This week I became a sponsor.

That’s right, I’m now officially one of the moneymen. With a few clicks online, my place was secured as a backer of Wish I Was Here, the Kickstarter-funded movie from Scrubs star, Zach Braff. With a site target of $2 million, this is no small Kickstarter project, but in the scale of Hollywood productions is undeniably at the indie end of the spectrum – more in line with Braff’s debut writer-director-star feature, Garden State, than, say, his last starring role in Oz the Great and Powerful.

And that’s no bad thing. Garden State was a gem of a film: an intimate story framed by some memorable cinematography and a soundtrack that brought a whole new audience to the likes of The Shins, Colin Hay and Frou-Frou.

In a smart move by the team behind the appeal (the script was co-written by Zach and Adam, the brothers Braff), the investor rewards have nodded to their talent for selecting music that really connects with film and fans: for my $20 pledge I’ll receive regular picks from the proposed soundtrack, streamed direct to my computer. Other rewards for those with deeper pockets include tickets to the première (where you can sit next to Braff himself), the chance to name a character or even to have a part in the final movie. It’s a well-constructed page – earnest, honest and funny – but moreover it features a cracker of an appeal video from Zach and pals.

The social buzz around it has made interesting viewing: I pledged my cash in the first $100k group and was amazed to see the gentle rumble of momentum (not to mention *ching* of cash registers) as Braff’s A-list friends, James Franco, Michael J Fox and Courtney Cox, all brought their weight – and, importantly, Twitter followings – to bear.

Before the first day was out, the page had already raised $725,000, and, at time of writing is up to $1.7 million. Not bad in just over 48 hours. There’s bound to be a natural plateauing of investment over the coming week, but with 28 days still to go, it’s likely that the fundraising will exceed all expectations – not uncommon for popular projects on the site.

Empire Magazine tweeted about the appeal, though, for a publication that was a 4-star fan of Braff’s first feature, appeared surprisingly indifferent to the project. Similarly, I was rather surprised by the number of “Why doesn’t he fund it from the $millions he made from Scrubs?” tweetbacks and replies. It was good to see a subsequent interview with Mr Braff on Empire Online by Ali Plumb that gave a little more colour to the story, along with a number of comments defending the film-maker’s right to use this medium to secure funding for his movie.

Let’s be honest, whatever Zach Braff makes through this online appeal is unlikely to be the end of the story; I’ve already described how the Kickstarter model has been used by entrepreneurial souls to demonstrate to the slippery big fish out there that a passionate market exists to support any given product/project/person. It’s highly improbable that there isn’t therefore some form of match-funding scheduled once Zach makes his first $2m – and I can’t believe that this won’t include financial investment from the man himself. The criticism just seems a little unfounded. And it’s not like he’s trying to make Independence Day 2. Although that might be quite fun to watch…

Irrespective of the project, I don’t think that it’s fair to criticise anyone for using Kickstarter to get their dream off the ground – famous or otherwise: in the end any project will live or die on the idea at its very heart. If it’s not compelling or realistic enough to make people part with the requisite cash, then they’ll be part of the 43% of Kickstarters that don’t make it.

Having ‘established’ industry people using the platform may offer would-be investors a greater level of confidence in the quality of the finished article, or even just provide a project talisman to believe in – especially important after 84% of projects funded in 2012 ended up being delivered late. As long as the justification for not using traditional funding mechanisms feels appropriate to you, then what’s the problem?

And if you’re really not comfortable with a millionaire asking for your money then just don’t donate.

Sponsorship was born out of patronage in Ancient Greece more than 2,000 years ago – crowd-funding has simply reduced the reliance on finding that mythical single backer. More importantly, it has demonstrated that this collective power can achieve something greater than the sum of each individual contribution: together we can create synergy.

(There, I finally got that word into a blog.)

By Jonathan Izzard on April 25th, 2013

Tags: Blogging, Celebrity, Default, Digital marketing, Film

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In the debate about how to best enjoy watching sport, most would agree that those at the stadium have it best. The proximity of the live action amplified by the collective reactions of the crowd combine to generate a priceless “I was there” experience that most people dream about experiencing even a few times in their lifetime, let alone week in, week out.

Celebrating with strangers in the away end at a football match, waving Union Jacks at the Olympic Stadium, seeing the sweat drip off a boxer as he slaves towards the end of another punishing round, or relaxing with a drink while watching the cricket at Lord’s on a summer’s evening – all unique experiences to which sitting in front of the television can hardly compare.

That said, there has been some significant press attention of late focusing on the escalating price of watching live football. Rising ticket prices, along with the additional associated costs of the matchday experience (travel, food, etc.), all add up to create an expensive day out. And it’s not just the prices that can make sitting in front of the TV seem a bit more appealing; a better view of the action, replays, punditry (even if of often dubious quality) and the ability to go online and join a community of others watching the same event all contribute too. While recent focus has emphasised the plight of match-going football fans, many of these issues are common to all those who watch live sport.

