For many of Britain’s sport enthusiasts, the May Day bank holiday signals a weekend spent glued to the TV watching the World Snooker Championship final. For the players, a Crucible final is the pinnacle of their career – not only for the event’s history and tradition, the privilege of playing in the famous auditorium and the ranking points on offer, but also the financial reward (£250,000 to be exact) that now comes with lifting the trophy. Thanks to the leadership and entrepreneurial nous of World Snooker chairman and Matchroom Sport chief executive Barry Hearn, the financial boundaries in the sport have been stretched significantly over the past few years and the best players in the world are finally being suitably rewarded for their skill, professionalism and hard work.

Whether you are a snooker fan or an occasional viewer, it would have been difficult to ignore the past seventeen days of action at The Crucible Theatre. The tournament was certainly not short of talking points given the emergence of new characters like Dechawat Poomjaeng, complaints about player burnout, static shocks and the fairytale return of the ‘golden boy’ of snooker, Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Behind the scenes, the Synergy team were hard at work delivering the PR activity to amplify Betfair’s sponsorship of the World Championship. As Barry Hearn continues to raise the financial stakes, Synergy tapped into the snooker psyche to develop the ‘Betfair Golden Cue’. Inspired by the players’ James Bond-style attire, Betfair gave snooker’s biggest stars the chance to become the first ‘Man with the Golden Cue’. This unique prize and a £10,000 cheque were on offer for the highest individual break during the tournament.

Given that a golden cue is not something you’d be able to find down your local Argos, we were indebted to John Parris, founder of Parris Cues, for undertaking the painstaking process of coating the cue in 23 carat gold leaf and producing such a high-quality cue. Designed to add some extra sparkle (or as Ronnie would say, “pizzazz”) to snooker’s flagship event, the Betfair Golden Cue took pride of place on set and became part of the conversation throughout the tournament, with BBC’s Hazel Irvine  making regular references to it. In the first week, there were two early contenders for the prize with Ricky Walden’s impressive break of 140 quickly followed by a 142 break from the flamboyant Judd Trump.

As the high breaks continued, Twitter came to life with speculation from fans and snooker bloggers alike on who would win the Betfair Golden Cue. The cue itself became an object of mystery throughout the tournament, with speculation over its origin and manufacture maintaining the social media conversation. Consequently, Synergy placed another order with Parris Cues for a cue to give away on Betfair’s social channels, giving the lucky winner the chance to get their own gold-leafed memento from the tournament. At the time of writing, the social media giveaway has proved to be Betfair’s most successful yet, across all sports.

As title sponsors, Betfair offered a market on the Golden Cue winner, giving punters the chance to place early bets on pre-tournament high-break favourites with O’Sullivan available at 8/1, Judd Trump at 9/1 and Mark Williams at 12/1. Despite the strong early showings from Ricky Walden and Judd Trump, neither could prevent the explosive Australian, Neil Robertson, from stealing the prize. Indeed, despite quality cue play on show throughout the tournament (in total 55 century breaks were recorded), no one could surpass Robertson’s break of 143.

Although the tournament did not see a magical 147 break, snooker fans were still treated to a masterclass from O’Sullivan, who performed at his mercurial best to claim a fifth World Championship title. Indeed, the Betfair Golden Cue may have gone to Robertson but there’s no doubt that the Betfair World Champion, the ‘Rocket’ Ronnie O’Sullivan, remains snooker’s ‘golden boy’.

By Lewis Davey on May 10th, 2013

Tags: Betfair, Brand marketing, Communications, Default, Media, PR, Social Media, Sponsorship, Sponsorship Activation, Sport, Synergy

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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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Analysis of industry data suggests that the F1 ecosystem raises over £1b per year from sponsorship. This includes Team Sponsors and Suppliers (ranging from £100m for the big boys to £20m for the smaller teams), F1 Partners (around £25m per year in cash or Value in Kind from each of the 6 global partners) and Race Sponsorship (around £10m for each of the races with title sponsors plus trackside advertising).

