Traditionally, November is the sponsorship industry’s conference time of year.  Last week’s Future Sponsorship conference in Brussels is now well-established as a gathering of the great and the good in the industry and, as its name suggests, where the future is discussed.  This year was no different.

The first question on most people’s lips was “how will the sponsorship industry be affected by the credit crunch?”  

My answer was, and is, that the sponsorship industry will be affected, just like all other industries and it’s short sighted to pretend otherwise.  Budgets will be trimmed, cuts will be made and everyone will be squeezed in one way or another.

But the industry is far better placed than it was during the last major downturn in the 1990s.  Then, only some marketers were convinced that sponsorship worked.  As a consultancy, we were still busy educating companies on the benefits of sponsorship and showing them that it worked. 

Now, we spend little, if any, time persuading marketing directors that money will be effectively spent on sponsorship – they’re already convinced.  They have numerous examples for reference and it’s pleasing to note that they are considering sponsorship in their current and future strategies as a matter of course.

Increasingly, sponsorship is being asked to provide tangible business benefits.  And, thank goodness, it can, because now is the time when proof is needed that marketing expenditure can indeed put money on the bottom line.

A great deal of time is spent within the industry discussing precisely how that proof should be declared.  Unlike the advertising or PR industries, sponsorship has no universally-agreed evaluation system, arguing as it does that sponsorship’s success depends upon objectives set at the outset.  The difficulty (or, as many argue, the advantage) being that these objectives can be immensely varied and, therefore, results need to be individually tracked.  Thus a universal system is both impractical if not impossible.

I’ve always argued that sponsorship’s marketing advantage is its flexibility; the fact that it can solve a multitude of business challenges.

But I came away from Future Sponsorship thinking that it would be in the industry’s interest if it can make itself bullet-proof against accusations of non-accountability, especially in this economic downturn. 

By Karen Earl on December 2nd, 2008

Tags: Brand marketing, Public relations, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy

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Congratulations to the Guinness team who picked up their fourth award last night for the title sponsorship of rugby’s Guinness Premiership. The sponsorship, managed on behalf of Guinness by Synergy, won the Rugby Business Award for Rugby Sponsor of the Year (over $500k). 

The judges particularly commended the ground breaking work on the Guinness Club Together campaign across 2007/8. Synergy manages all aspects of the sponsorship from strategic consulting to experiential events and PR.

 

By Dominic on November 18th, 2008

Tags: Experiential marketing, Guinness, Guinness Premiership, Public relations, Rugby, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Synergy

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I’ve posted before about the fact that NPD has been one of the key drivers in modern sponsorship, with virtually every week seeing new platform and property models being unveiled. NPD being what it is however, they don’t always work out, and the most recent example of this is golf’s FedEx Cup.

Launched by the US PGA Tour two years ago as an attempt to reinvigorate the final weeks of the Tour and counter audience migration to the start of the American football season, the FedEx Cup has had a difficult start to life.

For two years in a row, the Cup has been won anticlimactically early, last year by Tiger Woods (remember him?), this year by Vijay Singh, who has only to finish the final tournament of the season this weekend to claim the title. As one columnist from the National Post put it:

‘Under the current FedEx points system, Singh would have to step in a gopher hole or assault a rules official in order to lose the event. He could play all 72 holes with a belly putter and a persimmon three wood and still take the title, even if his card went into three-figures four days in a row.’

And despite changes introduced this year by the PGA, the format and credibility of the FedEx are still being roundly criticised by the media, in pieces with headlines such as ‘Once again, playoffs are a snoozefest’ and ‘FedEx Cup ending with a whimper’.

Tim Finchem, Commissioner of the PGA Tour, admitted that it was a case of back to the drawing board for next year in a recent media conference, although I suspect what he said will have done little to reassure the players, the media and most of all, his sponsor (whose current tagline is ‘Relax, it’s Fedex’).

Using the analogy of golf course designer Donald Ross and his work on the famed No. 2 course at Pinehurst NC, Finchem said that even a second set of format changes to the FedEx might not get it right:

“[Ross] made 213 or 220 changes in the first 12 years of [Pinehurst No. 2's] existence. Sometimes to get perfection, you have to keep working at it, and we intend to do that.”

