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Archive for the ‘Sponsorship’ Category

Car Ambassadors

Friday, June 26th, 2009

Car advertising is huge.

Pick up any magazine and you’ll notice full page print ads. Watch TV and you’ll see big budget commercials.

But how much of this advertising features celebrity ambassadors? If “I can’t think of any” is your response than you’re spot on.

There’s a reason why car brands don’t use celebrities in above the line advertising. Market research has shown that celebrity car ambassadors don’t resonate with consumers.

I’m not saying that ambassadors can’t add value by the way of consumer promotions, PR and other below the line activities. I’m saying when it comes to the sales pitch, Joe Blow couldn’t give a stuff about the famous face that drives the car.

Car consumers are savvy and their buying behaviour is extremely rational. They look for speed, comfort, control, size, safety, luxury, affordability etc. When a car brand is paying thousands of dollars for a TV spot, they don’t want to clutter these key messages with a celebrity – this is a distraction for the consumer.

(Seeing a well paid athlete with a free car, doesn’t exactly fill consumers with warm and fuzzy feelings either).

The fact is, car ambassadors are best used for strengthening relationships with trade partners, creating consumer brand experiences, increasing brand awareness, demonstrating corporate social responsibility, engaging staff and creating PR opportunities.

Managers should concentrate on these things when pitching for a car deal. Oh and make sure the car sponsorship makes sense!

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Tags: advertising, car, celebrity
Posted in Sponsorship, Strategy, advertising | No Comments »

BOB THE BUILDER

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Managing a young athlete’s career from start to finish is a bit like building a house.

First thing you need is a blue print. An end vision of what you want to achieve with the athlete.

The sad thing is, most managers don’t have a blue print. They make things up as they go along.

The next you thing you need is a solid foundation that will protect the house from all kinds of weather.

I’m talking about good morals / personal values. Not always easy to teach but important if you want to build a great house.

The next stage is to build the house in steps. E.g. you don’t build the roof without first building the walls.

The ‘walls’ can be sporting results or growing the media profile of the athlete. This comes before the big endorsements.

Next thing you need to do is surround yourself with specialised handyman. A painter is not a tiler. A landscaper can’t do the plumbing.

You need to align your athlete with specialist people such as a sports lawyer, a financial planner etc. If I’m an athlete, I’d much rather have 3-4 specialists around me then one manager wearing multiple hats. This allows my manager to solely concentrate on one thing – bringing in the money.

Lastly, you need to communicate effectively with everyone to get the house built on time and within budget.

This is much easier if you have a blue print. Show the athlete this. Explain your strategy. Keep them updated at every step along the way.

At the end you will have a magnificent house that is worth a lot of money.

bobthebuilder

Posted in Client Relationship, Media, Sponsorship, Strategy | No Comments »

Player Payment Systems for Elite Sport

Monday, June 15th, 2009

Sport & Sponsorship News have reported that Cricket Australia have just announced a new player payment system aimed at balancing the workload of players and at the same time encouraging players to participate in sponsor projects by paying them commercial rates.

Under the new scheme, players will be offered separate playing and marketing contracts. The playing contract will be based on their on-field performance, while the marketing contract will be based on their “marketability” as assessed annually by independent consultants.

Players will be grouped into different tiers and earn points each time they participate in commercial activities such as appearances, TVC’s etc.

At the end of each year, the players will be rewarded in line with their contribution to the ‘marketing contract’.

This is a smart strategy.

It offers players flexibility and it gives them a better understanding of their value to team sponsors and rewards those who put in the work.

It also encourages players to improve their marketability – a win win for everyone.

Nice work CA.

Posted in Cricket, Sponsorship | No Comments »

Servicing Sponsorship is 2-Way

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

1) Athlete manager pitches for sponsorship.

2) Sponsor signs a contract with exclusive benefits and rights.

3) Athlete manager sits back and waits for sponsor to leverage the relationship.

4) Sponsor lacks ideas and becomes frustrated with the availability / restrictions around the sponsorship.

