Hollis Sponsorship Bulletin

Hollis Sponsorship Awards Shortlists Announced Judging has taken place for this year’s Hollis Sponsorship Awards. A strong and varied batch of entries has now been whittled down into a series of shortlists. Winners will be announced at a gala dinner ceremony on March 30. The venue is the London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square.

Among the most prestigious categories is the Hollis Consultancy Of The Year Award. Having received a number of excellent entries, the judges eventually chose four companies for its shortlist. These are Mec: Access, Octagon, Capitalize and Four SAS. “All of the entries were very strong,” commented the judges, “But we felt that these companies just had the edge this year. It’s a balanced shortlist list – which acknowledges the achievements of four very different consultancies. There’s a genuine range of strategic approaches, skillsets and business practices here.”

For full list of shortlists, please click here.

If things seem too good to be true, then they probably are.  That, at least, should be the lasting lesson from the current controversy surrounding Texan tycoon Allen Stanford – who this week stands accused of multi-billion dollar fraud.

A major victim of the Stanford scandal is the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) – whose desperation to get its hands on Stanford’s millions has made it look somewhat foolish. The question now is whether the story will have a long-term negative impact on the prospects for the game.

A couple of years ago, English cricket was riding high. Good players were coming through and blue-chip sponsors were queuing up to get involved. But then came the offer of untold riches. On the one hand there was the revenue associated with the Indian Premier League – which immediately turned players heads. On the other, was the money on offer from Allen Stanford – which seemed to offer the ECB a way of counteracting the Asian powerbase.

Now the latter has proved to be an illusion – and the question is whether it will adversely affect the ECB’s ability to woo new sponsors. The ECB has attempted to limit the damage by cutting its ties with Stanford immediately. In a statement, ECB chief executive David Collier said the body was “shocked by the charges filed against the Stanford organisation and personnel earlier this week. Within minutes of the announcement, ECB determined to suspend any further discussions with Stanford and the board has now agreed to terminate its agreements with Stanford.”

The general feeling, however, is that the ECB should have spotted something was wrong earlier. Now it faces two problems. The first is bad publicity – which might put off other brands which had been considering a cricket association. The second, perhaps worse problem, stems from the indecent speed at which cricket took the cash.

Suppose you were a sponsor in the middle of a three or four year deal with the ECB – when all of a sudden the media exposure was being hogged by new cash-rich events. Suppose top players were no longer interested in your event because they could earn more cash elsewhere? How would that affect your own carefully-planned strategy? Would you feel loved by the rights holder your had invested in?

Probably not. This, after all, is the same governing body which has already moved all of its live inventory out of the free TV space in order to secure a premium from Sky. So English cricket is going to have to work very hard if it wants to persuade blue-chip brands to come back into the fold. After all, this is not India – where cricket dominates sporting life. Here there are many choices for sponsors.

Travel group Thomas Cook was unveiled as the sponsor of Chris Tarrant’s latest gameshow this week. Debuting for ITV on Saturday February 21st, The Colour of Money has attracted a lot of attention because of ITV’s hope that it will develop into a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire-style hit.

The gameshow, which runs for eight weeks, follows on from shows like Channel 4′s Deal Or No Deal – where the entertainment value is all about suspense rather than the skill of the contestants. Participants try to win money from studio-based cash machines – which deliver large random sums of money. But get too greedy and you lose it all.

Thomas Cook wants to use the link up to promote its foreign exchange business, according to Pippa Glucklich -   managing director of Thomas Cook media agency Arena BLM. She said The Colour of Money concept and audience “is a perfect fit for Thomas Cook Foreign Exchange. With TV representing such great value at the moment, it suited the company’s strategic marketing approach for 2009.”

In separate deals, ITV also announced that Uncle Ben’s will sponsor a range of cookery shows including Taste Of The Nation. Standard Life, meanwhile, will sponsor travel show Billy Connolly: Journey to the Edge of the World.

In one of the week’s less surprising developments, debt-ridden Dutch bank ING announced that it will end its high-profile sponsorship of Renault’s Formula 1 team at the end of this year. The decision was taken as part of the €1bn cost-cutting drive which was announced in recent weeks.

ING has worked the sponsorship hard – adding driver endorsements and Grand Prix title sponsorship deals to its core Renault relationship. However the economic downturn has made the F1 association look something of a luxury.

ING’s departure follows the recent news that beleaguered motoring giant Honda plans to pull out of F1 as well. It is currently looking for a buyer for its team – with Richard Branson’s Virgin Group mentioned as one possible bidder.

Honda – which spent in excess of £100 million on the team last season – needs to find a buyer before the start of the new F1 season in March, otherwise it will shut the team down. Aside from Branson, there have been reports of at least another ten interested parties. However Honda claims that none of them have crystallised into serious offers as yet. Speaking at the weekend, Honda CEO Takeo Fukui said: “There are various offers but we have not seen any serious buyer yet. We find the sale process difficult.”

South African brewer SAB (part of the multinational group SABMiller – owner of lager brands such as Miller, Grolsch, Peroni Nastro Azzurro) is to sponsor the forthcoming British & Irish Lions rugby union tour of South Africa.

SAB’s lager brand Castle secured title sponsorship of the tour in a deal worth around £1.7m – confirming its status as one of the most important sports sponsors in the country. It sponsored the last Lions tour of South Africa in 1997 and will also be involved in the hotly-anticipated upcoming cricket test series between Australia and South Africa.

