You don’t have to be an Olympic expert to be familiar with the unexpected success story of Vancouver 2010: the red mittens. Over 4 million pairs were sold, and they became the iconic symbol of the Vancouver Games.

Although marketing experts were surprised and somewhat perplexed by the mittens’ unexpected and instantaneous success, there were three really simple contributory factors: the design, the price, and the purpose.

The Design

The Vancouver Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (VANOC) design team initially created the mittens only with the intention of being worn by the 12,000 Torchbearers. However, when the mittens became a massive media hit at the February 2009 unveiling of the Torchbearers’ uniform, VANOC decided to market them more widely – and a media hit became a consumer hit too.

Not only were they practical, but their design – patriotic red in colour, with a Canadian maple leaf on the palm and, crucially, the Olympic rings and ‘Vancouver 2010’ on the face, made them the must-have item to show your support for the home team and for the Games.

The Price

More than just a simple economic equation of supply and demand, the red mittens’ success was also due in large part to their price point: at CA$10 (around £6.30), they were affordable for all, in contrast to previous official items that had been very much at the premium end of the price range.

The Purpose

Buying a pair of mittens had a very clear purpose. A percentage of proceeds from the sale of each pair went to support ‘Own the Podium’, a five-year programme designed to fund world class training and equipment for Canadian athletes. Over CA$14m was raised, some of which has helped to send Canadian athletes to London 2012 this summer.

All of which saw huge queues of locals and visitors outside The Hudson Bay Company (the official Team Canada merchandise store of the 2010 Games) from dawn to dusk during the Games.

The Hudson Bay Company store in downtown Vancouver during the 2010 Games (photo: Tim Crow)

A Repeat In London?

In an attempt to replicate the success of mittens, in February 2012 the British Olympic Association (BOA) introduced what it hoped would become the iconic memento of the London Games: a Team GB scarf.

The Team GB scarf as advertised on the Next website

With reports suggesting that sales of the scarf have so far been slow, all the signs are that a repeat of the red Vancouver mittens’ success is not on the cards in London.

Many would suggest this was always going to be the case. Unlike in Vancouver, the BOA did not have the opportunity to use the Olympic Torch Relay as a promotional vehicle, and this will made a tough challenge even tougher.

The red mittens also had a distinct role in Vancouver, and although the weather was unseasonably warm, fans were out in force with the mitten – especially up in Whistler.

The crowd goes wild in Whistler as Alex Bilodeau wins Canada's first gold medal of Vancouver 2010 (photo: Tim Crow)

Equally, given the vagaries of the British climate, predicting the must-have summer item was always going to be considerably more challenging, with, variously, umbrellas and sun creams both feeling like far more ‘must have’ items in the last week or so.

The other major challenge in Britain has been the Jubilympics. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee created a huge oversupply of Union Jack memorabilia, which perhaps satiated the nation’s appetite for even more of the same.

It was unquestionably the people of Canada getting behind the Games that made the red mittens such a success. 

Only time will tell whether the people of Britain finally get behind the Team GB scarf – or perhaps choose something else entirely.

By Synergy on July 30th, 2012

Tags: Art & Design, Beijing 2008, BOA, Default, Design, Diamond Jubilee, London 2012, New Product Development, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic Torch Relay, Olympics, Rio 2016, Sales promotion, Sochi 2014, Social Media, Team GB, Vancouver 2010, Winter Olympics

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What Happened?

During the Team GB kitting-out event in Loughborough earlier this month, kit supplier adidas provided a photo booth with fun props and backdrops, allowing athletes to pose for pictures both individually and in groups. The snaps were printed on adidas-branded passport photo-style paper and sold into the media, with great pick-up across national press and online. This delivered some fantastic exposure for adidas and the kitting-out event, but it was also (or at least it seemed) lots of fun for the athletes, and provided a relatively rare opportunity for fans to catch a glimpse of the less serious side of Team GB.

Why we love it

The adidas photo booth has won significant acclaim, and rightly so. Adidas has been encouraging fans to #takethestage with its Olympic campaign, and this tactic put the athletes on the stage, but in a really original way. It brought to life the kitting-out session for consumers – a feat not to be underestimated given that the event really just consisted of athletes picking up their kit. Media time was available with athletes, but the creation of the photo booth meant that journalists focused on the kitting-out ceremony itself in their interviews, with more than just the requisite credit line.

The photo booth allowed athletes to choreograph their own photography, normally dictated to them by media managers, thereby allowing fans to see more of the person behind the athlete. The delivery of such original content secured media cut-through for adidas in the clutter of the Games time, and showcased the brand’s relationship with Team GB in striking contrast to some of the more stage-managed athlete content evident elsewhere pre-Games.

