Be a sport

Sports marketing is currently a hotbed of activity with dozens of brands jostling for a piece of the sporting-pie. With the impending Olympics in Beijing, Formula 1 buzzing through local city streets, and the Sports Hub in Singapore by 2011, should all marketers just chew in blindly and join in - since queuing seems to be a local favourite past time? We have head marketers from UK as well as Singapore and the region show us what they have done and how were their results and also to share with us the dangers in associating a brand with sports, Cherisse Beh reports.

I have an athletic brother who spent more time during his National Service representing his formation in running competitions than baring arms. He participates in marathons and meets up with his mates on Saturday mornings for basketball matches. He revels in the adrenaline rush of fighting the physical self and basks in the camaraderie of sweaty smelly young chaps brushing shoulders on the battle ground. And yes I join in too - as a voyeur - a participant in front of the goggle box. But there are millions, no make that billions, in my tribe who have ever watched a sporting event on television. We are the ones that drive the sports to the heights that they have reached in years.

Peter Draper, non-executive director of Iris Communications and former director of marketing at Manchester United, says it best: "People are so busy these days. Time is a luxury. And if people are going to spend time watching a match, it had better be entertaining."

Take for example the FIFA World Cup. According to a report compiled by Publicis Groupe subsidiary Sponsorship Intelligence and commissioned by Infront Sports and Media, television coverage of the 2006 games was extensive with 43,600 broadcasts across 214 countries, generating total coverage of 73,072 hours - an increase of 76% on the 2002 event. Total cumulative television audience was at 26.29 billion. Asia contributed the highest share of television audience with 8.28 billion in-home viewers accounting for 32.2% of the global total.

And there you have it, that ready connection and motivation to join your target audience to your brand - sports.

With China perfectly in tune with our time belt, we can expect the Olympics fever to rage regionally. Serving as a major catalyst, expenditure on sports marketing in Asia is expected to surge by 20% from US$15 billion (S$21.97 billion) this year to US$18 billion (S$26.36 billion) in 2008, Total Sports Asia (TSA) forecasts. Competition between marketers, advertisers, agencies and media will only intensify.

And marketers have definitely been working hard at it in Singapore, as findings for Sportz show. Sportz is a WPP proprietary survey done on brand equity and was recently finished in Singapore. General manager for OgilvyAction Sports and Entertainment Benjamin Flint shared with Marketing some of its findings. "Singapore spent US$72 million (S$105.45 million) in 2006 which is way beyond the forecast figures of US$38 million (S$55.65 million). And this year, still yet to come to a close has seen a 10% increase."

However this does not call for local soccer players to run amok in the pitch with jerseys over their heads. Flint adds, "We have clocked US$10.2 million (S$14.94 million) coming out of sponsorship through withdrawals which amounts to 14%. This is a worrying amount and it reflects that sports marketing in Singapore is still in a phase of short-term tactical planning and not strategic long-term." He attributes the lack of ROI measurement to the pull out, "simply because many do not see the value or why they got into it in the first place."

Insurance, savings and investments provider Aviva has waved its logos in various sporting events such as ‘The Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore Triathlon' and ‘The Aviva Badminton Open'. Sports sponsorships take up more than 50% of its marketing spend as revealed by Aviva's APAC head of brand, Melisa Teo, and it says much about how the brand views this marketing strategy. It recently engaged Flint to help it discover the return on sponsorship investment for its sporting properties. It is this same measure that will see the brand retaining its hold on its sport marketing plans as Teo replies simply when asked about the findings: "Very successful," she says.

Market segmentation is also possible in sports marketing as exemplified in the Great Eastern Women 10K which is a three year title-sponsorship. Boon-Gek Mudeliar, head of corporate communications for Great Eastern says, "Surveys have shown that women do not exercise as often as men and find it difficult to integrate sports into their busy schedules. In a women-only environment which is less threatening and competitive, it is specially tailored for women to socialise and have fun with their companions."

A new player in the sponsorship field in SE Asia is Lancaster which invested in this event. Product manager Katherine Ang, Luxasia says, "We invested in branding and sampling opportunities during the event and explored fringe activities after the run, where we ran workshops and set up our Sun-Care Clinic." On top of sports marketing efforts, a potential sub-category of CSR was fulfilled. "It is more than a race, it encourages women to lead a healthy lifestyle and help highlight a cause as the Cervical Cancer Prevention Fund was adopted as the official beneficiary of the run," Francis Del Val, GM, GlaxoSmithKline, Singapore and Malaysia says.

HSBC has also been involved in a wide range of sponsorship activities which includes arts and music. "Sports is another method to emotionally engage with our customer base and to create dialogues and foster brand engagement. Investing in its themed associative equity allows you to partner with rights holders that share your brand values and provides the opportunity to target a specific socio-economic or demographic," Giles Morgan, HSBC's head of sports sponsorship and marketing says.

