties.

Slingshot Sponsorship will be responsible for providing Mencap with consulting and implementation for upcoming events such as April Fools – a stand-up comedy at HMV Hammersmith Apollo and the extremely popular Little Noise music festival.

“We are delighted to be working with the Slingshot Sponsorship agency as our exclusive agency”, states Leo Visconti, Head of Corporate Development at Mencap “As a leading UK charity for learning disability, we have a very specific brief and the tailored solutions Slingshot Sponsorship offers works perfectly with our business. We are looking forward to working with Slingshot Sponsorship and being introduced to brands for each of our events”.

Jackie Fast, managing director, Slingshot Sponsorship commented: “For charities in the current economic client, a strategic long-term sponsorship strategy is critical. Mencap is a fantastic charity with amazing events which has huge potential to build brand relationships through tangible sponsorship rights. We are looking forward to applying our expertise in optimising brand media assets and working with such a great cause.”

About Mencap

Mencap supports the 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK and their families and carers. Mencap fights to change laws and improve services and access to education, employment and leisure facilities, supporting thousands of people with a learning disability to live their lives the way they want.

We are also one of the largest service providers of services, information and advice for people with a learning disability across England, Northern Ireland and Wales. See www.mencap.org.uk for more information.

About learning disability

A learning disability is caused by the way the brain develops before, during or shortly after birth. It is always lifelong and affects someone’s intellectual and social development. It used to be called mental handicap but this term is outdated and offensive. Learning disability is NOT a mental illness.

The term learning difficulty is often incorrectly used interchangeably with learning disability.

Fanatic.fm – a new sponsorship model for music 3rd March, 2011

As the social media channel becomes increasingly important for brand communications, brands need to find creative ‘story-telling’ elements in their communication contents that people can easily and readily share with their friends. As music is one of the most widely shared content on social media, brands are discovering that association with music and musicians is a great way to create buzz and deliver customized/branded messages.

fanatic .fm is a platform that allows brands to select music albums to sponsor. By sponsoring music albums on fanatic .fm, brands can benefit in various ways:

● Brands can establish and express their identity through music. Starbucks, for instance, can be the #1 Jazz station while Red Bull can be the #1 Hard Rock station.

● Sponsored musicians co-promote the branded campaign to their fans because 1) they directly monetize each time their music is played, and 2) 5% of the sponsorship is donated to charities of their choice. It creates a unique message that the “brands-bands-fans-charities” relationship forged changes the world for the better.

● Fans of the sponsored musician appreciate the sponsorship in a whole new level, forming an emotional bonding to the brand. Not only can they enjoy free music thanks to the brand, but also they know that their favorite musicians are being fairly paid by the sponsors.

Samsung Case Study

Samsung has recently partnered with fanatic.fm and is currently sponsoring Sydney Wayser, an emerging artist from New York. They wanted to promote their programme called “Imagelogger” and thought that associating with emerging artists would be more engaging than going the traditional route of buying media inventories. As expected, Sydney Wayser is spreading the word to her fans through her social networks including Facebook and Twitter. In regards to investment, Samsung pays only when the music is played alongside Samsung’s marketing campaign based on detailed analytics reporting.

Premier League Football is an excellent example of how fan engagement creates a strong brand association and awareness than consumer marketing. When speaking to Manchester United fans, almost all of them would be able to recall previous sponsors: beginning with Sharp in the early 80’s, to Vodafone, AIG and Aon today.

If football fans were simply consumers of the entertainment each team provides, these sponsors would have absolutely no meaning to them. However, becoming a fan is different. It creates an emotional bond that forms between their favorite football team and those brands that support it.

fanatic.fm is aiming to create the same emotional fan engagement by providing brands an opportunity to step beyond product-consumer relationships and leverage the affinity between musicians and their fans.

Is Barcelona Football Club Selling Out? 1st March, 2011

In a season where we have seen Torres leave Liverpool for Chelsea (not before he had ‘You’ll never walk alone’ tattooed on his arm) and Rooney demand a transfer only to reconsider once he had an upgrade, football fans would be forgiven in thinking that the game had finally lost its soul.

With all the cash being pumped into the Premier League and numerous new owners buying their way into the hype, as a fan you can’t help but feel less engaged with the game.

Barcelona Football Club is a great example of the shift in football sponsorship funding. For years, Catalan purists raved about 111 years without a sponsor. The positioning showcased their love of the game and created fan loyalty to their brand. This year, they provided the main shirt sponsorship spot to UNICEF – providing this charity a fantastic opportunity to drive awareness and raise much needed funds to the cause. Through this sponsorship, Barcelona was able to create an emotional response from their fans by supporting UNICEF in this way – further increasing their fan loyalty. It also provided a stepping stone for the club into brand sponsorship ensuring that they didn’t isolate their die hard supporters.

The introduction of UNICEF’s sponsorship has helped pave the way for the Qatar Foundation to come on board as an official sponsor through a 5 year deal for a total cost of £125 million. The non-profit foundation funded by the Al-Thani family, has splashed out on one of the most lucrative sponsorship opportunities available. This raised further issues with the winning bid for the 2022 World Cup with many of the rival bids believing the deal was in place before, as the Barcelona team had such an influential part to play in their selection.

Speculation indeed, but whatever the answer this is certainly one of the most far reaching and eye catching sponsorship deals this year. Manchester United’s sponsorship deal worth £80 million over 4 years with AON in 2009 now seems like a distant memory.

