Last month saw the pinnacle of club football descend on London for a week in May as the UEFA Champions League Final came into town. Ending with the dream final between Manchester United and Barcelona  on 28th May, the week kicked off with the UEFA Champions Festival, a free 8-day festival beginning on Saturday 21st. UEFA also staged the Women’s Champions League Final at Craven Cottage on 26th May, a battle between French side Lyon and Germany’s Potsdam.

Synergy was brought on board by UEFA to promote the UEFA Women’s Champions League Final and UEFA Champions Festival, which for the footie-loving team in the office, was a bit of a treat.

Our approach combined a mix of PR stunt-led ideas with a hard working press office, both underpinned by a running theme throughout of creating Champions League moments.

We packed quite a bit of activity into the 4 week campaign, below are some of our highlights.

UEFA Women’s Champions League Final comes to Craven Cottage

Synergy announced the sale of the UEFA Women’s Final tickets via a PR stunt that tapped into Fulham’s FC’s most popular asset – the Michael Jackson statue. For one day only, the statue’s white glove was replaced with a pink one to mark the sale of the Women’s Final tickets.

Female Football Freestyler hits London

In the run up to the Women’s Final, Synergy drummed up interest amongst Londoners by touring female football freestyler Charlotte Lade around the capital. Charlotte wowed crowds at London Bridge Underground station, Canary Wharf and commuters on London Bridge (see below image).

The UEFA Champions Festival opening

Synergy invited the media to attend the official opening of the Festival on Saturday 21^st, with Gary Lineker and Graeme Le Saux cutting the red ribbon in front of hundreds of fans and the world’s media.

Breaking a World Record

To maintain momentum around the Festival opening, Synergy orchestrated a World Record attempt on the first weekday of the Festival. Giving football fans the chance to get up-close and personal to the Champions League trophy, UEFA broke the record for the most trophy lifts in one hour, with 417 festival-goers beating the record of 250 lifts.

That’s not all…

We didn’t just stop at the above stunts, other activity included…

Giant UEFA Champions League footballs in Trafalgar Square.

Taking UEFA Champions Festival ambassador Graeme Le Saux to key media outlets to talk about the Festival and Women’s Final, including Sky Sports (see below).

A hardworking press office team also ensured the Festival and Women’s Final made the listings sections of the media and placed numerous interviews with our ambassadors who included England women’s coach Hope Powell.

A perfect ending to the week?  Well that would be the UEFA team at Synergy going to the UEFA Champions League Final at Wembley….

By Jennifer Mitton on June 17th, 2011

Tags: Consultancy, Default, Public relations, Sponsorship, Sport, Synergy, UEFA Champions League, Viral Marketing

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We are thoroughly in the midst of Awards season: BAFTAs, Oscars, Brits… Sport Industry Awards, Hollis Sponsorship Awards… the list goes on (OK, so we may not have BAFTAs, but we do have the Beckhams….)

Nominations for the 2011 rounds of both the SIAs and Hollis were announced this week – both events see nods for superstars across the world of sport – for brands, sponsors, rights holders, community projects, governing bodies, and of course the agencies that help bring it all together (that’s us!).

So imagine our delight this week at the news that Synergy has been shortlisted for five Sport Industry Awards and six Hollis Awards. Congrats team – fingers crossed!

Sport Industry Awards* – the Synergy Shortlist:

BEST SPONSORSHIP OF A SPORT EVENT OR COMPETITION
- Bupa – Bupa Great Run Series
- GUINNESS – Guinness Premiership Season 2009/10

BEST INTEGRATED SPORT MARKETING CAMPAIGN
- Coca-Cola – FIFA World Cup

SPORT PARTICIPATION EVENT OF THE YEAR
- Bupa 30th Great North Run

SPORT AGENCY OF THE YEAR (Sponsored by Colouration)
- Synergy

And further congratulations must go to our friends at the NFL UK who were nominated for two SIAs: BEST SPORT WEBSITE OF THE YEAR (for NFL-360.com) and SPORT BRAND OF THE YEAR.

*For the full list of Sport Industry Awards nominations for 2011, click here.

