Synergy’s CEO Tim Crow comments in the Guardian Online on how Dubai’s shortage of cash is affecting sports stars. Click here to read the full article here
By Synergy on November 30th, 2009
Tags: Press Clipping
Archive for November, 2009
“We liked the sponsorship so much, we bought a stake in the club”: Audi and Bayern Munich
If, like me, you grew up in the seventies, you’ll recall entrepreneur Victor Kiam’s famous Remington ads, which ended with the line ”I liked the shaver so much, I bought the company”. Audi, evidently, feel the same way about their sponsorship of Bayern Munich, having yesterday announced that they had taken a 9% stake in the club as well as continuing as a sponsor. Bayern’s strategy of sponsoring the European footballing elite is self-evident - as well as Bayern, the brand also sponsors AC Milan, Barcelona, Manchester United and Real Madrid - but this clearly takes their involvement to a new level, and raises an interesting question: does Audi’s move herald a new era of brands moving from sponsorship of the elite sporting names to investing in them as well? Only time will tell. But if it did, I wouldn’t find it surprising.
Moving from sponsor to investor is undeniably a leap in terms of the financial commitment involved, but not that big. Clubs like Bayern are massive brands with millions of passionate, committed fans. But let’s remember that as businesses, in financial terms they’re minnows by comparison with the market capitalisation and buying power of major brand owners.
Some might argue - especially with Bayern languishing at seventh in the Bundesliga and facing elimination from the UEFA Champions League - that adding financial risk to marketing risk isn’t a smart move when on-field performance is so critical to the bottom line: the spectre of Leeds haunts. But whilst every deal carries an element of risk, let’s face it, Bayern aren’t Leeds: they’re a long term footballing superpower with stable, membership-based ownership and high-quality earnings. The risk is as minimal as you can get - in football anyway.
There’s a final argument - which I assume applies to Audi and Bayern - that makes moving from sponsor to investor entirely logical to me. If just about everything about the relationship from a brand and business point of view is right, and if you share and can commit to a long-term vision - in short, if there’s perfect synergy - why not go one step further and become an investor as well as a sponsor?
To summarise, I don’t believe we’ll see a stampede into these type of deals: for one thing there’s a recession on, and for another I don’t see too many assets out there that brands would invest in. But I don’t think the Audi-Bayern deal is the last of its type that we’ll see.
In the meantime, I’ll be adding a new filter question into the model we use to help our clients make a call on whether to sponsor a potential asset: would you buy stock in it?
By Tim Crow on November 27th, 2009
Tags: Default, Football, Football Sponsorship, Manchester United, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultants
Betfair’s Manchester United World Football First
Last weekend the Betfair team here at Synergy were involved in a world football first at Old Trafford for the Manchester United v Everton match. For the first time in football history, the faces of fans appeared on TV interview backdrops and LED ad boards, as part of Betfair’s unique Get Behind United campaign.
Fans were able to win this once in a lifetime opportunity by uploading their photo at www.betfairfootball.com/getbehindunited. Promotional girls were outside the ground at the previous Manchester United v Blackburn match to take fans’ photos which were also entered in to the competition.
Betfair’s USP is that fans bet against each other rather than against a bookmaker, and this was brought to life before the Everton match where the Synergy Experiential team organised a Betfair football roadshow where fans could take part in a variety of football skills challenges for the chance to win a signed United home shirt, as Event Magazine reported. The Fan v Fan messaging was also emphasised on-pitch at half-time by fans competing against each other in a skills challenge. Before kick-off there were once again promotional girls taking photos of fans’ faces ahead of the Manchester United v Aston Villa game on 12th December, where the activity will be repeated as Betfair again give back to United’s loyal supporters by offering them a unique experience for a worldwide audience to see.
The campaign has gone down incredibly well with the fans; I had a thank you email from one of the winners calling it an “unforgettable experience” and Duncan Laryeah. whose face appeared on both the perimeter boards and interview backdrop claimed “it was almost like there wasn’t a football match on that day!” If you’re a Manchester United fan go and upload your photo at www.betfairfootball.com/getbehindunited and be involved in a World Football Second.
By George Woffenden on November 27th, 2009
Tags: Advertising, Football, Manchester United, Sponsorship
Wigan’s generosity knows no bounds
Wigan Athletic showed ample amounts of generosity on two fronts over the past few days. After gifting Spurs nine goals in their disastrous defeat at White Hart Lane, the Wigan players felt sufficiently embarrassed to offer refunds to all of their travelling fans.
This goes some way to contradicting stereotypical views of footballers and their selfish ways. Hopefully, this will encourage other players to think more about their committed fans rather than the size of their bank balances.
However, to put things in perspective, the Spurs fans at the match were chanting to the travelling Wigan fans “What time’s your mini-bus?”, thus suggesting a minimal amount of travelling fans will need to be reinbursed by the players.
