Hollis Sponsorship Bulletin

Global online gaming site Sportingbet has signed a three year partnership with Leeds United FC to commence at the start of the coming 2010/11 nPower Championship season.  The deal sees Sportingbet expand its existing sponsorship portfolio that already includes properties within football, cricket and rugby to firmly establish itself as a major player in the UK sports industry.

The partnership will provide Sportingbet with match day branding at the  Elland Road ground, take ownership of all match day betting and become betting and gaming partner of local sports broadcaster, Yorkshire Radio. Sportingbet will use its partnership with Leeds United and the assets it provides including hospitality and match tickets to engage with the club’s established fan base and build the brand within the region.

This latest gaming partnership with Leeds United follows Sportingbet’s hugely successful shirt sponsorship with Wolverhampton Wanderers that saw a significant increase in traffic, registrations and players to its website – Sportingbet.com.

Sportingbet will also be delivering additional benefits to Leeds United fans through new initiatives such as the Leeds Accumulator game, a unique betting service that will allow supporters to go head-to-head with former club captain Dominic Matteo and bet on their team for free to win money can’t buy prizes

Andy McIver, Sportingbet CEO, commented: “Leeds United fans are up there as some of the most dedicated supporters in the country.  We’re busy working with the team at Leeds United ahead of the season opener to create new offerings that will benefit the fans and demonstrate our support and passion for the club both on a match day at Elland Road and in the wider community.”

Shaun Harvey, CEO of Leeds United said: “Sportingbet is a fully established brand within Europe and the rest of the world and it’s important that the Club continues to develop partnerships with strong, internationally recognised brands. The new three year deal will see Sportingbet operating both online and in stadia betting operations at the Club.”

rosie@sponsorship-awards.co.uk

International sports marketing agency Fast Track has been retained by BT Plc to help develop, implement and deliver a substantial sponsorship activation and PR campaign to highlight the company’s long-term investment in sport.  The new extended agreement runs until the summer of 2011.

Fast Track has worked with BT since June 2008, when the agency was appointed to deliver a successful athlete PR programme for the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games. More recently, Fast Track was also tasked with leveraging title sponsorship of the BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester, the annual World Class Multi-Sport Disability Event for elite international athletes.

 Fast Track will now work with BT to deliver PR and activation campaigns across all its sports sponsorships. The agency will also continue to help promote BT’s Ambassador Programme, which includes some of the world’s leading past and present athletes such as Dame Kelly Holmes, Sir Chris Hoy, Ade Adepitan and Oscar Pistorious.

Suzi Williams, BT Group Marketing Director, said: “We’re delighted to be continuing our relationship with Fast Track to promote our commitment to British sport.  “This is a really exciting time both for BT and British sport. From supplying essential technology, to supporting athletes, we are passionate about playing our part to invest in the future and in events that will put Britain on the world stage.”

Steve Chisholm, Communications Director at Fast Track, added: “BT is one of the leading brands in sport and we are excited about generating some wonderful results for them. I am confident that we will provide the necessary insight and innovation to ensure that BT capitalises on its association with some of the world’s most prestigious sporting events.”

YouGov, the international market research company, has teamed  up with SMG Insight, a specialised sports marketing consultancy with the objective to  deliver higher value added services within the global sports marketing industry.

The YouGov / SMG Insight combination is aiming to deliver a new approach to sports sponsorship research and consulting, bringing together YouGov’s knowledge of consumers and brands with SMG’s understanding of sponsorship and rights ownership.

SMG Insight, powered by YouGov, will be led by senior industry executive Frank Saez, who

was Vice President of international sports agency IMG for over eight years and more recently Managing Director of IFM Sports Marketing Surveys.

The offer will be targeted at rights-holders, sponsors, brands, agencies and other investors

in sport, and services will include measuring sponsorship opportunities and optimisng

sponsorship objectives.

Frank Saez, founder and Managing Director of SMG Insight, commented, “Many traditional

sports and sponsorship market research services have become less insightful and obsolete.

