Hollis Sponsorship Bulletin

Arts & Business, the body whose role is to encourage business into the arts, was dealt a massive financial blow today when it learnt this morning that the Arts Council England (ACE) is to cease any financial support by 2013 and that it will receive just £1.9 million for the coming financial year – a 50% cut on the £3.54 million it received this year.
Colin Tweedy, Chief Executive of A& B, has responded by saying: This is an extraordinary and potentially very damaging decision for our cultural and commercial partners.  As John Whittingdale, Chair of the DCMS Select Committee, in his question to the Secretary of State in the House yesterday, asked – why is it that at the very time the cultural world is looking to work more closely with business and individuals, are attempts being made to dismantle the very body that carries the hopes of the private sector?
“To many of our private sector partners it will seem that our country has no strategy, no vision and no understanding of the needs of frontline arts fundraisers for an independent voice. At this time of economic recovery, instead of building on what has been learnt, our private sector partners believe that the Arts Council has dismantled our public realm work – to little purpose and with even less of a plan. In effect our work is to be nationalised by a quango. This decision does not fit comfortably with the Government’s vision of the Big Society.”
To read more comment on this story, please visit http://www.artsandbusiness.org.uk/News/2010/october/response-to-funding-decisions.aspx

Leading lubricant company Castrol has added to its portfolio of high-level sports sponsorships by becoming the official performance partner of the International Cricket Council giving them presence at all ICC cricket events for the next five years.
The agreement awards Castrol a worldwide rights package from 2010 until 2015 and will include the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, which will take place in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, as well as all other ICC tournaments up to and including the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.
Castrol’s further commitment to cricket is an interesting addition to the company’s current portfolio of sponsorships, which includes the recently concluded 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa™, the UEFA EURO 2012 and the 2014 FIFA World Cup™ in Brazil.

Commenting on the sponsorship, Castrol’s Regional Vice President, Asia & Pacific Region – Naveen Kshatriya said: “Cricket is a sport that is passionately followed across many parts of the world. While no other game touches the hearts and minds in the Asian sub-continent as cricket does, the game is also very popular in many other important Castrol markets like Australasia, South Africa and the UK.
“We are indeed delighted to partner with the ICC as its ‘performance partner’. Castrol products and services are all about delivering high performance and this association will further strengthen the relationship which we enjoy with all our customers and consumers. We intend leveraging this association to help bring into our fold millions of new consumers in the coming years.”
ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said: “This is fantastic news for our great sport. For us to attract a commercial partner of Castrol’s calibre is another indication of the excellent reputation and healthy state of international cricket. It reconfirms how top brands want to be associated with cricket and its great spirit. Even in these challenging times, cricket’s popularity among spectators, broadcasters and sponsors is as strong as ever”.
A key factor underpinning Castrol’s success in business over the past 100 years is its ability to use analysis to improve performance in the most extreme conditions in sport on land, sea and air. Castrol, with the help of cricket experts like Harsha Bhogle, has applied this same skill to analysing performance in cricket to devise the Castrol Index.
As the official performance partner of the ICC, Castrol will bring this system to the stadium audience of ICC’s premier cricket events like the ICC Cricket World Cup and ICC World Twenty20 as an index on the match day. By appearing on the stadium replay screens at crucial points of the game, the Castrol Index for match days will update the spectators real-time on which team is leading and which players are the top performers at that point in the game.

Thirty three thousand  coaches have graduated from the Sky Sports ECB Coach Education Programme since the scheme was launched four years ago. The latest figures, which include 10,000 coaches who qualified in the last year alone, were revealed as ECB announced that Sky Sports will continue its sponsorship of the programme for a further three years.
Former England coach and Sky Sports commentator David Lloyd said: “This is a fantastic programme and I’m not surprised it’s delivering such impressive results.  There are teaching modules to suit all ages and abilities and the quality of training gets better and better.  Everyone at Sky Sports is proud of the association and I’m pleased this will continue for another three years.”    
The Sky Sports ECB Coach Education Programme aims to attract and train coaches at all levels of grassroots cricket.

London Irish and principal sponsor CityJet have created a new supporter–based event to back the launch of the airline’s latest marketing campaign ‘Try Us’. “Try Us with CityJet” is believed to be the first initiative of its kind for rugby.  Rather than pay for tickets before the game, supporters are invited to ‘try before they buy’.  