The success of the photography may well encourage even more brands to experiment with this sort of “talent-generated content”, such as video blogs and other creative photography, when the tone and messaging of the campaign is right. Entertaining and original photo content can clear space for brands when it would have otherwise been tight.

We also love this tactic because it can be deployed across a range of channels; adidas could install the photo booth anywhere so that customers could use it at a festival or big exhibition. I can certainly vouch for the fact that the Synergists loved the (Engine-branded) photo booth at the Engine Christmas Party!

As such, I wasnt surprised to see adidas extending the activity into the public space with David Beckham surprising customers in the adidas photo booth at Westfield Stratford City – the related viral has already had over 2.7 million views.

Fans gasped and burst into tears when their football hero was revealed hiding in a secret compartment, and the stunt once again generated significant exposure for adidas in a congested media environment just two days before the start of the Olympics. Adidas has found its white space in this sort of fun and irreverent activity, and to very great effect.

By Jessica Enoch on July 30th, 2012

Tags: Default, London 2012, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Olympics, Sponsorship, Synergy Loves

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“Don’t rely on home advantage.” So uttered Michael Johnson, US sprinter and BBC pundit, last week. But if home advantage and national support are as vociferous as British Airways’ new campaigns, he might just have to reconsider.

What happened?

Starting way back in April, BA set out to celebrate the best in British talent in all sectors, not just sport, with the arrival of the BA 2012 pop up venue in urban chic Shoreditch High Street. A stone’s throw from the Olympic venues of Stratford, the three-in-one art gallery, cinema and dining lounge was a novel way to showcase the work of Great Britons from culinary, dramatic and artistic backgrounds. A lucky trio working in these fields was mentored by BA London 2012 ambassadors Richard E Grant, Tracey Emin and Heston Blumenthal, with the resulting work displayed in the BA pod. Rasanna Purwanarajah, Pascal Anson and Simon Hulstone used their training to create Olympic Games themed work, including a short film, a ‘Dove’ artwork livery for celebratory aircraft and a five-star British food menu.

British Airways followed this with a good old-fashioned, flag-waving ad campaign. But what was not old-fashioned about this ad was its release on YouTube and Facebook ahead of television, leading to widespread sharing and discussion before it had even hit ‘the box’. Released to run amidst Euro 2012 coverage, this ad featured a twist on the typical ethos of a BA campaign, counter-intuitively asking people not to fly away during the games, and instead to stay at home to support Team GB.

To further emphasise the link between BA and the Games, BA is running a competition for Brits to win flights for family and friends abroad to join relatives in London for the Games. Again BA is seeking to make the point that London is the centre of world interest at the moment. Moreover, the BA Facebook page incorporated an app into the advert that allows viewers to make the BA advert feature their very own street. You can try it now or download the app.

To support all this activity, BA has also released some great branded content via YouTube and other online channels featuring Sir Clive Woodward, Denise Lewis and Michael Johnson. This serves as a collection of their thoughts on performing at home with Johnson recollecting his home experience at the Atlanta Games in 1996.

In conjunction with this BA has launched strong social media activity to capitalise on the Socialympics. The #HomeAdvantage hashtag has been tweeted to some effect already and the Games are still in their opening days.

And the campaign gets smarter still. The BA 2012 pop-up venue offered the average punter the chance to experience BA’s in-flight food and drink, entertainment and style, taking BA service to the High Street in the literal sense. Coupled with this, the ‘plane in your street’ gizmo seamlessly merges to give BA a distinctly home-based feel. In this way this activity is perfect for a summer in which national pride and identity are being celebrated.

Why we love it

BA’s staple marketing usually centres on encouraging people to fly, with British class albeit, to destinations abroad. That is why we love this campaign and the activations that support it. Not only is it a total inversion of the traditional feel of BA campaigns but such a well-executed one that it doesn’t feel at all awkward. With a confident tone and stunning creative, this was a high-risk move for BA. It would have been quite simple for BA to have run a campaign based on flying the people of world into London for the Games and fulfil the standard role of an airline sponsor. But it is has paid off to be bold. If brand rankings are anything to be believed, BA is sitting pretty at the top of the Olympic brand battle charts and the brand is sure to be prevalent in many minds ahead of the post-Olympic holidays that many will take.

So it’s hats-off from Synergy to some great activation work from the truly British Airways.

By Luke Auty on July 30th, 2012

Tags: Default, Experiential marketing, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, Public relations, Synergy Loves

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There is a large group of Olympic sponsors whose primary objective over the next 17 days is to be brilliant, but invisible: the companies who provide vital Games Time services.

For brands like Atos (IT), BT (communications), Cisco (networks), Omega (timing) and UPS (logistics) the starter’s pistol on their sponsorship fires today. Everything they have done previously has mattered only in being preparation for this point. And if they make headlines in the next 17 days, it will be for one reason only: the Games being badly affected by a problem with their services.