YouGov has a strong reputation for incisive international consumer research and this

exclusive partnership provides SMG Insight with an opportunity to provide the sports and

sponsorship industry with higher added value services, delivering much more than traditional

media valuations.”

Tim Britton, UK CEO of YouGov said: “We are delighted to join up with SMG Insight. Their

deep understanding of the sports sector combined with our unparalleled ability to pinpoint

and monitor consumer behaviour in this area will provide the sports industry with a great new stream of insight.”

TEAMORIGIN, the British America’s Cup sailing team, created by Sir Keith Mills with the aim of winning the America’s Cup for Great Britain has secured  Jaguar for a summer of sailing activities. The first event that will see ‘TEAMORIGIN racing with Jaguar’ is during Cowes Week this month, when they will face BMW ORACLE Racing (the current holder of the America’s Cup) in the 1851 Cup event.

This new partnership is part of Jaguar’s commitment to the best of British sport under the umbrella of the Jaguar Academy of Sport, which aims to recognise, celebrate and inspire the very best of British sporting talent and success. The partnership is further strengthened by the shared commitment of both organisations to strive for improved environmental performance. This is highlighted through TEAMORIGIN’s ‘Race for Change’ strategy, and Jaguar’s advanced Lightweight Aluminium technology, which resulted in the recent win for the new XJ of a Green Award from What Car? magazine. 

TEAMORIGIN’s newly branded livery will appear during Cowes Week (racing takes place between today, August 3^rd and Friday 6^th August) and will feature striking  branding on both the hull and sails.  The spinnaker will feature a Jaguar leaper in Union Jack Motif, the symbol of the Jaguar Academy of Sport.

German spectators were glued to the TV supporting their national team in FIFA World Cup matches – the average market share generated was over 82%, according to Sport + Markt’s analysis of the free-to-air TV audiences of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in six European countries.   

Exactly the opposite happened in France – just 62% of the French audience watched ‘Les Bleus’, and less than one third watched the FIFA World Cup in general  showing a distinct lack of interest towards the World Cup in general. In the UK, the average market share for the national team was over 68%.

Although in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the English national team games may not of been of high interest, more than 15 million British TV viewers watched the matches of the ‘Three Lions’. Just over than 4 million watched the other matches.

“No matter if England is playing in the group stage or the last 16,  the TV audience is always impressive”, said Gareth Moore, UK and Ireland Director  at SPORT+MARKT. “The second game of the group phase against Algeria attracted even more than the knock-out

game against the major rivals, Germany – but this was because many English fans chose public

viewing for the big match”.

In all the markets analysed, top audiences were, not surprisingly achieved, by the national team matches. The exception was in Switzerland, where the final between the Netherlands and Spain led the ranking. Furthermore, half of Swiss spectators watched all the games not involving the Swiss national team, evidencing the great passion for football in general in the country.

According to FIFA policy, despite the competition of pay TV in some countries, all the most important games at the FIFA World Cup were broadcast free-to-air. Therefore, it is no surprise that the average market share for the final was almost 70% across the most important European markets.

The ESA 2010 Skills Workshops taking place in London in the autumn will focus on broadening the experience of those working within the sponsorship industry. Designed for sponsors, agencies and rights holders alike, the three evening sessions will cover the principles of marketing, a session to explore and sharpen creativity techniques, and a workshop relating to digital trends, opportunities and measurement.

ESA Board Director and Chair of the ESA Education Working Group, Matt Rogan of Lane4 explained that the workshops will be different to the usual sponsorship training sessions. “We’ve deliberately broadened the remit of these sessions so as to encourage members of the sponsorship industry whatever their level of expertise to invest in learning. We have tried to broaden the subject matter so that it offers a step to extend their knowledge beyond the day-to-day working world. We hope delegates will emerge better prepared to progress in their organisations”.