Up until now, any complaints expressed by those lucky enough to regularly attend live top-level sport would have been dismissed as spoilt whinging from people who don’t know how lucky they are; however, the extent of ticket price rises, especially in football, and the simultaneous observation about the importance of fans to the health of live sport have started to make people sit up and take notice. Sport not only unites and inspires, but also represents big business. If fans stay away, clubs and stadia lose out on income, the atmosphere flattens (with potential impact on both the players and the excitement conveyed in the broadcast), and fans miss out on a potentially fantastic experience; in other words, everyone suffers.

And while the message is still filtering through to clubs and venue owners (though as a previous blog reported, innovative pricing schemes are becoming increasingly common), smart brands have already been stepping in redress the balance. With live events a central asset in many sponsorship platforms, focusing on those who attend is a vital pillar of a strong activation plan.

For example, to reward fans of Capital One Cup finalists Swansea and Bradford – travelling hundreds of miles to Wembley with fuel prices notoriously high – Synergy created the Capital One Convoy, thanking fans for their loyalty by providing them with free transport, another cost contributing to the high price of following a football team.

And recognising that the actual viewing experience at live sport events can often be compromised, with key incidents happening in a flash and without the benefit of televised action replays, Barclays, title sponsor of the Barclays Center in New York – home of the Brooklyn Nets – created an app that gives users a live stream and instant replays: the best of the live and televised experiences rolled into one.

Of course, one thing compromising the live sport experience (well, depending on your point of view) is the lack of internet in many stadiums, something else we’ve passionately questioned on this very blog. This is something that obviously distinguishes the live and televised experiences quite considerably, with TV audiences able to follow punditry on Twitter, interact socially with their mates, and engage with a whole host of branded content as they watch sport. Were WiFi to become widely available in stadiums, the opportunities for brands to step in with apps that improve the live viewing experience for fans would be manifold.

Indeed, some forward-thinking brands have already started to step in to fill this gap. At the Betfair World Matchplay Darts and the Betfair Masters for example, Synergy worked with title sponsor Betfair to install wireless internet in Blackpool’s Winter Gardens and Alexandra Palace respectively – allowing event attendees to bet online and interact socially in just the same way television viewers. A bonus for the brand – after all, they want as many people as possible to be betting on the action – and fans alike. And given the existing online inventory of many sponsor brands, be it content, websites or apps, it is surely in the brand’s interest to allow fans at the venue to make use of them (as well as boasting about their attendance!).

No doubt, the smartest brands will be those that enhance the sporting experience for those watching any touchpoint – be it at the ground, on the sofa or in the pub. With the size of the televised audience for major sporting events, only a very naïve sponsor would forget about the legions of fans in front of the TV. Hence the success of the RBS 6 Nations Live Challenge app, for example, which capitalises on the second screen phenomenon.

The atmosphere is ripe for rewarding those who attend live sport, and the message is clear: wherever they may be, don’t forget the fans.

By Jessica Enoch on April 4th, 2013

Tags: Default, Social Media, Sponsorship, Sponsorship Activation

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Across the pond, college sport is big business. According to Kantar Media research, the NCAA college basketball tournament, or ‘March Madness’ as it is more commonly known, has now overtaken the NFL Playoffs to become the most lucrative US post-season sport property for advertisers.

As such, there is a real onus on sponsors to produce unique and engaging campaigns in order to stand out from the crowd and deliver a return on what would no doubt have been a sizeable investment.

At this year’s tournament, telecommunications provider AT&T have managed to do so by using the @MarchMadness feed to bring real-time video highlights to the fans.

While this may not seem like such an exciting development, drilling down deeper into the mechanics of the service reveals how this opportunity could lead to a revolution in how rights holders, broadcasters and sponsors can collaborate to leverage branded content on Twitter.

What Happened

Turner, the official tournament broadcaster, have partnered with Twitter and quick-share video start-up SnappyTV to bring fans 15-second highlight clips of key plays via embedded video Tweets. Content is selected in real-time by Turner’s social media team, who use a combination of human judgement and SnappyTV’s social media monitoring software to track the most talked about moments in the game. In less than a minute, the relevant clip can be posted online for people to view and share with their friends. This example from Florida Gulf Coast’s improbable run to the round of sixteen shows the technology in action, and the ensuing Twitter conversation around highlight plays.

(Unfortunately, clips are geo-blocked to the US only but AT&T’s pre-roll can be viewed regardless of location. Refresh the page if you missed it!)

Real-time highlight: FGCU with a monster dunk to take a two point lead.#marchmadness – snpy.tv/15IScCG

— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) March 24, 2013

While this technology isn’t new (it was used in last year’s tournament by Turner), this year is the first time that sponsors have partnered with Twitter to bring these clips to fans via a short pre-roll ad with embedded video content.

