Think of any brand associated with an athlete, and in most cases the brand will have approached the athlete as a result of the athlete’s brand/consumer fit and will be paying them a hefty sponsorship fee in return for a number of rights.

In “What We Love” this month though, we explore a brand who took a much more innovative and engaging approach to sponsorship by inviting a number of athletes to compete for a sponsorship contract, with their consumers ultimately choosing the winning athlete.

So who is the brand and what did they do?

In March this year, Sony Ericsson – a long time supporter of women’s tennis – launched a new format entertainment show, “Xperia Hotshots,” which followed the lives of six globetrotting, aspiring stars of the WTA, all of whom were competing for a sponsorship contract from Sony Ericsson.

The competition centred around the online buzz each tennis star could generate for themselves, with the player receiving the most number of votes on the official Sony Ericsson Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/xperiahotshots) receiving €100,000 of support from the brand.

In order to help with the challenge, Sony Ericsson gave the players exclusive access to major music, film and fashion events as they toured the globe playing tennis. The players were also able to use their own stardom and contacts to aid them in generating the most interesting content, as long as it was shared via social network sites using the Xperia handsets that were given to the stars.

As an extra incentive for fans to get involved and follow the series, all of those who “Liked” the ‘Hotshots’ Facebook page were also entered into a prize draw to win tickets to the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami

Over the course of the campaign, which ended on 5 September and was won by Wimbledon Semi-Finalist Sabine Lisicki, the competition generated huge awareness for Sony Ericsson including 820,000 friends on Facebook; 3 Million video views on YouTube; 100,000 mobile app downloads; 1,200 pieces of media coverage; 70 videos produced; and 530 hours of footage shot.

Why we love it

We love this campaign here at Synergy for several reasons. Firstly, by prescribing that the players must use their Sony Ericsson Xperia Android touch smartphones to communicate with their fans through Social media, Sony Ericsson were able to showcase the product’s unique features in real life situations, thereby providing consumers with a much better understanding of its unique selling points, benefits and potential usage occasions.

Secondly, by focusing on the use of the phone for entertainment purposes and social media (as opposed to purely a communication device) the perception of Sony Ericsson as THE communication entertainment brand was greatly enhance.

Thirdly, by engaging fans in the athlete selection process, Sony Ericsson were able to generate a much deeper bond between their potential consumers and the ultimate Ambassador than if the athlete were contracted behind closed doors, and fans who engaged in the voting process are now more likely to follow that athlete going forwards than if the athlete had been selected on the basis of whom the marketers thought would offer the best brand/consumer fit.

Finally, by profiling six players, Sony Ericsson very cleverly linked themselves to all of these world-class athletes when they only contracted one; six great brand endorsements for the price one . . . not bad going!

By Liz Brown on October 13th, 2011

Tags: Blogging, Brand marketing, Celebrity, Communications, Default, Facebook, Media, Mobile, Online communities, Sponsorship, Sport, Synergy Loves, Synopsis, Tennis, Viral Marketing, YouTube

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Sponsorship is dead, long live sponsorship

Those of you who are regular readers of Synopsis may have spotted a pattern. The lead articles are not Synergy’s random musings but rather the building blocks of a bigger story about the new rules of sponsorship.

But before we get to the rules, a little bit of context. Like all marketing disciplines, sponsorship has evolved over time…but every now and then, there is a paradigm shift which generates an explosion of innovation and introduces a completely new way of acting. Excitingly, we have entered one of these new eras – the 4th Era of Sponsorship.

Below is a rough timeline of how the Sponsorship Industry has evolved. There is never a clear line in the sand to separate the various eras (and of course there are always sponsorship programmes that are ahead of their time), but to keep things simple, they can be broadly separated into decades.

1970s: The Dark Art

The very beginnings of the sponsorship industry were characterised by informal deals done on a handshake in smoke-filled rooms — often literally smoke-filled, as much of the early days of sponsorship were driven by cigarette brands putting their brand on the side of fast cars to circumvent advertising restrictions.

1980s – 1990s: Off-the-Peg

Patrick Nally is credited as being the founding father of modern sponsorship. His ground-breaking partnership deal with Coca-Cola for the 1978 FIFA World Cup effectively ‘invented’ the concept of a rights package. This has set the template for how sponsorships have been packaged and sold by rightsholders ever since.

2000s: Tailored

Brands started to become much more sophisticated and proactive in terms of how they approached sponsorship. No longer was it thought of as a collection of off-the-shelf rights or as a separate marketing channel, but rather as an asset that could be integrated into the overall marketing mix and used to increase the effectiveness of the brand’s marketing activity.

2010: Social

The 4th Era is the “Social Era” for two reasons. Firstly, it has been enabled by social media which has allowed people (and brands) with shared interests to engage with each other at a scale and depth that has never before been possible. Social also refers to a sense of ‘Higher Purpose’ – the ability of a sponsorship programme to connect with its audience by delivering something that really matters.

The Rules of the Social Era

Moving to the Social Era has changed the game of sponsorship and everyone can benefit from knowing the new rules. We have analysed hundreds of best practice case studies from the world of sponsorship and beyond to identify and codify the keys to success in the Social Era.

