What's New in Marketing - Issue 59, July 2007

http://www.wnim.com

Digital marketing gets personal

Guy Talmi of Pontis explores the new techniques for creating dynamic, personal marketing offerings

The notoriously competitive and rapidly evolving market for telecommunications consumers is bringing marketers within this sector new and ever escalating challenges, but also tremendous opportunities.

Managing a digital product and service portfolio that often spans thousands of items, with the current shift towards delivering converged offerings of broadband, mobile and entertainment services, now means that mobile, cable, VoIP and IPTV operators are facing a very complex environment while fighting even harder to drive new revenues from existing customers and reach new customers.

In the saturated mobile space, operators struggle with high customer churn and continuous price erosion as new low-rate operators and MVNO's enter the market. Customer acquisition costs are high and retention is a top priority in a market characterised by low levels of product differentiation where customers will simply shop around for the best deal.

Combine this competitive landscape with the added complexity of the products on offer - more products are being introduced to market at an ever increasing rate through a variety of different channels to users with varying subscription types and devices - and the scale of the challenge for marketers within this sector is evident.

'One-size-fits-all' marketing
However, the traditional mass-marketing 'one-size-fits-all' approach is no longer tenable in this environment. Services and bundles of products are offered with limited flexibility in terms of customisation or personalisation and, as such, many of the messages delivered will fail to convert a user to adopt a new service or purchase a new content item.

Mobile advertising, for example, has generated huge hype and is now being touted as a solution for driving revenue from third party advertisers through personalised messages or access to content such as the offer of free downloads. Yet, such techniques represent a missed opportunity and will deliver a lower ROI than possible if poorly targeted, mass communicated, or delivered at the wrong time.

The key challenge for all marketers in this sector if they are to survive and thrive in this environment is to leverage their strengths and to target the right customer at the right time with exactly the right proposition.

The personal approach
The industry needs to follow the example set by on-line service providers who have long maximised the potential of the 'personal approach' with interactive suggestions linked exactly to the users' preferences and real time behaviour (e.g. browsing or purchasing). 'Amazon-like' recommendations based on buying patterns can be used by operators to promote a 'cross sell' of related content items, or to use 'up sell' techniques in order to encourage customers to purchase additional content, such as music bundles, all based on the lifestyle characteristics of a carefully segmented group of customers.

Operators now need to adopt these more sophisticated techniques through the use of marketing delivery platforms to address specific, well defined customer segments with relevant offers. The arrival of new solutions specifically designed for marketers within this sector, is now providing the capability for them to do this, by monitoring usage of services or products in real-time to enable behavioural-based targeting; an approach that, until now, has simply not been possible.

A marketing delivery platform provides telco marketers with an end-to-end design-execute-measure environment to deliver real time targeted and personalised marketing offers. This ties marketing design, on-line sales, dynamic communications and product offer processes, effectively automating the marketing IT. Such systems allow products to be configured dynamically (including special terms) and to be communicated in real time to customers, based on their preferences, history and current usage.

This may seem logical, however, in reality; it marks a significant step forward in an industry hampered by silo-based thinking, lack of flexibility across the different operator's departments, and a non-systematic, non-automated approach to targeting customers.

Improving ARPU in the real world
This personalised approach to communicating with the customer has been proven to deliver compelling results. Recently, a cable operator recognised that its key competitive advantage was the delivery of video on demand (VoD), yet many subscribers were failing to purchase this premium content. Through targeted promotions to different consumer categories the operator was able to convert users that had never bought content in the past, and by analysing relationships between content categories was able to design cross-sell offers that leveraged purchases from one category to promote purchases in another relevant category. This not only drove VoD subscribers to pay for premium movies but also introduced customers to new categories, increasing overall sales in the promoted categories by 42% over a nine-month period.

To achieve these results, operators must fine tune their processes and adopt a more targeted approach by aggressively marketing highly tailored offerings. This is the strategy that operators will need to embrace if they are to out-perform the competition and improve customer retention and profitability.

About the author: Guy Talmi is Senior Marketing Director of software marketing systems company Pontis

What's it worth and was it worth it? Key questions in sponsorship

Pippa Collett of the European Sponsorship Association explains how to measure the value of sponsorship

As Oscar Wilde said, 'nowadays, people know the price of everything and the value of nothing' and historically, this has been somewhat the case with sponsorship. At the beginning of a deal, rights-holders quote a price, but sponsors often struggle to gauge a property's real value to them. At the other end of the relationship, sponsors generally know how much it cost, but many have little idea what return was generated from that investment.

