Tim Crow comments in Marketing on the implications for sponsors of the recent scandals in rugby and F1. Click here to read the article.

By Synergy on September 29th, 2009

Tags: Press Clipping

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I’ve just rushed to get the tube and I’ve amazed myself with how much access to information I need for my 20 minute trip home. I left the office frantically grabbing marketing press, to make sure I’m up to date with the ever changing marketing environment in which we live. On the way to the tube I picked up the (sadly only remaining) evening free sheet to stay in touch with London, sport and news. Not forgetting hastily refreshing my Twitter feed before I head to the depths of the underground to ensure I’ll be up to speed with all the goings on with my many new online buddies. They’ll be fixing the signal down here soon right?

All this for just 20 minutes? And in that time I’ll guess I’ve had 200 plus brands trying to talk to me.  The problem being (particular at this time of day) I don’t feel that up for a chat. I just want my facts and stats to keep me up to date. I don’t need info overload.

My short journey home provides a small example of the millions of channels available to me – but hopefully you see my point – engaging with your target can be more and more challenging each and every day. I recently heard someone with supreme intellect profess “It’s not the message, it’s the medium”. Wise words I thought. But, then two days later, I was at a fabulous talk when the online guru said “The channel is secondary, it’s all about the content”. Two quite different views and further weight to the challenge we face in the future of marketing.

All of this got me thinking. How would I engage with me if I was a brand? A quite simple task you’d think. I know the target audience reasonably well. I’ve got a good grip of what makes me tick and can tap in to the inner brain that is so important to both influencing behaviour and planning the most opportune moment for interaction.

I’m quite a simple being. I love sport, cooking, a bit of music, the odd drink and going on holiday is right up there. I want short and relevant bits of information and, if you can give me something with added humour or something of genuine interest I’m hooked. Simple.

Now, the challenging element is finding how to give me this gift of humorous/interesting content along with the brand’s message. How do we know what media I’ll be consuming, how much time I’ll have and what distractions I’ll have along my way? The truth is we don’t, but we do know I’m loyal to certain media platforms, albeit ones that change and fairly regularly too. At the moment I’m hooked on Twitter and I scan the free sheets on my way to and from work, so get your message to me there and I should get it (as long as it intrigues me). Through Twitter I might even respond and you’ve suddenly gone beyond just a message and I’m in dialogue with the brand.

Now if that message was to invite me to an experience or event that floats my boat, the brand’s on to something. By engaging me further with one of my passion points, I’m happy to interact but I won’t hit the dance floor on my own. I need to be invited.  As soon as I’m hooked, I’m loyal and I’m long-term – the perfect consumer. And for me, here lies the true power for the future of marketing; an integrated approach to communication leading to an immersed brand experience to drive powerful long-term consumer relationships. 

Partnerships between brands and content/experience platforms strengthen the opportunity and that is why sponsorship is increasingly becoming the core of many major marketing strategies.  I certainly see it as the future, but am keen to get some opinions; if you’ve read this far please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

Now, all this thinking has made me miss my 20 minutes with the London Lite, Marketing Mag and Twitter. I’m also questioning the content I’ve just produced. I guess if no one reads it I could always blame the medium?

By Ben Wilkinson on September 29th, 2009

Tags: Advertising, Communications, Digital marketing, Experiential marketing, Sponsorship, Sport

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ESA & Synergy Chairman Karen Earl warns sport’s governing bodies to clamp down on cheating or risk a backlash from sponsors.

To read the article, from Marketing, click here

By Synergy on September 23rd, 2009

Tags: Press Clipping

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Following on from Dominic Curran’s blog on the underground library, I also came across two things I like on my tube journey home last night…honesty and humour.  This came in the form of Dixons‘ new advertising campaign on the underground which has ruffled a few feathers in the retail world.

Although a humorous campaign, the essence of what they say is true.  Consumers in today’s climate are not going to have the wool pulled over their eyes by a charming sales assistant in a luxurious store, when there is better value to be had elsewhere…online.

The Dixons ‘etail campaign’ hints at the growing consumer confidence in a purely online shopping experience, a shift that is already having major ramifications for traditional retail outlets.

To read more about how about how the likes of Selfridges and John Lewis have reacted to the ad, go to Campaign’s website.

By Simon Roche on September 23rd, 2009

Tags: Default

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Read any of today’s national newspaper reports on Leeds United v Liverpool in last night’s Carling Cup and you’ll notice something – a total lack of any pictures of the match. Instead there is a box out in all papers saying the same thing, below is how The Guardian framed it.

Although, Leeds decided to allow just Action Images and a local agency in, they did allow national papers to send a photographer each which sounds fair enough until you listen to sports editors stating that they need a variety of photos from a game in order to chose the best shot.

Leeds may have sensible reasons for precluding leading agencies such as PA and Getty from the ground based on space, congestion, spectator viewing impairment etc but it does re-kindle an age old ‘debate’ between sports rights-holders and the media.

Here’s the problem – rights-holders have successfully packaged their product for television and make a vast amount of money from it, for example the latest Premier League / Sky deal is worth around the billion pound mark. At the same time, monetising the rest of the media has proved elusive.

You only need to look at the increased pagination of newspaper sports sections to know that sport is an important circulation and advertising driver, however, unlike TV and radio, newspapers don’t have to pay a penny for the right to air. This becomes even more acute with photographic and written agencies who directly make money by selling photos and copy from the matches without having to pay any sort of license to the rights-holder.

Agencies and media say they are providing the global publicity and coverage that is the oxygen of any sport and allows the rights holders to make more from sponsorship and in turn drives people to the television completing a virtuous circle. Are they right? Absolutely but it is almost impossible to actually equate that return. Is it frustrating for rights-holders trying to monetise all elements of their product? You bet.