To illustrate the point, all I need to write is G4S. Until a few weeks ago, G4S was familiar only to the big public and private sector buyers of its services, and was hoping to use London 2012 as a showcase to that small but highly lucrative audience. Now, of course, G4S is a household name because it failed to deliver, and the resulting fall-out has been calamitous for its reputation and share price.

In this space, it pays to be invisible. Get it right, and you have a trump card case study in the high-stakes world of big B2B contracts: “If we can do this for the Olympics, the biggest most complex event in the world, imagine what we can do for you.” Get it wrong and you’re where G4S is right now.

All of which reveals other aspects of the widely misunderstood Olympic sponsorship model, and why sponsorship is far more important to the Olympics than is commonly perceived.

The media convey the impression that the Olympic sponsorship model is the same as World Cup sponsorship and the like – a small group of consumer brands paying big money only for marketing rights.

The reality is very different. The Olympic sponsorship model is actually a giant joint venture, with the IOC and the local organising committee outsourcing critical expertise from multiple partners.

Because the Games is the world’s biggest and most complex peacetime operation, it takes far more to deliver it than pure cash. This Atos Olympics ad evokes that perfectly.

That’s why there are so many Olympic sponsors, and why the majority are B2B brands – although every Olympic sponsor, B2C brands included, provides important products and services as part of its sponsorship, without which the Games couldn’t happen.  

And it’s why the majority of Games sponsorship is delivered in the form of ‘value in kind’ (VIK) products and services that are budget-relieving. In the modern era, VIK has consistently contributed the majority of domestic Games sponsorship, and I expect LOCOG’s final accounts to show VIK at 60% of its £700m domestic sponsorship total.

So if you’re ever tempted to join the vociferous chorus of those who criticise Olympic sponsorship, ask yourself this: if the sponsors weren’t there, contributing so importantly behind the scenes, how else would the Greatest Show On Earth be as big and brilliant as it is going to be, once again, in London?

By Tim Crow on July 27th, 2012

Tags: Beijing 2008, Default, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Olympic Torch Relay, Olympics, Rio 2016, Sochi 2014, Socialympics, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Team GB, Vancouver 2010

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Having been privileged to experience numerous Olympic Games at first hand, it’s been especially fascinating to watch my hometown move into Games Time for the first time. As always there have been many similarities with other Games: the highly choreographed sequence of events doesn’t vary too much from Games to Games, or the way the media and public reacts. But there have been differences.

In looking at this, I thought I’d take Vancouver 2010 as my point of reference, because there was much more to learn from open, democratic Vancouver than from closed, autocratic Beijing about how the Games would play out with consumers and the media in London.

So, here’s my take on the similarities and differences between Games Time Vancouver and Games Time London.

1. The Weather

We both obsessed about the weather. In Vancouver, it was all about the snow – or rather, the lack of it. And it never came. Whereas in London of course, it was all about the rain, which looks finally and blessedly to have been replaced by sunshine, and lots of it. At least for now…

2. The Scepticism

As in every Olympic host nation, the “Is It Worth It?’ debate raged long and hard in both Canada and the UK, with the naysayers - led by an overly sceptical national media – shouting loudest. And in both markets, the last week pre-Games saw the national mood move into optimism, reflecting - finally – the huge regional positivity surrounding the Torch Relay everywhere it went.

3. The Nerves

Again as in every host nation, the nerves about being able to successfully stage the world’s biggest event in the full glare of the world’s attention were never far away. The final verdict on Vancouver was that it was a great Games. London will be hoping for at least the same – with the help of, in particular, the weather, the transport and the security, as well as the sport. 

4. The Opening Ceremony

The Opening Ceremony becomes the focus of debate on ceremony day itself. What’s it going to be like? Are the rumours true? Who will light the cauldron? All these questions and more fuel a massive national debate and – immediately afterwards and into the next day – an ever bigger global debate centred on one, single question: was it any good? (See also The Nerves). As it was in Vancouver, so it will be in London.

5. The Socialympics

After closed Beijing, the impact of social media on the Games became a big issue in Vancouver. In London, with social media having gone mainstream globally, it’s already a huge factor – as we were the first to demonstrate and debate back in February during Social Media Week London.

6. The Home Team

A big difference here. Whereas in the UK we’ve been quietly confident about equalling Beijing’s record haul across a range of sports, in Canada only one medal, and one event, really counted: the ice hockey (a national obsession) and the gold – which Canada memorably won at the last gasp, creating wild, joyous (and not a little relieved) national celebrations.

Let’s hope London has moments like those in the next couple of weeks. Enjoy the Games.