5) The athlete manager continues a re-active communication style with the sponsor. No to this request. Yes to this.

6) The only time the athlete manager initiates contact with the sponsor is when the athlete needs product or a payment is due.

7) Contract expires. Sponsor walks away. Athlete is dumbfounded. “But I did everything they asked of me”?

The problem with the above scenario is the lack of communication between the athlete manager and the sponsor. Or more specifically the lack of initiative by the athlete manager.

Traditionally, it’s not the job of athlete managers to come up with leveraging ideas. But that’s not an excuse to sit on your hands.

Athlete managers should be calling sponsors and giving them updates on the athlete’s diary, availability and event scheduling. They should be telling them about current promotions with other sponsors. They should notify the sponsor of any public appearances or media the athlete is doing etc.

This type of communication engages the sponsor and leaves them no excuse not to activate the sponsorship.

It will also differentiate you from the other athlete managers that sponsor deals with.

You’ve given them plenty of opportunity to find ROI. And at the end of the contract, the sponsor has little excuse to walk away.

After all, we all know that it’s much cheaper to retain sponsor’s than find new ones.

Tags: athlete manager, Sponsorship
Posted in Client Relationship, Communication, Sponsorship, Strategy | No Comments »

Deadwood

Friday, June 5th, 2009

Before the global credit crunch, you had a lot of companies with multiple sponsorships and big budgets to leverage these sponsorships.

Budgets have since tightened and that means every single sponsorship has been heavily scrutinised.

A lot of sponsors have grouped their sponsorships into two distinct categories:

1) Weather the storm – these sponsorships have long term potential and are important to the overall brand strategy. Leveraging budgets have been scaled back but there is still plenty of activity happening around the sponsorship.

2) Deadwood – these sponsorships are not being leveraged. ‘Leverage’ money is instead going to the category above. The sponsor has decided to cut their losses and wait for the contract to expire.

Have a think about your current sponsors. Are they still leveraging the relationship with you (be it on a smaller scale), or are they surprisingly quiet?

If their too quiet, be worried

Tags: Sponsorship
Posted in Sponsorship, Strategy | No Comments »

Sponsoring a League/Event vs. an Individual

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

Which is more effective? Sponsoring a league, club and/or event, or sponsoring an individual athlete?

It depends on who you talk to. Nike will tell you that individual sponsorship has built their brand. Meanwhile, Harvery Norman would argue they have benefited enormously from their sponsorship of Rugby League’s State of Origin series, with a spike in sales to prove it.

What is good for one sponsor isn’t always best for another sponsor. There are a million things to consider.

Both strategies have their own pros and cons. Sponsoring a league or event offers guaranteed and consistent coverage, more marketing and advertising resources, and some protection from competing brands. Meanwhile, individual sponsors are more at risk from red tape, inconsistent exposure, injury or bad behaviour.

However, don’t underestimate the power of individual sponsorship. When you think Shane Warne, you immediately think of Nike or even Advanced Hair. But can you name the Australian Cricket team’s sponsors during Warne’s playing days? Probably not.

On the flip side, Toyota has a great recall for it’s sponsorship of the AFL.

Of course, you can always do both. In fact, most players’ associations push for this strategy. When a sponsor signs with a league or event, they are often forced to spread the budget to include 2-3 ambassadors within that team or sport.

This negates the risk of being trumped by one athlete. A good example is adidas. They were an official worldwide partner of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. But they were blown away in the pool by Speedo sponsored Michael Phelps.

If you’re thinking about a league or event sponsorship, identify the standout athletes within that league or event. And ask yourself, do they have the star potential to overshadow your brand with their own endorsements? If so, you may want to re-think your strategy.

Posted in Cricket, Olympics, Rugby League, Sponsorship, Strategy | No Comments »

Reach vs. Frequency

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

There are many ways to attract sponsors. One such way, is to build an athlete’s brand in a specific market using specific media to attract a specific brand.

This is a long term strategy requiring patience and frequency. The athlete has to understand this – so make sure it’s what they want.