Let’s hope, for the sake of FedEx in particular, it’s a case of third time lucky in 2009.

By Tim Crow on September 25th, 2008

Tags: Brand marketing, Default, Golf, New Product Development, PGA Tour, Public relations, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants, Television audiences, Tiger Woods

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With AIG, shirt sponsors of Manchester United, now having followed Northern Rock, shirt sponsors of Newcastle United, into nationalisation, it occurred to me that the sponsors’ lounge at the next Toon versus Reds match could bring a whole new meaning to the term Premier League. Because, of course, the effective heads of the teams’ two sponsors are now the Premiers of the US and UK.

But who’ll be in those respective hot seats come next March? Over there, will it be John McCain or Barack Obama. Over here, will Gordon Brown still be around? And whoever it is, will they use the occasion for a pow-wow at St James’ on Wednesday March 4? Lovely thought, but somehow I doubt it.

Maybe Gordon could send noted Toon Army member Tony Blair - remember him? - to deputise…

By Tim Crow on September 18th, 2008

Tags: Barclays Premier League, Brand marketing, Default, Football, Football Sponsorship, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Public relations, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants

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With perfect timing in the week when the Large Hadron Collider became part of the global zeitgeist, a new sponsorship category was also unveiled to the world: Dow Chemical has become the ‘Official Chemistry Company’ of the PGA Tour.

Sponsorship has been adopted by a myriad of product categories in the modern era, but ‘Chemistry’ is a new one on me. Let me hasten to add, I think Dow has done a very clever deal with the PGA, creating a perfect showcase for its agroscience and technology products. And I’m sure that the guys at Dow and the PGA thought long and hard before landing on ‘Chemistry’. But it does lead your imagination in some interesting directions…

Talking of which, the scientists involved in the Large Hadron Collider project have taken a break from attempting to discover the ‘God Particle’ to star in their own hit viral video. The ‘Large Hadron Rap’ has become a favorite on YouTube.

By Tim Crow on September 12th, 2008

Tags: Branded content, Digital marketing, Golf, Media, New Product Development, PGA Tour, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants, Viral Marketing, YouTube

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Before Beijing 2008 began I wrote a post speculating about what the legacies of Beijing might be for the Olympics, for London 2012, and for brands. Now that the Olympic flag has been handed to London 2012, what initial conclusions can we draw?

1. From a UK perspective, Beijing was the latest in a long line of single-issue Games - but the issue wasn’t, in the end, China. It was, of course, Team GB’s brilliant performance. This has created numerous legacies, all of which can be filed under ‘Feelgood Factor’. Right now, we feel good about Team GB, London 2012 and The Olympics. Of course it’s too early to say, using one of Boris Johnson’s many wonderful new soundbites, that “Olympo-scepticism” has been totally blown away, but I think we can say with some confidence that thanks to ‘The Great Haul of China’ it will be a minority sentiment from now on.

2. The Olympic brand survived the China crisis. Concerns about regime policy and authoritarian stage-management never went away, but were ultimately overshadowed by a technically superb Games which delivered both breathtaking spectacle and an array of legendary performances. The most important performance of the lot in a global context? My vote goes to Usain Bolt. Not just for what he did, in the event which above all defines the Games, but for what he didn’t do: three of the previous five Olympic 100 metre champions tested positive for drugs. Usain prefers chicken nuggets.

3. The London 2012 brand evolved significantly. Beijing 2008 grafted two new elements into London 2012’s DNA: Team GB and, by very different means and in his own unique way, Boris Johnson (and since you ask, I’m a huge fan of both). Finally, do you know anyone who doesn’t like the new London 2012 logo featuring Union jack colours?