By Tim Crow on July 26th, 2012

Tags: Beijing 2008, Default, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Mobile, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Olympic Torch Relay, Olympics, Sochi 2014, Social Media, Socialympics, Sponsorship, Synergy, Team GB, Twitter, Vancouver 2010

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DKNY PR Girl is, in her own words, “your well-placed fashion source”, bringing behind-the-scenes scoops from inside Donna Karen New York. She also happens to be Aliza Licht, Senior Vice President of Global Communications at Donna Karen International and spearhead of all things social media for the brand.

It was inevitable then that she would not set about creating buzz for the opening of DKNY’s new London flagship store on Bond Street with just a standard press release.

Instead, DKNY released a video mapping the buzz surrounding a fake social media conversation about a mysterious London event titled #UK2012. With the help of some high profile ‘socialmedialites’ to begin and later spur on the conversation, the video shows the speed at which the planting of a hashtag and the ensuing fear of missing out amongst followers can make a campaign go viral. Beginning with a picture of an invitation taken on Instagram, #UK2012 soon spreads to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest, ending with DKNY PR girl herself checking in at the new store on FourSquare to reveal the truth about the campaign in disguise.

In trying to demonstrate that there is no longer a need for a press release by producing this falsified social media scenario, DKNY, in proxy, achieved exactly what is shown within the video in real life. #UK2012 is now no longer an imaginary event but a genuine hashtag around which hype for the official store opening has been built; so even if the video is a spoof and nothing more than constructed social media buzz, the publicity generated is as real as it could ever be.

We don’t need to be reminded about the power of social media: it’s plain to see everyday, as we first find out about a sporting success, a court judgement or a celebrity’s downfall via our individual Tweet-decks. We also don’t need to be told that DKNY #UK2012 has not brought to an end the traditional press release and media sell-ins we are so accustomed to seeing. Indeed, I think it could be suggested that DKNY took a risk in creating a campaign that so highlighted the paradox of ‘social within social’, but in this case, the spread of #UK2012 across all platforms is evidence in itself that the innovative idea of creating a fake frenzy worked perfectly to raise brand awareness in time for DKNY’s official opening.

By Fiona Watherston on July 24th, 2012

Tags: Digital marketing, Experiential marketing, Fashion, Social Media, Synergy Loves

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As I eagerly count down the hours before going to see The Dark Knight Rises tonight (to the amazement of one colleague who couldn’t comprehend the idea of going to the cinema on a Friday night after a long week at work), I couldn’t help but notice the number of brands looking to ride the wave of hype surrounding 2012’s most eagerly anticipated film.

By my latest count, no fewer than 15 brands have partnered up with Warner Bros and it is interesting to see which have or will achieve cut-through. The obvious danger for brands getting involved in movies is the potential backlash from fans who don’t want to be ‘sold to’ when they go to the cinema, and dislike obvious product placements that can detract from the story, rather than improve the overall fan experience (the key to a successful brand partnership). The films themselves also risk being accused by fans of selling out if they go too far (see the James Bond franchise), but it seems that so far Christopher Nolan’s trilogy has managed to remain both ‘cool’ and a commercial success, with no accusations of selling its soul. It will be interesting, however, in the coming weeks if any of the ‘friends of Gotham City’ start to get a few enemies.

Amazingly, Warner Bros have managed to tie up deals with two car brands – Chrysler in the US and Nissan in the UK. The Chrysler deal is expected to include some product placement (hopefully I won’t be distracted tonight trying to spot their vehicles) and they have also encouraged fans to create their own Dark Knight movie trailer, to be posted on the brand’s Facebook site, with Nolan himself choosing the best commercial to be aired on National TV. Whilst UGC is not a new phenomenon, this is a nice way for Chrysler to build on the hysteria surrounding the official trailer (which, to date, has over 23m YouTube hits) and gives the true Batman fans the tools to create their own content.

Nissan’s striking press ad was designed by illustrator Gabriel Hardman, who developed the storyboards for the film and brand also used Blippar’s augmented reality tool to give fans the chance to win premiere tickets.

My main concern, however, for any car brand getting involved in the Batman movies is that there is really only one car that the fans care about, no matter the marketing, so it is going to be difficult for anyone to compete with the Batmobile, let alone with this movie’s flying gunship.

Both Nokia and Mountain Dew have created limited edition products surrounding the films, with both brands offering fans exclusive film content – clearly banking on the partnership driving sales. It will be interesting to see whether there are really fans who care about the film enough to tie themselves into a long-term phone contract to get Nokia’s handset (unlikely to be quite so desirable this time next year), and the true test will be whether the phone can compete with the iPhones and Samsung Galaxys of this world. Obviously committing to trying a new flavour of Mountain Dew is much less of an ask for the consumer…

My favourite Batman brand partnership however is undoubtedly Under Armour’s sponsorship of the Gotham Rogues American Football team, and their subsequent product range. This is a great example of a subtle, and, most importantly, natural bit of product placement (in what looks like an amazing scene from the trailer) allowing the brand to launch a potentially lucrative new clothing range (which I’m sure many of the thousands of Batman geeks will be keen to buy, myself included).