We have been examining these new rules one by one over the past 5 months but now it is time to bring them all together.

It’s as easy as ABCDE…

Rule 1: Authenticity

Endorses for Courses by Jon Izzard

The best sponsorship programmes, the ones that really resonate with the audience, feel completely natural. The brand simply feels at home in the space. Think of Red Bull and extreme sports, Cartier and Polo, Robinsons and Wimbledon, Unicef and FC Barcelona, Coca-Cola and the Olympic Games, Moët & Chandon and F1. There are loads of sources of authenticity: products, geography, heritage, brand message and simple longevity.

Some brands have to work hard to establish authenticity in a given space, but it is imperative that they do because the very audience that a sponsor is trying to connect with can see through an imposter straight away. Skoda’s sponsorship of the Tour de France provides a great example of a brand working hard to establish credibility in a space where its source of credibility may not be immediately obvious.  Brilliant:

Rule 2: Beyond your Brand

What Can Sponsorship Learn from Farmville by Liz Brown

Sponsorship is about a brand becoming a natural part of their customers’ lives — but the audience needs a reason to invite a brand into their lives.  Brands that view the relationship with their audience as a one-way value exchange and think only in terms of “what will we get out of it”, have no chance of forming the kind of relationship they want. Again, there are a number of ways that brands can demonstrate “Beyond your Brand” thinking, focusing on delivering benefits to their customers (O2 Priority), the property (Converse and London’s 100 Club) and society as a whole (RBS RugbyForce).

Rule 3: Content

Is Content Really King by Ben Wilkinson

Consumers want to learn, laugh, discover, share, be entertained and be inspired.  And they want to do all these things around topics that are of specific interest to them.  That is what sponsorship allows you to do: create relevant content around your audience’s passion points.  But brands have to be creative to capture attention — posting a video of “talking heads” on YouTube and hoping for the best is not enough.  Great content is about innovation.  It’s about finding something that connects and resonates with your audience and providing it how they want it, when they want it and where they want it.

Our favourite example of this is Converse Domaination — a campaign that not only puts great content at its heart but also shows a perfect understanding of its audience.  Enjoy.

Rule 4: Dialogue

D is for Dialogue by Carsten Thode

Talking to each other, sharing ideas, working together, creating things, discovering  new stuff,  having fun, laughing, crying, flirting, arguing – everything that makes life worth living is built on our ability to actively engage with each other. Why should that be different from the relationships we build with the brands in our lives?

Yet for most of its history, marketing has been pretty much a one-way conversation where brands tell you what they want you to know and the customer has no way of talking back.  However, the digital age, and particularly the social media age, has smashed through the barrier separating brands from their consumers.

Now it is possible to source brilliant ideas from your customers such as Pepsi Refresh and GE Ecomagination, or to tailor your marketing in real-time to reflect input from your customers. The Old Spice Man is a classic case in point of how much more engaging the conversation becomes if you give your customers a voice.

Rule 5: Entertainment

Passion Pointers by Tom Gladstone

Sport has a particular ability to evoke strong emotions through its personal stories of courage, inspiration and determination; through its inherent unpredictability, excitement and drama. Those emotions are an essential component of successful sponsorship – and are as relevant across other sponsorship platforms (music, film, fashion, art) as they are in sport. Harness the emotions correctly, and your consumers will add the catalyst of conversation.

But while simply being visible within a passion point might increase the chances of getting noticed, it doesn’t win a place in consumers’ hearts. There has to be active emotional involvement, not just proximity or presence — engagement not impressions. Whether brands capitalise on moments of high emotion or they tap into the core emotional sensibility of the passion point, anchored in anticipation, pride, patriotism, celebration, or even pain, they all need to exhibit genuine empathy and understanding.

This rule is articulated nicely by Mark Harrison, Chair of the Canadian Sponsorship Forum: ‘You can’t manufacture emotion. It’s already there. When you find it – just find a way to trigger it; tap into it; fuel it; and watch it grow into something remarkable.’

Using ABCDE

ABCDE is not a menu, where you can choose one or two elements to focus on. Rather, a great sponsorship programme will deliver against all the rules of the 4th Era.

Obviously, this framework isn’t rocket science, but at Synergy, we have found it to be incredibly useful as we advise our clients at every point of the sponsorship process.  We use it not only as a kind of checklist to diagnose where we are strong and where we need to work harder but also to ensure that all elements of the sponsorship programme - from creating the strategy and identifying the right assets right through to the activation – deliver the ABCDE.  So, before signing off, here are a few ways that it can be used to make your sponsorship programmes even more powerful:

1. Articulate specifically how you are using sponsorship to deliver all elements of ABCDE. Sponsorship strategies should use deep audience insight and a clear understanding of the business and brand to ensure that you are using sponsorship as effectively as possible in the 4th Era

2. When making the decision to acquire a new sponsorship asset, make sure that there is a concrete plan in place to deliver the ABCDE. Use it as part of the screening process and answer questions like: “What gives my brand authenticity in this space? How can I build or acquire authenticity?”  “What is the higher purpose of the sponsorship?  How are we adding value?”