For their LV Cup home fixture against Scarlets on November 14th 2010, London Irish is opening up the South Stand at Madejski Stadium, Reading.  Supporters can then pre-register for seats to watch the team in action and afterwards pay into an honesty box what they feel their visit to the rugby game was worth.

The initiative has been developed to help promote CityJet’s campaign directly as well as attract new fans to the game and deliver additional value for the Club’s existing supporter base.  Almost 4,000 seats are on offer and supporters can register at www.cityjet.com/londonirish (deadline 5pm,  9th November 2010).

London Irish Commercial Director Richard Marsh said “London Irish is always striving to push marketing boundaries with sponsors and at the same time create added value for our existing supporters. Try Us with CityJet has given us the perfect opportunity to do just that. We believe the honesty box concept is a first for rugby in the UK and it gives us a great way to attract new fans.”

CityJet Chairman Pat Byrne said “”When you have confidence that your offer to your customers is attractive, relevant and excellent value, then you should be prepared to put it to the ultimate test by inviting trial. If the customer likes what they experience, then everybody wins, if they don’t then you can learn from their feedback.  Attracting new customers throughout the process is a bonus.  That’s what this initiative is all about.”

“Stick your logo here!” Does anyone seriously believe that this is all sponsorship represents? 
To watch Tesco Mobile’s latest advertisement you might be led to think so according to industry body, the European Sponsorship Association (ESA). ESA believes that Tesco Mobile’s new ad shows a lack of understanding of sponsorship’s value as an effective business marketing tool.

ESA’s Chairman, Karen Earl, said “While the Tesco Mobile advertisement underlines the supermarket chain’s commitment to its customers, it implies that this commitment would have been broken if the brand had undertaken a sponsorship in F1 motor racing. Brands which sponsor F1 do so for a number of differing business reasons – establishing a global brand; demonstrating leading edge technology; increasing brand awareness – to name but three.”
One of Tesco Mobile’s competitors, Vodafone, has used F1 sponsorship extremely effectively to launch in new markets. In Ghana, for example, Vodafone’s awareness there stood at over 50% before they had entered the market and, by the brand’s own admission, this could only be attributable to its F1 sponsorship.
Another F1 sponsor, Allianz, is involved for a different business reason. The insurance brand uses its involvement to convey the importance of safety on the roads – something at the heart of its business.
“Sponsorship’s flexibility in meeting a number of different business objectives is one of its many attractions.  It is interesting also that brands use it at different stages in their development. It may well be that Tesco logos will be seen on F1 cars in the future if the supermarket giant wants to become truly global”, said Earl.
The value of sponsorship to brands will be discussed at ESA’s flagship conference, Future Sponsorship, in Amsterdam on November 24 and 25. For more information, contact www.future-sponsorship.com or call +44 (0)20 7017 7063.

According to a news report from Bloomberg, Sony Corp.’s European head of soccer sponsorships has said that the electronics manufacturer is still analysing its sponsorship of the World Cup as the sport’s governing body probes allegations of corruption in its executive committee.  Sony’s official partnership contract runs until the 2014 World Cup.
Speaking at the International Football Arena conference in Zurich, Sony’s Toby Shaw said that the investigation into the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 events “isn’t great” for companies in discussions about supporting the tournament and that FIFA’s sponsors would prefer to associate themselves with the World Cup rather than the organisation itself, he said.
“We don’t say we’re a partner of FIFA. We say we’re a partner of the World Cup,” Shaw told delegates today at the International Football Arena conference in Zurich. “We concentrate on whether it’s right for our business going forward,” Shaw said. “We are still evaluating the last World Cup.”

Long-haul airline Virgin Atlantic Airways has reached an agreement with the National Football League (NFL) to become the Official Airline of the 2010 Pepsi Max International Series which takes place at Wembley Stadium this Sunday, October 31st.  Returning as the NFL’s charter airline of choice for the second year running, Virgin Atlantic will be hosting the San Francisco 49ers and the Denver Broncos on chartered flights to London for the game.