To put that into context, the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games raised around the same amount (£750m from domestic sponsors plus around £250m contribution from the IOC for TOP partners) – but that was for a 4-year cycle.

So here’s a question: Given how much is spent on it from some of the world’s leading brands, why is F1 Sponsorship not at the leading edge of sponsorship thinking and activation?

It’s fair to say that F1 is ahead of the game in virtually everything else it does. So surely F1 Sponsors should be cleaning up at the major sponsorship industry awards.  In fact, over the past 5 years, an F1 sponsorship has won only once out of a possible 47 SIA awards (Vodafone’s Best Sponsorship of a Team or Individual in 2009). Case studies from F1 should be inspiring sponsors in other sports.  Here at Synergy, we should regularly be showcasing examples from F1 in the ‘What We Love’ section of Synopsis. But this just isn’t the case – at least not to the extent that one would expect.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some great pieces of activation in F1 (I’ll point out some of them later), but as a whole, F1 sponsorship is pretty uninspiring.

Having run the Reuters sponsorship of WilliamsF1 from 2000 – 2003 (yes – I agree – it was nowhere near ‘award-winning’!), I thought I would have a go at answering that question based on my own personal experiences.

1. Most Formula One sponsorships are B2B

Reuters primarily used F1 for B2B relationship building. A quick scan of F1 sponsors shows that over 40% have significant B2B businesses. There is little better than F1 if you have a relatively small number of high-value, global customers who you reach through targeted sales and marketing programmes.  Travelling around the world to all the key markets, Formula One and Paddock Club™ are the absolute gold standard of corporate hospitality. With this being the focus of the brands’ activation programme, it is little wonder that it remains unseen by the mass audience, award panels and the Synopsis editors.

The activation challenge for the B2B partners, however, is to create the most compelling brand stories and event experiences to attract their audience.  Because the fact is, especially in the small markets, most of the B2B sponsors are going after a very similar audience, in some cases exactly the same people.

2. There is too much focus on brand exposure and logos on cars and not enough on activation

Whenever brand exposure is such a critical part of the sponsorship package, it is easy to rely too heavily on it at the expense of all the other things you can do with the sponsorship. I absolutely hate the “media value” figures that are at the heart of so many F1 sponsorships.  However, it is easy to measure and as long as the media value is bigger than the cost of the sponsorship, brands can be tempted to think “job done”. In comparison, Olympic sponsors can’t rely on any media value to justify their sponsorship.  That’s why they have to work much harder and be far more creative with their activation.

A knock-on effect of this over-emphasis on media value is the fact that it can lead to an under-investment in activation.  Typically, the rights fee is so high (because brands are paying for the exposure) that there isn’t enough left over for activation. I’m not a big believer in any rule-of-thumb ratios, but the proportion of rights fee to activation spend when I was at Reuters is definitely not going to make it into any how-to textbooks. I suspect this isn’t unusual for F1 sponsors up and down the Paddock

3. The calendar gives you no time to plan and develop great campaigns

The F1 season is relentless. The first race is in early March and the last race is in late November. In between is a never-ending cycle of travelling and managing the day-to-day execution of race weekends. Everyone goes on holiday during the 4-week summer break and at the end of the season, which then leads into Christmas. Trust me, if you want a year to fly past, get a job in F1.

Which basically just leaves January and February to do any sort of campaign development. But even those months tend to be dominated by tactical planning for the season ahead. There just isn’t the time to think about a season-long campaign or a brilliant piece of activation.

Another challenge is the global scale required by an activation campaign. Japan, Abu Dhabi, Britain, the US and Brazil have very little in common with each other from a marketing perspective.  So as an F1 sponsor you are sort of in limbo between creating and delivering a global campaign that doesn’t quite work in loads of markets and developing local campaigns which feel a bit ‘small’ and short term.

4. The F1 community is too closed

There are some great people who work in F1.  However, it needs more ‘churn’.

