Last weekend saw a new city play host to the travelling spectacle that is Formula 1.  Singapore, not only hosted a tremendous show, yet took on the task of staging a street race after dark! 

With over 15,000 lighting projectors making the track four times brighter than a sports stadium, DigiFlags replacing the traditional coloured warning lights and an anticlockwise route on a street circuit, this race was certainly going to make its mark in the history books and create a truly exciting event for the teams, and more importantly the fans.

The reality of a night race came with its challenges, especially on the likes of Hamilton, Massa and the other drivers, whose preparation required them to remain on European time rather than acclimatising to local time, and resulted in a rather unusual timetable of breakfast at 2pm, supper at 1am and bedtime at 3am.  Windows were blacked out, phones disconnected and cleaners banished from normal operations - all in the name of gaining that competitive advantage and ensuring the drivers would be at their most alert when they were on-track each evening.

Visually impressive, the Singapore circuit presented an incident-packed race, without any of the original fears of thunderstorms appearing, whilst the bumps and cambers of the street circuit tested the skill of the drivers. 

“It was a wonderful Grand Prix and a huge credit to the people of Singapore. I can’t remember a more spectacular event with the vivid colours of the cars and the track, and an enormous crowd. Plus there was a really good race as well.” RBS Ambassador Sir Jackie Stewart

A much more open race than the likes of Monaco, allowed a new face to appear on the podium this season – AT&T Williams Driver Nico Rosberg who took a well deserved second place, even after a 10 second stop and go penalty - a refreshing outcome to the 15^th race of the season.

Congratulations go to F1 and to Singapore for a refreshing and exciting weekend’s sport! Can the world of F1 continue to improve and revive the fan experience? With the addition of a fifth street race in Abu Dhabi in 2009, let’s hope they can continue to enthuse and excite the audience.

By Samantha Pillage on September 30th, 2008

Tags: Formula 1, Sponsorship

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I’ve posted before about the fact that NPD has been one of the key drivers in modern sponsorship, with virtually every week seeing new platform and property models being unveiled. NPD being what it is however, they don’t always work out, and the most recent example of this is golf’s FedEx Cup.

Launched by the US PGA Tour two years ago as an attempt to reinvigorate the final weeks of the Tour and counter audience migration to the start of the American football season, the FedEx Cup has had a difficult start to life.

For two years in a row, the Cup has been won anticlimactically early, last year by Tiger Woods (remember him?), this year by Vijay Singh, who has only to finish the final tournament of the season this weekend to claim the title. As one columnist from the National Post put it:

‘Under the current FedEx points system, Singh would have to step in a gopher hole or assault a rules official in order to lose the event. He could play all 72 holes with a belly putter and a persimmon three wood and still take the title, even if his card went into three-figures four days in a row.’

And despite changes introduced this year by the PGA, the format and credibility of the FedEx are still being roundly criticised by the media, in pieces with headlines such as ‘Once again, playoffs are a snoozefest’ and ‘FedEx Cup ending with a whimper’.

Tim Finchem, Commissioner of the PGA Tour, admitted that it was a case of back to the drawing board for next year in a recent media conference, although I suspect what he said will have done little to reassure the players, the media and most of all, his sponsor (whose current tagline is ‘Relax, it’s Fedex’).

Using the analogy of golf course designer Donald Ross and his work on the famed No. 2 course at Pinehurst NC, Finchem said that even a second set of format changes to the FedEx might not get it right:

“[Ross] made 213 or 220 changes in the first 12 years of [Pinehurst No. 2's] existence. Sometimes to get perfection, you have to keep working at it, and we intend to do that.”

Let’s hope, for the sake of FedEx in particular, it’s a case of third time lucky in 2009.

By Tim Crow on September 25th, 2008

Tags: Brand marketing, Default, Golf, New Product Development, PGA Tour, Public relations, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants, Television audiences, Tiger Woods

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Following on from my post about Culture Secretary Andy Burnham’s statement on how he intended to tap into private sector sponsorship to plug the £79million hole in the Government’s budget for funding Olympic athletes’ training, I was interested to see the good corporate citizens of the West Midlands announce an innovative new Olympic funding model, the first of its kind in the country, which may provide Mr Burnham with a solution to his problem.

A group of businesses in the region, led by the West Bromwich Building Society, have united under the banner of Team Business West Midlands and aim to raise £60,000 each over the next four years in the run up to London 2012 to help fund local athletes’ training. Hats off to Team Business West Midlands, and great news for the athletes.Good news for Mr Burnham too - and an opportunity.

