Declan Lee*
To try and follow in the footsteps of a successful sponsorship in any area can be difficult but with careful planning and ensuring you have a sponsor to match the brand, then you have every chance of making it work.
For weeks there has been much speculation about the Celtic League sponsorship, which they confirmed they would not be renewing last April. Magners had pulled out, it’s speculated they did it because the Irish rugby fans cannot purchase Magners in Ireland just Bulmers.
This week online bank, RaboDirect, announced they would be sponsoring the league for the next four years. Ireland is now a big player in the rugby sponsorship arena. Recent deals by the IRFU with Puma and O2 along with the continued success of Irish rugby at provincial level has seen rugby become a sure thing for brands.
When RaboDirect announced their sponsorship people were interested to see how they would begin to overhaul those who will continue to call it the Magners League. However when they announced the league will be officially titled the RaboDirect Pro12 League there was an immediate feeling they had made a huge marketing error.
When you break it down each of the parts makes sense. RaboDirect is a catchy brand while Pro12 gives the league a professional feel in the tradition of the Super15 rugby league in the Southern Hemisphere or the Top 14 in France. Bundling it all together into one long winded title will leave fans disconnected and the media apathetic.
The most successful sponsorships have worked not just because they were well named but also because they were organic in the way they engrained themselves in the language of the given sport.
The ERC’s European Cup is a perfect example. Heineken began their association with the ERC in 1995 and over time with careful management they have created the Heineken Cup. 16 years later they have one of the most successful sponsorships in European sport. This was not forced on to the public it came about by gentle persuasion and targeted marketing campaigns. Once the media bought into this then there was no turning back for the sponsorship.
For RaboDirect to believe at any time during the sponsorship planning stage that the man in the street would refer to the competition as the RaboDirect Pro12 League is way off the mark. You can’t help but think they have made a major error from the outset. Straightaway the most instant shortening for your "Joe Soap" or the reporting media is the "Pro12 League".
This however is of no use to RaboDirect's return on investment. They may hope it becomes the Rabo12 League but to hope would be to fail unless that is backed up by a strategic online and offline marketing campaign to strengthen the abbreviated league name.
The Magners League worked because it was natural; the Heineken Cup worked because it was natural. This again is simplifying it and not taking it away from the millions that was invested in campaigns to strengthen the association. However you are substituting one word for another, Celtic League to Magners League and European Cup to Heineken Cup.
Many marketers will tell you all about the power Facebook, Twitter, fans, followers, trending and hash tags. #RaboDirectPro12 has already used up 16 of your precious 140 characters on twitter whereas #Pro12 is more likely to be used as opposed to #Rabo12, which again cuts the sponsor out of the online picture. While the Twitter trending test will really be when the league kicks off later this year, there must have been slight disappointment amongst the Rabo ranks that failed Liverpool footballer David Ngog was trending in Ireland on launch day ahead of any of the aforementioned hash tags.
The measurements of success will come through several elements including the mentions within the media, the recall rates and association of the sponsorship with sports public and general public and the success online through their twitter and facebook campaigns and general online chatter.
Only time will tell how the sponsorship will become a successful one for RaboDirect but in the meantime it will be interesting to see how they approach the new competition title. One thing is for sure, the effort they put in to make it work will only be a good thing for increasing the profile of the sport throughout Ireland, Scotland, Italy and Wales, showing again that rugby is top of the pile for sponsors at the moment.
*Declan Lee is an PR Consultant with O'Herlihy Communications and has worked on sponsorships with 3 Ireland, William Hill, Boylesports, Spar, Ballymore Properties and Powerade.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/j7PRW-gAtPY/post.aspx
Electronic music Art Labour Julio Arca Consumer spending CVs
No comments:
Post a Comment