Why we love it

In the past year, Twitter has invested significantly in figuring out the tricky task of how to make money from the social conversation around live TV. Snappy TV’s video highlight service has given sponsors, such as AT&T, the chance to emotionally link their brand with high-stakes knockout tournament basketball, and the thrills and spills that this entails.

AT&T have also understood the demand for fast, shareable content and utilised the technology available from SnappyTV and Twitter to create a seamless user experience, where video content can be accessed without the need to click on an external link. This ease of use has enabled users to easily retweet and share highlights with their friends, thus giving AT&T the additional benefit of being seen favourably by the consumer as the provider of their chosen video highlight.

For the broadcaster, advertising opportunities around sponsored video highlights can mean additional revenue streams as sponsors increasingly wise-up to the benefits of supplying eminently sharable content to an already engaged and passionate fanbase.

While this technology is still in its relative infancy, the growth potential in this medium is significant. Current reports project Twitter’s ad revenues will reach the $1bn mark by 2014, with the most significant growth projected to occur in the mobile sector. With this in mind, it will be interesting to see how many brands will follow AT&T’s example and embrace the potential of second screen advertising.

By Robin Ooi on April 4th, 2013

Tags: Basketball, Blogging, Branded content, Digital marketing, Mobile, Social Media, Sponsorship Activation, Sport, Synergy Loves, Twitter

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This is shaping up to be a bumper year for England Cricket (whether you agree with the scheduling or not). Our boys are set to face the Aussies home and away with two back-to-back Ashes series and 10 Test matches within four months.

The question is: what can we expect from sponsors during this cricketing feast?

There have been some great sponsorship campaigns in the UK over the years including Betfair, Adidas, Marstons and Buxtons, and in our view, the conditions are in place to take it to another level again to create something really ground-breaking.

Secondly, it will attract a big audience. This year’s Ashes are already looking to be a record-breaking sell-out across all five venues staging Tests, with a rush for tickets as soon as they went on sale. And across TV, radio, print and the web the crown jewel of cricket will as always pull in enormous audiences in England, Australia and beyond.

Thirdly, the appeal of England versus Australia goes way beyond the traditional Test cricket audiences and into the realms of the Casual Sport Fan. What’s more, The Ashes is a tournament that combines a strong mix of banter, patriotism and humour, which is the perfect platform for creating unique and amusing social content that celebrates one of the most famous of all sporting rivalries.

And finally, social media has reached a critical mass. The way that audiences engage with cricket is expanding beyond the traditional channels. Modern sports fans have embraced technology: it’s a core part of their increasingly fragmented media consumption diet plan. Nothing will replace TMS, but Twitter has made cricket easier than ever to follow and the variety of content is unmatched. Where else can you find out both the latest score and who on the team is having a bad hair day? This gives brands that want to use cricket to reach their audience far more exciting opportunities.

The campaign Synergy created for Betfair in 2009 was one of the earliest socially-centred campaigns in cricket. We used social channels to fuel the banter while Jason Gillespie and Phil Tufnell brought the Anglo-Aussie Ashes rivalry to life. Great content, big promotions and physical rewards (tickets and merchandise) attracted fans and kept them engaged throughout the summer of cricket. And that was in the early days of social media – imagine what is possible now.

We can see more great examples of cricket campaigns from around the world.

Coca-Cola provided a great example of what is possible in cricket when they built the ‘Coca-Cola Beach’ at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).  Not only did Coca-Cola create a brilliantly orchestrated experiential zone within the venue, they also developed a fully-integrated campaign using Facebook, POS, online, PR and TV. By using Sydney residents Shane Watson, David Warner and captain Michael Clarke, Coke’s campaign encouraged consumers to buy a bottle and win a spot on the beach – the ultimate seat in the SCG.

A cricket tour, which can last for 3 months, gives a brand plenty of time to stage a slower-burn, wide-ranging campaign. In India, Nike capitalised on this by creating ‘Streets to the Stadium’. The campaign focused on a set of young Indian cricketers who were offered a chance to join the roster of the National Cricket Academy by winning the Nike Cup. Along the way, they engaged over 8,000 cricketers and 2.5m Facebook fans via the brilliant content they released on their social media channels.

Mobile is another rich area for cricket sponsors. Vodafone’s Live Cricket app currently offers fans the chance to chat to the commentators and get up-to-the-minute stats and scores – whilst this is all useful, it’s nothing ground-breaking. Brands could go so much further. With its rich tactical nuances, deep statistics and frequent breaks in play (between every ball), cricket is the perfect platform for a brilliant second screen experience.

Apps also have the opportunity enhance the in-stadium experience. Imagine the perfect cricket app that allowed you to order a pie and a pint from your seat, to rewind and watch replays, send messages to the big screen and switch to a front row seat camera view. All possible. The one thing holding all this back is the availability at Test match grounds of free WiFi. But things are starting to change, and Lord’s is leading the way by launching free public WiFi last summer in the media centre, hospitality and public areas, which will be rolled out across all stands in 2013.