So let’s say you want to target a high end watch brand for an athlete? First you need to target the consumers who buy those high end watches. Once you’ve captured the attention of the consumers, then your chances of a watch sponsorship increase ten-fold.

The best way to capture the market’s attention is through the media. And the best strategy is to concentrate on frequency verse reach.

This means you target very specific media of the watch consumer and hit those people over and over with the same message.

Imagine if an athlete had a regular side column in GQ Magazine. Do you think a watch company would be more inclined to sponsor this athlete? You betcha.

It’s better to communicate your message to 100,000 consumers over and over as opposed to 500,000 consumers once or twice. Eg. Having your athlete appear in multiple fashion / lifestyle magazines will have a bigger impact on the watch sponsor than one appearance on Channel Seven’s Sunrise.

When building your athlete’s brand to attract a specific group of sponsors, concentrate on frequency over reach in your communications.

Tags: Channel Seven, GQ Magazine
Posted in Communication, Media, Sponsorship, Strategy | No Comments »

Australia & The 2010 Winter Olympic Games

Monday, May 18th, 2009

With the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games only six months away, let’s look at who the spotlight will be on for Australia.

The main medal contenders are:

Torah Bright (snowboarding)
Holly Crawford (snowboarding)
Jacqui Cooper (aerial skiing)
Lydia Lassila (aerial skiing)
Dale Begg-Smith (moguls)

What if Australia only had half dozen genuine medal hopes at the Summer Olympics? Imagine the wide-spread attention those 5-6 athletes would be given in the lead up to and during the Games by media and sponsors.

Well this is exactly the scenario we have for the Winter Olympics. An uncluttered opportunity for sponsors on a global scale.

Australia won’t produce multiple medal winners like the Beijing Olympics. This means the one or two athletes who do well for Australia in Vancouver will be glorified by the media and their profile cemented much like Alisa Camplin and Steven Bradbury in 2002.

So who should Australian sponsors be looking at?

Jacqui Cooper has a good profile with a great story and will find a lot of public support for her gold medal quest.

Lydia Lassila was famously injured at the last Olympics so has the profile and will be the subject of a media fairytale if she can win.

Dale Begg-Smith is a great chance at back to back gold but the accent and fact he lives abroad leaves him little warmth from the Australian public.

Holly Crawford is good chance but stopping her might be….

Torah Bright, arguably the world’s best female snowboarding talent. Bright ticks all the boxes, good looking, clean cut, super exciting to watch, great with the media and a smile to die for. She is a super chance for gold. Watch the media and public go berzerk if this girl wins.

Tags: Dale Begg-Smith, Holly Crawford, Jacqui Cooper, Lydia Lassila, Olympic Games, Torah Bright
Posted in Sponsorship | No Comments »

Athlete or Celebrity?

Friday, May 15th, 2009

Take two athletes. One features regularly on the back pages. The other shares time between the back pages and the social pages.

Which athlete do you think is more attractive for sponsors?

The second athlete of course. They have what advertiser’s call ‘reach’. They reach more demographics’ than the athlete who remains on the back pages.

There is no doubting the celebrity factor was a key influencer in Gillette’s appointment of Michael Clarke as an ambassador. This is Gillette’s first Aussie ambassador so you can be sure the decision was well researched. I’m guessing the bulk of Clarke’s responsibilities with Gillette lay in the use of his name, image and likeness for print ads and a possible TVC.

That means Gillette will look to take out ad space across as many mediums as possible. The more ‘reach’ an ambassador has the more cut through for Gillette.

Razors appeal to the fashion conscious guy as much as they do to the cricket fan. With Clarke’s celebrity profile, Gillette can run their ads in both Alpha Magazine and Men’s Style – with much the same impact.

Being a celebrity is nothing to hide from as long as you become a sports star before you become a celebrity. This gives your ‘celebrity status’ credibility. Ian Thorpe took a similar path and it seems Clarke is doing the same.

Tags: Alpha Magazine, Gillette, Ian Thorpe, Men's Style, Michael Clarke
Posted in Media, Sponsorship, Strategy | No Comments »

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