Sky has extended its partnership with British Cycling until 2016. The scheme is on track to getting one million more people cycling
by 2013.
Ian Drake, British Cycling’s Chief Executive, said: “”The unique nature of our partnership with Sky has been a key factor in cycling’s phenomenal success story, perfectly complementing the support we receive from UK Sport and Sport England.”
Global Radio’s Heart has secured Sky as sponsor of Heart Breakfast across the network for six months, starting on Monday 4th July. Brokered by Mediacom, the deal is Heart’s biggest ever sponsorship and enables Sky to reach an audience of nearly 3.5 million people each week across 17 regional Heart Breakfast shows on the UK’s largest commercial radio network.
Independent sports and entertainment marketing agency Capitalize has strengthened its team with the addition of three new senior executives and a further two internal promotions as the company continues to grow. The new senior executives – Anoushka Feiler, Matt Smith and Ben O’Shea – will head new divisions of planning, design and production respectively. The internal promotions see Louise Taylor and Jonathan Bates take up roles of associate director in the Experiential and PR teams.
Anoushka Feiler, planning consultant, has held senior positions with Red Bull, Matt Smith, creative director has worked for clients such as Sky, Smirnoff, Strongbow and Toyota and Ben O’Shea is an event specialist having worked on the NME Awards, the Brit Awards and Carling’s experiential events over the past nine years.
Commenting on the appointments, Capitalize’s CEO said: “We have seen some very solid growth over the past two years and we are now investing in our future.”
Leading sports brand adidas has confirmed its Official Partner status of Sky Pro Cycling. adidas has spent more than six months working with Sky Pro Cycling to produce nearly 100 different bespoke pieces of apparel and accessories. Over 14,000 units of kit will be supplied to the team per year.
adidas has formed a strong and successful association with British Cycling over a number of years and the progression to work with team principal Dave Brailsford and Sky Pro Cycling is a natural one.
Robin Money, Head of Sports Marketing, adidas UK & Ireland, said: “The adidas partnership with Sky Pro Cycling is one we are proud to be taking on. adidas has worked successfully with British Cycling and Dave Brailsford for a number of years, supplying riders with the very best in technical apparel.”
As well as apparel and accessories for Team Sky itself, adidas has developed a range of both on and off-bike products that will be available to purchase from retailers in March 2010.
One bright spot amid the economic mayhem is growing activity by games companies in the sponsorship industry. A case in point is games publisher THQ which has sponsored a run of TV shows this year. The most recent is Stargate Universe – which satellite channel Sky One is now airing.
Under the terms of the THQ deal, the sponsorship will run until June 2010. In addition to Stargate Universe, it covers repeats of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. The aim of the deal is to support THQ game launches. Commenting, THQ marketing director Jon Rooke said the addition of a show like Stargate Universe “further bolsters our ability to engage and interact with an avid and receptive audience.”
The deal was brokered by Badge Media, while design agency Hatch is responsible for the sponsorship creative. Other games companies to have entered the sponsorship sector in recent times include Nintendo and Activision – which launched DJ Hero at the Notting Hill Carnival.
High street electrical retailer Comet is to sponsor the next run of ITV1 gameshow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? The deal, which covers the series from September to November, will feature idents from Addiction London while the deal was negotiated by ZenithOptimedia. Commenting, Comet head of marketing Bill Moir said: “We’re delighted to be partnering such a high-profile and popular show. The sponsorship is the perfect platform for us to demonstrate our staff’s knowledge to customers.”
Separately, Dairy Crest flavoured milk brand FRijj is sponsoring Sky’s football show, Soccer AM for the upcoming soccer season. The multi-platform sponsorship is FRijj’s first foray into sponsorship with Sky and is said to be worth £2 million. For that price, FRijj will get coverage via broadcast, online, mobile and VOD. Marc Dubery, liquids sales and marketing director at Dairy Crest, said: “The humorous tone of the show fits well with the FRijj brand and will allow us to further build brand awareness.”
High street retailer Currys is the new sponsor of Sky One juggernaut The Simpsons. The electronics chain takes over from Domino’s Pizza – which sponsored the show for a decade before deciding to pull out earlier this year.
Curry’s is hoping to inject some humour into its marketing communications through the new sponsorship – which started at the weekend. The agency responsible for achieving this is M&C Saatchi – which will create sponsorship break bumpers and online branded content.
The sponsorship is part of a multi-platform marketing strategy backed by the tagline We Can Help. The idea of the campaign will be to show how Currys can provide everyday solutions to problems associated with electrical goods. Commenting on the sponsorship, Currys marketing director Anna Burleigh said it “gives us a platform to bring to life our broad range of services in a humorous way.”
If you ever need proof that broadcast sponsorship works, then why not start by looking at take away chain Domino’s Pizza?
Having built its UK brand presence on the back of a ten-year relationship with Sky One’s The Simpsons, last year saw it switch its attention to ITV1 hit show Britain’s Got Talent. Partly as a result of that link up, Domino’s CEO Chris Moore was able to report a 10% increase in sales at the end of 2008.
Domino’s is also expected to do well in 2009 – as the recession forces consumers to replace eating out with take away. And it looks like the Britain’s Got Talent sponsorship will play its part again. The first episode of the show, which aired on Saturday night, secured a stunning 10.3 million viewers - 1.5 million more than 2008′s opening episode.
With 45% share of audience, there’s no question that the ITV sponsorship is delivering Domino’s massive exposure in the right demographic during the right daypart. It is also providing the brand with a range of online and instore promotional opportunities – such as its competition to create an exclusive-to-Domino’s 2010 Britain’s Got Talent Pizza.
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.
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