Sponsorship News

Creative way to show the Olympic medal tally

2008-08-22T00:24:00Z

I know some of you are always looking for new and sexy ways to present information... I thought you might enjoy the New York Times' effort...

Note the "spin"... US counts total medals, everyone else counts golds! Interesting to see the past medal counts too.

Some news that hasn't been monitored by the chinese government!

2008-08-15T02:10:00Z

From my team on the ground in Beijing here are a few photos of some promotional activity adidas are doing. The first one is from their new Chinese ad campaign which focuses on the 'impossible is nothing' theme. All the images and TVCs show Chinese athletes competing with a huge group of people pushing them on. It plays on the support the Chinese will get from their 1.4 billion people.

The third photo is huge statues that just turned up on the street one morning! It's of the Chinese volleyball team who are superstars there. Each statue is about six metres tall and there's an adidas ball coming out of the ground.

The final one is of an adidas display in a shopping centre. People were able to take part in different activities that tested reflexes, strength, endurance etc...and also buy adidas products. It was a pretty big set up and was packed with people.

Leverage tips

2008-08-05T02:25:00Z

• PR remains the best vehicle to drive sponsorship followed closely by advertising

• On the ground leveraging at matches and events, but the key again is to add value and also understand that match days are only a % of your audience

• Online/Broadcast – Creating a consumer connection via the official site, your brand site or an individual micro site

• Asset leveraging – using players/celebrities for consumer / internal events. If you have no access purchase it on top

• Ensure you tickets to events are not only with the sales force but split across B2B, media, consumers and sales

• Lastly make sure the sponsorship is integrated across the business and media plans, maybe run internal workshops to get buy in from relevant areas

Successful sponsorships

2008-07-29T05:39:00Z

We are sport crazy....YES!

Australian brands have sponsored anything that moves....YES!

But most companies just aren't leveraging their sponsorships properly to achieve the best outcome for their brand. Traditional sponsorship, based on media logo 'exposure' and hospitality, doesn't have the same impact as they once did, with marketers now looking for new ways to leverage their sponsorship expenditure. Clutter in the sponsorship space and consumer disinterest has lessened the impact of sponsorships done purely as a branding exercise.

Branding alone is not enough: people aren't noticing signage anymore it's like wallpaper and we don't transfer attributes from an event to a brand. The wisest of sponsors understand that signage and other branding is not the cake it's not the frosting, it is merely the cherry on the top.

The ultimate goal of any successful sponsorship must be to captivate an audience through a branded experience. That experience must be proprietary and absolutely attributable to the sponsoring brand. Sponsorship is about nurturing a brand's connection with a target market by putting their needs first and about how you can use the most emotional and personally relevant of all marketing media to improve your brand's relationship with a target market and, more importantly, their relationship to your brand.