The European Sponsorship Association (ESA) is rising to this challenge by developing a practical framework to help brands make these two key judgements. The framework will provide guidance both on how brands can assess the value of a sponsorship before investing their marketing cash and on how to evaluate returns once the money has been spent.

Before a sponsorship can be adequately assessed, you must establish some criteria against which to judge it that reflect the 'real life' of the business. What is it like, what does it want to be like, and what characteristics will a sponsorship need in order to help it get there? These criteria might include:

As well as ensuring a good fit with your brand's aspirations, an agreed list of criteria will ensure fairness (and allow you to justify spend with something more substantial than 'the Chairman loved it').

How formal and numerical the system is, is up to you. Some organisations build complex, weighted models that use a scoring system to derive a magic number that is then compared against a threshold. This is ideal if the brand wants to invest in a number of properties over time. The more properties that are scored through the model, the better it will become, especially if data on outcomes is added once the sponsorships have been evaluated.

However, for many, a basic assessment of properties against a carefully crafted list of criteria will screen out all but those with the highest potential. The two or three best ideas can then be presented and, if there's still no clear winner, the marketing director may then make the casting vote - after all, it is their job that will be on the line of they do not make the sponsorship a success.

Often at this point, contract negotiations take over and it's all about securing the banner positions, hospitality tickets and personal appearance days that the brand needs. However, this is also the time to start thinking about how a sponsorship will be evaluated both at the end of the term and at key points along the way.

The basis for a sponsorship evaluation is a proper scheme of SMART objectives, designed for the project. Not only will it provide the focus for evaluation, it will also help identify critical inventory and data requirements that can then be factored into the contract negotiation process. Part of ESA's approach has been to identify and categorise the various objectives a brand might select for any specific sponsorship.

It's essential to evaluate Return on Objectives (ROO), not simply Return on Investment (ROI). Any sponsorship should only have a maximum of three to five key objectives. ROI may be one of these, but usually a sponsorship investment will be focused on other priorities.

Appropriate measurement techniques and data sources can then be devised to fit each objective: some can be addressed using quantitative research; others will require a more qualitative approach. Some may be best measured using data the sponsor already has available somewhere in the organisation, even though the marketing team may have to fight to access it initially.

To give you an example, the ESA framework suggests that, if brand advocacy is a key priority, it might be evaluated through the following methodologies:

It is absolutely essential to measure what is critical, not merely what is easy. All too often, a business falls back on justifying its sponsorship spend by calculating advertising equivalent media value (how much you'd have to spend on advertising to get the same exposure on TV). But if, and only if, a key objective of the sponsorship is to gain cost-effective media exposure should this be a key measure.

In summary, all good marketers embarking on sponsorship will ensure that time is spent developing selection criteria to ensure that projects not only excite, but are aligned with business needs. Once a sponsorship is selected, you must agree SMART objectives and ensure that appropriate measurement methodologies are in place to gather the data required for analysis. By adopting this approach, you will be able to confidently answer the two key questions in sponsorship - what's it worth and was it worth it?

About the author: Pippa Collett is a director of the European Sponsorship Association and Managing Director of Sponsorship Consulting Ltd.

Football sponsors missing opportunities

Sponsorship expert (and football fan) James Ralley takes a closer look at sponsorship of 'the beautiful game'

So, England still has a chance of qualifying for the European Championship. This will be, of course, heavily sponsored, in ever more sophisticated ways. This investment into football has to be good, but it will only continue for as long as marketers believe that the returns justify the expenditure - and this is increasingly doubted. While everyone in marketing knows that merely 'badging' events delivers insufficient impact, this barely scratches the surface of football sponsorship's pitfalls. More alarmingly, there seems little difference between brands' communications to football fans, not helped by the continual use of star endorsement.

Consider the last World Cup. Apart from 'sports-based' brands, all communications seemed to be from just three obvious platforms, with various stars bolted-on for credibility. Nationalist jingoism was used in sectors as diverse as credit, confectionery and lager. For grocery and similar brands, the way forward came from using the tournament as a big event. A third group of brands opted for a simple message claiming a passion for football.

So, how do brands make footballing links work without blowing budget on Bentley-driving prima donnas, as football's stars are growingly perceived?