3. When creating activation plans, be specific about which elements of ABCDE you need to focus on and how you will be able to deliver them.  For example: “How can we stimulate dialogue amongst our audience?  What role should our brand play in that conversation”

4. Factor ABCDE into your measurement. Create specific targets around each element and evaluate your success at achieving them.  Where do you have to work harder?

© Synergy Sponsorship a trading division of Engine Partners UK LLP 2011.  All rights reserved

By Carsten Thode on September 1st, 2011

Tags: Advertising, Brand marketing, Branded content, Communications, community, Consultancy, Content, Default, Design, Digital marketing, Event management consultants, Event management service, Experiential marketing, Food & Drink, Football Sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Sales promotion, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants, Sport, Synergy, Synergy Loves, Synopsis, Twitter, Viral Marketing

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What happened

Tourism Toronto and Tourisme Montreal have erected “The Cheating Wall” as their newest campaign to promote tourism between the rival major Canadian cities.  The new marketing programme, developed by Crispin Porter + Bogusky Canada, is encouraging residents of the two cities to have a summer fling with one another.

The Cheating Wall consists of separate HD video panels, located in high-profile locations in the two cities. Each wall is equipped with its own camera, microphone, sensor and speaker, enabling residents of each city to engage in live video chats and participate in a series of scheduled events, in real time.

The insight behind the creative concept is driven by the long-standing rivalry between the two cities, which is driven by the two cities’ statuses as Canadian business hubs and, of course, the rivalry between the two ice hockey teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens.  It has resulted in a common perception that any visit to Montreal or Toronto is viewed as a ‘betrayal’ of your home city.

The Cheating Wall has been installed in the TIFF Bell Lightbox in downtown Toronto, and at 350 de Maisonneuve Boulevard in Montreal. The live interactive portals are open for live chats between 6am and 2am, and also host a number of live events such as “Tai Chi at the Wall” and “Street Magic”, as well as fashion and comedy shows, amongst numerous others.

The campaign is also available to view online at TheCheatingwall.com, and TrompeTaVilleMuramur.com, both of which link to Facebook pages where visitors can win flights to the respective cities, courtesy of Air Canada.  Participants are encouraged to share their experiences on Twitter, using the hashtags #cheatingwall and #trompetaville.

The initiative is being supported by transit shelter and poster ads in Zoom Media’s resto-bar network, which feature QR codes that take users to the Cheating Wall’s Facebook pages.

Why we like it

This live interactive portal provides a new and innovative way of promoting tourism. Rather than the typical tourism campaigns involving scenic landscapes and cheesy poses, this avant-garde campaign gives the users a corporeal, almost voyeuristic look into the lives of the other city.

By engaging the consumers and actually tapping into their personal interests, rather than forcing them to withstand a corny commercial or print ad, The Cheating Wall brings a whole new meaning to conventional advertising.

With its catchy and risque name, visual appeal, interactivity, enticing social media incorporation, and its ability to feed the voyeuristic tendencies of our contemporary world, this is the tourist campaign of the future. The annihilation of time and space gives us a live window into these two cities.

What the brand says

“We wanted to work on improving the travel between the two destinations,” said Tanya Churchmuch, assistant director, international relations at Tourisme Montreal.

“We wanted to remind people that there are two amazing destinations that are very different from each other and offer extremely different things to do, but are very close and very cool cities. You don’t have to go thousands of miles away to have a great experience.”

Let’s hope other cities think it’s as great as we do.

By Melissa Oberman on September 1st, 2011

Tags: Blogging, Communications, community, Content, Default, Facebook, Synergy, Synergy Loves, Synopsis

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What happened?

At the end of the 2010/11 season Sheffield United were relegated to the third tier of English football, joining their local rivals Sheffield Wednesday in League One.  Both clubs found themselves without shirt sponsors, with local companies airing concerns over sponsoring just one team for fear of being accused of favouring one over the other.

With no deal on the table, Wednesday went ahead and printed its 2011/12 season shirts, sponsor free, holding on to the hope that a company would come on board late in the day. Fans were even told they could bring their shirts back to the club shop to have the sponsor logo added once a deal had been agreed.

However, with no deal on the table,  the two clubs joined forces and took the unusual approach of looking to recruit a joint sponsor. Two local companies stepped up to the mark, a local car dealership and a health insurance firm, who combined to offer a reported six figure sum for the 2011/12 season.

The agreement sees Volkswagon dealership Gilders appearing on the front of Wednesday’s shirt when they are at home and United’s when they are away. Westfield Health will appear on United’s home shirts and Wednesday’s away shirts.

Why we like it

Other than Rangers and Celtic who both carry Tennent’s sponsorship on their shirts in Scotland, this deal is the first of its kind between rival teams in an English league.

Of course, some fans will always be against the move.  Who wants to have anything in common with their local rival?  However, the overall response has been positive.  Before the deal was announced, both clubs had uncertain futures, with rumours of a merger and even closure abounding.  When those are the alternatives, a joint sponsorship deal becomes much easier to stomach, even for the most diehard of fans.

While both clubs deserve credit for coming up with a savvy financial solution (Sheffield is a city used to having to pick itself up and this deal demonstrates the determination not to lose any more of the city’s icons), the sponsors also come out of the deal rather well.