For example, when I needed a sponsorship agency, everyone I invited to pitch was effectively a specialist F1 agency. I understand why most sponsors do that, but it leads to a form of ‘groupthink’ where new ideas are thrown out in favour of “what we did last year” or “what we do with our other clients”.

This happens up and down the paddock. If an F1 team needs a new Account Manager, they are likely to hire someone from one of the other teams. If a brand needs an F1 Sponsorship Director, they are likely to hire someone who has done a similar job at another sponsor. If an F1 agency hires a new Account Director, they typically hire someone who already has F1 experience.

The danger of this ‘closed’ community is that it loses the fresh influences and perspectives that drive creativity.

I know it’s tough (I’ve been there myself) but I think F1 sponsors need to be braver and set the bar higher for their activation campaigns. The benchmark should not be: “we want to create the best F1 sponsorship campaign”, but rather “we want to create the best sponsorship campaign”. And to do that, I think that it is critical for sponsors to look for inspiration outside the very small world of F1.

The point of this blog is not to say that there are no good F1 activations – because clearly there are some great examples.

My point is simply that given the number of world-class brands who are sponsors in F1, the amount that they invest and the possibilities of F1 as a platform, there should be far more ground-breaking activation programmes than there are.

Some of our Favourite F1 Activation Case Studies:

Johnnie Walker – Step Inside the Circuit Series

Johnnie Walker extended this campaign with some experiential activity in Travel Retail environments but at its core was some great behind-the-scenes content, from Monte Carlo (below), India, Singapore and other races

Vodafone:

One car, no team:

Camping:

Santander:

London Grand Prix:

The Silverstone Chase

Hugo Boss - Dress Me for the Finale

Using a special online configurator, consumers in each country could create bespoke designs of the drivers’ race suits. The drivers wore the designs during qualifying for each race, while the best two designs as voted by the audience were worn on the Sunday during the Brazilian Grand Prix. Boss also did a good job of connecting this activation to their social media and retail channels:

Red Bull – Faces for Charity

In exchange for a donation to charity (which Red Bull matched), consumers could upload a photo which was then put on the car for the British Grand Prix.

Vodafone –  Drive to the Big League

Vodafone introduced this initiative at the British Grand Prix in 2010 which offered one of their small business customers the chance to put their logo on the car for the British Grand Prix.  Vodafone have taken it to a whole new level in India now, where they have combined it with a Dragons Den style TV programme to select the winner – watch it – it’s brilliant!!!

See – it is possible – more of that please!!!

By Carsten Thode on November 15th, 2012

Tags: Advertising, Alcohol, Awards, Brand marketing, Branded content, Consultancy, Content, Default, Digital marketing, Experiential marketing, Facebook, Formula 1, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, Red Bull, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants, Synergy, Synergy Loves, Synopsis

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On the 16th September 2012 Bupa celebrated 20 years as title sponsor of the Bupa Great North Run, the world’s largest half marathon.

Bupa plays a proactive role in helping to inspire people to get active and keeping them healthy which we wanted to bring to life through our activation strategy. It was important for the campaign to have touchpoints across all media channels and  have broad appeal across runners, spectators and the live television audience. As the North East is renowned for being particularly friendly, it felt natural to celebrated the Bupa Great North Run as the ‘world’s happiest run’.

With 56,000 runners making their way along the famous 13.1 mile course from Newcastle to South Shields and a prime Sunday morning slot on BBC, the run provided a fantastic opportunity for Bupa to engage people with a positive health-related message.

In the build up to the race, runners and their supporters were encouraged to tweet their experiences and inspirational messages using #happiestrun. For the first 2,000 tweets received Bupa donated £1 to Diabetes UK, their nominated charity for the Great Run Series.