The answer is creativity. Brand owners need to be more creative in their activation, particularly in their communication platforms. If brands are to become involved with football, they need to prove that they are passionate and that they care. This is the only way to hit key opinion formers and benefit from the trickle-down effect which turns fans into consumers.

McDonald's, for example, through its sponsorship of grass-roots football, identified a shortage of coaches. It campaigned to recruit more than 10,000 across the UK, a target hit in a little over three years. This is a great example of a brand identifying an issue that resonates with its target market and reacting positively, thus creating credibility and much-needed brand affinity.

For real engagement with football fans, brands need to invest in them. Steve Bruce hardly rocked the world when he commented last season that the average fan is being priced out of attending matches regularly. A day or so after his comments on player salaries, it was announced that Mr. Beckham will 'earn' £500,000 per week from his next contract in the USA. Almost simultaneously, we heard that his replacement as England captain had signed a new £120,000-per-week deal with Chelsea. Surely a backlash against such salaries is imminent? If not, the game we know and love is not sustainable.

Brands should look beyond the easy answer of star endorsement, considering other aspects of football. Any domestic or international competition should offer potential for highly-visible investment in a host of community-involvement programmes, rather than appearing to boost the bank balances of already overpaid professionals. Brands could even invest in the supporters themselves, looking at ways to improve the day-to-day reality living of peoples' lives as football fans.

Every sport has its issues. Football may appear to get greedier by the day, but cricket is now rarely played within secondary schools, the two rugby codes still appear class-based and athletics seems to be riddled with drug problems. Rather than steering clear of football's problems, could a sponsoring brand try to do something about it and put something back into football for a change?

In athletics, Norwich Union has a great grass-roots campaign, dealing with the shortage of athletes coming through the system. This is not a problem faced by football, but other challenges at the local level offer similar opportunities not only to do good, but to be seen to do so.

When it comes to football sponsorship, there are more questions than answers and marketers are missing opportunities on a massive scale. The first one who can convince supporters that it is on their side, rather than edging them out of the sport they love, could find itself owning a lot of football hearts and minds.

Background
Intensive research into branding and sponsorship at the 2006 Football World Cup required James Ralley to spend five weeks in Germany, travelling 5,000 miles to visit 12 venues. With at least 40 informal conversations on brand association with football noted every day, he discussed branding issues with almost 1,500 fans. The results offered overwhelming anecdotal evidence which supported the findings of an additional survey by space in the UK, based on more than 100 formal interviews with England football supporters.

The research measured:

* fans' participation in the tournament - almost 60 per cent of watched at least half of the matches, regardless of the countries involved;
* fans' involvement with brands - almost 90 per cent claimed not to have taken part in any World Cup promotions;
* awareness of brands associated with English football and with the tournament;
* perception of sponsors' motives.

'We kept hearing the same view,' said James Ralley, 'with fans concerned that the corporate pound is becoming more important to football than the supporters' money. Supporters are increasingly unhappy at the commercialisation of what they regard as 'their game.' That unhappiness is being directed as much at sponsors as at football's organising bodies. We anticipated consumer apathy, but had not expected it to this degree, or with such passionate disinterest and alienation.'

About the author: James Ralley is account manager at integrated marketing agency space

Getting to grips with The Games

David Thorp of The Chartered Institute of Marketing outlines the dos and don'ts of using the Olympic logo.

* The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has gone to considerable efforts to protect the logos connected to the London 2012. Those connected to the promotions business should bear in mind that the penalty for their miss-use are likely to be severe, and companies should contact LOCOG to find out full details of permissible uses.

* LOCOG's rights are protected in law. The organisation can take legal action against businesses which falsely suggests connection to the Games, under the passing of special legal rights under the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006 and the Olympic Symbol etc (Protection) Act 1995.

* The only people entitled to use the London 2012 brand and the Protected Games Marks are the organisers of London 2012, its sponsors, official broadcasters, official merchandise licensees and licensed non-commercial partners.

* All films, musical works, artistic works and designs (e.g. the Games' emblems, mascots and posters) created by LOCOG or other official Olympic and Paralympic bodies, (existing or future) connected to the Games will be protected by copyright.

* An association with the Games can be created by the use of any words, images or marks, or more likely a combination of these. For example, athletic images, representations of an Olympic-style torch and flame, the colours of the Olympic rings and other representations relating to the Games may each contribute to the creation of an association.

