Hollis Sponsorship Bulletin

BT has made a long term commitment to Paralympic sport in the UK, helping to secure a lasting legacy for the country’s Paralympic athletes through the London 2012 Paralympic Games and beyond.

BT will continue to support the British Paralympic Association (BPA) after the London 2012 Paralympic Games, for the period 1 January 2013 until 31 December 2016, supporting ParalympicsGB athletes as they compete in Sochi in 2014 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

As part of the agreement, BT is working with the British athletes to create communications services to enhance and support their training and team interaction.   BT has secured the highest level of sponsorship rights and benefits including association with the ParalympicsGB team, tickets and hospitality rights at the Paralympic Games of 2014 and 2016 and at other official Paralympic events, and branding and recognition across BPA marketing materials. 

BT is a long term supporter of the BPA and was the association’s first commercial partner when it was founded in 1989. BT is the Official Communications Services Partner to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. BT is also title sponsor of the BT Paralympic World Cup, the largest annual international multi-sport competition in elite disability sport.  The event is taking place in Manchester from now until the 31st of May 2010, and features BT Ambassadors Oscar Pistorius and Liz Johnson.

The Scottish Premier League has announced a new three-year partnership with Coca-Cola Great Britain (CCGB). The deal will see the brand become an Official Partner of the Scottish Premier League from the start of the 2010/11 season.

The partnership will deliver access to key assets such as advertising, merchandise and club experiences. These will support CCGB’s focus on building its online engagement in a series of initiatives to help fans communicate digitally with their clubs and wider football communities, adding value to their experience. Further details will be announced at the start of the 2010/11 season.

Commenting on the deal, Coca-Cola Great Britain and Ireland President Sanjay Guha, said: “The Scottish Premier League and The Football League provide a fantastic platform for us to really connect with communities across GB. We’re very excited to be making these new commitments that will allow us to strengthen our relationships with fans who are passionate about their clubs across the country.”

Coca-Cola Great Britain continues to invest in the game at all levels and is one of the game’s biggest supporters on both a domestic and international level. Current sponsorships include Wayne Rooney, the FIFA World Cup™ and the UEFA European Championships.

Scotland’s most loyal football sponsor Tennent’s is parting company “after cordial discussions” with the Scottish Football Association.
Tennent’s has is reported to have said that the decision to end their sponsorship deal with the SFA had been taken after the deal with the Old Firm was concluded and could have continued despite the partnership with two clubs who display intense rivalry on and off the field of play.
The company said it had explored “a number of options” with the SFA but it became clear that the governing body wanted to explore other avenues.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has signed soft drinks brand Rubicon as Official Partner of the Friends Provident t20 competition.
 
In a partnership that will run for an initial two year period, the brand will receive a range of assets across all 151 matches in this year’s competition, which starts on June 1 and culminates in a Friends Provident t20 Finals Day at the Rose Bowl on Saturday August 14.
 
These assets will include extensive branding on pitch mats, boundary ropes and presentation backdrops as well as tickets, hospitality and sampling opportunities across all grounds. Rubicon is also planning an in-ground activation campaign at each match based around a central theme of ‘Mango Moments’ which will celebrate great performances, the biggest hits, the best catches and best bowling spells. 
 
Commenting on the announcement John Perera, ECB Commercial Director said: “We’re delighted to announce this partnership with such a high profile FMCG brand as Rubicon. The Friends Provident t20 competition has proven to be an enormous success with the public since its inception in 2003. We believe it will provide Rubicon with the perfect platform to raise its brand profile over the course of the summer.”
 
Adrian Troy, Head of Marketing at AG Barr, comments: “Cricket is the second most popular sport in the UK and is well-loved by Rubicon consumers. The partnership with the Friends Provident t20, combined with the brand’s sponsorship of Sky’s coverage of the ICC World Twenty20, will further consolidate Rubicon’s association with cricket and bring its renowned colour, vibrancy and flamboyancy to the game.”

Capitalize has relaunched as The BrandFan® Agency to demonstrate its new range of services and proprietary tools.  Underpinned by strategic planning, which is led by former Red Bull Marketing Director Anoushka Feiler, the BrandFan® Agency model allows Capitalize to show clients how many brand fans they have, what motivates them and ultimately how clients can attract more fans with targeted and innovative campaigns.
 
The new proprietary tools include Fan-Pedia – an analysis of what makes a fan and how to engage with them, Fan-Centric – an 18,000 strong fan lounge in which to gather fan feedback and test ideas, and Fan-Marketing Evaluation – a detailed analysis of both the rational and emotional effect of a campaign on brands’ existing and potential fan bases.
 
Capitalize has also developed the BrandFan® League Table which analyses which companies have the strongest and weakest fan followings. Capitalize’s research has revealed that Cadbury is top of the BrandFan® League Table, followed by the BBC and Tesco.
 
The launch of The BrandFan® Agency model follows Capitalize’s recent launch of specialist planning, production and creative departments to support the existing core teams of Experiential, PR and Brand Partnerships.
 