There is no doubt that the conditions are right and the ingredients are there for a brand to shake up cricket sponsorship. And the even better news is that there is a property available: principal sponsor of the England Cricket Team.

Brit Insurance, the current sponsor, has already announced that they will not renew their deal at the end of their contract, citing a ‘strategic change in business objectives’. They have also made it clear that they are prepared to terminate their deal early if a new sponsor can be found. In many ways, it’s a surprised that no-one has stepped in already to take advantage of the Ashes double-header. In fact, the new sponsor could be looking at three high-profile series against Australia, a Champions Trophy and a World Cup, all in the next three years.

This type of opportunity is simply too good to miss. Let’s hope the next sponsor, whoever it might be, gets the delivery right and then smashes it out of the ground.

By Lisa Parfitt on February 28th, 2013

Tags: Advertising, Ashes, Branded content, Consultancy, Content, Cricket, ECB, Experiential marketing, Facebook, India, London 2012, Mobile, Social Media, Sponsorship, Sponsorship Activation, Sponsorship consultancy, Sport, Synergy, Twitter

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Who knew London fashion week was first held in 1984? Well I for one didn’t…I thought it started in 1964. Despite getting this question wrong, I still received the Guardian fashion seal of approval: ‘You’ve won a seat on the front row of fashion week wisdom. Mwah. You look fabulous!’

YES fashion quiz, take that! What a sigh of relief I passed. What did this mean? Absolutely nothing, it turned out. Instead, I experienced AW13 London Fashion Week on the FROW of social media.

After the success of last year’s partnership with Facebook, the British High St giant Topshop continued to push the boundaries of the digital space, which saw them collaborate with Google +. Together they successfully developed products to allow customers to experience the show as if they were there. I wasn’t alone in being made to feel like I was part of the FROW (or the ‘model’ walking the catwalk…or the fashion ‘buyer’), over 4 million people clearly did too. The clever products Google + produced created an intimate, engaging and personal experience for people watching online.

My second FROW experience came from the luxury brand, Burberry. Live streamed through their website, the show experience was captivating, alluring and intimate. Content is King when it comes to Burberry, and they didn’t disappoint. The British fashion label gave viewers the chance to click to buy from the catwalk, the opportunity to personalise their purchases, go backstage with the models and share their Burberry experience on social media platforms. Whether you’re a regular customer or a fan like me, Burberry offered innovative ways to interact socially, leaving your Facebook friends wondering: did you actually attend?

The new video app from Twitter, Vine, caught on with the fashion set in a big way, as Paul Smith, Burberry, Matthew Williamson, Topshop, Jonathan Saunders and journalists were noticeable Vine advocates. The British designer, Paul Smith, partnered with London-based artist Kate Moross, who shot a series of imaginative six-second clips in the run-up to Paul Smith’s London Fashion Week show.

Established designer Matthew Williamson collaborated with esteemed photographer Sean Cunningham, who exclusively shot the designers collection using Vine and posted his own six-second clips just before the ensemble hit the catwalk.  The idea was to give Williamson fans the ultimate FROW experience, focusing on the intricate craftsmanship and detail of each garment in the collection – often overlooked by regular FROWers. Fans were able to follow the Vines on Twitter through #MatthewMagnifield and on Facebook. Like Burberry, Williamson also released his catwalk soundtrack on Spotify.

Fashion socialite and acclaimed designer Henry Holland (of House of Holland) developed a capsule collection exclusively for eBay.co.uk with all proceeds from items sold on the auction site during London Fashion Week going to Cancer Research UK.

Sponsor of London Fashion Week, American Express launched ‘Fashion Insiders’ based at Somerset House. Their purpose was to assist, navigate and advise fashion week guests when needed. Sporting the latest colour block trend, American Express exclusively partnered with new gen designer Jonathan Saunders to ensure the ‘Fashion Insiders’ were suitably dressed for the occasion. The brand also partnered with fashion blogger, Disney Roll, who created a series of sponsored posts for the brand.

The British Fashion Council (BCF) made a strong statement that 2013 would be the start of the digital revolution for fashion in this country and London Fashion Week AW13 would be the starting place. For the first time ever the BFC partnered with You Tube to live-stream 21 of the on-schedule catwalk shows through the LFW channel. The BFC continues to lead British Fashion in the right direction, showing our fashion counterparts that pioneering new technologies need to be integrated into Fashion Week and remain at the forefront of the global fashion industry for the future.

Finally, it’s hard to mention LFW without a nod to the biggest talk of the town, model Cara Delevingne, the coolest girl in the world right now. Opposed to the quieter Kate Moss, Cara is a social media addict and posts her journey through life across all social media sites such as Instagam, Google +, Tumblr, Twitter and You Tube. Out with the model talk on weight issues and in with social buzz of this new, fresh-faced exciting British talent, who doesn’t take herself too seriously, is everyone’s best friend and loves to eat McDonald’s.