* The protection also covers certain words and phrases. The use of the words Games, Two Thousand and Twelve, 2012, Twenty-Twelve, London, medals, sponsors, summer, gold, silver, and bronze in particular combinations could all break the rules. For example, the phrases 'Backing the 2012 Games' and 'Supporting the London Games' would be likely to fall foul of the law if they were used without permission.

* There may be cases when the listed expressions can be used, but no association with the Games is created, (for example 'Massive summer toy sale, all games half price). Conversely, unlawful association can be created without any use of the listed expressions - infringement will ultimately depend on whether the 'impression' of an association has been created.

* The rules also apply to words and symbols similar to the official words and symbols, such as the word 'Olympix' or variations of the Olympic rings.

* LOCOG can enforce its legal rights by, for example, obtaining court orders for the seizure of unauthorised merchandise and the payment of compensation.

* If in doubt, visit www.london2012.com for more information. If you think you may have broken the rules or are planning something which could possibly be illegal, take independent legal advice.

About the author: David Thorp is Head of Information and Research at The Chartered Institute of Marketing and based at its Cookham office near Maidenhead. www.cim.co.uk

Mobile - The ultimate marketing tool?

Sanjay Dharwan believes that mobile phones present the ultimate marketing opportunity.

Mobile advertising has up until now seemed like something of a pipedream; SMS campaigns have met with mixed success, while extension of the internet model of advertising to mobile broadband users has yet to reach a critical mass of subscribers.

But the opportunity is clear to see: the UK alone has 116 percent mobile penetration, with a wide cross-section of people of all ages and demographic - add to this the fact that people keep their mobile on them at all times, and you have a direct route into a market which is ripe for the picking. All well and good, but the question is: how do you do this?

The mobile device is increasingly becoming the centre of the user's digital world and imposing increasing demands for personalisation of services and user control over their experience. In tandem with this, mobile broadband is beginning to take off as manufacturers begin to take advantage of the capabilities of Wi-Fi and 3G, increasing the scope of innovation and therefore the possibilities of advertising in the mobile space. Marketing companies already know that operators are sitting on a goldmine of customer data, but have been unable to unlock the potential this represents. It is only when all parties in the ecosystem work together that this can be realised, and a proactive targeted marketing campaign can be achieved.

In the US, mobile network operator Alltell has set out to bring the diverse range of content available together and deliver to the subscriber's handset in a way that is intuitive, personalised and non-intrusive. Its Celltop user interface application has changed the way in which users can personalised the look and feel of their handset UI. It now delivers content that is specific not only to its customers' ages, addresses and gender, but also to their own personal interests. Celltop creates an experience similar to flicking through the pages of a picture album, where the content on each page is defined by the subscriber themselves. By providing an intuitive shortcut to the subscriber's preferred content or application, Alltel has been able to increase usage of data services, with cells containing anything from basic functions like calendar and messaging services to more complex web-based services like a stock price ticker and local weather forecasts.

This growth in mobile data consumption, coupled with a depth of personalisation, works to the marketers' benefit in two ways. Firstly, it accustoms users to mobile broadband, making them more likely to click through to on-portal sites where the operator can carry banner ads, much in the way that Orange and O2 have been trialling. Secondly, it creates a database of knowledge on a particular user's interests.

At its most basic level, there is much in common with the established online advertising model. Orange, for example, has been trialling mobile advertising by selling banner space on its Orange World portal. Paramount Pictures ads will appear in the movie section and Adidas adverts will appear on the sports pages, for example. However, mobile marketing and advertising can go much further than this base level, being delivered direct to the handset in an unobtrusive way as the success of Celltop in the US market has demonstrated. In the UK, Orange has found that users welcomed advertising but only if it was unobtrusive and relevant. The user experience is paramount, and with advertising real estate constrained by the limitations of the screen size of the handset, mobile marketing is all about not annoying people with irrelevant content.

In fact, new mobile virtual network operator Blyk has approached mobile marketing with exactly this angle. It plans to offer advertisers information that will fund free voice and SMS to opted-in 16 - 24 year-olds. When customers join, it's part of the deal that they inform Blyk about their likes and dislikes, ensuring any advertising is directly relevant. Results after the trials showed that many users actually believed that in fact there wasn't even any advertising on the network because they thought it was all part of the wider service - much like Amazon suggesting its 'recommended books'.