The Lions’ ten day tour of South Africa is expected to be one of the sporting highlights of the year – with analysts predicting it will be worth around £70 million to the local South African economy. It’s also a big earner for the Lions team – which has picked up a number of blue-chip sponsors. These include brands like HSBC, Guinness, adidas, British Airways, Marks & Spencer and First Cape.

Japanese imaging giant Canon has renewed its sponsorship of the London, Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks. Despite falling profits, the company said it would extend its existing deals for another three years. In the case of the London and Milan events, this means it will continue as title sponsor.

British Fashion Council chief executive Hilary Riva said: “We are delighted Canon will continue to support London Fashion Week, one of the world’s highest profile events which showcases both emerging and iconic British designer businesses to a global audience. Canon has become a valuable partner and we look forward to working with them on innovative projects to promote British fashion.”

Explaining the rational for the link up, Canon Europe chief of communication and corporate relations James Leipnik said: “The power of the image is at the heart of the world of fashion, and Canon’s leading imaging solutions are used to deliver outstanding results throughout the industry, from image capture through to colour matching and professional quality printing. The continuation of our collaboration with these Fashion Weeks reflects our passion for creating products that help to unlock creative potential in everyone.”
 
Canon has worked hard to bring its fashion association to life – targeting both consumer and industry audiences. Last year, it ran a pan-European campaign called We Speak Image. As part of that project, people were invited to upload images which they believed represented the spirit of their European nation to a Canon website.  The best images were given to leading European fashion designers who used them as the inspiration for a series of fashion collections.

The European Sponsorship Association (ESA) has launched a comprehensive education programme designed to provide the skills necessary for a career in sponsorship. Called ESA Knowledge, the new programme caters for all levels of expertise and features interactive workshops, insight forums and seminar-style briefings.

ESA Board Director, Matt Rogan of Lane4, who is leading the ESA Education group, said:“With sponsorship evolving as a discipline, there is a greater need for broader learning options. We will be looking at the challenges of managing campaigns in the short-term economic environment, and also at the longer-term opportunities the future may hold.”

According to Rogan, ESA workshops will provide “a foundation for good sponsorship practice and help junior and middle management gain the tools they need to understand all aspects of the business, be it the financial implications, the repercussions of good briefings, importance of accountability, and the delivery and demonstration of winning results.”

ESA has drafted in a number of industry experts who will share their knowledge and experience. The first workshop, It’s a numbers game!, on the 3^rd March, will cover changing market trends, budgeting and financial management and best practice guidelines. The speaker line-up includes Steve Cumming (Diageo), Sandra Greer (Sports Marketing Surveys) and Matt Rogan (Lane4).

ESA is also running what it calls the ESA Insight Series. This is a series of events which will tackle broader issues such as future-mapping consumers’ behaviour and how this will impact on sponsorship, practical issues surrounding running a successful business, the opportunities presented by the digital revolution and the influences impacting on the entertainment and arts sectors. The first in the series – Global Trend Forecasting and Consumer Behaviour – is on the 2^nd April.

As the sponsorship industry trade body, ESA seeks to provide affordable educational events for all who work in sponsorship. Prices start at £65 for ESA Skills workshops and £100 for ESA Insights forums. ESA members receive a special discount. The events are based in London. To reserve a place, contact the ESA Office on +44 (0)208 390 3311.

Irish airline Aer Lingus has signed an £800,000 six-month deal which will see it sponsor Johnny Vaughan and Lisa Snowdon’s Breakfast Show on London station Capital FM.

The deal, which starts in March, was negotiated by media agency MediaVest. Aside from on-air exposure and integration, it will include podcast and on-line elements.

The rationale for the sponsorship is to make Londoners aware of new Aer Lingus routes out of Gatwick. These include flights to Nice and Munich. The deal gives Aer Lingus access to just under one million listeners per week.

Meanwhile, Classic FM (part of the same group as Capital) has signed an ad-funded programme deal with British Airways – for a 13-week series called Travellers’ Tales.

Chelsea shirt sponsor Samsung has been working with cross-platform agency Space to create online promotions as part of its Experience Football campaign. All told, four promotions have been launched which give fans the opportunity to train with Chelsea coaches, travel with the team to a Champions League game, play against football legends or accompany the team on a pre-season tour.

Samsung’s Experience Football strategy is aimed at both business-to-business and consumer audiences (mainly men under 30). As such, the promotions are being communicated both through company intranets and banner ads on football-related sites. Not only that, emails are being sent to millions of people on Chelsea and Samsung databases, driving them to a website where they can win the prizes. The site will also contain behind-the-scenes Chelsea video content.

Explaining the rationale for its latest digital media activity, Samsung sponsorship manager Martin Howard said: “This season we have taken our activity to a new level. With Space, we have developed campaigns to engage with both B2B and B2C audiences – focusing our work online.”

Banking crisis or not, Lloyds TSB is still looking for innovative ways to make use of its £80 million sponsorship investment in the London 2012 Olympics. This week, for example, it unveiled a mortgage deal linked to the Games.

The bank is offering a 2012 three-year mortgage which includes a financial mechanic to support the British Olympic Association and the British Paralympic Association. Under the terms of the deal, £100 is diverted out of the mortgage signing on fee and into the BOA/BPA.

Explaining the rationale for the deal, Stephen Noakes, marketing director of Lloyds TSB Mortgages, said: “This deal allows homeowners to use their mortgage spending to make a financial contribution towards the future success of our athletes, at no extra cost to themselves.”

Lloyds TSB is currently at the centre of a major political controversy over its rapid decision to acquire indebted bank HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland Group). As a result, it is still not clear to what extent the London 2012 sponsorship will be leveraged through the HBOS business.