Which brand wouldn’t want her as the face of their campaign? #modelbehaviour

Noticeably this season, London Fashion Week was dominated by the designers’ innovative desire to give their fans and customers the most intimate experience possible. Where traditionally big sponsors of the event may have capitalised on their dominant position, designers and models have re-emerged, laying claim on digital innovation and consumer engagement.

So, whether you want to dress up, invite your friends over or even don a pair of sunglasses for the occasion, fashion has a new set of FROWers, the ‘Socialistas.’

By Francesca Gamble on February 26th, 2013

Tags: Celebrity, Communications, Content, Default, Digital marketing, Facebook, Fashion, Media, Music, Public relations, Social Media, Sponsorship, Synergy, Twitter, YouTube

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Much of what we do at Synergy revolves around people’s passions, namely how sponsors use them as a platform to engage and communicate with a desired demographic. A well-conceived and sharply executed sponsorship programme speaks volumes for a brand’s understanding of not only its own needs, but those of the consumers with whom it is seeking to connect.

Synergy have already outlined some of the key trends that we feel will be used to create standout activations in 2013, many of which are founded upon the principles of the Social Era of sponsorship, and it is this enhanced interrelationship between brands and consumers that is generating some even more exciting opportunities.

In the past few years, a number of major brands have generated content and campaigns through crowd-sourcing, effectively providing a media vessel to hold their consumers’ creative juices. Where things start to get even more interesting, however, is when brands leverage these consumer passions to determine their very existence: crowd-funding.

Where crowd-funding is concerned, Kickstarter is the facilitator of choice, created in 2009 to provide a showcase for creativity and a simple means for innovators to connect with potential financial backers in order to get their projects off the ground. And becoming a ‘Dragon’ couldn’t be easier: forget the inconvenience of having to sit in a dank basement next to Hilary Devey – just pledge a pre-agreed sum to any given ‘creator’, and if their project reaches its target funding within the specified time limit, it is officially off the ground (at which point the money will leave your bank account).

Each pledge is matched by an investor reward – the more you spend, the more you get back: from simple transactional offers like being amongst the first people able to pre-order one of the finished products, through to the downright frightening – one creator offering to tattoo investors’ initials on his body for cash.

Since its inception, over $214 million has been pledged through Kickstarter by nearly 3 million individual backers – demonstrating people-power beyond compare.

One of the most popular recent projects is the Pebble, a customisable ‘smart-watch’ that blurs the lines between phone and timepiece, which exceeded its original funding target by over 10,000%, raising over $10 million before its project deadline last year.

Albums, art, comics, consoles, wallets, watches – you name it, there’s a project out there for you to back.

Oh, and crowd-funding is also ripe for having a bit of fun. In an inspired bit of humour, one Kickstarter has opened a project to fund the construction of an ‘Open Source Death Star’. Following a failed petition to the White House for the US to build an interstellar space station that would “spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more”, the enterprising Vader-in-waiting has already raised over £220,000 of their £20m goal.

Along with detailed engineering plans, the creator also includes a thorough FAQ for would-be backers, covering key investor concerns such as:

Although the creator’s stretch funding target is in fact a slightly ambitious £543,000,000,000,000,000 (that’s £543 quintillion), based on the 5% cut of the total fee raised that Kickstarter takes on every successful project, you’d imagine they’re rooting for the Empire on this one.

Why is this all so important though? Well, whilst around only 50% of all Kickstarter projects end up meeting their funding requirements (and many of these have shipped late), those that do will in many cases have a guaranteed market, along with an associated army of interested advocates. If you’ve invested in a product that comes to market, that’s exactly how you feel and, more importantly, act: invested.

Forget worrying about measurement of an ethereal ROI – what could be better than consumers showing enough faith in you that they’re willing to put their money where your mouth is?

So back to the question of sponsorship.

Is crowd-funding something that can really work? Well, it just depends on the kind of dividends you really expect from your investment. Famously, Ebbsfleet United were taken over in 2007 by MyFootballClub.co.uk, who then allowed fans to become ‘owners’ of the club – offering them the chance to be actively involved in areas such as player transfers, kit designs, ad campaigns and ticket pricing. Whether you think this was simply a publicity stunt, Ebbsfleet actually has some illustrious company in fan ownership.

More than 150,000 FC Barcelona fans pay an annual fee of around €150 to be socios (members) of the club, a random selection of whom have the chance to meet with the board and vote on major FCB decisions. Certainly not a revenue stream to be sniffed at, totalling around €22 million.

It will be interesting to see whether the barrierless Social Era offers new opportunities for sponsorship to adopt and apply alternate models of crowd-funding to the mutual benefit of consumer and property.

Potentially a whole new approach to ‘pay as you play’…

By Jonathan Izzard on February 12th, 2013

Tags: Consultancy, Default, Film, Social Media, Sponsorship

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LONDON – 1^st February 2013: Synergy’s groundbreaking London 2012 social media campaign ‘Golden BMW’ last night won the coveted European Sponsorship Association (ESA) Award for Social Media Activation.