Local derbies always create hightened emotions for football fans, so bringing together two teams through the sponsorship could have resulted in backlash from the fans. However, Gilders and Westfield Heath are two local companies who know the city and its people and they were confident that the fans would back the partnership for the sake of their team. The announcement was made in a considered manner and the quotes focused on preserving two iconic Sheffield brands and football culture in the city.

This approach resulted in blanket coverage across the sports pages of the UK press, propelling two local brands into the national arena. Coverage was positive and gave both companies a voice with the MD of Gilders quick to note that the deal had “brought together four such quality and iconic Sheffield brands”.

As an ex-Sheffield resident, I’ll be following the future of both clubs closely. It will be interesting to see whether the deal will still remain in place even if the Blades win promotion.  In the current financial climate, it feels a fitting approach to a sport that is often (rightly) accused of being frivolous with money. And if it saves two teams steeped in football history and with a huge following, surely it’s a no-brainer.

By Jennifer Mitton on September 1st, 2011

Tags: Advertising, Brand marketing, Communications, community, Default, FA Cup, Football Sponsorship, Sponsorship, Sport, Synergy, Synergy Loves, Synopsis

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Like the vast majority of sports fans watching the events unfold at Royal St George’s, I found myself willing a Darren Clarke victory – this despite a fairly uneducated £5 pre-tournament punt on Phil Mickelson. The emotional pull of seeing a people’s champion claim the Claret Jug was stronger than the rational tug of reversing my losing streak on Betfair. Sport has a particular ability to evoke strong emotions through its personal stories of courage, inspiration and determination, through its inherent unpredictability, excitement and drama.

Those emotions are an essential component of successful sponsorship – and are as relevant across other sponsorship platforms (music, film, fashion, art) as they are in sport. How often do we hear rights holders, brands and sponsorship agencies (guilty as charged) talk of ‘engaging consumers through their passion points’ to justify sponsorship investments? It has become the de facto rationale. But what substantiates that principle, and are sponsors embracing it to make a genuine connection with consumers?

Shared Passions

The stated ambition of many sponsors is to create that emotional connection with their target audience through a shared passion. The theory goes that an emotionally engaged audience – whether they are football fanatics, art lovers, bog snorkelling aficionados, or Gaga’s ‘little monsters’ – is an audience that will be more receptive to brand messages, and more likely to think positively about a brand associated with their passion.

Sound thinking or codswallop? Well, there is plenty of research supporting the notion that the higher a consumer’s emotional engagement with an event, the more effective their recall of sponsors. If you want proof, just read Bal, Pascale and Plewa’s research study in the Sept 2009 Journal of Sponsorship (Volume 2, Number 4). Or take my word for it. Their analysis of the emotional response elicited by a sponsorship event confirmed what we would probably all take as read – that ‘positive sport-related emotions contribute to sponsorship efficiency, favouring the recognition of sponsors’. Which makes sense – an emotional experience is more likely to crystallise into memory than an experience without emotion. I remember where I was when Wilkinson dropped THAT goal in 2003 with patriotic emotions riding high, but have no recollection where I watched the 2010 World Cup Final as an impartial observer.

Sponsor Engagement

But how do sponsors get in on the act, and stake a claim to those memories? Being visible within a passion point might increase the chances of being in a consumer’s mind, but it doesn’t win a place in their hearts. There has to be active emotional involvement, not just proximity or visibility. Engagement not impressions. Too many sponsors assume that an increased awareness of their sponsorship, and that magical associative power alone, will alter consumer perceptions. Perimeter boards, media backdrops, shirt sponsorships and the like certainly have a reinforcing role to play, but I’m yet to hear a sponsor say “that perimeter board really helped me emotionally connect with my target audience”.  The abundance of advertising we are seeing in the run up to 2012 that says ‘I’m an Olympic sponsor’ is failing to tap into the rich emotional tapestry of the Olympics.

So what should sponsors do to capitalise on their consumers’ emotions beyond just ‘being at the party’? To start with there needs to be some sense of brand relevance to the passion point. How else can a brand claim to ‘share’ that passion? Authenticity could be driven by brand characteristics, product relevance, company heritage, or geography. Lack relevance, and brands risk looking as incongruous as Budweiser’s relationship with that king of soccer competitions, the FA Cup. The central thought in Neill Duffy’s book Passion Branding is another worthwhile principle: leverage the relationship between a brand and its consumers around a consumer passion to create value for all involved in the relationship. Sponsors need to think beyond their brand to deliver a benefit for consumers – be that entertaining content, a unique experience or simply a memorable emotional pay-off.

Many brands are successfully engaging consumers on an emotional level, in a relevant passion point, and contributing to their enjoyment of that passion. Some capitalise on a moment of high emotion, some tap into the core emotional sensibility of the passion point. Whether anchored in anticipation, pride, patriotism or celebration, they all exhibit genuine empathy and understanding. A few examples below…

In the build up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Carlsberg’s Old Lions campaign tapped into England fans’ anticipation of the tournament through a nostalgic lens and a pitch perfect creation of pub football camaraderie.