North East comedian Pat Monahan and ex-Olympian James Cracknell fronted the campaign with media activity in the week leading up to race day. Pat also created an entertaining video to promote the ‘Happiest Run’, as he undertook the challenge to tell  as many jokes as possible in 5 minutes whilst on a treadmill. On race day, as the runners gathered at the start line they were treated to a Happiest Run-themed warm-up by Pat.

The Bupa Boost Zone was placed at the 10-mile mark, designed to give runners that extra push when they need it the most. Real Radio’s Justin Lockwood controlled the music, 50 cheerleaders greeted the runners and there was a team of volunteers handing out Vaseline and jelly babies (now a Bupa institution with runners). A special smile screen captured the runners’ emotions and displayed the #happiestrun tweets.

Once the runners had completed the course, they could recover at the Bupa Finish Area. The largest outdoor screen in Europe displayed the smiles captured at the 10-mile mark and for those looking to assist their recovery, there were 12 physios offering treatment for any injuries sustained and 28 sports massage specialists giving over 500 very well deserved massages to runners.

All in all, it was a great example of  Bupa using their sponsorship event to show through concrete actions how they deliver their brand promise.

By Adam Shapland on October 30th, 2012

Tags: BBC, Branded content, Celebrity, Default, Marathon, PR, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Synergy

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There’s no doubt about it, London 2012 has been the most digitally connected Olympics we’ve ever seen. Compared to Beijing 2008 there are nearly 10 times the amount of people on Facebook and a whopping 80 times more tweeting away on Twitter.

Brands, consumers and even the stars of the greatest show on Earth participated with tweets, photos and videos, often in real time and always with real, honest to goodness, passion. It’s this real-time nature that made Social Media (‘SoMe’) transform the way we have experienced the Olympics and has held the key to brands making the most of their Olympic sponsorships.

So we at Synergy wanted to take a little look-see as to which brands best activated their campaigns through the use of content and digital channels. Whilst we were at it, we even decided to have a little medal ceremony all of our own.

Gold Medal Winner: adidas – Take the Stage

‘Take The Stage’ was the title of the integrated campaign launched by adidas to leverage its sponsorship of the 2012 Games.

Whilst television and out of home focused largely on the Team GB athletes themselves, the campaign also contained a public initiative which played out via digital channels. These channels provided the content hub to house varied material from emotionally-charged, nation-rousing videos of Ennis, Daley, and Idowu (hindsight’s a wonderful thing), to pieces on the athletes’ adoration of the Team GB kit and Stella (the designer, not the beer), even Keith Lemon interviewing the most successful British Olympian of all time, “Circus Hoy”, getting the Brownlees to Tri-a-Thong or Swingballdon with Andy Murray.

Even a medal-winner laden lip-sync music video to Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” emerged from the content coffers. Add to that footage of a certain Mr Beckham surprising well-wishers in a ‘good luck’ video booth installation, and you have a piece of content that has generated 3 million views alone.

Digital channels also provided the platform for 32 youngsters to be given the opportunity to collaborate with a host of top sports people and pop stars by showcasing their own talent via YouTube.

SoMe was employed to get the public more deeply involved and engaged in the campaign. Aside from the dedicated website, consumers could engage with the brand by following updates on Facebook and Twitter, using @adidasUK and #takethestage. The ‘Take the Stage’ Facebook app invited users to create their own campaign image and mantra in the same style as the striking photographic portraits, share it with their friends and post the image within the dedicated gallery.

When it came to content, there really was something for everyone.

Some stats

- The @adidasUK Twitter following climbed by 25% with the hashtag #takethestage being mentioned 109,241 times.

- Throughout the 17 days of the Olympics, adidas’ global Facebook page increased by 202,429 fans with more than 5 times the usual amount of shares.

- The David Beckham photo booth stunt has been viewed more than 3 million times.

- The adidas Team GB “Don’t Stop Me Now” video has been viewed more than 1.5 million times.

- Adidas claims it has “already recouped” its Olympic sponsorship investment through merchandise, with further sales still to be expected.

Why Gold?