Hollis Sponsorship Awards** – the Synergy Shortlist:

SPORTS UNDER 750k (Supported by Sport England)
- Bupa Great Run Series 2010

GRASS ROOTS SPORTS  (Supported by the Sport and Recreation Alliance)
- RBS RugbyForce 2010

BRAND UNDER 750K
- Bupa Great Run Series 2010

BRAND OVER 750K
- Betfair: Proud To Back Manchester United
- Coca-Cola FIFA World Cup & What’s Your Celebration

SPONSORSHIP CONSULTANCY OF THE YEAR
- Synergy

**For the full list of Hollis Sponsorship Awards nominations for 2011, click here.

By Synergy on February 17th, 2011

Tags: Awards, Brand marketing, Broadcast sponsorship, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants, Sport, Synergy

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This season Synergy was tasked to create a half time activity campaign using Betfair’s two football assets Manchester United and FC Barcelona.  With two of the world’s most famous clubs it surely wasn’t going to be hard to create an ultimate sporting experience…

In September every £10 football bet placed on Betfair offered their customers the chance to be entered into the Betfair Penalty Champions competition. Through Betfair’s sponsorship of Manchester United and FC Barcelona, customers who were entered would have the chance to walk onto the pitch at half time at both Old Trafford and the Camp Nou and take a penalty representing their team.

October saw ten Manchester United fans and ten FC Barcelona fans headed to their clubs’ training grounds for a training day with club coaches and ex-players, followed by the filming of their very own penalty. For MU fans it was Carrington with Dennis Irwin and Andrew Cole and for Barca fans it was at Joan Gamper with Roberto Bonano.

With all twenty penalties posted online for the public vote, it was not long before two teams would be announced and preparing  for the first leg at Old Trafford, before heading to the Camp Nou for the second leg. The winners – with over 87,755 votes between them – were Darrin Crawford, Brendan Doherty and David Snell (representing MU) and Israel Sanchez, Eduardo Rubio and Jordi Vila representing Barca.

December bought both snow and Manchester United v Arsenal at Old Trafford. With all winners finally making it to Old Trafford despite some snow-diverted flights at half time our six winners and their glamorous escorts (Caroline me in beautiful yellow Betfair Jackets, below) stepped out onto the hallowed turf at Old Trafford. As if stepping out in front of approximately 80,000 fans wasn’t daunting enough, the Chilean Miners and the one and only David Beckham had also decided to make an appearance at the match!



The crowd immediately got behind their Red Devils, encouraging the MU boys to an early 3-1 lead over the Barca team, leaving MU with what should have been an easy win at the Camp Nou…or maybe not…

After the Christmas break it was time for Betfair’s six winners (oh, and me again) to start the New Year in style by flying to Barcelona and following in the footsteps of some of today’s greatest players, Messi, Iniesta and Villa, by walking onto the pitch at the Camp Nou at half time of Barcelona v Malaga. With a change in the MU team with Brendan Doherty having to pull out of the competition to attend the birth of his first child…it was up to fourth place Steve Wright to take his place!

With a 3-1 lead it should have been an easy victory for the MU team, however, now it was the turn of a 100,000 Barca fans to get behind their team and it would seem the pressure proved too much for some of the MU team with replacement Steve Wright blazing it over the top of the goal post and goal keeper Roberto Bonano easily saving David Snell’s penalty. However, with the Barca fans behind them the Barca team struck some great penalties and bough the score back to 3-3, leaving Darrin Crawford to secure MU’s victory! Unfortunately for Barca and their fans the MU win was never in doubt as Darrin struck his penalty with total confidence bang into the bottom left hand corner of the goal as he had at Old Trafford securing a 4-3 victory for Manchester United at the Camp Nou!!

So there you have it a 4-3 victory for Manchester United over FC Barcelona! I wonder would Manchester United be victorious against FC Barcelona should fate draw them together in this year’s Champions League…?

By Georgina Taylor on January 28th, 2011

Tags: Betfair, Brand marketing, David Beckham, Event management service, Experiential marketing, Facebook, Football, Football Sponsorship, Manchester United, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sport, Synergy, UEFA Champions League

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Football and money.  These days the two things go hand-in-hand, and more often than not we are talking about the upper end of the scale.

Take the recent spectacle that was the re-negotiation of Wayne Rooney’s contract at Manchester United.  He’s leaving…Chelsea want him…he prefers Manchester City…the fans are outraged…he’s staying at United after all , but only after signing a deal worth a cool £250k a week – or to round it up, a pretty comfortable one million pounds a month.  And all this in the space of just a few crazy days.

However, scanning the news last week, two separate stories linking Football and Money caught my attention for being at the other end of the spectrum.