Fast forward four years to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and Coca-Cola’s activation single-mindedly focused on football’s moment of greatest emotion – celebrating a goal. From reliving the greatest celebrations in World Cup history, recording a World Cup celebration song, to touring the FIFA World Cup around the globe, they fuelled fan emotion with the ‘What’s your Celebration’ campaign.

Talking of celebration, O2’s Rugby World Cup victory parade in 2003 gave rugby fans the opportunity to express their support, their joy and their pride to the returning heroes.  Not only that, O2 armed all England players with mobile cameras to record the experience and share it with consumers, and gave some lucky fans the chance to win a place on the parade bus.

But not all emotional engagement is grounded in joy and positivity. Bupa’s activation of their Great North Run focuses on the participants’ moments of greatest physical and emotional need. The Bupa Boost Zone at the typical ‘low’ point for runners 80% through the race, and at the finish, provides massages, sustenance and music to inspire and re-energise runners.

What next?

Social media is making the emotional engagement opportunities around sponsorship that much more immediate, and much more of a dialogue opportunity. The response to celebratory moments in particular is now fairly instantaneous, and can propel brands to the heart of the emotional moment. Harness the emotions correctly, and your consumers will add the catalyst of conversation. After all, people are more likely to talk about things that illicit an emotional response. As a final plea to sponsors, I defer to Mark Harrison, Chair of the Canadian Sponsorship Forum:

‘You can’t manufacture emotion. It’s already there. When you find it – just find a way to trigger it; tap into it; fuel it; and watch it grow into something remarkable.’

By Tom Gladstone on July 26th, 2011

Tags: Betfair, Brand marketing, Branded content, Communications, Content, Default, FA Cup, Football, Media, Olympic sponsorship, Rugby, Social Media, Sponsorship, Sport, Synergy, Synopsis, World Cup, YouTube

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Our relationships are all built on dialogue.  Talking to each other, sharing ideas, working together, creating things, discovering  new stuff,  having fun, laughing, crying, flirting, arguing – everything that makes life worth living is built on our ability to actively engage with each other.   Why should that be different from the relationships we build with the brands in our lives?

For most of its history, Marketing has been pretty much a one-way conversation – a kind of Orwellian 1984 scenario where brands tell you what they want you to know and the customer has no way of talking back (something Apple seemed to pick up on in their famous ad).  Of course, that was primarily driven by the available marketing channels which didn’t give customers a voice.

But like the hammer in the Apple ad, the digital age, and particularly the social media age (rather than the Apple Macintosh), has smashed through the barrier separating brands from their consumers.  And this starts to give us some fantastic examples of how brands are using these two-way channels to form deeper and more natural relationships with their customers.

Of course, there are lots of different roles for brands to play when fuelling this dialogue.  They can engage directly with their clients, but they can also fuel the dialogue in more subtle ways by becoming an integral part of their customers’ own conversations.  Either way, the principle is the same: give your customers a voice and enable them to have conversations with you and with each other.

Dialogue between your brand and the customer

There are many examples of brands engaging directly with their consumers.  One common form is around customer service.  Facebook and Twitter provide incredibly useful information about what customers really think about your brand.  Look for it, listen to it and do something about it.  When @interactiveamy’s pizza took over an hour to arrive, she vented her frustration on Twitter.  When the General Manager Raymon DeLeon saw her tweet, this was his response.  It’s a longish video – no need to watch the whole thing:

The famous Old Spice Man and Blendtec’s “Will It Blend” campaign are further examples of brands that respond to input from their customers with great results.  And, of course, Tippex gives you the chance to have loads of fun with their Bear in the Woods.

‘Crowdsourcing’ – actively soliciting ideas from you customers and doing something with them – is another form of dialogue which works for more than just funny marketing campaigns.

General Electric Ecomagination is an open call to businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators and students to submit breakthrough ideas for energy creation, management and use.  In addition to providing the ideas, the public also vote for their favourites.  With a pledge to invest $200m along with GE’s technical expertise to bring the best ideas to market, this is one form of dialogue that could literally change the world.

Pepsi are doing something very similar with their Pepsi Refresh project.  They are looking for ideas that will ‘Refresh the World’ with a similar commitment to funding the ideas that get the most votes from their consumers.

What is particularly strong about the Pepsi Refresh programme is how deep the conversations they facilitate flow. Not only have they created a powerful platform from which consumers can interact with the brand, the strength of the programme itself encourages consumers to build meaningful conversations with each other online, which grow into ‘real-world’ conversations (as individuals look to build momentum behind their own proposed initiatives), which culminates in a tangible legacy in an American community that consumers will talk about for years to come.

In a final example of engaging directly with your customers, Puma have just launched this Facebook App, which allows Spurs fans to play around with the design of their team’s 2011/2012 kit.  Of course, it would be even better if the fans had some input into the final design of the kit rather than simply “guessing the design” – but surely that won’t be too far away.  In fact, given the passion that football fans have for their team’s kit, and the ease with which they can speak to their fans, it is amazing that all kit manufacturers don’t get some form of fan input.  Here’s what happens if you don’t: http://bit.ly/mzWVT3.

Inserting your brand into your customers conversations

In addition to speaking directly to customers, brands can get their customers to talk about them by giving them the content or platform to fuel the conversation.