It will be interesting to see if the Wigan team put together a better display at home against Sunderland this weekend - and, if there’s any repeat of the Spurs debacle this season, whether the players refund the fans again.
By Simon Roche on November 25th, 2009
Tags: Barclays Premier League, Football
Synergy helps Betfair kick off experiential campaign at Old Trafford
Synergy helped Betfair activate a number of experiential activities at Old Trafford on Saturday (21 November) as part of the brand’s Get Behind United initiative. To read the full article in Event magazine click here
By Synergy on November 24th, 2009
Tags: Press Clipping
Thierry Henry - national hero or cheating villain?
Much has been written about Thierry Henry this week.
Has he forever lost his va va voom? Will his reputation recover from the ‘Hand of Frog’ drama?
Is he the new Maradona? Will the nation of Ireland ever forgive him?
(No, yes, no, no - as you ask).
It’s not been the best of weeks for the Frenchman, ain’t that the truth. But is it really Armageddon?
I think not.
In my opinion and as quoted in PR Week, the Thierry Henry brand is not irreversibly damaged.
Damaged? Yes for sure but he will recover.
Thierry is a hero in France whose football fans witnessed their captain play to the whistle and arguably use his nous to secure a victory for his team. The incident is a far wider indictment of the sport and what is at stake nowadays (in this case, national pride and a place in The World Cup); cheating is nothing new in sport unfortunately.
Henry would have preferred to have scored a controversy-free belter to secure his country’s fate. That goes without saying. But the unpredictable nature of sport throws up the unexpected. Like most rational sportsfans, I didn’t like what I saw and I wish the referee had seen, during the game itself, what the rest of the world has since watched over and over again. But he didn’t. C’est la vie.
For Thierry, his value to sponsors, and I am talking in the long term, will not irretrievably suffer although I would not envisage too many Irish companies beating down the door of Henry’s agent this week offering brand endorsements.
There will be those who don’t agree with me. Fine, great, I love a good debate but let’s put it in perspective shall we?
Henry is French, plays his football in Spain (for Barcelona), has global cross-gender appeal and as Arsenal’s greatest goal scorer, he will always be a legend in England. He is a gifted footballer and an eloquent individual. The 2010 World Cup is likely to be his last and he played a highly visible role in ensuring himself one last shot at the biggest prize in football. Gillette, for whom Henry is a global brand ambassador, has said on record the incident will not affect their relationship with him.
As a role model to millions and a footballer who was widely perceived to demonstrate true sporting values, his biggest crime was missing the opportunity to right a wrong and show genuine sportsmanship on the pitch immediately after the incident. His reputation may forever be tarnished by that decision but his commercial value in the long term, as one of the most dazzling players of his generation, I believe will hold firm.
By Stephanie Branston on November 20th, 2009
Tags: Football, Public relations, Sponsorship, World Cup
Thierry Henry brand ‘not irreversibly damaged’
Steph Branston comments in PR Week on the effects of the handball furore on Thierry Henry’s brand image.
Click here for the article.
By Synergy on November 20th, 2009
Tags: Press Clipping
Stillborn: the British Grand Prix at Donington
I was saddened to see that Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd has gone bust. Amid all the furore about the location, and very existence, of the 2010 British Grand Prix it has been easy to forget that DVL had a vision that extended far beyond a single race in the F1 calendar.
DVL CEO Simon Gillet is an immensely likable man and it is easy to agree with his views on just about anything, such is the clarity and passion with which he communicates them. I am not certain of exactly whose idea it was to fund a race track through debenture sales, but when I heard him expound the virtues of his scheme, I completely understood what he was trying to do.
Yet the basic assumption behind the scheme was deeply flawed and in the final analysis I am surprised that it got as far as it did. To expect regular race fans to subscribe to multi-year debenture seats in unbuilt stands, to attend multiple races each season to justify the cost, at a location that is remote from the centres of commercial power in this country, was just too much of a stretch. The approach works well in sporting environments where tens of thousands of loyal fans live locally to a facility (The Emirates, for example) where the number of games is high and demand historically outstrips supply.
But motor sport doesn’t work like that. The Bahrain International Circuit concluded after five years of hosting a Grand Prix that the race earned the circuit no money at all; the cost of organising and hosting the event over five days is significant. But what it did do is confer on the circuit the awareness, credibility and gravitas to allow it to promote itself on the open market as a venue for events throughout the remaining 360 days of the year. The BIC is successful at executing this strategy and hosts hundreds of events on track and at its various facilities each year, which earn more than enough to compensate for its F1 loss leader.
Donington chose not to attempt to replicate this model, perhaps feeling that without the steady stream of government business that the BIC enjoys (it is government funded), the East Midlands facility would struggle to survive as an independent exhibition and events venue in the manner that Gillet had conceived. Instead it chose to focus on hosting lesser races and driving events on a more regular basis, and charging regular punters more than they could bear, for the privilege.
