Launching a sponsorship is a vitally important moment for a brand: first impressions count – they only happen once. AON has shown that they get this.    

The company’s openness and candour about the background and rationale behind the Manchester United sponsorship, in particular the various briefings given by their senior people to a raft of media, including fan blogs, has been a masterclass of its type, proactively seeding key messages, addressing multiple stakeholder groups, and demonstrating a business transparency that, although regularly cited as a modern pre-requisite, is a custom more honoured in the breach than the observance.

On which point I was interested to see that, unlike the other five Champions League sponsors, Ford opted to say absolutely nothing about having recently extended its long-running sponsorship, choosing instead to let UEFA slip it into last Monday’s announcement about the Champions League’s six sponsors for the 2009-2012 cycle.

Whilst Ford undoubtedly had its reasons for adopting this approach, to me it was the wrong call for two reasons.

1. It runs totally counter to Ford’s current positioning around the deal. The Ford UK website, for example, currently states (my italics):

‘For 17 years, Ford has been the UEFA Champions League’s biggest fan and a proud sponsor of Europe’s premier football competition.’ 

2. At a time when Ford is more embattled and scrutinised than at any time in its history, surely it would have made far more sense to have taken a leaf out of AON’s book and been absolutely transparent about the Champions League deal and its brand and business rationale? Put it this way: why not take this approach?

First outcome: a call by the GMB, on behalf of Ford’s workforce, for Ford to reveal the rationale and terms of the Champions League deal.

QED.

By Tim Crow on June 24th, 2009

Tags: Default, Employee engagement, Football Sponsorship, Public relations

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