How did a Turkish Mobile Network get mentioned in 56,750 tweets (topping the Turkish trending tables for 8 days), which reached approximately 3.6 million people (in an initiative that probably cost them less than £20,000)?  Find out here.

Staying with mobile networks, Orange has also done a great job of creating a reason for fans to mention them.  In this example, which works particularly well on the back of their film sponsorships, Orange will make sure that your tweets are read out in the style of a film voiceover.  Go on, tweet your plans for this summer here.  And then of course, share it with all your friends and followers, who will receive the Orange branding.

Guinness FanFinder used a similar technique during their sponsorship of the RBS 6 Nations.  They published a massive picture of the crowd at various matches and encouraged people to find and tag themselves and their friends. With over 5,000 snap shots posted to walls via the Facebook App and an average of 130 Facebook friends per person that’s some more pretty good exposure for Guinness.

In an attempt to encourage dialogue around their new album, the Kaiser Chiefs kicked off a “create your own Kaiser Chiefs album” campaign for their latest album, The Future Is Medieval. Music fans get to pick out 10 songs from 20 of Kaiser Chiefs songs listed online, create their own album cover, buy it and then sell it online. To make it even better, for every sale of their album they will receive £1. Whilst socially engaging this campaign also pushes power onto the consumer removing them from their traditional role of purchasing products into the role of producer, giving them the chance to create their own product and sell it on to others. Thus creating a tangible benefit for the consumer for positive dialogue about the Kaiser Chiefs brand.

Finally, in a brilliant piece of work by our sister agency Jam, Samsung added considerable spice to the dialogue between tech bloggers and their audience via their “Extreme Unboxing” series of videos.

In all of these examples, the brands found an authentic role for themselves and encouraged conversations between communities with a common interest.

Where does sponsorship fit in to all this

So what does this all mean for sponsorship?  The answer is simple: passion.  People want to talk about the things that they really care about.  With all due respect to most brands, your customers are unlikely to care as much about you as they are do about sports, music, film, art, technology, the environment or activity in their community (to name but a few).  So, if you want to start a conversation with your customers, talking about something that they are really interested in is a good place to start.  And finding a shared passion with your customers is, of course, at the very heart of what sponsorship is all about.

In many ways, this blog goes hand in hand with the brilliant piece on Content written by Ben in last month’s Synopsis (definitely read it if you haven’t already) because the key to stimulating this dialogue is great content.  But, what I hope this blog makes clear is that creating great content and putting it in the right places is not enough.  It is then all about opening up the channels and fuelling the conversations that make life so interesting.

Principles of Dialogue

1. Listen to your customers, learn what they care about and value their contribution.  Actively open up two way communication channels
2. Find an authentic role for your brand (a reason for you to be there) and don’t overstep your bounds
3. Think about whether it makes more sense to talk with your audience directly or to get them to talk about you
4. Remember, this is about your shared passion – not about you
5. Have fun and be creative – remember engaging with other people is what makes life fun

By Carsten Thode on June 17th, 2011

Tags: Branded content, Communications, community, Content, Facebook, Media, Mobile, Music, Public relations, Social Media, Sponsorship, Synergy, Synopsis, Television audiences, Twitter, Viral Marketing, YouTube

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How often do you hear the words ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’? It can be a bit of a cliché but in fact there are certain things that really are once in a lifetime…

This month Synergy has been working with clients GUINNESS and Betfair to offer rugby and football fans a dream come true scenario, the chance to play on the hallowed turf at Twickenham and Old Trafford.

GUINNESS, through their community programme Club Together, gave Birmingham Barbarians the chance of a lifetime to play on the pitch at Twickenham ahead of this year’s Aviva Premiership Final. Synergy was responsible for building a dream day the entire squad would never forget. Their day began with England coaches Brian Smith and Mike Ford putting the team through their paces in a dedicated training and warm-up session in Richmond. It was on to Twickenham and from two England coaches to the next as Graham Rowntree greeted  the team bus. The teams walked through the Lion Gates and into the changing rooms where Graham lead a rousing team talk. Then it was through the infamous Twickenham tunnel and onto a pitch in perfect condition for the pros – Birmingham Barbarians were ready for the rugby match of a lifetime. Thirty minutes later the final score was a 5-5 draw. The lads came running off the field pumped full of adrenalin and buzzing after playing at the 80,000 capacity stadium knowing that an hour later the Premiership Final showdown would be kicking off.

As Birmingham Barbarians departed Twickenham it was onto Old Trafford for Synergy to create the ultimate experience for any football fan. With 16,069,210 Facebook likes to date Manchester United has one of the largest global fans bases of any football team and as official betting partner of the club, Betfair had invited 32 very special VIP guests from across Europe and the UK to enjoy the ultimate Theatre of Dreams experience…

Our guests were collected by a chauffeur driven car upon arrival into Manchester, and dropped off at the 5* hotel the Radisson Edwardian for lunch and the chance to meet their fellow team mates. Betfair’s guests donned their training kit and head to Manchester United’s exclusive training facility, Carrington, where the world class Manchester United Soccer Schools coaches and Manchester United legends, Brian McClair, Gary Pallister, Clayton Blackmore and Andy Ritchie where waiting to greet them and test their skills.