While this argument rumbles on there will only be one loser, the team / event sponsors, missing out on the very exposure they paid for in the first place.

By Dominic Curran on September 23rd, 2009

Tags: Communications, Media, Public relations, Sponsorship, Sport

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Two things that I like – simple creative ideas and reading. Here’s a good idea that links the two.

Jumping on the tube last night, I noticed that there were a number of books spread around the carriage on the space behind the seats. I picked one up mentally admonishing the carelessness of leaving a book behind when the leaflet below dropped out.

The London Paper may have gone out of business last week but yesterday they went out with a bang with the first ‘one-day library of free books on the first day without the London Paper‘. Nice idea, but the question is, will the books stay in circulation longer then the paper?

By Dominic Curran on September 22nd, 2009

Tags: Communications, Default, Media, Public relations

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Scott Garrett comments in Marketing about crossing the client/agency divide.  To read the article, click here

By Synergy on September 22nd, 2009

Tags: Press Clipping

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Being a Londoner and a huge sports fan I can’t tell you how excited I am that we are hosting the 2012 Olympic Games.  However, 2012 can seem a long way off. I have no doubt Seb Coe and his team will deliver the ‘Greatest Games on Earth’ and leave a real legacy for the next generation but it can be hard to get truly excited about something that is still two and half years away. Well, that was what I thought until last night.

Yesterday as the milky autumn sun set on Docklands’ skyline a few of the Synergy team headed East, to Stratford. In fact none of us had ever been to Stratford before so that was a first in itself. We boarded the official Tour Bus and prepared for our hour long trip around the 2012 Olympic Village.

Our guide was the brilliant Des Blake from the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA),  a very friendly chap with a unique grasp of the English language. His energy, enthusiasm and knowledge of the local area was fantastic. He’d evidently been briefed to cover what each area will look like during the Games and then emphasise that the Park will leave a real legacy for the local commmunity. But with Des you really believed he meant it, in fact you believed he wasn’t just reciting a brief but he genuinely knows that the Games will make a huge difference to the area.

When we arrived at the site entrance, the bus was given a full once over by the security team, each yellow jacket clad team including a Ghurka – Joanna Lumley would be very proud! We then proceeded into the Olympic Park. With the River Lea running through the centre of the site you really begin to feel what it will be like in August 2012  (with the help of the odd animation or two).

2012 Aquatics Centre - September 2009

The velodrome is currently just a big hole but the Olympic Stadium and Aquatics Centre are well under way,  infact ahead of schedule. The media centre and Olympic Village, that will house all the athletes, are huge and the scale of this project is really mind blowing.  From re-housing thousands of newts and toads, to deconstructing two electricity pylons and moving London’s premier salmon smoker 500 yards, the amount of planning that has made this project happen is just unbelievable.

I have to say I would highly recommend taking the tour. As a Londoner I’m going to feel pretty proud when the Olympics rolls into to town so why not feel part of it now… booking a tour is pretty easy just call 0300 2012 001. 

Finally, I have to say that the highlight of the whole tour was when Des Blake announced that the ODA has in fact been training up local residents to take the tour and we had been his first guests. He may not have spoken the Queen’s English but I have to thank Des Blake for really bringing London 2012 to life. Bravo Des!

By Caroline Ayling on September 22nd, 2009

Tags: London 2012, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Olympics, community

1 comment

I always liked the idea of A1GP. Even as a Formula One purist, employee and fan, the idea of competing for one’s country as the zenith of an athletic career is a concept I understand. And it’s a concept I am happy to support with my heart, my voice and my wallet every time I enter Twickenham, Wembley or Lord’s.

My former F1 colleagues decried A1GP as being sufficiently inferior to F1, technically and commercially, as to be irrelevant, a place where driver careers went to die rather than peak. I suppose that they were right.

Yet the appeal of competing for one’s country in motor sport doesn’t die with one series. Instead, I think we’re about to witness its resurgence in Formula One. USF1 is a good example: viewed positively by F1 aficionados for its promise to rekindle interest in the world’s biggest commercial market, it will doubtless sell itself well in the USA, become sponsored by US companies, employ an American driver and run the stars and stripes on its livery. Yee-hah!

In 2010 the team will compete against Formula One’s oldest brand, Ferrari, which recently rediscovered the commercial effect of running an Italian driver in an Italian car at an Italian circuit. Ferrari has always been, in varying degrees, Team Italia. F1’s newest team before 2009 was Force India, which aims to bring Western brand sponsors to the huge Indian market and 2010 entrant Lotus, though it hides behind an English brand will be based in, owned, sponsored and supported by Malaysia and Malaysian businesses.

Enough cash is being invested in driver development programmes in developing markets like India and Malaysia that it won’t be long before we see drivers from these nations in F1. It is only natural that they should drive for their nation’s teams, employing indigenous support staff. Meritus Racing, a Malaysian-backed GP2 Asia team is already on record as saying ”We would be honoured one day to race as the national team in F1 and we hope to be ready to build our own F1 car, with Malaysian engineers, to achieve that goal by 2016.”

I think that this sense of national pride is something that F1 has been missing. I think it could add a certain frisson to proceedings. Not that Formula One needs it necessarily, but I like the irony that the raison d’etre of a series so heavily criticised by the techno-snobs of Formula One might be a key factor in keeping the series alive as motor manufacturers wave good-bye.

By Scott Garrett on September 21st, 2009

Tags: Formula 1

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Scott Garrett comments in The Guardian on the continuing fallout from the Renault F1 cheating case.

To read the article, click here

By Roberto Colandangelo on September 18th, 2009

Tags: Formula 1, Press Clipping, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultants

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