1)    The Football Association is offering resident’s of Brent, the home borough of Wembley, the chance to buy tickets for England’s forthcoming friendly with France for as little as £5.

There are many ways you can look at this. The sceptical viewpoint (but probably quite close to the truth) is that the FA is desperately trying to find ways to fill Wembley with only 44,000 seats sold so far.  The lack of sales could be down to a number of things – friendlies are always less popular, ticket prices are so expensive, or are people still struggling to overcome some of the horror stories that the sport has endured over the last twelve months, both on-and-off the field in the shape of World Cup disappointment and the torrid tales of several footballers personal behaviour?

Alternatively, is the FA genuinely looking to give something back to the local community by giving residents the opportunity to go to an international match at the home of Football for such a low price?  Whilst I’m leaning towards the former argument in terms of what is probably the real reason behind this bold move, I’m going to go with the latter and enjoy the feeling that youngsters are going to benefit by enjoying what could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch their national team, something they will never forget.

2)    The second story is about another billionaire from the US pouring money into an English football club.

Only this time we aren’t talking Liverpool, or Chelsea, or even Accrington Stanley. Robert Rich, the world’s 488th wealthiest man is investing in Bedlington Terriers – whose average attendance is under 100, and whose website address is www.btfc.ninjapowered.co.uk. The reason why Rich has chosen to invest – because he discovered he had ancestral rights in the area.

This story struck a chord with me because for once money is being put into the sport where your average Joe will reap the benefits.

By Synergy on November 12th, 2010

Tags: Finance, Football, grass roots sport, Manchester United, Sport, World Cup

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Torrential rain all week in Manchester, followed by one glorious sunny Thursday, meant only one thing…’The Betfair Player Challenges’ were in town and heading to Carrington.

At 7.00am a combined team of Betfair and Synergy boarded the train at London Euston and headed to Carrington, Manchester United’s training ground. With the sun shining it was the perfect day to see six Manchester United players take to the field for some slightly unusual ‘training’.

With the Ryder Cup fast approaching it seemed only fitting to have the Manchester United players take on a golfing challenge. So it was decided that their first contest would be the Betfair Ryder Cup Challenge. This saw the players divided into two teams, Team Europe versus Team Americas (sound familiar?!).

Europe’s team comprised of Wes Brown, Darren Fletcher and John O’Shea, and representing the Americas we had the Da Silva twins, Rafael and Fabio, along with Anderson.  The teams were taken back to the basics of golf with the ‘simple’ task of chipping a ball into a bucket.

It soon became apparent that the ‘simple’ Ryder Cup challenge was right up Team Europe’s street and perhaps a challenge that Team Americas would rather forget.

With neither of the two Da Silva twins having ever held a golf club before, it was up to John O’Shea to share his pedigree with the opposition, attempting to add a little competition to procedings. But unfortunately O’Shea’s advice fell on deaf ears as both Da Silvas and Anderson failed to make it anywhere near the bucket. Proving Europe’s strength, both Brown and Fletcher chipped close but it was John O’Shea who was victorious chipping in.

With over 200,000 views on You Tube in just five days and millions tuning in to see Graeme McDowell reflecting John O’Shea’s victory by winning the final point to bring the Ryder Cup home for Europe yesterday, it seems it’s not just the Manchester United players who have got Ryder Cup fever!

By Georgina Taylor on October 5th, 2010

Tags: Betfair, Football, Football Sponsorship, Golf, Manchester United, Ryder Cup, Sponsorship, Sport, Synergy, Television audiences, YouTube

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There is a saying: “If you’re £1m in debt, you’re in trouble.  If you’re £100m in debt, your bank is in trouble.”  In which case, both Arsenal and their Bond Holders, to whom Arsenal owe a total of £266m*, are in double trouble.

But can debt in a football club ever be a good thing?  What about all these high profile fan revolts, Premier League clubs going into administration and UEFA deeming it necessary to introduce Financial Fair Play regulations to safeguard the future of the game?

Well, in Arsenal’s case, the answer is “Yes”. Of course, having ‘good debt’ hasn’t brought them a trophy in the last five years – and it didn’t help in the game at home to West Brom, but it is worth contrasting Arsenal’s situation with the other high-profile debt stories in football.

