Blog
Slattery Communications was delighted to work with BT and Irish Olympic hopeful, Kieran Behan, last week. BT ambassador, Behan is only the second Irish gymnast in history to qualify for an Olympic Games. His achievement is all the more remarkable as the 22 year old has suffered an extraordinary series of injuries and was twice told he would never walk again. Commenting on BT’s support Kieran said:
“To think years and years ago I was told: ‘You’re never going to be able to walk again let alone do gymnastics’, to find out I’m going to the Olympic Games is something that dreams are made of. I’m absolutely delighted to receive this support from BT and will be putting it to very good use with my training and preparation in the coming weeks.”
Photocall Research
Naturally, this close to the Olympics, we wanted to make sure Kieran to do anything too dangerous. We did a fair bit of research with Inpho on getting the shot just right. It was pretty in-depth research, as you can see, using Dan from Inpho, one of the finest stunt doubles/photographers around. Good to know all the hard work was appreciated.
Instagram Employees to go on a Shopping Spree
Last week we talked about how Instragram had just launched its Android offering but we didn’t see the bigger picture (pardon the pun) – that the 2 year old company with about a dozen employees would be the talk of the town less than a week later after being sold to Facebook for a mind boggling $1bn.
We’re betting that the San Francisco based employees won’t be shy of splashing the cash on some new toys after becoming the latest dot com posse to make me feel like a disappointment to my parents!
Paul O’Connell Statue in the Near Future
Only the greatest men are immortalised in bronze and with Paul O’Connell being granted the freedom of Limerick City we reckon it’s only a matter of time before a statue of the great man erected in his home town of Limerick.
This follows on from Cork City’s plans to pay tribute to the Cork contingent’s contribution to Munster rugby over the years by commissioning statues of Stringer and O’Gara due to be revealed at some stage this year.
Titanic Tribute Ship to Finish the remainder of its Journey on Schedule
Being the centenary of the Titanic’s maiden voyage it’s no surprise that it’s getting lots of headlines. Headlines it won’t have wanted were for the being delayed twice; once in poor weather in Cobh and now when a passenger had to be airlifted off having suffered a heart attack. Despite the serious delays we reckon the remainder of the voyage will be incident free.
This week instagram launched an android version of the popular photo sharing app
Despite some people not being too happy about it, we think that enough android users will relish the chance to take snaps and stylize them with filters, and push them out to various social networks for Instagram servers to begin to feel the strain. We doubt there’ll be any sort of Instagram fail whale though.
Young Beatles? We hope not…
Rumours that the Fab Four’s sons are planning on starting a next generation band are fairly cringe-tastic to any Beatles fans. McCartney’s son James has been quoted in the papers saying he’d love to equal the Beatles but has conceded that it might be tough to do so. We’re predicting (hoping) that the “kids” band don’t try to follow in their father’s footsteps and stick to their day jobs.
US Master Mania – Par 3 jinx to continue
G-Mac has decided to conserve his energy and sit out the US Masters par 3 competition today setting his eyes on the main event starting Thursday. In the competitions long history no golfer has ever won the par 3 and gone onto don the green jacket and we’re predicting the trend continues for at least another year.
I suspect that some Irish sponsors are stuck in the 1990s. This suspicion was backed up by some of the speakers at this year’s Irish Sponsorship Summit where we were treated to such Golden Hour insights as “the sponsorship needs to be a good fit for the brand” and that old crowd pleaser “it’s about more than just logo placement”… Indeed.
Great sponsorship strategy is where it’s at these days. Having a brilliant, insight-led strategic idea supporting your sponsorship should be at the core of every brand’s reasoning for entering a partnership in the first place. It goes beyond “shared values” or jumping on a particular bandwagon as has been proven by the most successful partnerships in recent times.
Strategic Sponsorship
What’s surprising is that so few brands have followed the likes of O2, Guinness and others in seeking out some strategic depth to their sponsorship. A well thought out, cleverly activated sponsorship can be a fast track to a genuine emotional connection with your consumer – fact. It’s these emotional anchors that drive brand affinity and loyalty and, more often than not, sales revenue.
