Hollis Sponsorship Bulletin

Climate Week has secured four major partners to support the national occasion focused on catalysing action against climate change. Aviva, EDF Energy, Kellogg’s and RBS will all be Supporting Partners of Climate Week, which will run from 21st – 27th March 2011. The initiative will work with thousands of organisations around the UK to promote and showcase ways of tackling climate change. It will be run annually and expanded internationally in future years.
 
Endorsed by Prime Minister David Cameron, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, the former US Vice President Al Gore and the former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Climate Week will be promoted via a number of channels, including media partnerships, advertising and PR.

Specialist sponsorship agency Generate has been working with Climate Week to source sponsors and is now focusing the search on a headline partner.

Climate Week has been developed by Chief Executive Kevin Steele, who has experience both in themed weeks and campaigns on climate change. Kevin previously created Enterprise Week, which involves half a million people a year in the UK and 25,000 events in 77 countries. He also led an ethical investment campaign which resulted in a £3 trillion investment group for action on climate change.
 
Andy Muggleton, Generate Sponsorship Managing Partner, added: “Climate Week is an extremely attractive property, and we have secured some of the world’s most recognisable brands to support the campaign, which will proactively drive a change in the way people think about climate change. Climate Week offers partners a great opportunity to demonstrate their environmental credentials to the business world and mass consumer market, as well as network with government and influential industry leaders.”

Fulham Football Club  has secured FxPro Financial Services Ltd (FxPro) as replacement for LG.  FxPro, a global retail broker in FX and CFDs, will join the Club as its main sponsor from July 2010 on a three year deal. This will see the FxPro brand appear on the front of the First Team shirt until the summer of 2013.

The agreement, which follows Fulham’s recent successes in Europe and its highest ever Barclays Premier League finish, is the biggest in the Club’s history. Integral to the agreement is support from FxPro for a variety of Fulham Foundation initiatives, with particular focus, and funding, for Fulham Deaf FC.

Alistair Mackintosh, Chief Executive at Fulham said: “FxPro already has global presence and, partnering another Premier League football club, will enhance this even further. Clearly this has additional benefits for Fulham’s global reach which, following the European success of last season and the recognition the Club received worldwide, is something that we are extremely excited about”.

Denis Sukhotin, Director for FxPro added: “FxPro is committed to raising the profile of Fulham FC and supporting the Club as it seeks to replicate last season’s success in the domestic and European competitions during the period of our association.”

E.ON’s extension to its FA Cup sponsorship, announced last week, is a one-year continuation of the original deal signed in 2006, and will see the energy company continue its involvement in all levels of the game  as it continues to support the development of youth football, the women’s game as well as a schools and education programme.

Simon Breakall, E.ON’s Sponsorship PR & Events Manager told the Bulletin that: “A short term deal allows us to meet our short term commercial and brand objectives as we continue to use our partnership with The FA to change the way people view and consume energy. Through campaigns such as the award winning Carbon Footyprint and, more recently, our Great Saves initiative last season, we’ve placed energy efficiency and sustainability at the heart of our strategy and forms part of our wider ambition to move towards a low carbon economy. Over the longer term we are working towards establishing a Group wide sponsorship strategy.”

On signing the deal, Mike Thompson E.ON’s Head of Global Sponsorship, said:  “It’s a deal that works for both parties. Our sponsorship of The FA Cup has played a key part in establishing the E.ON business within the UK and we’re looking forward to continuing our relationship with The FA from the very first kick next season.”

Swedish apparel manufacturer Sail Racing has been appointed as official clothing partner to the ISAF World Match Racing Tour (WMRT).  The three year agreement with the WMRT will provide branded team clothing for the Tour from Stena Match Cup Sweden.
Newly appointed WMRT Chief Executive, Jim O’Toole, commenting on the deal said: “We share core values such as creativity and innovation and look forward to building our clothing business to mutual benefit”.
Sail Racing has worked with some of the most successful sailing events in the world such as; the Volvo Ocean Race and Nokia Oops Cup.  The specialist sports clothing brand has also been associated with the Swedish America’s Cup Victory Challenge Team, the Audi/Q8 Team racing a TP52 in the Audi Med Cup as well as Red Bull Extreme Sailing.
Henric Wikestam, Managing Director at Sail Racing said: “We have watched the Tour’s recent growth under the new leadership team with keen interest and are ready to be part of the ambitious global expansion plans”.

BRMB, Birmingham’s hit radio station, has signed as official radio station partner of the LG Arena and The NIA in a two-year deal.

General Manager of The NEC Group’s Arena Division, Guy Dunstan said: “It’s great news that the LG Arena and The NIA have partnered with BRMB.  We run two of Europe’s busiest live entertainment and sports venues, selling over 1.5 million tickets to events annually, offering unique and attractive sponsorship opportunities where brands can interact with passionate audiences experiencing world class events.

“We believe the partnership will offer both BRMB listeners and fans of live music an opportunity to enjoy even more of their favourite artists and events,” he added.