As part of the BMW sponsorship of London 2012, the campaign saw a specially-created fleet of Golden BMWs tour the country visiting the Olympic Torch Relay route a day ahead of the Relay to capitalise on the anticipation of the Flame’s arrival. The integrated campaign, led by social media and PR, encouraged consumers fans to ‘Spot, Snap and Share’ photographs of the highly distinctive Golden BMWs in social media for their chance to win tickets to the Games.

The 70-day campaign reached over a third of the UK population, increased BMW’s Facebook fans by 15% and inspired over 50,000 people to visit BMW dealerships.  

The ESA judges commented:  “The Golden BMW campaign was wholly based on social media with great engagement and business results.  It was hard to achieve standout in the busy Olympic Torch period, but the Golden BMW clearly achieved all the targets they set themselves”.

 Tim Crow, Synergy CEO, said: “We are incredibly proud to have won this highly coveted award in such a competitive category. It is particularly satisfying to have won it in the context of London 2012, the first Games of the mainstream social media era, and confirms our position as leaders in creating and delivering social media campaigns for sponsors. ”

Synergy also received the prize for one of the new categories of the evening – the ESA Professional Development Award. This category recognises the agency with the best approach to professional and career development through training and education. The judges were particularly impressed with the depth of commitment to staff and sophisticated programmes for career expansion that in turn created a real sense of mutual progression.

 Alison Moor, Synergy MD said: “It was great news that team’s collective commitment to professional development has been recognised.  At Synergy, we put our people at the heart of our business.  The Synergy culture is about taking part and being part of the team.  Learning through experience and collaborating is high on everyone’s agenda throughout the company.” 

 - Ends -

 For further information please contact:

Kate McGregor (Press officer at Synergy)

Contact: 020 3128 6834

Email: Kate.Mcgregor@synergy-sponsorship.com

Notes to editors

About Synergy:

Synergy (www.synergy-sponsorship.com) is a multidisciplinary specialist sponsorship consultancy, which guides brands from strategy to delivery. It counts Betfair, BMW, Bupa, Chivas, The Coca-Cola Company, Diageo, RBS and SSE among its clients.

Synergy is the UK’s most recognised agency of its type, having won over forty major awards in its 28-year history, including having been named by Marketing magazine as UK Sponsorship Agency of The Year in 2012, as well as Sports Industry Agency of the Year and Hollis Sponsorship Consultancy of the Year.

 About Engine:

Engine is the UK’s largest and fastest growing independent communications company. Engine employs more than 700 people, containing a family of best in class communications businesses serving the consumer market, the corporate market and the public sector. Engine is an employee-owned business, with one in five staff owning shares in the company. For more information, visit: www.theenginegroup.com

By Synergy on February 1st, 2013

Tags: BMW, Default, Digital marketing, Experiential marketing, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Olympic Torch Relay, PR, Press Clipping, Rio 2016 Sponsorship, Rio 2016 Sponsorship Consultants, Socialympics, Sponsorship, Synergy

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How much should you pay for a ticket to a football match or gig? In the past, the answer would have been simple: whatever the seller sees fit to charge you. However, the act of a company, brand or team selling access to their assets has developed substantially in recent years. Slapping a one size fits all price on an asset (and hoping for the best) is no longer an appropriate concept in this social era of consumer choice, and various companies, sports teams and bands are recognising this.

But the point isn’t just that ticketing is changing to absorb changes in consumer behaviour – it is fundamentally being driven by business priorities. In recent times, there has been a steady increase in pioneering pricing strategies, honesty payments and social media-influenced purchases, as parties in the sports and entertainment industries look for ways of maximising revenue through innovation. In industries such as live sport or music, with large fixed costs driving a high minimum cost per match or event, these innovative pricing strategies can represent a win-win for consumers and companies alike.

The Digonex pricing strategy is one approach that is spreading through American sport, and is beginning to be adopted by British sports teams. Described catchily as a ‘fan driven pricing system for event ticketing that scientifically changes prices based upon econometric and behavioural principles’, the system allows for ticket prices to be changed daily depending on market conditions. Similar to booking a flight or ticket to the theatre, the system allows for the flexibility to alter prices for every game dependent on demand.

Following a drop in attendances, brought on by collective belt tightening across their fanbase, Derby County were the first British sports team to test this pricing strategy. Having received special dispensation from the FA (usually clubs can only alter prices for four games per season), it is already proving a success, with attendances noticeably on the up. Tickets for all games are made available at the beginning of the season, meaning sensible Rams fans can book their tickets for big matches in advance to save them purchasing a more expensive ticket closer to the game. In order to appease season ticket holders, Derby have also ensured that ticket prices never drop to a price that would represent better value than a season ticket.