"We invested with the right attitude; it is not just another expenditure for us. We embrace the sport fully, even internally throughout the ranks as our staff take part in all the triathlons we sponsor and have a really good time in the process," Alan Tan, Osim, head of branding and strategic marketing says. In the last six years of sponsoring the Osim International Triathlon, the company has seen the number of participants grow from a mere 500 to 3,800 this year.

"We have identified that a majority of our target audience appreciate and enjoy sports. We reach them and add value to their sporting experience through having them take part in the Tiger Beer Gold Standard Golf Tournament, inviting them to ‘Live' screenings of football matches or being rewarded with exclusive football memorabilia," Daniel Teo GM (commercial), Asia Pacific Breweries, Singapore says. Regionally, Tiger Beer is the official beer for Arsenal Football Club and official partner for FC Barcelona across SE Asia. It has also been the official sponsor locally for the Tiger Cup, as well as the Barclays Singapore Open in November.

But how then can you tell if the sponsorship is working and you're not blindly pouring money down the drain, I asked marketers.

"We look at the number of people exposed to the event with our brand endorsement. The media has an important role to play in this area, by providing more exposure and coverage through television, newspapers, magazines, radio etc," Teo Heng Keat, marketing manager of Nestle Singapore, which has invested more than $1 million this year to promote sports in Singapore, says.

Lexus's Yasuhiro Takahashi, GM for marketing services, APAC, says the company evaluated the type of response from its customers and dealers, media and level of brand awareness in association with an event. It has been holding the women-pitted Lexus Cup for the past three years two of which were held in Singapore.

"We use brand ranking and reputation, attendees, database entries, consumer emails/calls, purchasing intent, unique visitors to properties from online to offline, hospitality events, media impressions among others," Samsung's GM, corporate marketing, Asia, David Henry says. Samsung has recently become one of the most valuable brands in the world. According to the BusinessWeek/Interbrand Annual Rankings, it now ranks 21st on the list and its brand value has grown five-fold from US$13.1 billion (S$19.19 billion) in 1999 to US$16.85 billion(S$24.68 billion) this year, Henry believes sports sponsorship plays a big role in the rise.

"With growing spectator interest in various sports in Asia and the rising affluence of Asians, more sporting events will be brought to the region. They represent untapped opportunities to forge stronger emotional bonds with target audiences," he says. "Realise its full potential as a tool for engaging consumers and focus on two areas. First, ensure that the event is aligned to your brand and that it captures the interest of the target audience. Next, examine how you can fully utilise the sponsorship beyond mere brand exposure and leverage it as a platform for interaction and engagement."

Other companies too offered similar advice. Aviva's Teo says "It might not be appropriate for every brand. Examine your brand's positioning, values and personality to find the right fit. Once you find the right platform, commit to it for the long term to see results."

To the notion of ‘fit', World Sports Group SVP for group sales and marketing Adrian New says, "If the values of the event and the brand don't gel, any attempts to build a coherent marketing platform are doomed even from the start. Sometimes the event doesn't deliver the benefits as promised but usually the fit that is wrong in the first place. There can be love at first sight in sponsorship like the Guinness 9-ball Pool sponsorship. As with all marketing activities the longer you do something for, the better it gets, and sponsorship is no exception."

Iris Singapore's MD Dan Saxby commented, "Hundreds of millions are wasted each year as people jump in with both feet on a whim. The chairman happens to like F1, or fancies playing a round with Tiger Woods and suddenly entire marketing teams are galvanised to justify what boils down to personal rather than brand fit."

HSBC's Morgan says, "The key is to establish objectives early and ensure the marketing mix is aligned to enable top-to tail activation".

"Deep pockets are required as the sponsorship deal is merely the tip of the spending iceberg. To leverage the benefits, much more must be lavished on the promotional campaigns," Richard Wallman, English and Pockett's managing director warns. Its head of APAC Debbie Lee adds, "External brand efforts should always be matched with internal branding and service levels. Companies should constantly review the consumer's benefit quotient out of their brand alliances. The last thing any commercial sponsor would want is disappointment from consumers who see a chasm in brand messages and actual customer experience and under delivery of brand expectations."

English and Pockett has held the UEFA Champions League account for the last six years and won the 2007 BDA World Gold in New York for its work on branding. So successful it has been that sponsors want to be aligned with the league. "The UEFA Champions League is a marketing dream because we have successfully helped re-brand it as ‘premium'. The sponsor artwork package is also deliberately created to be tremendously flexible, and can be incorporated into sponsor promotion campaigns, whatever their style. It covers all touch-points including stadium graphics, print, event branding and digital media. Visually, sponsor logos and branding stand out - providing mileage for sponsors' brand equity all at the same time," Wallman says.

