Last week we saw the announcement that McCain’s chips has become the latest addition to the UK Athletics’ portfolio of sponsors. I expect that a few people besides me were surprised by the addition of this brand to their stable of sponsors. There is the immediate reaction of ‘chips and athletics’ – is that a good fit? It’s certainly not an obviously natural one.
However, considered more closely perhaps there are more benefits to both the brand and the sport than first meets the eye. For a sport which often sees the cream of its youth talent drawn away into football and other cooler sports, having an association with a brand that kids love can only help them increase its desirability. Many of the current sponsors of the sport, apart from the kit sponsors, really don’t have much relevance to children, this is a sponsor they can recognise and emotionally connect with. Also, addressing diet in the same arena as sport must be the right thing to do if it helps children understand early in life that what they eat needs to be balanced with what they do physically.
For the brand, the benefits are more obvious. It is gaining an association with one of Britain’s favourite sports, (even if our interest tends to focus around Olympics and World Championships). We are at the start of a four year cycle leading up to an Olympics that is taking place on our home soil. As a food brand involved in an Olympic sport, McCain currently only has the global Olympic sponsor, McDonalds to compete against in this space and so has a reasonably clear shot at the consumer. It also has an advantage in that its investment at £5m over five years is significantly less than that of a London 2012 or global Olympic sponsor and so can use its athletics association to credibly run broadly similar campaigns at potentially lower cost.
The main question is can this sponsorship help to de-stigmatize the humble chip which has been vilified in most of our minds alongside the turkey twizzler. Consumer acceptance and understanding of their role in the sport will be key, branding of the sport will not be enough. Their activations will need to clearly communicate why they have chosen this association. Looking at the planned roll out of activity on their website, McCain seem to have taken this on board. They are taking their role as a health ambassador seriously and want to make a difference to both the sport and play a role in tackling childhood obesity. I personally support this as it shows an understanding that whilst chips are always likely to be part of many children’s diet this need not necessarily be negative when it forms one part of an active, healthy lifestyle and broader diet.
By Georgina Spring on July 23rd, 2008
Tags: Athletics, London 2012, Olympics, Sponsorship
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