The key to unlocking the potential of mobile, therefore, is all about how well the mobile ecosystem can work when involved parties all work together. Mobile is inherently a push medium, and it requires the software development team, the marketing team and the design team to work together from the outset to make the most of this. Wireless development usually begins at the birth of a new technology, but if this model continues, it will just constrain growth and innovation. All three parties have different ideas of what they want and what can be achieved, and it is only through combining these different perspectives that a marketing model uniquely successful to the mobile space will really be developed.

About the author: Sanjay Dharwan is Chief Strategy Officer for communications software company Aricent.

Getting in on the racket?

Millward Brown's Peter Walshe explains how to get maximum marketing bang from sponsorship bucks

The opportunities offered by sports sponsorship along with the amount of money at stake, continues to grow rapidly. According to forecasts from Group M last year, of the £833 million likely to be spent in the UK on associated marketing, £435 million will be spent on sports marketing. The European Sponsorship Association estimates that sponsorship expenditure will double by the end of the decade. With so much marketing budget at stake, the demand and use of research to develop and evaluate how, why, where and whether it works for the brand is evolving to keep pace.

From transaction to partnership
In the beginning there was an event or a property, a star or a celebrity and an 'agent'. The client (brand) wanted a piece of the action for as little as possible whilst the agent would sell for as much as possible. The deal was done and the agent would move on to the next sale.

This still happens of course, but the rules are changing. Marketers increasingly need to justify the investment and the smart brands are creating partnerships that will benefit both the client as well as the brand itself. They also want to avoid creating a partnership that is potentially damaging to the brand.

The reality has dawned that a short-term 'misfit' is of no benefit to anyone. Marketers want to make sure that any money they spend on sports sponsorship will have a positive impact on their business through improved brand affinity, brand growth and increased revenues.

The property, event, star or celebrity becomes the mutual brand to develop for the benefit of all parties.

From short to longer term thinking
Research points to the financial return from all the elements of the communications mix being much greater in the long term than the short term. The same goes for sports sponsorship. The problem is that it is more difficult and more expensive to measure. But a recent sponsorship measurement case showed that whilst a healthy 30% net gain on financial outlay could be achieved in a year if activated properly, a much greater return (600%) was the longer term prize.

It makes sense. Establish a compelling proposition clearly in the first instance, bring in new users for the brand, underline why the existing customers have a reason to stay and the brand equity becomes stronger. The barriers to exit are raised and your customers are locked in because they want to be.

From sponsorship awareness to brand effect
The focus of much evaluative sponsorship research has been, and unfortunately continues to be, on sponsorship awareness. This is despite the fact that the AIDA (Attention Interest Desire Action) model was heavily discredited by the advertising community many years ago. Supporters of AIDA believe that if people can tell you in the research interview that they are aware of the sponsor then the sponsorship has been successful and will lead, magically, to consideration, to purchase and ultimately re-purchase

This makes it difficult when you have results that suggest that those who had been exposed to coverage of the event were no more aware of the sponsor than those who had not been. But, crucially, those exposed were more likely to consider the brand in future and knew more what the brand stood for (emphasised in the sponsorship and created by a good 'fit' with the event). Both groups were current non-users of the brand and enjoyed the product equally. The only difference was the sponsorship. And the one measure that did not stack up was 'sponsorship awareness' even though the client's subsequent sales data suggested a good return most likely due to the activity.

From 'stuck on' connection to associative marketing
It seems that awareness of the brand being involved in the sport and creating a better experience for the benefit of the 'audience', as well as clarifying what the brand is about and what the brand is not about, are much more relevant and critical factors in sports sponsorship success. Why? Because successful brands create relationships with their consumers, who in turn know precisely what the brand offers over competitors, why it is a better deal both emotionally and functionally. Not that it is necessarily cheaper, but that it is of better overall value. This explains why luxury brands are the fastest growing segment in the World. They offer a better deal - quality, distinctiveness, clarity, identity, and satisfaction guaranteed. And they are not for everyone.

Clever and creative use of an association with a sporting property, event, star or celebrity can help remind consumers of the values of the brand.

Creativity is key. Recent research work with the neuro-scientists reveals that the human brain can only take in so much at any one time. If it is not interesting enough to notice in the first place it will just not get processed. And the last compelling thing we came across tends to displace what is already in the brain. Sponsorship often has the possibility of being longer term to be able to 'remind' us of a brand. Of course this also means that it needs to evolve to remain interesting.

Making an association that 'sticks' is a creative task. So that the sporting event, property, star or celebrity triggers a unique, positive brand promise.