The BRMB brand will have prime positioning within the LG Arena and The NIA, brand recognition on websites for both arenas, bespoke promotional emails to targeted databases held by The Ticket Factory and hospitality opportunities at both arenas.

Concert and event goers will benefit from activity pre and post show in forumLIVE at the LG Arena and exclusive promotions and offers on air with BRMB and its sister stations, Beacon, Mercia and Wyvern.
 
The media sponsorship is the first of ‘second tier’ premium partners being sought by the operator of the arenas, The NEC Group.

Following the successful sponsorship deal of the LG Arena, with global electronic giants LG, Birmingham’s NIA is also seeking a naming rights partner.  The 13,000 capacity indoor arena is one of the most successful venues in the UK and would be renamed from The NIA to that of the brand name of the naming rights partner.

Agency Sport + Markt has launched a new product, Football Scout which aims to offer analysis of the commercial performance parameters and positioning of brands in British football – its objective to provide a market standard currency for measuring success and opportunity.
 
Football Scout will survey a sample of UK population between the ages of 16 and 59 on a weekly basis for 50 weeks of the year.

A poll by reputation auditors Echo Research has shown that the British public may well be uncertain which companies are sponsoring the tournament. Respondents were clearer, however, about sponsors’ motives, understanding they are driven by hard-nosed targets, such as TV coverage and selling product, rather than any commitment to any softer issues.
Echo’s Group CEO, Sandra Macleod, remarked “these findings show that, as the tournament gets underway, sponsors have much work to do to raise awareness of their role in the World Cup, and to convince the British public that they are motivated by a genuine concern for the host nation and for football and its supporters, as much as by commercial gains. Should confusion in these areas continue as the World Cup unfolds, sponsors will not realize the brand and reputation benefits that sponsorship should bring”.

Conducted the day before the FIFA World Cup opening ceremony on 11 June, the 1,005 adults polled across Great Britain struggled to correctly identify eight World Cup sponsors and partners (Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, adidas, Sony, Visa, Budweiser, Emirates and Hyundai) from a list of well-known brands. Coca-Cola was the only company to be correctly identified as a sponsor by more than half of those polled (57%) and Hyundai by the least (10%).
Nike was incorrectly identified as an official sponsor by 30% of those polled – more than identified adidas, an actual sponsor (29%). Carlsberg was also incorrectly identified as a sponsor by 23%, not far behind the 28% identifying actual sponsor Budweiser.

When asked to select reasons why a company would sponsor the World Cup, 81% agreed it was “to get their company name or logo on TV” and 50% “to sell more of their products within South Africa”.
Thirteen percent agreed it was “because they care about football and its supporters”; nine percent “because they care about issues of health, fitness and wellbeing” and seven percent “because they care about South Africa and its people”.

BNY Mellon, the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, is to sponsor The National Galleries of Scotland’s major summer exhibition, Impressionist Gardens.  BNY Mellon recently sponsored The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and his Letters at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
“Edinburgh is one of our business’ key centres and it is a special privilege to support this landmark project and the National Galleries of Scotland, whose championing of public access and education is very much in tune with the key principles that inform our own international programme of arts sponsorship,” said Woody Kerr, Vice-Chairman of Europe at BNY Mellon. “I have no doubt that this remarkable exhibition will prove a huge success for both the National Galleries and the city of Edinburgh itself.”

HSBC has launched Festival Brazil, the largest-ever project in its global Cultural Exchange programme designed to recognise an understanding of different cultures as an essential part of building international business relationships.
 
Festival Brazil is an international programme of business and culturally focused activity celebrating the nation that is predicted to be the world’s fifth largest economy by 2025. The centrepiece is Southbank Centre’s Festival Brazil in London – a three-month
festival of the best in Brazilian music, performance, literature and visual arts – created
in partnership with HSBC.

Other programme highlights, across more than ten markets including the UK, USA, South Africa, United Arab Emirates and China, are more than 15 Brazil-focused business events, a bespoke Time Out Guide to Brazilian culture around the world and the launch of a business intelligence report, commissioned from the Economist Intelligence Unit, on Brazil’s economic future.

Arts & Business has been informed that its grant from the Arts Council England for the current financial year has been cut by four percent (£0.16 million).  Its Chief Executive, Colin Tweedy has responded by saying:  “We will endeavour to continue to do our utmost to see private sector investment in culture grow in the years to come and that the Government’s wish to see philanthropy take centre stage is realised.”
“We understand”, Colin Tweedy continued “that the Arts Council England wants to implement cuts of £19m while protecting art.  The principle by which we stand is that philanthropy is up there on the frontline, damaging philanthropy damages the arts. Any damage to us impacts on the ability of our cultural partners to raise much needed private sector funds. At this time of cuts, over 70% of arts organisations are looking to increase the amount of individual giving they raise.  They need philanthropy and Arts & Business more than ever.”