Not only is Team Business West Midlands extending an invitation to other local businesses to join the funding scheme, it’s also inviting other UK regions to follow its lead.

If DCMS were to get behind this initiative by incentivising businesses with matched funding, maybe, just maybe, that £79m is achievable after all.

By Tim Crow on September 25th, 2008

Tags: Default, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, New Product Development, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultants, Team GB

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The Synergy Team spent last Friday on an outstanding day for team building and motivation.  The morning session focused on ‘Making an Impact’ and covered a lot of ground on how to create the right impression. My highlight was discovering each others ‘trigger points’ and the impact this has on our team work and performance.

In the afternoon, we pushed ourselves out of the comfort zone and conquered our fears of height and speed with a great competition in the grounds of ‘A Day in the Country’ in Aynho.  It has to be the best training day ever – and reminded me how proud I am to be part of this fab team.

By Alison Moor on September 24th, 2008

Tags: Employee engagement, Synergy

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UK legislation protecting Olympic sponsors from ambush marketing has been condemned as ‘restrictive and unreasonable’ by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

It claims businesses will struggle to benefit from London 2012, as regulations reserve certain terms for sponsor use.

Click here to read the full article, courtesy of Brand Republic.

By Synergy on September 23rd, 2008

Tags: Press Clipping

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With AIG, shirt sponsors of Manchester United, now having followed Northern Rock, shirt sponsors of Newcastle United, into nationalisation, it occurred to me that the sponsors’ lounge at the next Toon versus Reds match could bring a whole new meaning to the term Premier League. Because, of course, the effective heads of the teams’ two sponsors are now the Premiers of the US and UK.

But who’ll be in those respective hot seats come next March? Over there, will it be John McCain or Barack Obama. Over here, will Gordon Brown still be around? And whoever it is, will they use the occasion for a pow-wow at St James’ on Wednesday March 4? Lovely thought, but somehow I doubt it.

Maybe Gordon could send noted Toon Army member Tony Blair - remember him? - to deputise…

By Tim Crow on September 18th, 2008

Tags: Barclays Premier League, Brand marketing, Default, Football, Football Sponsorship, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Public relations, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants

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With perfect timing in the week when the Large Hadron Collider became part of the global zeitgeist, a new sponsorship category was also unveiled to the world: Dow Chemical has become the ‘Official Chemistry Company’ of the PGA Tour.

Sponsorship has been adopted by a myriad of product categories in the modern era, but ‘Chemistry’ is a new one on me. Let me hasten to add, I think Dow has done a very clever deal with the PGA, creating a perfect showcase for its agroscience and technology products. And I’m sure that the guys at Dow and the PGA thought long and hard before landing on ‘Chemistry’. But it does lead your imagination in some interesting directions…

Talking of which, the scientists involved in the Large Hadron Collider project have taken a break from attempting to discover the ‘God Particle’ to star in their own hit viral video. The ‘Large Hadron Rap’ has become a favorite on YouTube.

By Tim Crow on September 12th, 2008

Tags: Branded content, Digital marketing, Golf, Media, New Product Development, PGA Tour, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants, Viral Marketing, YouTube

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The Internet has revolutionised the way music is distributed and considerably weakened the power of record labels.  To add to the record companies’ pain Oasis has now come up with another innovative way of getting their new music heard - commissioning buskers to play tracks from their latest album. 

Oasis had to cancel their New York gig after Noel Gallagher broke his ribs when a ‘fan’ stormed the stage in Toronto and pushed him over.  They have now taken the unusual approach of using buskers to play four tracks from their new album (Dig Out Your Soul) at a variety of New York City locations.

Filming these performances may draw some attention, but I’m not sure employing what is essentially a cover band will endear the music to either current or potential fans.  It’ll be interesting to see how they broach the challenge of actually letting people know that the tracks being played are even Oasis ones.

By Malph Minns on September 12th, 2008

Tags: Experiential marketing, Music

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Mid-tier British sporting events are becoming “price-takers rather than price-setters” in an oversupplied market, according to Tim Crow, CEO of Synergy Sponsorship.

Click here to read the full article, courtesy of sportbusiness.com.

By Synergy on September 12th, 2008

Tags: Press Clipping

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Last week, the synergy-sponsorship.com blog published internet research by Hitwise, which used Olympic-themed search terms in a number of countries to arrive at data on the most searched for athletes in the Olympics category.

Click here to read the full article, courtesy of sportbusiness.com.

By Synergy on September 12th, 2008

Tags: Press Clipping

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