Adidas realises that sports sponsorship and social have common ground – unified by passion. The brand generously sprinkled patriotism into the mix and fed consumers’ passions by telling great stories in an ‘always on’ environment, building familiarity, likeability and trust on the way.

‘Take the Stage’ focuses on what adidas as a brand stands for and not what it sells. The content is ‘shareworthy’; so meaningful, useful or interesting to its audience that they want to share it with their own friends, families and other connections.

Ultimately, adidas’ approach to sponsorship and digital during the 2012 Games has allowed the brand to build deeper, more meaningful and more enduring relationships with its consumers.

Silver Medal Winner: P&G – Thank You Mum

Proctor and Gamble brought to life its sponsorship of the Games most effectively through its ‘Olympic Mums’ YouTube campaign. Its aim was to recognise Mums as the special person behind every athelete.

Content for the campaign took the form of a series of video tributes called “Raising an Olympian”, stories told by the Mums themselves, which were then distributed on TV and online through sponsored content and video ads.

Facebook provided the destination to share special moments between the athletes and their Mums, and also allowed consumers to thank their own Mums by uploading family photos and writing messages for them to be shared in their news feeds. Twitter provided the platform to cheer on the athletes and allowed P&G to keep its followers informed.

Some stats

- The campaign achieved over 206,397,926 impressions.

- Over 5 Million views on YouTube.

- 43 online articles were written.

- Retailers that activated the campaign with in-store displays have seen a 5% to 20% sales lift for P&G products in the three- or four-week Olympic merchandising period.

Why Silver?

The content which P&G dispersed told emotional and compelling stories, which people naturally wanted to share.

Who could resist the pull on the heartstrings, the concept of ordinary kids becoming Olympians and the contribution their own mothers made to getting them where they are today?

Using social to roll out content a full 100 days before the Olympics shows P&G’s understanding of how using its “mum-umentaries” to engage wasn’t limited to the actual Games themselves.

Using real time distribution of narratives added to the impact, exemplified by the airing of a ‘thank you’ message from one Volleyball player to her Mum halfway through the final set of the match.

A robust paid-for seeding strategy also ensured the content reached the right audience. Oh…and finally, P&G forecasts that its Olympic campaign will generate over $500 million in additional sales.

Bronze Medal Winner : Coca-Cola Move to the Beat

Coca-Cola has been involved with the Olympics since the 1928 Games in Amsterdam. In 2012 the focus moved from more traditional advertising to a more ‘Liquid and Linked’ approach to story-telling. Launching an integrated campaign, which largely played out through SoMe, Coke targeted its audience with the spotlight on music and youth culture.

Bringing in some musical ‘big guns’, Coke worked with producer Mark Ronson and singer Katy B, with Ronson setting out to produce an original Olympic anthem for 2012. To achieve this he travelled around the world to capture the sounds he needed from various sportsmen and women in action to form a ‘rhythmic backbone’, for the anthem. Imagine Ronson in the meeting with Coke selling in the idea that he needed to discover a rhythmic backbone. He captured sounds from Table Tennis in the UK, archers from Singapore, hurdlers in the US, sprinters from Russia even Taekwondo in Mexico.

Coke then told the story of Ronson’s mission through a series of videos. Users were driven to Coke’s Move to the Beat website where they could become the producer themselves and combine their favourite sport with their favourite beats to create their very own version of the anthem. If the user so desired they could further manipulate the anthem through the movement of their mobile phone via an associated app.

Coke uploaded the UGAs (User Generated Anthems) to its global community and further facilitated the sharing of these user-generated anthems through Facebook and Twitter. Users posted the videos on their Facebook profiles and propagated them via tweets.

Some stats

- 3 million user-generated anthems were created.

- Coca-Cola has now hit 50 million fans on Facebook.

Why Bronze?

Coke understands the importance of creating content which resonates with its audience, and more so, it understands that co-creating this content makes it all the more powerful. People love to share what they themselves create and Coke facilitates this. Make the content unique, valuable and easy to share, and an audience will happily amplify your brand message – and do so with a smile.