Virgin Atlantic has extended its relationship to become a UK sponsor of the NFL, benefits of which will include promotions to its Flying Club members to win trips to a 49ers home game in the US and to Super Bowl XLV, which takes place in North Texas in February 2011.  The airline will also be sponsoring the NFL’s Saturday Night River Cruise the evening before the Wembley game and hosting a hospitality event for special guests at the stadium.  Furthermore, the airline will also receive brand presence at the first-ever NFL Fan Rally, which is taking place in Trafalgar Square on Saturday 30 October.

Marc Armstrong, Commercial Director of NFL UK, said: “We are delighted to be working once again with Virgin Atlantic as we continue to build on the success of our previous International Series games in the UK and expand our portfolio of UK sponsors.  Virgin Atlantic is a powerful brand on both sides of the Atlantic and, with this extended relationship, is the perfect partner for the NFL as we continue to grow our presence and fan base internationally.

The International Series game will be broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK at 5.00 pm GMT and on CBS affiliates in the US at 1.00 pm.

HSBC has renewed its Principal Partnership of the British & Irish Lions. The partnership, which will run until the end of the next Lions Tour to Australia in 2013, continues the successful association between the touring side and the bank that was first signed in 2007. The agreement means that HSBC is the first Principal Partner to renew a sponsorship with The Lions and will see the bank become shirt sponsor of the team once again.
BIL also announced that for the first time The Lions will play a game in Hong Kong, against the Barbarians.
Sandy Flockhart, Executive Director for HSBC Holdings plc, said at yesterday’s press conference: “We are delighted to renew our association with one of the world’s greatest ever sporting events. Today’s announcement is a demonstration of the continued international appeal of the British & Irish Lions, and HSBC is committed to building on the successful relationship that was forged on last summer’s Tour to South Africa. I have no doubt that the next three years will be an exciting journey for both HSBC and The Lions, and in particular we are looking forward to welcoming The Lions and the Barbarians to Hong Kong, the bank’s spiritual  home, for an historic fixture.”
John Feehan, Chief Executive of BLL and 6 Nations, said: “It is a mark of the partnership that we have built with HSBC that we are able to announce this sponsorship renewal almost three years ahead of the next Tour to Australia. We look forward to working with HSBC over the coming months to ensure that The Lions Tour to Australia in 2013 is a success off the pitch, as well as on it. To be able to confirm today that The Lions will also break new ground with the first ever fixture in Hong Kong will ensure that the Tour to Australia is even more special and includes even more fans”.

In a busy week for HSBC, the bank has been named Patron of Golf’s The Open Championship for the next five years. The partnership means that HSBC will become the ‘Official Banking Partner’ of The Open Championship, which next year returns to Royal St George’s (14-17 July, 2011), Sandwich, Kent.
The R&A’s Chief Executive, Peter Dawson said: “We are very pleased to welcome HSBC. The Open is golf’s oldest major championship and its most international. For many years, The R&A has looked to establish relationships that help golf’s growth globally. As The R&A seeks to engage in and support activities to grow the game, a partnership with ‘the world’s local bank’ is a natural progression.”
Over the last five years, HSBC has been at the forefront of the expansion of the game in Asia with the creation of the HSBC Champions in China, which it has helped develop from inception in 2005 to become Asia’s first World Golf Championship tournament. It has also created a programme of grassroots activity across China designed to increase both interest and participation in the game.
Giles Morgan, Group Head of Sponsorship at HSBC commented: “The Open Championship is, without a doubt, one of the world’s most important golf tournaments and HSBC is very honoured to become a Patron. Golf sponsorship continues to be an important investment tool for us to grow and sustain our business and brand. This new partnership is an exciting opportunity to take our current activity with professional and grassroots golf in both established and emerging markets to a new level.”

Spaniard Iñigo Aznar is the latest recruit to join the commercial team for the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 headed up by Britain’s Greg Miall.  Formerly with international football team and brand, Real Madrid CF, where he worked for six years, Aznar, joins as Head of Commercial Partnerships and has been active in the sports industry for over 10 years.
“The potential of this race is unexploited and we can really work on creating a successful sponsorship board. Companies look for a return on investment in media, an incredible business-to-business platform and substantial world image management. My goal is to provide these new experiences to our clients and to create new platforms for our consumers,” he said.