"It is interesting to see the amount of growth and interest in the sporting arena. Singaporeans know how to appreciate sports and this has contributed greatly to the growth of the sports marketing industry. Add to that a very supportive government policy of encouraging and educating the people on the benefits of sports, while bringing in top events and crowd pullers. You get a highly fertile environment for sports marketing to thrive," Lexus's Takahashi says.

Which brings us to the final point - Singapore's still fresh in the scene and has US, Japan and Europe to look up to. Dipping our toes mainly into event sponsorship now and then, we see home-grown brands like Akira sponsoring national high jumper Michelle Sng's academic scholarship of $23,000 - with no strings attached.

Athlete sponsorship globally is a serious business. They are no longer sportsmen, they are "Sportstars". Sports personalities get into Forbes listings with their million-dollars endorsement deals like Serena Williams in the latest ‘Talking Hands' campaign with Hewlett Packard, David Beckham's US$160.8 million (S$235.51 million) lifetime deal with Adidas, and just last year Formula One driver Michael Schumacher got a whooping US$60 million (S$87.88 million) from Ferrari.

With the right person, it can even kick-start a new portfolio as with Nike which signed a five year US$100 million (S$146.46 million) deal with Tiger Woods in 2000, effectively bringing the sports apparel company into the golfing arena, where it was formerly a minor player.

Lest more people question business ethics, some sports brands like Adidas have started sport training programmes to spot new talents as well as using it as testing ground for its latest products. Should any of the new talents it grooms become a superstar - the brand benefits. Sponsors have also gone into investing in teams and stadiums. Governments have named streets after athletes. Fans have known to name kids after athletes too.

"You have an army of passionate fans with disposable income. You can pick the sports event to match your target group. You can gain significant opportunities to entertain your key business or industry contacts or motivating staff," English and Pockett's Wallman says.

In Singapore, football and basketball courts are second homes for energetic young sports fanatics. In the heartlands, armchair-sportsmen trek the mile to Kopitiams decked in their shorts and flipflops. Similarly, white collared folks unwind in pubs around Clarke Quay and Circular Road cheering for their favourite teams on games night. Scattered all throughout the city and, more often than not are hubs of activity.

Television is sports' best friend. I'll show you how - the more coverage a sport gets, the more viewership it has, driving the popularity of the sport. The amount of people it is then able to reach sees the millions of dollars sponsors are willing to pour into the game. More athletes then can be trained and become famous. Fans then want to be athletes; the family supports the member, the community cheers for the fan-turned-athlete. Lives are built around when the sporting event airs on the television - absenteeism from work occurs post-big game nights. People eventually support the establishment of sports as a career. The government next decides to turn the country into a sporting-capital, establishing schools, endowment funds etc. The sport reigns supreme in the hearts of people and as for the fan turned athlete - the Superstar is born.

Such fanaticism is laudable and sometimes to the effect of being amusingly absurd. I met up with a friend for a match one night after he sprained his wrist after a fall while running. Liverpool and Tottenham drew 2-2. My depressed friend started on a tub of Ben and Jerry's.

"Well at least it was a draw," I said.

"All top four won their matches. And all they got was a draw!" He whined and added, "And ice cream is bad for sprained wrists."

"You can always start looking for another team," I said.

"Never! Liverpool for Life!!" he roared in horror.

 

[Box out 1]

What are some of StarHub's sports marketing efforts?

Our most recent initiative would be the FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup event at the Singapore Sports School in late October this year. As the official technology and TV partner for the event, StarHub sponsored the internet connectivity and cable TV broadcast for the event. Aside from the positive association with this international event, our broadcast sponsorship not only extends the reach of the event to a wider audience, but also provides us with fresh, localised sporting content for our viewers.

Media sponsorship and coverage of leagues means bigger names get better coverage - but weaker teams suffer for the lack of big bucks and the pick of lesser players. It's a vicious cycle. Is the commercialisation of sports making sporting worse?

On the contrary, the commercial rewards of playing in a bigger league may have the effect of motivating the smaller teams to be more discerning and efficient in their recruitment and management of players, improving the quality of the game overall. Football players in the Barclays Premier League are among the most highly paid in the world, which is probably one of the reasons why many world class players have been drawn to play in the league.

There are also instances whereby the more popular leagues redistribute their income to the less popular leagues within the same country in a show of solidarity, thus sustaining the health of the professional game at all levels and enabling the smaller leagues to increase their investment in areas like youth development. For instance, the Premier League redistributed an excess of £90 million (S$268.79 million) over the next three seasons to the Football League earlier this year.

Sandie Lee, senior vice president of content services, StarHub