In summary, whilst the Olympic Flame may now have been extinguished for another four years, the brands above have demonstrated that they have the ability to start their own fires through the power of Social Media. By creating truly outstanding content, allowing users to put their own stamp on that content, and helping them share it via social, these brands can sit back and enjoy the warm afterglow as consumers ‘fan’ the flames on their behalf.

Full disclosure: Synergy works with the Coca-Cola Company

By Lee Thomas on September 10th, 2012

Tags: Advertising, Digital marketing, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Paralympics, Socialympics, Sponsorship, Twitter

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I’ve been pretty lucky over the past few years, working in sport and enjoying some incredibly memorable events. Maybe even the odd Welsh Grand Slam – certainly not the type of thing I was used to when I was growing up.

Indeed, I’ve been privileged to work on the Olympic Games, helping to plan and deliver BMW’s London 2012 vision. Sometimes I really do have to pinch myself.

You could argue some others are not quite so lucky. Some people are born without arms or without sight. Some suffer from debilitating illnesses that they fight for a lifetime. But some don’t think about it that way.

Today marks the start of what I think will be the most amazing and emotive event we’ve ever seen, in what has been the most amazing and emotive summer of sport. Today, the Superhumans begin the greatest show on Earth at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

As a nation, we’re fired up. We’ve developed a thirst for the most compelling of sporting stories. Tomorrow, when the action begins, we’ll be ready to lap it up.

Athletes will take to the field, pool and track ready to give it everything. Brands at London 2012 have shown great support to the Paralympic Games, but right now, I think one or two will realise they’ve missed out. Have they given it their all?

The next few weeks will define Paralympic sport in the UK and inspire a nation. It will challenge the way we think and the way we perceive disability sport. It will also show us the future in sponsorship.

Brands that have got it have been brave, they’ve trusted their instincts and they’ve exploded into a new space. This is the very essence of creating great creative sponsorship – brands that are prepared to step into the unknown and re-imagine the way they think and deliver.

So as we sit back to enjoy the lionhearts of Paralympic sport in action, we’ll also be experiencing a key part of the development for the future in sports marketing. The Paralympic Games will show that the brave come out on top; both on and off the field.

Full disclosure: Synergy works with BMW on London 2012

By Ben Wilkinson on August 29th, 2012

Tags: Advertising, London 2012 sponsorship, London 2012 sponsorship consultants, Paralympics, Sponsorship, Synergy

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2012 brings one of the best summer of sport line-ups ever on the Sky platform. As the pre-eminent sports broadcaster in the UK, it was only natural that Sky chose to showcase its glorious HD offering of these events in style.

Sky Creative Director Barry Skolnick, alongside directors Ivan Bird and Mark Harris, devised a concept for a campaign that was to focus on the blood, sweat, tears and hugely demanding preparation that go hand-in-hand with being an elite athlete. Off the back of two highly engaging campaigns created by Brothers and Sisters for the 2011-12 Football season and 2012 F1 launch – the HD Summer of Sport campaign was born.

As part of the planning, management and execution of the campaign, Synergy was enlisted to consult on the use of elite athletes and IP, and to manage the entire athlete management process for all the Sky Sports Scholarships athletes involved. This included management and scheduling of appearance time, liaison with agents and governing bodies, management of contractual rights, on-site management of athletes, content gathering, image approval, and finally, athlete promotion via social media channels upon the ad’s launch.

Each athlete was shot in a non-intrusive fly-on-the-wall style piece of filming usually only accessible to coaches. All footage was captured in three weeks with shoots in several locations including Ireland, Spain, Portugal, London, Peterborough, Loughborough and Manchester.