The first session titled Principles of Marketing (September 8th) is an essential session for anyone working with brands. It will look at brands, the elements of the marketing mix and how sponsorship fits into this broader picture.  Presenters include Graham Hollins who runs Spine Consulting, a training-focused consultancy specialising in marketing and management combined with specific sponsorship knowledge. Subjects to be covered include a look at how brands are defined, how brand strategy is developed, how to best understand target audiences, an overview of the marketing mix and how sponsorship can fit within the marketing repertoire. 

The second workshop, Creativity and Brainstorming Techniques (October 5th) seeks to support the industry’s constant challenge of developing new ideas and invigorating on-going sponsorship campaigns. Amy Kemp from Kempster will open the session and Beverlie Wilkinson from specialists Nuggets of Learning will explore the latest techniques and approaches for developing creative solutions.

The final session, The Digital Evolution (November 9th), will examine trends, developments and opportunities in the application of digital within a sponsorship context.  The session will also look at the latest views and approaches to measuring this media. Krane Jeffery, Sponsorship Director from Carat will lead the workshop, along with other digital industry experts.

The ESA Skills Workshops sessions start at 5.30 pm and the presentations and group discussions are followed by refreshments and networking drinks, closing at 8pm. The sessions are affordably priced from £65 (plus VAT) for ESA members/ £100 for non-members, with discounts available for multiple bookings.

To find out more about the workshops or to reserve a place, contact ESA on +44 (0) 20 8390 3311 or visit the website: www.sponsorship.org/knowledge.asp.

Football marketing specialists Kentaro Germany has appointed Frederick Ness Managing Director of its Hamburg office.  He will be responsible for the expansion of the business throughout Germany.

“We are delighted to have attracted another top manager to Kentaro,” said Philipp Grothe, CEO of the Kentaro Group. “Frederick Ness is an expert in the fields of German marketing and sponsorship and he knows the club world inside out. With his immense experience and his long-standing contacts, he will be able to further accelerate our rapid growth.”

Ness worked for Sportfive between 1995 and 2008 and was ultimately their Senior Director Rights Acquisition. After a move to Global Sportnet where he was responsible for their business in Germany as Vice-President Germany, he turned freelance in August 2009 and looked after sponsors, rights holders and individual athletes with his own agency.

 Independent Brewer Tomos Watkins, part of the Hurns group of companies, will be a major sponsor of Pontypridd RFC for the 2010-11 season.  Inbev UK will continue to be the main club brewer, however, with Tomos Watkins taking on a secondary brewer and supplier role.  

Gareth Howells, Sponsorship & Marketing manager for Pontypridd RFC commented:  “We hope that we can help put Tomos Watkins on the map, especially as we contest the British and Irish Cup cross border competition, and that in partnership we can both enjoy mutual levels of success.”

The Blenheim Palace International Horse trials, which take place September 9^th-12^th 2010 recently secured Fidelity International as its title sponsor.

“Blenheim presented the perfect opportunity for our first foray into the world of equestrian sport and we couldn’t ask for a more prestigious event to be associated with” said Rob Fisher, Head of UK Personal Investments at Fidelity International.   “Any sponsorship needs to embrace shared values and our clients have a strong interest in equestrianism and the countryside so the sport of Eventing and Blenheim’s location makes it an ideal hospitality and promotional vehicle for us.”.

Adds Mike Etherington-Smith, Chief Executive,  British Eventing:  “This deal is particularly good news for everybody involved in Eventing because as a BE-owned, flagship event it means the whole sport benefits from new investment and we hope, as a result of being involved in Blenheim, Fidelity’s customers and staff will also become strong advocates of our sport.

“As we approach the Olympics and our sport reaches more enthusiasts, we are delighted that Eventing – and our country’s superb track record in this sport – is being recognised by more non-equestrian organisations.   In response, British Eventing and the other equestrian disciplines are now offering Team GBR sponsorship as part of an ongoing wooing of these brands to attract investment and gear up sport, “ Etherington-Smith concluded.