Firstly, debt is not a bad thing, per se.  In fact, it is a very good thing.  How many people could own a house if they had to pay for it all in cash?  Similarly, very few businesses have the cash they need to build a new factory, buy equipment, finance international expansion or conduct vital R&D.  They rely on debt to finance these activities – debt is the engine of growth. In Arsenal’s case, they needed the debt to finance the new stadium.  No debt, no new stadium.

Of course, there are two very important conditions that need to be met.  Firstly, the debt must be used to finance an activity which generates returns over and above the total cost of that debt.  Secondly, the cash flow from the new activity needs to be secure, predictable and able to service the interest payments.

Arsenal. In Arsenal’s case both conditions are met.  They have used the debt to build a new stadium which has significantly increased their revenues and profits.  To put it into context, the 9,000 premium seats at the Emirates generate more revenue per match than all 38,000 seats at Highbury did.  The remaining 51,000 seats at the Emirates are all upside.

Matchday revenue (the gate receipts taken by the stadium) was £93m and the operating costs of the stadium were £55m – meaning that the stadium generated a profit of £38m.  Total interest payments were £20.2m, providing interest coverage of nearly two times.

These ‘Stadium Profits’ are secure and predictable.  As long as Arsenal play roughly the same number of games per year and have roughly the same attendance, then there will never be a problem paying the interest.  The Stadium pays for itself and doesn’t rely on subsidies from broadcast revenue, commercial revenue or player trading surpluses.  It is the very definition of a good investment.

Good debt: Arsenal borrowed money to build a stadium which has increased the clubs value. The increased cash flow generated by the asset can comfortably finance the debt

Manchester United. The debt was not taken out in order to finance an activity that would increase the club’s value – it was taken out to buy the club itself.  So there is no reason to think that United’s financial performance is any better as a result of taking out the debt (in other words, the debt and the interest payments are pointless).  Secondly, the level of their debt (over £700m) is such that it cannot be financed by matchday profits alone – they have to tap into broadcast revenues, commercial income and player trading surpluses.  Last year, without the profits from the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo for £80m, they would have made a loss.  And that is a problem.

Pointless Debt: Debt was not used to build or acquire an asset that increases Manchester United’s value. Debt re-payments cannot be met by a sustainable and predictable source of cash flow

Liverpool: This is a very similar situation to Manchester United.  Again, the £350m of debt wasn’t used to finance growth but simply to buy the club (another case of pointless debt and interest payments).  Last year they didn’t generate enough profit from all their activities to cover their interest payments and recorded losses of £55m.  Big problem.

Leeds United and Portsmouth: Both of these clubs used debt to finance the purchase of players in the form of transfer fees and wages.  It is pretty easy to see why this was a disastrous policy.  Players don’t directly generate increased cash flow and their value is unpredictable and variable.  If the new players had caused a significant improvement in the team’s performance which had led to increased revenue and the value of the players themselves had increased, then the gamble might have paid off.  But it took very little for the house of cards to come tumbling down.

Chelsea and Manchester City: These two clubs also borrowed money to finance the purchase of players.  Of course, this money was borrowed from a Sugar Daddy rather than a bank and it is unlikely that any interest will be paid, let alone the principal.  Who knows what the long term consequences of this ‘Financial Doping’ model will be, but it is far from certain that it will end well.

In summary, Arsenal’s finances since they moved to the Emirates aren’t the problem.  The problem is that they haven’t added to their trophy cabinet.

* Arsenal also have £127.6m in cash, making their Net Debt the widely reported £138.4m.  Incidentally, a further benefit of debt is that interest payments are tax deductible – so 28% (the corporation tax rate) of any interest payment is re-captured in the form of tax savings.  This is one of the reasons why Arsenal are in no hurry to use their surplus cash to pay down their debt.

By Carsten Thode on September 28th, 2010

Tags: Barclays Premier League, Default, Football, Football Sponsorship, Manchester United, Naming Rights

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Last weekend the Betfair team here at Synergy were involved in a world football first at Old Trafford for the Manchester United v Everton match. For the first time in football history, the faces of fans appeared on TV interview backdrops and LED ad boards, as part of Betfair’s unique Get Behind United campaign.

Fans were able to win this once in a lifetime opportunity by uploading their photo at www.betfairfootball.com/getbehindunited. Promotional girls were outside the ground at the previous Manchester United v Blackburn match to take fans’ photos which were also entered in to the competition.