There is insufficient demand for Motorsport away from F1 to justify this approach, and that is why DVL’s dream has died. Sad, I know, but true.
By Scott Garrett on November 20th, 2009
Jenson moves F1 closer to World Cup of Motorsport
Formula One pits nation vs nation in A1GP copycat shock!
Some time ago, I recommended to FOTA that it adopt some of the infrastructure of A1GP (the self-styled World Cup of Motorsport), were it to start a breakaway series, which was a topic being discussed earlier in the 2009 season by the F1 teams’ representative body. I meant it as a logistical efficiency, whilst bemoaning the decline of A1GP which I reckoned was founded on some interesting principles: nation vs nation in identical machinery.
F1 machinery is not identical and I am happy for that: A1GP could never offer a constructors’ championship. But I remain intrigued by the nation vs nation idea and think that - more by accident than design - F1 is heading this way. I think it would be good for the sport if it were to do so because national passions could be piqued, adding a spice to its competition that F1 has largely been missing. The news today that Jenson Button has signed for McLaren has helped.
To begin not with McLaren but with Jenson’s former team Brawn GP, here’s how I see it:
Brawn is now Mercedes Grand Prix. Mercedes is German. In 2010 its drivers will be Nico Rosberg and possibly either Nick Heidfeld or Adrian Sutil. All are German. They may be sited in the Northamptonshire countryside (Mercedes F1 engines are made down the road from Brawn’s Brackley site, in Brixworth) but this team will be under teutonic management. Team Germany.
Not ten minutes’ drive from Brackley, Force India F1 operates from Silverstone. Promoting Indian brands globally, and western brands in India, the team’s commercial proposition is clear. Owner ViJay Mallya is the face of this team that has no Indian drivers yet, though Arun Chandhok remains a decent bet for a drive next year. Flushed with pride at its late season progress and with an Indian GP on the cards from 2011, Team India is alive and well.
To the east, in Hingham, Norfolk (until it moves even further east to the home of its Malaysian owners) is Lotus F1, managed by Tony Fernandes, the man that built Air Asia on the back of a Williams F1 sponsorship. The corporate body behind the team (Malaysia Racing Team Sdn Bhd) has embarked upon a programme of driver development aiming to put Malaysians in F1 cars in the future. In his tweets, Fernandes refers to “Team Malaysia aka Lotus F1″.
On the other side of London, the McLaren team pairs Jenson Button with Lewis Hamilton. Ignoring the fact that the team remains 30% owned by Bahrainis and will run Mercedes engines under its existing contract, we know that Mercedes will be reducing its investment in the team over the next couple of years. This will allow McLaren to become Team GB A.
In Oxfordshire, Williams F1 markets itself as the only truly British-owned team, the only true independent and the only team still managed by its founding partners. In 2010 none of these statements will be true, so the commercial proposition will have to evolve. Nonetheless, for Sir Frank’s unstinting loyalty to Queen and country, I think Williams can comfortably assume the mantle of Team GB B. At least it will run a British (Cosworth) engine in 2010.
One new entrant struggling to assert its nationality is Spanish team Campos Meta, which has been desperately trying to sign Spanish driver Pedro de la Rosa but there is so little interest from Spanish sponsors that the team is having to run a Brazilian and (probably) a Russian or a Venezuelan. But it’s a Spanish team sited in Valencia and Madrid, and no-one else is laying claim to the title of Team Spain.
By contrast USF1 positively glows with pro-American sentiment. I cannot imagine a sports team from the USA with the name US in its title, based in Charlotte NC, being anything other than Team America, whoever ends up driving the cars..
Ferrari is of course an Italian brand and excites rabid passions among the scarlet-clad grandstands of Monza and beyond. Even though it has failed to excite with its driver selections since Michael Schumacher departed (a shame: Felipe Massa is a cool character worthy of more than he receives from the fans) it will doubtless rise again in 2010 to become Team Italy.
So there you have it: Team Germany v Team India v Team Malaysia v Team GB A v Team GB B v Team Spain v Team Italy. This is a solid reflection of where F1 is touring, location-wise, and I think we will see teams from Korea and Russia before too long.
The teams that do not fit this model (Renault, Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Qadbak Sauber and Virgin Racing) are backed by sponsors with naming rights that care little for national boundaries and so fail to excite national passions. This is not a criticism: their commercial objectives are transparent and they will doubtless serve their sponsors well. But I predict that their share of national support will be weaker than the “national” teams with a corresponding reduction in media attention that may yet cause sponsors to take note.
All of which may mean that A1GP’s legacy is more memorable than most commentators assume, as Formula One becomes the true World Cup of Motorsport.
By Scott Garrett on November 18th, 2009
Tags: Default, Formula 1, New Product Development
Revolution in the air at Lord’s
Tim Crow comments in The Times on MCC’s reported plan to sell the naming rights to Lord’s.
Click here for the story.
By Synergy on November 18th, 2009
Tags: Press Clipping
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