Capitalize has already undertaken BrandFan® programmes in the form of a student engagement programme for the British Horseracing Authority’s Racing for Change marketing campaign and Bacardi’s current programme of activity with the Black Eyed Peas.
Richard Moore, Capitalize founder and CEO said, “We are incredibly proud of the work we have done over the past fifteen years. But after a strategic review and extensive discussions with our long-term client partners we felt the need to challenge ourselves and to communicate the real strength of our client work. All our campaigns have one thing in common – the ability to create fans for our clients. So, after extensive research we developed The BrandFan® Agency concept and have launched six new proprietary planning tools to support our creative and account teams.”
 
Since its launch in 1995 Capitalize has used experiential marketing, PR and sponsorship to create powerful and lasting relationships for clients such as Bacardi-Martini, Standard Chartered Bank, PUMA, Ray-Ban and Merrell.

ScottishPower has renewed its sponsorship of arts festival Celtic Connections by committing to a further year as principal sponsor.  Attendances of the festival are now topping 100,000 for the third year running and gross ticket sales have exceeeded £1 million. The economic impact of the festival increased to £11.9 million in 2010. 

ScottishPower Group Sponsorships Manager, Heather McDonald said; “ We are very keen to continue our relationship with Celtic Connections as part of the already substantial commitment ScottishPower has made to the arts in Scotland. Our association with the festival goes back to 2007 and we are happy to continue as principal sponsor in 2011. This grassroots festival has a large role in Scotland’s cultural calendar and ScottishPower is proud to be able to play a part in that.”

International event branding company ICON has opened new offices in the UAE.  This latest addition to Icon’s international network will augment its existing operation in Qatar and enable the company to provide more comprehensive cover for events and venues throughout the Gulf region.
Clients in the Middle East will also be able to draw on the experience and knowledge of Icon’s recently-acquired live event production division ICON:MEI
Commenting on these latest business developments, Andrew Hodson, sales and marketing director at Icon, said; “Despite stories about the slowdown in the region’s economy we believe that the sporting, cultural and experiential event opportunities in the region are still considerable.  We will be looking to recruit additional staff and are also hoping to develop a number of strategic partnerships with local manufacturers and installers that will ensure that we have extensive production facilities within the region, putting us in a much stronger position to service the needs of clients and their events.”

Electronics giant Sharp will be the Official Electronics Partner of The 2010 Tour of Britain, The Halfords Tour Series and The Prostate Cancer Charity Tour Rides, in a sponsorship agreement which demonstrates the company’s continuing commitment to British pro-cycling.
 
As the premier event in the UK racing calendar, attracting over a million roadside spectators across the country, The Tour of Britain offers exposure of the Sharp brand to many of its key target audience. As well as the excitement and accessibility which initially attracted Sharp to pro-cycling, the sport has a clear environmental message, which ties in with Sharp’s own continuing commitment to creating environmentally friendly technologies and products and investing in zero-waste manufacturing facilities.
 
Sharp’s involvement with The Tour of Britain began in 2009 when the Sharp4Prostate logo appeared on the Rapha Condor team jerseys. Sharp is now a headline sponsor of the Rapha Condor Sharp team, who will also be racing in both this year’s Tour of Britain and Halfords Tour Series. The new race sponsorship deal takes Sharp’s engagement with pro-cycling in this country to a new level and comes at a time when the sport is booming in the UK.
 
“Sharp is a brand that has long been synonymous with high-profile sporting sponsorships, and we are thrilled that this global brand has chosen to support our events going forward,” commented The Tour of Britain’s Commercial Manager, Alastair Grant. “The Tour of Britain, Halfords Tour Series and The Prostate Cancer Charity Tour Rides provide a unique promotional platform for companies wishing to engage with the burgeoning UK cycling market, and we look forward to a long and successful Official Electronics Partnership with Sharp”.
 
Speaking with less than a month to go before riding the gruelling Race Across America to help raise £100,000 for The Prostate Cancer charity, Sharp UK managing director, Paul Molyneux said, “We are very pleased to be supporting this year’s Tour of Britain, Halfords Tour Series and Prostate Cancer Charity Tour Rides. 2010 marks a very important twelve months for Sharp, with the launch of a number of key new products, including some real technological world-firsts. The profile of the people involved in cycling fits the profile of the kind of people we want to expose the Sharp brand to, and sponsorship of the premier event in the UK racing calendar is a very exciting opportunity to reach this audience.”

At Kantar Sport
Simon Lincoln is leaving his research manager post at Ipsos MORI to join Kantar Sport. 

At the Rugby Football League
The RFL has strengthened its presence in London with the appointment of Sam Windridge as Business Development Manager in a new commercial office in the capital.
Sam, 27, will be based full time in London at the RFL’s office on the South Bank and joins the organisation after spending five years in commercial sport working for Southampton Football Club and Clipper Ventures.

Telecommunications company Lebara has appointed sports marketing agency Essentially to help activate the brand’s initial two-year cricket sponsorship with the Test Match Grounds.
 
Essentially will manage activation for the brand both in and out of the cricket grounds and help bring cricket to Lebara’s customers.
James Condon, Chief Marketing Officer, commented: “We are extremely excited about the opportunity we have created within cricket to build the Lebara brand in the UK and internationally as well as provide fantastic experiences for our customers.” 
 
Lebara’s sponsorship programme includes perimeter boards and tri-visions at both domestic and international cricket held at the nine Test Match Grounds, as well as access to tickets, experiential activity and players.