This is all well and good, but as I shun the call of the pub tonight, I look forward to leaving my marketing hat at the door, and escaping into the world of Gotham City.

By Matt Kiernan on July 20th, 2012

Tags: Advertising, Brand marketing, Branded content, Film, Product placement

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Despite spending most of last Sunday’s Wireless Festival trying to dodge the giant muddy beach balls being thrown around the crowd and simultaneously attempting to dislodge my shoes from the swamp that was previously Hyde Park, I still managed to notice the Barclaycard PayBands that some festival-goers were using to pay at the food and drink stalls.

The Barclaycard PayBand was a new innovation for this year’s festival, allowing attendees to pre-load the band with money to be spent on-site, in transactions of no more than £20. Whilst not using a band myself, reception to the new system seems to have been largely positive, with no large-scale problems reported. On the same weekend, all fans at the Wakestock festival wore RFID wristbands that served an even broader range of functions than those at Wireless, acting as tickets as well as a wallet.

As someone who both loves festivals and can’t help losing things (often at said events), the advent of contactless technology strikes me as a very exciting development. It also represents a massive opportunity for sponsors, opening up the possibility for brands in the banking and technology sectors to assume a genuine role across a platform that they might have previously found difficult to access. Great sponsorship can, of course, carve out a credible role for a brand where one may not obviously exist, but true authenticity comes from fulfilling a genuine consumer need. The Orange phone-charging tent at Glastonbury Festival provides a great example of this.

As charted in a previous Synergy blog, the potential implications of RFID technology for brands are manifold. More to the point, we already use this microchip technology widely, in everything from Oyster cards to football season tickets. Only the other day, I undertook my first contactless payment from a debit card. So the odds are that this type of payment method will proliferate over the next few years, and – gradually – one card, phone or wristband will grow to serve multiple functions across different areas of people’s lives. For now though, getting universal acceptance even within one festival (i.e. all stallholders and sponsor installations agreeing to use the same NFC technology) is a challenge; it is likely that such forms of payment will be restricted to limited ecosystems, such as single festivals, or a series of events like the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange, for a while. This provides a brilliant opportunity for relevant sponsors to strike an early-mover advantage in this space, just as Barclaycard have done. This brand is now well-placed to possibly expand across other festivals and other functions when the time (and more to the point the technology) is right.

For now, Barclaycard’s contactless payment is fulfilling a genuine need around the core passion point of music and festivals for their young target audience, simultaneously displaying several of the core principles of great sponsorship (and hopefully meaning that I’ll someday emerge from the end of a festival with all my belongings intact).

By Jessica Enoch on July 11th, 2012

Tags: Default, Experiential marketing, Music, Sponsorship, The Arts

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Sunday 1st July saw Spain thrash Italy to be crowned champions of Europe for an unprecedented second consecutive time. This tournament, arguably the second most important international football competition, has seen many of the world’s football superpowers scrapping it out on the field of play, but an equally interesting battle has been unfolding off the pitch. The tournament sponsors and those with no official affiliation have been competing for a share of the fans’ minds and wallets through their new marketing campaigns based around EURO 2012.

So, which of the sponsors played out of their skins at EURO 2012, and have there been any surprise victories for the ambush underdogs?

This month, we take a look at how a few of the official and not-so-official sponsors would’ve fared had they competed in their own tournament. In selecting these brands, we have looked to create fixtures between tournament, team and ambushing brands occupying similar spaces, not just looking at perennial big boys like Coca-Cola or Nike.

The brands that we have included are:

• Official – Orange, adidas, McDonald’s and Sharp
• Unofficial – Carlsberg, Vauxhall, Kit Kat and Pringles

Quarter Finals

Orange vs. McDonald’s

This match sees two heavyweight sponsors of EURO 2012 go head-to-head in campaigns that look to capture the passion of fans across Europe. The big budgets of these brands meant we expected a strong all-round performance from their campaigns – which focused on delivering engaging and relevant content to the fans’ experience.

This match, however, did not quite live up to its billing, as the full potential of the brands has been limited by their somewhat defensive game plan. Orange created a campaign that had mobile at its centre, with the launch of two free apps designed to tap into the expected surge in mobile marketing and dual-screen viewing through the tournament. McDonald’s, on the other hand, created a pan-European digital campaign asking fans from across the continent to demonstrate their level of passion for their team, which was measured by the McDonald’s EURO 2012 Passion Meter.