Following a solid three hour training session the teams were picked and team managers Brian McClair and Gary Pallister were ready to go head-to-head at Old Trafford the following day. With a big match ahead it was back to the hotel where guests would find their very own personalised 2011/12 season’s kit in their rooms, literally hot off the press as the kit had only launched the day beforehand!

Match day…with their new kit in tow Betfair’s guests were escorted to Manchester United’s home changing room where United legends and the Premier League trophy were awaiting their arrival. After an eagerly anticipated photo opportunity the teams lined up with team managers in the tunnel. As the Champions League music echoed through the tunnel our excited and nervous guests were lead through the Red Devils tunnel – an experience to never forget.

A full 90 minutes on the pitch at Old Trafford and a 9 – 4 victory for Gary Pallister’s away team over Brian McClair’s home side saw the teams exhausted but buzzing from the experience. After some down time for the guests there was one last surprise in store, dinner at Old Trafford overlooking the pitch hosted by none other than footballing legend Denis Law.

So there you have it, two of sports ultimate experiences delivered with every detail planned to the minute by Synergy’s experiential team. If anyone asks you ‘Do you know anyone who can make dreams come true?’ you know where to look…

By Georgina Taylor on June 17th, 2011

Tags: Communications, Consultancy, Default, Guinness, Guinness Premiership, Public relations, Rugby, Sponsorship, Synergy, Synopsis

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Team Synergy has been rather busy this week – and for the last few weeks actually – helping Judy Murray get a brand new family activity programme off the ground ahead of Wimbledon.

Set4Sport, supported by Andy and Jamie Murray’s long-term sponsor, RBS, is a programme inspired by Judy’s years of experience as a tennis coach and parent, which showcases easy and accessible ways for parents to play with their children that develop the skills required for playing sport. And it was our job to announce this new venture to the UK press.

So while the rest of the nation watched Andy’s fantastic victory at Queen’s on Monday, the RBS team at Synergy were busy bees, effectively re-planning our media launch in less than 24 hours – as the rain delays from Sunday meant best laid plans for a Monday launch in Regents Park ground to a sudden hault. Instead, we prepared to move Team Murray, the media, the event and all associated logistics (not least including 16 willing parents and children to take part) to a 10am start on Tuesday.

No longer able to set up in central London due to the boys’ hectic playing schedules this week, the action moved to Singlegate Primary School in Colliers Wood, near Wimbledon, who willingly offered up their lovely school grounds (and parents and children) to host the event.

Judy, led by a trusty team of four coaches, had designed the perfect sample event, showcasing four of the Set4Sport activities, and providing all the attending parents and kids with some great inspiration for fun and effective playtime games. (To find out exactly how you play Jumping the River, Beat the Goalie, Double Trouble and Dodgems, check out the website, where you can download them all.)

The nation’s media were obviously leaping at the chance to speak to a Queen’s Champ and Set4Sport offered them something fresh to focus on ahead of Wimbledon, though both boys naturally found themselves fending off questions around winning the British Grand Slam (or in Jamie’s case, winning again). Singlegate Primary had never seen so many cameras with crews from BBC, ITV, Sky and PA all clustered around their playground, with features running from Tuesday evening through yesterday’s news agenda.

Even the tennis writers – most of whom had spent the last 8 days following Andy’s progress at Queen’s – all rocked up on the day for a chat with him and Judy, and gave Set4Sport a great show in the press yesterday morning, with feature pieces in the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Independent, Metro and City AM to name a few.

And while the coverage started landing, Synergy and Judy’s work was not yet done. Yesterday morning started at dawn with a slot on the ITV Daybreak sofa, and onwards to the BBC for eleven interviews with radio stations around the UK, making sure all the regions know about the programme in preparation for the Set4Sport Live roadshows hitting cities this summer.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Murrays had found time on Tuesday to sit down and chat with some of the leading national feature writers, with highlights published today including a front page cover shot in The Times’ T2 supplement, a double page spread in the Daily Mirror, and an upcoming column in The Sun newspaper.

Set4Sport marks an exciting new venture for the Murray family, but also for RBS as it is the perfect representation of their new approach to sponsorship. All of our work with them is focused on investing in and supporting their customers’ local communities and Set4Sport fits that new ethos perfectly. Check out www.Set4Sport.com and have a look yourself.

By Lucie Bartlett on June 16th, 2011

Tags: Andy Murray, Celebrity, Communications, Event management service, Experiential marketing, grass roots sport, Public relations, Sponsorship, Sport, Synergy, Tennis

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Ballantine’s 12 (the twelve-year-old aged brand of Ballantine’s, the world’s number two whisky) wanted to own an engaging PR property that would help its markets generate PR at a local level  – bringing to life the Ballantine’s 12 creative territory of “…leaves an impression by taking you BEYOND”.

Rising to the challenge, Synergy devised the first ever Art of BEYOND bar(above) for Ballantine’s 12, designed to combine a media launch with a whisky education for all guests.  Our role included creating the concept, developing a list of potential artists, commissioning and managing the artists during the design phase and installation process, guest and event management during the unveiling and creating a PR activation toolkit to send out to markets to inspire them to create their own Art of BEYOND events locally.

