Sponsorship – “knock it off with them negative waves”

One of my favourite movie characters has to be Donald Sutherland’s Oddball from the 1970 classic Kelly’s Heroes. His message was simple and it predated Oprah and the avalanche of self help mumbo jumbo from the 80s and 90s… think positively and everything will work out. Oddball could teach our marketers a thing or two for sure… far too much negativity our there at a time of great opportunity.

It’s a buyers market so if you’re a brand looking for more bang for your marketing buck then sport sponsorship is teaming with opportunity.

Sponsorship by its nature develops over time and a well serviced property can create serious momentum for brands if leveraged effectively over a three, five or ten year partnership.

That being the case I believe that now is the ideal time for buy in. There’s value to be had all over Irish sport and in five years time when we’ve clawed our way out of this economic mess then the brands that took a leap of faith will be sitting on well matured, highly effective sponsorships.

The fact remains that from a brand perspective, we still need to connect even in the bad times so “knock it off with them negative waves” and start to think (or get advice!) about a long term investment in sport sponsorship.

For those of you too young or unenlightened here’s Oddball and co in action…

Author: James Wynne is Director of Sport at Slattery Communications