The McDonald’s campaign in particular, whilst being engaging, struggles to prolong the fan’s experience with the brand due to its Passion Meter being limited to users simply capturing themselves cheering – which in itself can prove to be an embarrassing barrier to entry. Also, Orange’s ‘Supporters Cup Shake & Shout’ app – effectively a live competition to see which fans can record the loudest cheer – was at its core quite similar to the McDonald’s EURO 2012 Passion Meter, which unfortunately means that neither brand truly owned this unique space in the fans’ mind.

So, whilst the insights behind these campaigns are hard to fault, it’s their overall delivery that will be the final determinant on who progresses to the next round. Looking at the replays, Orange seems to offer a broader range of opportunities for fans to experience the brand whilst enjoying the tournament; we particularly liked the official pan-European EURO 2012 app which was designed to be genuinely useful to fans both at the tournament and those following it on TV. It includes features that help users find their friends nearby as well as local venues where tournament games are being screened. This app is therefore a sure-fire way to integrate the Orange brand within the EURO 2012 fan experience.

Result: This much anticipated match-up has played out to a win by Orange which can be attributed to the authentic positioning of the brand together with some classy delivery. McDonald’s surprisingly early exit is put down to them potentially taking their eye of the ball due to the bigger prize of the London 2012 Olympic Games on the horizon.

Adidas vs. Sharp

This match-up sees two brands that are pushing innovation at EURO 2012 getting drawn against each other. Innovation has long been a great, albeit risky way to engage consumers and fans alike. Therefore, to coincide with the kick off of EURO 2012, UEFA global partner adidas launched a new fan portal on blogging site Tumblr, and Sharp created FanLabs, a research project monitoring the emotions of thousands of football fans at EURO 2012.

Adidas’ initiative saw them become one of the first brands to use Tumblr’s sponsorship packages to showcase unique content from the world of football, both on and off the pitch. At the centre of the initiative was brand-created content from adidas featuring their ambassadors, to provide visitors with an inspirational look inside the world of football.

By contrast, Sharp mined its technological roots and created FanLabs – a campaign that looked to find common truths about competing countries’ fans. This was activated both online and via their FanLabs truck that travelled to the various UEFA fan parks throughout Europe.

One of the deciding factors in this match-up was longevity: which of these campaigns will go the distance, even beyond the tournament itself?

Now that EURO 2012 is finished, adidas will continue to use the Tumblr site to host football content from other properties to which it has rights, such as UEFA Champions League and the MLS. This partnership between Tumblr and adidas promises to be an exciting relationship to watch as it looks set to be a key part in underpinning adidas’ future social media strategy in football.

At the end of the tournament, Sharp will have a wealth of data on the key insights of fans in the various European markets. This data, one can imagine, will be used to drive their future marketing campaigns, meaning Sharp has very cleverly created an innovative campaign that combines unique content with a data collection business imperative.

Result: Both adidas and Sharp played an exciting game and either brand had opportunities to win it through a decisive move, with creativity at the heart of both campaigns. The final score is a surprising victory to Sharp due to their enterprising strategy that promises to go a long way beyond the tournament itself.

Carlsberg vs. Vauxhall

It’s Denmark versus England in this tasty round one encounter, and both these official England sponsors have brought in the big guns for their tournament TVCs. We will be assigning a social media rating based on the criteria developed by Deep Focus (our Engine friends from across the pond) to decide who goes through in this Anglo-Nordic battle.

It should be said that we like both ads; Carlsberg get their ambassador selection spot-on (interesting that Linford’s only involvement this summer is in a football ad) and Vauxhall’s use of Noel Gallagher’s first solo track and the England team mixing it with the public certainly stirs the passion (but they perhaps already showed their hand with the original September ad).

Neither TVC however uses social media to activate, engage, and even reward the viewer, so both are rated as ‘anti-social’ in the Deep Focus criteria. This is a shame and a missed opportunity, as both brands have social elements to their wider EURO activity; the Carlsberg Fan Academy Exams is a nice addition to their sponsorship of the EURO 2012 app (which had hit over 2m downloads by 15^th June) and there is also the chance to join Des Lynam at the Academy on Facebook, but there is no mention of these in the TVC. Perhaps more surprisingly, Vauxhall did not highlight their innovative Vauxhall Football TV which housed exclusive content around the England team in Poland and Ukraine. This could explain the relatively small social following of Vauxhall Football TV (14,000 Facebook Fans and 16,000 Twitter followers), in spite of the interesting content that was made available.

Result: A score draw, but Carlsberg go through on penalties after this Vauxhall PR miss along with their demonstration of a team sponsor openly criticising players in a Twitter Q&A and the surprising decision to allow open critism of players.

Pringles vs. Kit Kat

In this FMCG non-sponsor match-up, Pringles aligned itself to the England team, whilst Kit Kat moved away from their battle with Mars over the National Team and instead positioned itself alongside the tournament as a whole. This clash will be decided on the most effective use of on-pack.