Overall it was a truly insightful and inspiring to spend time with these athletes in this most intimate of settings; whether hard at work in a 50m pool, tucked away in a boxing gym or half-way up a mountain. The effort, devotion and natural ability displayed by each athlete brought to life some incredible footage which will no doubt inspire and engage people to show their support for the best that Britain and Ireland have to offer in what is set to be an incredible Summer of Sport.

Watch the ad in full here:

By Synergy on May 31st, 2012

Tags: Advertising, Consultancy, Content, Default, Sport

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In this special edition of Synopsis, we pay tribute to Karen Earl, who is retiring as the Chairman of Synergy, 28 years after founding it as Karen Earl Ltd.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Karen Earl is among the most prominent and influential people in the UK sports industry. She set up one of the first agencies dedicated to the marketing side of sports, and, in an industry populated by rights-facing and sales-focused sponsorship agencies, Karen’s vision was ground-breaking. She created a radical alternative – building a brand-facing, consultancy-focused company that never sells sponsorships, guaranteeing brands impartial expertise. This is still the very DNA of Synergy today.

As Chairman of The European Sponsorship Association, Karen continues to advance the business of sponsorship. By giving special focus to education and training, and establishing the first ever professional qualification for sponsorship, she will be helping to drive up standards of excellence across the industry for many years to come.

Karen has also been a trail-blazer for women in the male-dominated sports industry. She became one of the first female associate members of the all-male MCC and was recognised as the Sunday Times Sports Businesswoman of the Year in 2009.

Karen will be hugely missed at Synergy. Over the past 28 years, she has built one of the most well-known and respected agencies in the industry, working with many of the world’s best brands on some of the most famous sponsorship campaigns along the way. She is a thoughtful and fair-minded model of diplomacy, and has always been dedicated to developing the best talent in the industry, inspiring them through consistent excellence and by making her agency a truly great place to work.

Check out the Synergy Pinterest board devoted to some of the most memorable work delivered by Karen and the team over the past three decades.

But we’ll leave the final words to the lady herself. On her last day in the office, we took the opportunity to speak to Karen about her time in the industry and some of her greatest experiences and memories. And of course, we got her to tell us who was the most difficult sportsperson she ever had to deal with…

By Alison Moor on May 3rd, 2012

Tags: Default, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Synopsis

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Synergy has once again been recognised as the UK’s leading sponsorship agency after scooping three Hollis Sponsorship Awards. Our Chairman Karen Earl, who founded the company in 1984 as Karen Earl Sponsorship, was presented with the Outstanding Achievement Award; Synergy won Agency of the Year; and our client Betfair was awarded the Best Use of PR for its ground-breaking ‘Bum-vertising’ campaign for Betfair Mobile.

The judges were full of praise for Synergy’s work, with Rosemary Sarginson, organiser of Hollis Sponsorship stating:

“Synergy demonstrated revenue growth, profitability, high levels of client retention, numerous new business wins, campaign creativity, a good grasp of the digital domain and a commitment to developing its people…[A] cleverly constructed campaign saw Betfair use QR codes as a way to drive people to its mobile betting service [generating] high levels of consumer interest and PR coverage, thus securing a significant number of mobile betting account sign ups.”

Receiving her award Karen Earl commented:

“It’s a great honour to be recognised by those I respect and work alongside in the sponsorship industry. Since we began the agency in 1984, sponsorship has developed exponentially and now presents clients and agencies with very exciting opportunities. The industry has never been better placed to communicate with audiences and London 2012 will be a great example of its effectiveness.”

Tim Crow, Synergy CEO said:

“We’re incredibly proud to have been recognised both as an agency for what was a great year, and for the Betfair campaign which was a stand-out piece of work by any measure. And it was just wonderful to see Karen honoured for the pioneering contribution she’s made to our business and to the industry.”

By Francesca Gamble on April 5th, 2012

Tags: Awards, Media, Sponsorship, Synergy

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What better way to spend St Patrick’s Day than watching England v Ireland at Twickenham with a pint of GUINNESS in hand? Well the rugby mad GUINNESS team here at Synergy certainly can’t think of one! So after another busy RBS 6 Nations tournament, it’s time to look back on our highlights from the GUINNESS Made of More campaign.