Ballantine’s commissioned six top European artists and designers (L-R below: Jovo Bozhinovski, Laurent Louyer, Luis Gallussi, Lee Broom, Oskar Zieta, Rolf Sachs – with Ballantine’s ambassador Fredrik Olsson) from different disciplines to each create a different element of the concept bar. It was crucial that the artists resonnated with the brand’s key markets such as Bulgaria, Poland, France and Spain, and that their very individual designs worked together to form a cohesive, BEYOND concept.

Bulgaria’s Jovo Bozhinovski (below) was responsible for creating the floor to represent the landmass of Scotland, home of Ballantine’s, as a shimmering puddle of water and therefore create the illusion of a bar that is literally melting.

Lee Broom created the bar stools (below), influenced by old-fashioned cut glass and crystal decanters with a youthful twist, reflecting the brand heritage perfectly.

Creatmosphere, the creative lighting studio, used artistc lighting (below) to hide and reveal the individual elements of the installation and create the ambience within the Art of BEYOND bar.

Spanish based artist Luis Galliussi was responsible for the wall design (below) where he used trompe l’oeil effects with the Ballantine’s logo.

Rolf Sachs (below) designed a new glass for the Ballantine’s 12 Art of BEYOND Bar called Double Take. The surface of the whisky glass was frosted and included reversed text which could only be clearly read when the contents of the glass had been drunk and the mirrored coaster accompanying the glass had been used, revealing the Ballantine’s 12 Year Old brand manifesto.

Poland’s Oskar Zieta was responsible for creating the actual bar (below).  Using his patented method of inflating steel he created a bar which resembled a pile of icecubes.

To add to the experience, Fredrik Olsson, Ballantine’s 12 Year Old ambassador, created a series of Art of BEYOND cocktails inspired by the work of the artists for guests to enjoy.

By all accounts the event was a huge success. As well as press coverage on the event, an extensive library of stock photography and video footage was secured and created a base for Ballantine’s to build on both in the art world and across all of its global markets.

By Lydia Oates on April 20th, 2011

Tags: Alcohol, Art & Design, Brand marketing, Communications, Design, Food & Drink, PR, Synergy, Synopsis

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With the RBS 6 Nations coming to an end mid-March, you might expect the team at Synergy to put their feet-up, have a cup of tea and relax. But you would be wrong, dear blog reader. The Championship may be over, but the RBS team has had a busy few weeks as activity steps-up a gear for the 2011 RBS RugbyForce programme.

Now in its third year, RBS RugbyForce is a nationwide community volunteer programme which helps local rugby clubs to improve their facilities. It is an opportunity for clubs to gather members, supporters, friends and family for a weekend of fun-filled DIY. Registered clubs are provided with online guidance and tools to help them co-ordinate a community-wide effort to give their club a make-over. This year the RBS RugbyForce Weekend will take place over 11th/12th June – or, as we like to call it in the office, ‘proper British summer time.’

RBS RugbyForce 2011 was launched back in late 2010 in England, Scotland and Wales with the support of a few rugby friends. Ex-England international Phil Vickery kicked off proceedings with the England launch in November at Bingham RFC in Nottinghamshire. See Phil in action at the launch below:

Shane Williams launched the Wales RBS RugbyForce programme at Cardigan RFC in late November, an event which saw the entire community head down to the club to meet their hero, due partly to an earlier interview we placed on BBC Wales – a true testament to the power of PR.

Braving the snow and chilly conditions in December, the Scotland launch was held by Allan Jacobsen and Chris Paterson at North Berwick RFC. Taking the weather conditions in their stride the players still managed to hold a special training session for the youth teams and even find time to build a snowman.

But the team didn’t stop at the launch events alone. Throughout the RBS 6 Nations the Synergy press office team went into overdrive ensuring every opportunity was seized, whether it be sponsored columns, ticket competitions or contracted union player appearances.

Our aim was to ensure that every club across the UK knew they had until 25th March to register. In a nutshell, unless you’ve been on another planet over the last two months, you would be hard pushed not to have come across one of the 340 articles on RBS RugbyForce that we have generated. For those who may not have flicked to the back pages of the newspapers (tsk), below are a few highlights:

As a result of all the hard work, RBS RugbyForce 2011 received 398 registrations in total and we will be announcing the winners shortly. In addition to the three main winners, each country has secondary clubs who will receive a smaller support package and the first 100 clubs who registered will be awarded with DIY vouchers and t-shirts for volunteers to wear during the RBS RugbyForce Weekend.

However, our work doesn’t end here. In the run up to the final Weekend the team at Synergy will be looking to drum up support for the clubs taking part in the regional press and encourage the community to rally together and head down to their local club on 11th and 12th June.

If you want to register your club, it’s not too late. Log on to www.rbs.co.uk/rugbyforce where you can find out if your local club is taking part. Keep your eyes peeled in June for coverage around all three launch events and more importantly get down to your local club, pitch in and show your support.

By Jennifer Mitton on April 8th, 2011

Tags: Charity, Communications, community, Experiential marketing, grass roots sport, Media, Public relations, RBS 6 Nations, Rugby, Sponsorship, Sport, Synopsis

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