Betfair’s USP is that fans bet against each other rather than against a bookmaker, and this was brought to life before the Everton match where the Synergy Experiential team organised a Betfair football roadshow where fans could take part in a variety of football skills challenges for the chance to win a signed United home shirt, as Event Magazine reported. The Fan v Fan messaging was also emphasised on-pitch at half-time by fans competing against each other in a skills challenge. Before kick-off there were once again promotional girls taking photos of fans’ faces ahead of the Manchester United v Aston Villa game on 12th December, where the activity will be repeated as Betfair again give back to United’s loyal supporters by offering them a unique experience for a worldwide audience to see.

The campaign has gone down incredibly well with the fans; I had a thank you email from one of the winners calling it an “unforgettable experience” and Duncan Laryeah. whose face appeared on both the perimeter boards and interview backdrop claimed “it was almost like there wasn’t a football match on that day!” If you’re a Manchester United fan go and upload your photo at www.betfairfootball.com/getbehindunited and be involved in a World Football Second.

By Synergy on November 27th, 2009

Tags: Advertising, Football, Manchester United, Sponsorship

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Great marketing campaigns by rights owners in sport being a rarity (acid test: how many can you remember?) I’ve really enjoyed two very different but equally hard-hitting efforts over the last few days.

First up was Manchester City’s ‘Welcome to Manchester’ poster featuring new City signing Carlos Tevez, aimed squarely and mischievously at the red half of Manchester from which, of course, Tevez came.

Cue national media coverage, a dismissive riposte from Sir Alex Ferguson, and an outpouring of fan banter and reaction, including a paint attack on one of the Tevez billboards and some highly creative visual replies by Manchester United fans – here’s my favourite so far:

Overall a top piece of work by the City marketing team, which has put the City brand, and the City/United rivalry, firmly back on the agenda for the start of the season in three weeks’ time.

Whereas in three years’ time of course, London 2012 will be upon us – as we all know by now following LOCOG’s masterfully-orchestrated celebration of the 3-year landmark on Monday.

Again, acres of coverage resulted – no small achievement – but what interested me most of all was how noticeably positive it was, and how much more upbeat LOCOG’s tone has become

As ever Lord Coe leads from the front – what a natural and assured communicator he is – but it was heartening also to see so many bravura touches during the day, such as the domino trail and the giant human 3.

By Tim Crow on July 28th, 2009

Tags: Brand marketing, Default, Football, London 2012 sponsorship, London 2012 sponsorship consultants, Manchester United, Media, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Olympics, Public relations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

QED.

By Tim Crow on June 24th, 2009

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

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It is good to see AON CMO Philip B Clement quoted in Marketing Week as saying that that the company’s sponsorship of Manchester United will “inform everything we do”.  AON, as we all know by now, are taking over from AIG at the end of the 2010/2011 season as Manchester United’s shirt sponsor. 

What is irritating is to read Marketing Week’s Russell Parsons, in the same piece, write that AON’s decision comes “at a time when many brands are questioning the wisdom of long-term sponsorship deals as the global economic downturn puts the spotlight on what return on investment sponsorship can bring”.

It’s irritating because it just isn’t true.  Which brands?  Which long-term sponsorship deals?  If anything over the past few months there have been more announcements of brands recognising the value of sponsorship by announcing further or new investments.

However, I was pleased that Mr Parsons shoots himself in the foot in the next paragraph when he quotes Mr Clement as saying that the sponsorship is an efficient and effective way of building the AON brand globally, and that the company would have to spend significantly more on media to match the exposure the deal will bring the brand over the four years of the deal – quite apart from its other benefits.

“It is a pretty good bet for a US firm looking for a global presence”, Mr Clement says.  You bet it is.  It’s done a great job for AIG.  It’s just a pity that the brand was unable to capitalise on the benefits delivered through the sponsorship because the company fell foul of the global economic conditions – a situation which, if we were to believe media reports, can be laid squarely at the feet of the MU sponsorship. 

I would love to have been a fly on the wall within AIG when the marketers were undoubtedly arguing that the MU sponsorship deal was one thing that was worth saving from the ashes.  Shame for the AIG brand they didn’t win the argument.  AIG’s loss will be AON’s gain. And Manchester United haven’t done too badly either – the deal is reportedly worth an extra £6 million to them annually.

By Karen Earl on June 10th, 2009

Tags: Default, Football Sponsorship, Manchester United, Sponsorship

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