4. And what of the brand marketing contest around Beijing 2008 in the UK? To my mind there were three clear winners: adidas, via their kit sponsorship of Team GB; Powerade, the only Team GB sponsor to commit to a brand campaign throughout the Games, as my colleague Sara vividly described in her post a few weeks ago; and British Airways, who skilfully leveraged Team GB’s homecoming

By Tim Crow on August 27th, 2008

Tags: Beijing 2008, Brand marketing, China, Default, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants, Team GB, Vancouver 2010

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There appears to be confusion within WPP about the value to brands of sponsoring London 2012. Announcing WPP’s results on Friday, WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell said that “The winners as a result of Beijing are the seven [London 2012 sponsors]…They have done a good deal”. However Lesa Ukman, chairman of WPP-owned IEG, a US sponsorship consultancy, was quoted in Sunday’s Independent that London 2012 sponsorship is “impossible to justify” and “absurd”. Come on WPP, make your minds up…

By Tim Crow on August 26th, 2008

Tags: Beijing 2008, London 2012 sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, Sponsorship consultancy

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Apart from the competitors’ heroics, what will we remember Beijing 2008 for? And how, with London 2012 in mind, will UK consumers feel about the Olympics after Beijing?

Previous Olympics in the modern era have all strongly impacted the Olympic brand – in general negatively – and left a single-issue legacy. Montreal 1976 invented the Olympics as a debt monster. Moscow 1980 was the Cold War, Soviet Games. LA 1984 showcased the American entrepreneurial Dream - and in Atlanta 1996 the Dream became an over-commercialised Nightmare. Seoul 1988 will forever be remembered for Ben Johnson and doping. Barcelona 1992 was a triumphant spectacle for Spain, as Sydney 2000 was for Australia. Athens 2004 was the Games that could never follow Sydney and only just got built.

Beijing 2008 looks like being another single-issue Games - the issue, of course, being Chinese government policy. With the Torch Relay crisis now firmly imprinted on Beijing’s DNA, and the media even more focused on the issue as we move into Games time, I can’t see this changing.

But what I do see changing is the world’s knowledge of and attitude to China. And in this respect the Olympics is part of the solution, not – as many would have it – part of the problem. Beijing 2008 will offer an unprecedented window into China’s uniquely fascinating society and culture. And the greater knowledge, understanding and – let us hope – human empathy this engenders will perhaps be Beijing 2008’s key legacy. As Simon Barnes of The Times wrote in a characteristically brave and intelligent piece back in April, this is a key strand of what this Olympics is about. It will make few, if any headlines, but it will leave the world, and the Olympics, in a much better place.

And what of the legacies that Beijing 2008 will leave London 2012? Here in the UK of course, as the next hosts of the summer Games, we’ll be looking at Beijing very differently to the rest of the world. “It’s our turn next” will undoubtedly be a theme running throughout the Games coverage, rising to a crescendo when Beijing hand the Olympic flag to London during the Closing Ceremony on Sunday 24 August.

The big question, of course, which we’ll be looking at closely with our clients who are Olympic sponsors, will be the effect of Beijing 2008 on UK consumers’ attitudes to and behaviours around the Olympics. There are bound to be some big shifts – especially in favourability if, as we all hope, Team GB wins medals galore – but only time will tell what they’ll be, and how lasting.

By Tim Crow on August 6th, 2008

Tags: Beijing 2008, Brand marketing, China, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, London 2012 sponsorship consultants, Media, Olympic Torch Relay, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Olympics, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants, Synergy

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Football these days: it’s all about the bottom line, isn’t it? Transfers, takeovers, salaries and shareholders – more front than back pages risk an overwhelming slide towards fan fatigue. Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of The Football League has always been founded on the brand’s understanding of real fan motivations in 72 communities.

Having just returned from working on the showcase finale to The Football League season, the Coca-Cola Play Offs, I can confirm that it’s an event about clubs, not multinationals; fans, not investors. This year Coke activated it through club-specific advertising and activity at Wembley Stadium, though unlike many brands, it remained mindful of the fact that what matters to supporters is the match itself.

Hull City made it to the Premier League thanks to two local heroes; Donny Rovers overcame the 40,000-strong support from Leeds Utd and Stockport County won at Wembley, at the fifth time of asking.

With all the stats and figures coming out of last weekend’s event: 200,000 attending fans…110,000 matchday programmes sold…£60million at stake…at the Play Offs, the bottom line appears to be simple: heart.

By Jonathan Izzard on May 29th, 2008

Tags: Event management consultants, Event management service, Football, Sponsorship consultancy, Synergy

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