Cardiff have followed in Derby’s footsteps by adopting Digonex and Bristol City are soon to follow. Two Premiership rugby clubs are reported to be close to adoption of the system and the spread is expected to continue to major European sports teams. And why wouldn’t it? When fans can get cheaper tickets, and clubs can benefit from larger attendances and higher revenue on seats that would otherwise have been completely empty, everybody wins.

More recent examples are ‘pay what you want’ schemes for specific matches, dreamt up as a response to tricky economic circumstances and dropping attendances. Mansfield Town saw a doubling of their attendance when adopting the scheme for a game in 2010 and Brentford FC are running a similar promotion for a match against Stevenage in February.  Supporters are able to pay whatever they want to for a ticket for the match (over £1) and 50% of any excess over £5 will be passed on to the ‘Sport Relief’ charity. In all these cases, the point is that the tickets would otherwise remain unsold – with no revenue to the club and no bums on seats. With minimal costs to the club involved in hosting an extra fan, this will boost club revenue and help fans out during tricky economic times – while also possibly introducing new fans to the club and generating goodwill through the donation to charity.

These innovative pricing schemes aren’t all just about direct impact on revenue though. Over recent years, there has also been an increase in one-off sales schemes by sports teams and bands as a way of reaching new audiences and/or showing themselves in a positive light. Most famously, Radiohead made a bold move by relying on ‘honesty payments’ for their ‘In Rainbows’ albums in 2007. Denounced and praised in equal measure, opinions differ on whether that move was a financial success. It is clear that money was not the primary driving force behind the idea, and similar moves have become increasingly prevalent around sports.

The evolution of social media is also having an effect on ticketing, with AEG, Malaysia Airlines and KLM examples of brands leading the way with inventive schemes. As an attempt to take on Ticketmaster, AEG have introduced their innovative ‘AXS’ ticketing service. As well as making life difficult for touts by seeking out automated servers purchasing large numbers of tickets, they have introduced a system that allows purchasers to reserve adjacent tickets for friends through Facebook for concerts, shows and other events. Alerted by Facebook, these friends have 48 hours to purchase these tickets knowing that they will be sat next to their mates. Again, it looks like everybody wins. Fans will have a better time sitting next to their mates (and not having to shell out on their friends’ tickets with the inevitable sluggish paying back process) and companies have a happier crowd. This may not directly impact on revenue, but it is likely to have an indirect effect on consumer morale.

Malaysia Airlines and KLM have gone one step further by attempting to socialise the art of booking and taking a flight. When booking a flight, users are reminded of friends who live close to their destination and informed of any friends who may be making a similar journey. Users also have the opportunity to share their itinerary, and through the seat selection process, are able to select seats next to Facebook friends.  This clearly comes with a few privacy/stalking implications but the concept feels like a landmark step forward.

Why are these ideas on the increase? In each of these cases, the innovation behind the schemes opens doors to opportunities that benefit each of the stakeholders in the exchange. With Digonex, previously unsold tickets are more likely to be taken up, satisfying fans and helping the club put bums on seats. In a similar manner, the schemes by Malaysia Airlines and KLM give the airlines unique selling points, and the flying experience is enhanced for those making the journey. With the subject of rising ticket prices forcing itself towards the top of the sporting and entertainment agendas, this sort of innovative use of assets can help to maintain and develop healthy relationships between purchaser and seller.

By Rob Guppy on January 31st, 2013

Tags: Advertising, Aviation, Barclays Premier League, Blogging, Charity, Default, Event management service, Facebook, Football, PR, Public relations, Social Media, Sport, Travel

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Around 60 years ago modern sponsorship was born, driven by the mass penetration of television and broadcasters’ simultaneous discovery of sport as premium entertainment content. Brands, naturally, followed. Subsequently there have been three major evolutions of sponsorship, and we are now at the start of the fourth, which is in many ways the most exciting and far-reaching yet.

In the first evolution, in the 1960s and ’70s, sponsorship was a dark art: a minority activity among brands and, inevitably given its newness, more than anything a leap of faith. The sell was all about how much on-screen coverage you could achieve for a logo. Tobacco led the way by embracing motor racing and just about every other sport, and stadium naming rights deals in the USA began to multiply.

History is made at the 1968 South African Grand Prix with the first fully-liveried tobacco-sponsored F1 cars, for Winston's Gunston brand

And as with every evolution of sponsorship, this type is still very much around today: the architect of Emirates’ sponsorship strategy, Mike Simon, for example, freely admitted a few years ago that Emirates’ sponsorship strategy was totally predicated on how many media impressions a sponsorship achieved.

The second evolution began in the late 1970s, when Horst Dassler and Patrick Nally created the multi-sponsor event model for the FIFA World Cup, and sold it to Coca-Cola. The IOC followed, so did just about every other major event organiser in sports, and the model became the template for how most sponsorship is still sold today.