It all started back in January when a refreshed team of ambassadors were chosen to bring to life the new GUINNESS Made of More brand positioning.  The four ambassadors were picked to support the brand’s partnership as ‘Official Beer of The RBS 6 Nations’, as well as Official Partners of the home unions, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The new (and one not so new) faces included Scotland’s Sean Lamont, England full back Ben Foden, Wales centre Jamie Roberts and Jamie Heaslip of Ireland who were all contracted to spearhead an integrated below-the-line campaign for the brand.

Working as part of a cross agency team with Ireland’s WHPR and Cybercom, Synergy co-ordinated the two day launch which included content filming, photography and media interviews. To really get rugby fans across all four home nations roused ahead of the tournament the Cybercom team created a spine tingling video featuring the ambassadors, which has since had over 100,000 views.

Synergy contracted the photographer, Hamish Brown, to create a selection of images that inextricably showed the players’ dynamism and power, also demonstrating that like the GUINNESS product, the brand’s ambassadors are made of something a little bit extra. Whether this is Ben Foden’s lightening fast feet or Jamie Roberts’ powerful charges through the midfield, we wanted to capture each of the ambassador’s individual traits which proves they are made of more.

The Synergy PR team secured national and regional coverage in England, Wales and Scotland across a range of sectors including sport and lifestyle press, online, radio and broadcast, with WHPR generating some great coverage in Ireland.

One of the key objectives of this campaign was to drive international rugby fans to the GUINNESS Facebook pages, and encourage a deeper brand engagement through the ambassadors providing a steady stream of exclusive content from inside their camps. The cross agency team also developed a unique competition for fans from each nation to win the chance to play alongside their hero in the GUINNESS Rugby Challenge at the end of the tournament. More on that later…

Throughout the campaign Synergy activated player and coach appearances including interviews with Wales front row Gethin Jenkins, Scott Lawson and Chris Cusiter of Scotland, as well as England (then interim) coaches Stuart Lancaster and Andy Farrell.

Throughout the championship, GUINNESS ran an off-trade competition whereby one lucky GUINNESS customer could win the chance to have an England legend come to their home and watch the England v Ireland match with their mates, whilst toasting St Patrick’s Day with a few pints of the black stuff! Former England star Andrew Sheridan stepped up to plate, and for our lucky winner Keith Roberts and his friends it was a completely unforgettable day.

Andy’s insight and running commentary throughout the game proved perfect considering the game was so forward driven, with the big man himself proclaiming that “all that passing nonsense is for wimps!” All in all, it was certainly an they will tell their friends about every time they have a pint of GUINNESS at the local pub.

After seven weeks of rugby the final weekend saw Wales aiming for a Grand Slam in Cardiff, but the final curtain was to fall at a sold out Twickenham on St Patrick’s Day, with GUINNESS there to join in with the craic. Thanks to the RFU, the GUINNESS St Patrick’s Day video was shown to over 80,000 England and Ireland fans live at Twickenham, in addition to over 1,000 GUINNESS hats given away to fans in the West Car Park.  All of which added up to the GUINNESS bar have its busiest day at the rugby ever!

With Paddy’s Day behind us, the Synergy team rounded off this year’s RBS 6 Nations with the GUINNESS Rugby Challenge. Winners, plus two friends, were invited to Twickenham Stoop to play rugby alongside our ambassadors, minus Sean Lamont who was gallantly replaced by Scotland’s Jon Barclay. The warm up was taken by England forwards coach, Graham Rowntree and fitness coach Calvin Morris who later went on to referee the touch rugby competition.

By Synergy on March 27th, 2012

Tags: Alcohol, Default, Event management consultants, Guinness, PR, Public relations, RBS 6 Nations, Rugby, Sponsorship, Sport, Synergy, Synopsis, Viral Marketing, YouTube

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