P&G has it sussed and provided one of the highlights of ISS 2012 with a slick and to the point presentation from Nathan Homer, P&G Olympic Projects Director, UK and Ireland. P&G invests heavily in elite level sport as Olympic partners but it’s not athletes that you find at the heart of their campaigns, its Mums. P&G puts the spotlight on their core target group of Mums the world over by reminding them that when it comes to life’s greatest challenges and defining moments Mums play the pivotal role – a winning strategy in my view. Their campaigns also benefit from being fully integrated which helps them drive home the consumer message more effectively.
Apart from examining effective strategy there are a number of topics affecting sponsorship in Ireland which it would appear we are not taking seriously enough. For instance, the impact of digital media on sponsorship was only a side bar at this year’s summit which is surprising when you consider how much it is impacting on how we consume sport and entertainment.
Sponsorship and Digital
According to Pat Coyle, president of Coyle Media, an Indianapolis-based consulting company that works with sports teams to maximise revenue from digital channels, “Fans want three things: camaraderie, recognition and access. Camaraderie comes from interacting with other fans. They want recognition from the team for their passion and loyalty. And access means they want to feel close to the team or the athlete. Social (media) relates to all of that.” What Coyle is pointing to is that fans are multitasking. They don’t view social media or other online channels as an alternative to attending or watching the event on TV, they’re using those channels to enhance the overall experience. This opens up a world of opportunity for sponsors to interact with their consumers.
Could sponsorship potentially challenge advertising for a bigger share of the marketing mix? The global trends would suggest it’s possible. A recent study by PwC on the global sports market stated that sponsorship revenue is estimated to generate $45.3bn (€34.3bn) in revenue in 2015 and become the largest segment in sport, compared to $44.7bn (€33.9bn) for gate revenues, the second biggest slice of the market.
The state of the global sports market
The same report predicts that the global sports market is set to grow 3.7% in revenues to $145.3bn (€110.3bn). PwC says the market will be boosted by a “rebound in TV advertising” and the migration of sports to pay per view TV, as well as the rise in sponsorship revenue. It’s all really positive news for sponsorship practitioners and means that here in Ireland we need to be on our toes, executing a world class, best practice approach to sponsorship leverage so that we can benefit from the global increase in spend.
The elephant in the room which got some lip service but no real debate at this year’s ISS is the alcohol and sponsorship question. The premise for the prohibition of alcohol sponsorship is that it will help to change alcohol consumption behaviour and reduce the misuse of alcohol. If that is the case then we need definitive research that shows what impact, if any, the prohibition of alcohol sponsorship will have on the misuse of alcohol. Also, the debate should reach beyond the brewing companies and politicians to all those involved in marketing and sponsorship. My concern from a funding perspective for sport and entertainment is that it won’t just stop at alcohol; other sectors are in danger of being prohibited along the way.
I suspect that to find the answers to many of the questions posed above we need to look beyond these shores, which is why my hope would be that ISS 2013 will have more of an international flavour.
James Wynne is Slattery Communications’ Head of Sport.
Fair weather horse racing “experts” to believe their own hype
As one of the highlights of the horse racing calendar it come as no great surprise that the Cheltenham festival has the ability to turn everyone from computer programmers, PR consultants, politicians to pilots into hardened steeplechase experts. With almost every paper providing us with a dedicated supplement I too was convinced that I had the formula to beat the bookies. Everything I’d read lead me to believe that Willie Mullins’ Hurricane Fly was unbeatable. Having the inside scoop I didn’t hesitate lumping on the ill fated red hot favourite… We’re predicting that more will suffer the same fate as the week continues.
Cheltenham 1, Rob 0
Kian Egan to release a track without Westlife
Voice of Ireland judge and Westlife backing vocalist Kian Egan put in a decent shift on Sunday night when he and the other judges did a rendition of Arcade Fire’s Wake Up. We’re predicting that Kian, spurred on by positive reviews, will release a single at some stage this year without the rest of the band.
Ireland to Beat England
It’s been a tricky Six Nations to predict but we’re sticking our necks out and predicting that the rugby team will sneak a win on Saturday and give all the travelling fans a St Patrick’s Day to remember.