The Pringles ‘tradigital’ press campaign is a nice example of crowd sourcing using Twitter. It’s also a clever ambush technique, as the brand distanced itself slightly from any contentious messaging, as it came direct from the fans.

The Kit Kat on-pack promotion used a very simple (and close to the ambush mark!) message of ‘Win 2,012 Euros’ and a mechanic that sought to build on their extensive Facebook following (over 500k fans in the UK), with the €2,012 prize found either inside the pack or by entering a unique pack code on their Facebook page. This huge social audience is something that Pringles can’t compete with in the UK, and despite their best efforts it does not seem that #makesomenoise generated many tweets, with Pringles continuing to have a moderate Twitter following (of about c.12k).

Both brands also used their packaging in an interesting way, with Pringles offering their customers the chance to personalise their tube (much like Heinz did so successfully) and turn it into a vuvuzela type device, whereas Kit Kat teamed up with Blippar to create an augmented reality football game. Both of these are great examples of brands using their individual pack real estate in a different and engaging way, although it would be interesting to know the number of Fan Cans that were actually ordered and the real ‘stickiness’ of the Blippar Kit Kat. Additionally,  the likely lead times involved in ordering and receiving the Fan Cans could have meant many fans didn’t receive them until after England bowed out to Italy.

Result: Kit Kat has slightly lost the creative spark they showed in the 2010 World Cup and Pringles sneak through due to the originality of their Fan Can, using their unique real estate in a way that only Pringles can.

Semi Finals:

Orange vs. Sharp

These two semi-finalists have both progressed on the back of campaigns that, at their core, have the potential to significantly enhance the fan’s experience of EURO 2012. How both these brands have activated their EURO 2012 sponsorship is likely to have improved their brand favourability; however it‘s the campaign’s ability to entice the fans to stay engaged with the brand that needs to be considered to determine who has the strength to reach the final. This engagement factor is important because of the value that is attached to building a relationship between the brand and consumer that can lead to favourable purchasing decisions – which is especially relevant for both Orange and Sharp whose products rely on positive relationships with consumers for continued loyalty.

Orange’s campaign succeed in doing this through their apps and the on-going Supporters Cup competition which both, importantly, provided fans with useful benefits that improved their experience. Orange thereby ensured that there were multiple touch points between the brand and the fans for the duration of the tournament.

Sharp has impressed in getting to the semi finals given that they have activated a pan-European football sponsorship without any use of football ambassadors. The FanLabs campaign has enabled Sharp to understand football fans in more detail during the tournament, and thereby be a more interesting and useful sponsor as the tournament progressed (data collected during the tournament was used to update their digital ads). Sharp achieved this by having many data collection points, which included apps, a website and a FanLabs Facebook. However, it was Sharp’s mobile FanLabs on the ground in Poland and Ukraine that created opportunities to engage fans face-to-face that has been a great touch. These mobile FanLabs – trucks equipped with a biometric brainwave scanner to find out what fans were thinking whilst watching their country play – travelled to the various Fanzones throughout the tournament measuring the mood of the fans in the build up, and during, their countries games.

Result: Orange succumbs to Sharp’s attack-orientated game plan and unfortunately do not seem to have enough in them to claw a goal back. It ends with victory to Sharp who march onwards to the final.

Carlsberg vs. Pringles

Two staples of the football world, beer and crisps head into this semi final: what a mouth-watering line up (as Lawro might put it). Pringles were a plucky underdog this tournament, but they have now run out of steam and have no star power to call upon this game (with no sign of any ambassadors in 2012) against their vastly experienced opponents. Carlsberg used their unique position as sponsors of both England and the Championships themselves to create fan challenges, asking Facebook fans what they would do to show their passion, belief, pride and loyalty to the team to win 5 pairs of VIP tickets to the EUROs. These challenges then created some nice content for the brand, which have been viewed over 20,000 times on YouTube. This mechanic also proved a successful way of creating reach for what is actually quite a small and inexpensive contractual asset (only 10 tickets in total).

Result: The sheer depth of Carlsberg’s squad for the latter stages of the tournament leaves Pringles struggling and the powerful Danes go through to try to replicate the National Team’s success of 1992.