Charity Sponsorship: Top 5 Reasons Why Companies Get Involved 24th February, 2011

With the current economic downturn and the critical financial issues of the market, it is vital that companies find new ways to differentiate themselves against their competitors and increase brand awareness amongst their target audience. There are a number of ways to do this, but one of the best ways to increase brand awareness is through sponsorship – specifically sponsorship in relation to charitable work and activities.

Brands have been involved with charities as part of their corporate social responsibility positioning for decades. However, a recent occurrence that is increasing is linking brand support of charities through marketing campaigns and sponsorship activation. Associating charitable support through sponsorship rights is an effective way to create an emotive response alongside the goodwill already built through their sponsorship activation.

But what are the reasons that drive a company to sponsor a charity? Although there are many reasons, here are our top 5:

1. Increasing brand loyalty: sponsoring a charity is a business deal rather than a charitable donation. Companies choose to sponsor a charity in order to align their PR activity with a cause-related issue that enables them to build or increase their reputation amongst their target market.

2. Brand differentiation: sponsoring a charity has the potential to differentiate their brand against other competitors who don’t support charities.

3. Awareness and visibility: as charities typically rely on volunteers to run their business and have small marketing budgets, social media plays a vital role in their marketing strategy. Brands who are involved with charitable work can typically work with the charities to utilise these social networks in order to promote their association providing a greater reach into a different audience.

4. Highlighting corporate social responsibility: supporting a charity enhances a company’s credibility in a way that can spread a positive attitude amongst their audience and help them reach a new market.

5. Client entertainment: this can form a key part of a brands strategy, especially in regards to cultural or athletic events in which brands can activate their experiential marketing campaigns and/or meet with key individuals.

Need a Sponsorship Sales Consultant? Top 10 Things to Ask Yourself 21st February, 2011

The need for sponsorship sales consultants is apparent everywhere. On almost every LinkedIn Group, Twitter feed, and on numerous email requests I see people looking for someone who can sell their property rights. Considering money can be hard to come by, I understand the reasons why this is now one of the most sought after positions. However, there are things that you should consider and things you need to be aware of before you take someone on.

In this blog, I’ll explain the Top 10 Things You Should Ask Yourself before considering hiring a sponsorship sales agency or consultant. There are variations of sponsorship consultants – those that work on commission-only, those that work on tactical, those that work with sports personalities, and many more variations.

In this first blog of a series, we’ll start by looking at whether you even need one and if you do, can you support one?

Do you need a sponsorship sales consultant? If you have enough resource and staff with a good knowledge of both your property and an idea of what sponsorship can achieve, then you might not even need a sponsorship sales consultant. If you don’t have this, then…
Can you outsource sponsorship sales to another sales department? Sometimes this can be disastrous – most often when the media ad sales team tries to take this task on. However, sometimes all it needs is a bit of sponsorship sales training and the right sponsorship proposals for your media ad sales teams to hit the ground running.
Do you understand sponsorship strategy? If you are unsure about what sponsorship assets you own and how to package them, typically you will need more than just a sponsorship sales consultant, you will need a sponsorship agency to valuate rights, put together a strategy and do the research.
Do you know if your property rights can be sold? History is a great way to understand what rights you have and if there is a market for them. However, many rights owners are just starting to integrate these strategies and are unsure of whether it can be done. As such, you really should determine the evaluation of the rights first before you waste time and resource in outsourcing sales that haven’t been strategically developed in the first place. You should evaluate your sponsorship rights before even considering hiring a sponsorship sales consultant.
Is sponsorship an organisational goal? Sponsorship takes a lot of time and effort (even if sales are outsourced) within an organisation. If it is not an organisational goal, it will often get left behind and sales (whether done internally or externally) will not be successful. It takes a whole organisation to support this activity and the resource should not be underestimated. However saying that, sponsorship can help drive organisational change and innovation – we just suggest that everyone is behind the idea before you get started.
Are there politics within offering sponsorship? Sponsorship can sometimes be a tricky thing to integrate due to politics. Sponsorship sales consultants who are not involved with the strategy may not appreciate these constraints without having a more long-term approach to working with your rights.
Do you have senior staff and/or board members who will be against new sponsors coming on board? If this is the case, it will be difficult to get sponsors involved and those that do get involved with have difficulty activating their sponsorship and will not renew, making your sponsorship unsustainable.
Do you understand your objectives with integrating sponsorship? Sponsorship not only can become a new revenue stream, it can also reduce costs. This is a great avenue, especially for new property rights and needs to be considered when approaching brands. Understanding the objectives and all the benefits you can achieve through sponsorship is important before hiring consultants so you can measure performance against KPIs.
Do you have enough time? Sponsorship tends to be an afterthought when budgets haven’t been met. This creates a situation of distress sales and can often be detrimental to the rights owners. This needs to be communicated carefully and sales need to be strategically thought out.
Do you know who to go to? Putting out random messages on social networks is not the best way to find sponsorship sales consultants. You need recommendations from people who have worked with them or have done the research. As mentioned, it is quite easy to call yourself a sponsorship sales consultant because so many people are in need. However, you need to do due diligence to ensure your programme is not dependent on people who cannot do the job.

Further to Question 10, we’ve had so many properties looking for consultants so we’ve put together an industry roster of sponsorship sales consultants. If you every need advice, please email info@slingshotsponsorship.com with your brief, property rights, and location and we will try and pair you up with a consultant that is most relevant to what you are looking to achieve.

For any sponsorship sales consultants who want to be on our roster, please check out this blog in order to qualify.

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