Coca-Cola's pioneering sponsorship of the 1978 World Cup created the template for brand partnerships with major events

In the third evolution, which began in the 1990s, sponsorship took off and brands got strategic about it. Sponsorship was everywhere, if you did it right it worked, and if you weren’t doing it – especially if you were a global brand – your competitors almost certainly were. This drove intense competition for key assets and big increases in rights fees. Sponsorship became seriously big business, so big business began to think and act seriously about sponsorship. QED: by the end of the ’90s, for the first time, you could see brands beginning to adopt global sponsorship strategies based on platforms rather than on individual sponsorships. When I look back at this shift, I think in particular of Nike and they way they planned and activated football worldwide, and of Red Bull, who created a global portfolio of owned assets to drive their brand USP. Familiar behaviour now, but very new at the time.

Red Bull Stratos was the latest episode in Red Bull's long term global brand activation strategy

I believe the fourth evolution of sponsorship has started, and that it’s the social evolution, in two senses. First, in only a few short years, social media has come from nowhere to play a starring role in the sponsorship mix. It is transforming consumer behaviour and brand marketing strategies, especially around sponsorship, with an impact not seen since the advent of TV. Second, the ability of sponsorship to help brands drive and showcase their social responsibility programmes is now everywhere you look in the sponsorship landscape. And it’s no coincidence that these are simultaneous developments, because there is increasing evidence to suggest that social media is accelerating brands’ social behaviour.

When we look back at this fourth evolution, I believe that London 2012 will be seen as a defining moment of these two seismic forces in action in a big way together for the first time: the transformation of Olympic and Paralympic Games marketing in the shape of the Socialympics (a term Synergy coined back in February which subsequently went viral globally) coming together with an unprecedented array of activities by the Games’ sponsors to use sport, through the Olympic and Paralympic Games, for social good.

Welcome to the evolution.

By Tim Crow on December 13th, 2012

Tags: Brand marketing, Default, London 2012, Naming Rights, New Product Development, Olympic sponsorship, Social Media, Socialympics, Sponsorship, Synergy, Television

1 comment

We have WiFi on our trains, our buses, in our cafés and bars and even across the underground network– but why is it still not commonplace across our sports stadia?

Most clubs and sporting bodies will boldly claim the importance of social media as a platform with which to engage their fans and will often boast record numbers of ‘Followers’ and ‘Likes’, along with gains in emerging markets. Yet strangely, very few have recognised the potential commercial value of having a ‘connected’ stadium  to improve the match day experience for both those attending and, perhaps more significantly, for those that are not through the sharing of content that this enables.

I recently attended a seminar on the changing habits of sports viewing where one of the panel, a senior marketing figure at a Premier League club, claimed that there was no need for WiFi in a football stadium, as he didn’t feel that fans had the dwell time within a match to update social media sites or consume additional content. I couldn’t disagree more.

On a matchday, 3G networks are over-burdened with people trying to access the internet via a mobile devices, making progress painfully slow- the modern digital-savvy customer neither expects nor is willing to wait. Like it or not, we live in a world where people share almost every facet of their lives in real-time and expect content to be available to them – free of charge – whenever they want it. Conversations, both online and offline, are driven by people’s passion…and there are few more passionate than your average sports fan.

These people want to share photos, videos and opinions and they want to do it as the action unfolds. This wealth of crowd-sourced content is  not constrained by the confines  of the stadium – it is consumed by fans in all corners of the globe. Its power lies in the affinity that exists between fans: it is the reason we read sports blogs and the reason that we follow complete strangers on Twitter – we often value its honesty more than any communication  by a club via more formal channels.

For the club and its sponsors this opens up a world of opportunities – limited only by the imagination of the marketer. Think digital programmes, live match stats, pre-match press conferences, competitions, live betting offers and more. Want to pre-order and pay for your half time beer? It’s all possible.

At its most basic, increasing the quality and frequency of your social media output will increase your reach, which (putting a commercial hat on) can only make you a more commercially attractive entity. Monetising your fanbase is no longer just about selling season tickets and shirts, it’s about growing  your reach within a given market to demonstrate your standing and influence to potential commercial partners.

This is not to say that there is not a handful of players out there that are doing it well. The Rugby Football Union has recently signed a partnership to make Twickenham the most digitally advanced stadium in Europe. This is starting with the installation of an ‘LED fan-engagement and advertising system’ which will “boost interaction and engagement with the crowd” by displaying fan messages of support. Meanwhile,  Real Madrid and Barcelona have signed deals with Cisco Systems and Telefonica respectively, in order to provide hi-density WiFi networks – two deals which are likely to be largely value in kind.

While the pace of uptake has been somewhat surprising, I have little doubt that it will eventually play a significant role in the way that we interact with live sport.  The question is how will sponsors take advantage?

By Tom Whiteside on November 27th, 2012

Tags: Advertising, Blogging, Brand marketing, Branded content, Communications, Consultancy, Default, Facebook, Football, Football Sponsorship, Media, Mobile, Social Media, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Synergy, Twitter, YouTube

5 comments