The Final

So, as you can see, our final is between Carlsberg and Sharp. Who do you feel deserves to take home the glory? Or do you think any brands were robbed? Who deserves special mention outside of our chosen eight? Let us know below…

Extra Time

Despite this being the first EUROs to upgrade to digital perimeter boards, the only official sponsor to offer any sort of call to action pitch-side has been McDonald’s, and whilst there were UEFA restrictions around moving imagery in the creative, it’s doubtful whether the digital potential of these boards has been fully exploited. This could be because multiple creatives have either not been allowed or sponsors have not challenged UEFA with their creativity, or indeed have been unwilling to risk sacrificing brand awareness for engagement opportunities. Perhaps the lower smartphone penetration levels in the host countries (19% in Poland and 10% in Ukraine in Dec 2011 according to Wired) have also had a bearing on this, with brands unwilling to risk alienating these key markets. In future EUROs, it would be great to see a move towards greater fan/audience engagement, with these perimeter boards supporting some truly integrated and social activation ideas.

Penalty Shoot-Out

Our view is that the standard of marketing off the pitch has not quite matched the level of excitement on it. Whether this is due to a combination of the lowest confidence in the England team in recent memory and the event clashing with a home Olympic Games for the only time in our lifetimes, it seems that on the whole brands in the UK have not fully got behind the tournament. We would like to think that when EURO 2016 rolls into France (after Roy has led England to World Cup glory in Brazil!!) and the tournament is not competing with a home Olympics then we will see a greater marketing effort with social at its core.

This month’s ‘What We Think’ piece was written by Mike Russell and Matt Kiernan.

By Synergy on July 3rd, 2012

Tags: Ambush campaign, Brand marketing, Content, Football, Football Sponsorship, Social Media, Synopsis

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What happened?

NASCAR is not the first sport that comes to mind when thinking of pioneering partnerships with social media powerhouse Twitter. However, the two have formed a ‘first of its kind’ collaboration and created a platform that allows fans to see the sport from every angle possible. Fans can now find out who is pitting, how a car is doing, the condition of the track and more, simply by following #NASCAR on Twitter’s new events-based platform.

NASCAR has trailed other major sports in the development of its online fan resources for years, due to the deal they signed with Turner Sports, which had several obstacles to the provision of consumer related content. However, since buying back the rights from Turner to own its online presence, NASCAR has moved forward at a staggering pace.

When launching #NASCAR, Twitter mentioned that the event platform, launched for the Pocono 400 NASCAR race, was aimed at detailing the race experience for the consumer and not agreed in order to grow the NASCAR brand. So this unique partnership is designed purely to enhance the fan experience by putting insightful content at their fingertips.

It’s already possible to track a race on Twitter by following NASCAR officials, fans, media and team PR representatives, but now NASCAR and Twitter are making it easier. During a race, when fans click on #NASCAR, they’ll see the most relevant tweets from NASCAR drivers, NASCAR teams, commentators, celebrities and other racing fans all in one place. In essence it’s a mix of driver tweets from the tracks, fan opinions and observations, blog links and photos.

Why we like it…

NASCAR has 75 million fans tuning in regularly but it has lacked ‘one-on-one communications’ with those supporters. It’s because of this lack of conversation with fans that this partnership is seen as a significant move in the right direction for making one of the world’s largest sports ‘social’. So, if they can crack a strong social media presence and bring fans to the same place on a regular basis, there’s potential for getting in front of the fans on two screens — TV and tablet, at the same time.

The practice of watching TV while tweeting and texting is huge. Some 88% of tablet owners and 86% of smartphone owners picked up their devices at least once while watching TV in the fourth quarter of 2011, says researcher Nielsen. In April, the semi-final of the Champions League between Barcelona and Chelsea pulled in 13,684 tweets per second, surpassing the previous record of 12,233 during February’s Super Bowl. However, the recent EURO 2012 final between Spain and Italy in Kyiv smashed this record after logging 15,358 tweets per second at its peak. Brands and sponsors are now exploring how to maximise the two experiences for the consumer.

NASCAR and Twitter have broken the mould for sponsors, and rights holders, within this split-screen world of viewing major sporting events. They have become pioneers for the social media connection that brands seek during the live environment. Therefore, by creating this one engaging platform for fans to engage with the race, it has given fans easy and quick access to a wealth of content covering every possible angle of NASCAR.

What’s next…

Rachael Horwitz, a spokesperson from Twitter, has said that it is purely an “experiment” to see if the company can somehow make more of the insights whilst fans are watching live events, and engagement levels on the site jump. Based on this, we suspect other major sporting events and entertainment award ceremonies will react to this partnership with Twitter. This is because they already tend to incite a high volume of tweets, but could use the amalgamating functionality of this partnership to leverage the socialability of all stakeholders even further. Interestingly, though, the #NASCAR site is being run free of charge. As Horwitz continues to say: “This is about attracting more people to Twitter. How and if we monetize it is a question mark.”

Twitter has since announced a similar partnership with the European Football Championships, and we imagine there will be similar deals between major sports brands and governing bodies in the future.

By Adam Shapland on July 3rd, 2012

Tags: Brand marketing, Communications, Default, Online communities, Social Media, Twitter

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