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Politics on the pitch

So the election is well underway and all the party manifestos have been launched. Gordon Brown formally kicked off Labour’s campaign with the cabinet at his side at the swanky new Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Cameron opted to launch at Battersea Power Station – with its crumbling façade apparently a metaphor for the Labour government. Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems opted for a fairly plain looking conference room, somewhere in the UK. It looked like UKIP launched its manifesto in someone’s front room.

Of course, all parties focused on their plans for economic recovery, with investment in green infrastructure, high speed rail, civic service and taxes all making an appearance.

However, sport – in fact, the whole arts and culture brief – is often overlooked when it comes to election time.

Labour offered the most on sports policy – focusing on both elite and grassroots sport and succeeded in capturing some of the wider, holistic benefits of sport. Many involved in sport will be disappointed by the relative lack of ideas from the Conservatives.

Hugh Robertson, the Conservative shadow sports minister, is an intelligent and influential figure who has floated a number of sound policies in recent months, but his input into the manifesto looks limited.

As ever, the Liberal Democrats bang the drum for grassroots sport and protecting playing fields and outdoor space – but there’s nothing new of note.

With London 2012 looming on the horizon, each party did its best to capitalise on the Games.

The Tories pledged to deliver an Olympic legacy of physical activity with a national Olympic-style school competition, while Labour committed to 3,000 new Olympic-inspired sports clubs and a new culture of volunteerism following the Olympics.

The Games already account for a large part of funding and sponsorship opportunities available, and many other sports or culture bodies struggle to compete with the profile of London 2012. Both the Lib Dems and Tories acknowledged this, and promised to return the National Lottery to its original funding levels for sports, the arts and heritage.

Each party pledged support (note the word ‘support’, not ‘funding’) for other major events in the pipeline – the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014; the 2013 Rugby League and 2015 Rugby Union World Cups and the 2018 Football World Cup bid. That line up will have every prospective sports minister licking their lips.

I should probably touch on the whole fan-ownership issue. Don’t get too excited. The closest we came was Labour’s pledge to ‘develop proposals to enable registered Supporters Trusts to buy stakes in their club’. The Conservatives stayed well clear of the whole issue in their manifesto, so expect the debate around the governance and transparency of football to rumble on for a while yet.

Whoever wins the next election, the sports, arts and culture budgets will face significant cuts. After 2012, the money simply won’t be around to be pumped into sports and major event bids. But the future is bright – participation in sport is going up, Leicester City are nearing the playoffs and by 2015 we might have a rugby team good enough to beat the Irish, which would be nice.

This blog post has been written for Synergy by Nick Carter from Engine public affairs agency and sports politics experts, Mandate.

By Synergy on April 14th, 2010

Tags: Consultancy, DCMS, General election, Sponsorship, Sport

1 comment

We’re celebrating 25 years in business today – quite a landmark

When we started out as Karen Earl Sponsorship in 1984 we had little idea what the future held, nor did we realise just how far sponsorship would develop as a global marketing phenomenon.

What a ride it has been. So many wonderful clients and sponsorships, so many great friends and memories. Lots of hard work too of course, but always great fun – and is still. I’m so proud of our work, our people, and the unique reputation we’ve built.

Looking ahead, we’ve never been in better shape. We have the most talented and committed group of people in our history, and a client list that’s unrivalled in the industry – and growing. Our international work has grown exponentially in the last few years. And as part of The Engine Group, we are ideally placed to continue to spearhead sponsorship’s unique role in modern marketing.

Easy to say, but let me explain.

We evolved into Synergy a year ago and moved into Engine’s new building just north of Oxford Circus. This meant that, as well as our three existing specialist units – Consultancy, Experiential and Communications – we were able to offer four new services: Branded Content, Digital, Employee Engagement and Sales Promotion. And all under one roof.

Our clients all tell us the same thing: they love it!

We now provide them with the broadest, most flexible and most relevant toolkit for 21st century sponsorship. Successful sponsorships are those which are truly integrated into brand marketing campaigns. Truly outstanding sponsorships are those which act as a catalyst for this integration using compelling ideas which both cut through the media clutter and effectively engage consumers.

We help our clients do that every day.

You can see numerous examples on our website. Two that immediately come to mind are the Guinness Premiership and the Powerade InnerGear campaign, each of which completed a clean sweep of the three major sponsorship awards in the last two years.

Our 25^th year makes this a landmark year for Synergy, but there’s going to be a lot more to shout about. We’ve already announced, for example, that we’re now working with Philips on their global Formula 1 sponsorship and with Betfair to develop their sponsorship strategy and portfolio. There are more announcements in the pipeline – watch this space.

Here’s to the next 25 years!