From 'off the peg' to 'tailored'
Having a great fit means that the brand association will be that stronger. This is shown through the SportZ survey which measured consumer opinion, interest and participation in sports, sporting events and teams.

Strong association between a brand and a sport, sporting event or celebrity, could include factors such as sharing personality or character between brand and property (the fun of football and Coca-Cola) or having 'fans' and key brand users who have similar beliefs and life values (the Daily Telegraph and Cricket).

But then again, rules are made to be broken. An 'anti-fit' can also work. Budweiser (quintessentially American Football) 'commentating' in an amusing, absurd way on the Football World Cup and thus underlining their expertise in beer and nothing else. Or another being the values of those adoring Tiger Woods are at odds with those who are Accenture advocates - but the common meeting point is literally the 'drive' and perfection which is well created and understood.

Importance of understanding values of brand and sport
Surveys such as the SportZ survey, produced by WPP group companies, combined with brand equity research provides marketers with a view on what sport, sporting celebrity, sporting event or sporting team would be a good fit for their brand.

For example of the 4.6 million sports fans from the UK that said they wanted to attend London Olympics 2012, many are young upmarket Londoners who are more likely to buy environmentally friendly products and think their car should express their personality. Sports fans who watch the Olympics are health food fanatics, confused by computers, pessimistic, dutiful and think women's place is in the home. And of the 6.1 million Brits who claimed tennis is one of their favourite sporting events, an overwhelming two thirds are women who rate it top of their favourites, ahead of the summer Olympics, rugby, football, athletics, snooker and Formula 1.

These sorts of results tell us about sporting fans and watchers. By matching this data to consumer opinion of your brand, you can get a pretty good idea of the 'brand' fit.

Out with the old and in with the new
It's never too late, or early, to make a resolution. Here are the top five for you to consider:

1. Insist on clear sponsorship objectives and do not rest until they have been defined
2. Challenge the objectives until you all agree
3. Now see if sponsorship can deliver against those objectives
4. Activate in the most creative way possible
5. Set evaluation in place to determine the return on investment

But above all, grasp the challenge of impact sports sponsorship can have on the brand with enthusiasm, passion and, importantly, the right insight.

About the author: Peter Walshe is senior director at media content analysis experts Millward Brown Precis.

How to give sponsorship a sporting chance

The Chartered Institute of Marketing's David Thorp offers some back-to-basics advice on how to manage a successful sports sponsorship

Vast amounts of money are spent on sponsorship, and it is easy to see why. Today's media-savvy customers are bored by advertising and impervious to the charms of many of our traditional marketing techniques. But they're not cynical about sponsorship - it helps the community, and funds events that would not take place without support from companies. It can deliver tightly targeted messages to billions of people, and can radically change perceptions of a brand.

However all too often, sponsorship can turn out to be a poor investment, and many companies, from the multinationals supporting major international sporting events to the local business donating the odd hundred pound cheque to the village cricket team waste their cash. But with some hard-headed planning, objective measurement and a dash of creativity, sponsorship can pay off.

To be really effective, a sponsorship must be well targeted. Sports events attract huge audiences, but this is irrelevant if much of that audience is not likely to buy your product. Throwing money at the chairman's favourite hobby should not be an option.

The sponsorship must have concrete objectives that can be measured. 'Raising awareness' is the beginning and not the end of the process and other benefits, such as growing market share or improving brand equity must also be taken into consideration. Sponsorship is not there to do the job of an ad campaign - while advertising informs, sponsorship should do something more. It must be integrated into the rest of the company's marketing activities and not simply tacked on as an after-thought. Time, as well as money must be invested, and the best sponsorships are those that establish a long-term connection between a brand and an event over a number of years.

The right support is also vital and it's pointless to blow the budget on the deal, if there is nothing left in the pot for other marketing activities such as advertising and promotions. Some experts would advise that for every pound spent on the contract itself, another should be reserved for maximising the investment.

That support must be creative, and this is where inspired promotions can really make a difference. Pinning banners around a stadium is not enough, and a spark of originality is required to make a sponsorship come to life. To get the most out of a sponsorship it is not enough to sign the cheque and think no more about it. But with a little imagination, a partnership between a sponsor and the sponsored can be turned into a winning combo.

About the author: David Thorp is Head of Information and Research at The Chartered Institute of Marketing and based at its Cookham office near Maidenhead. www.cim.co.uk

From fans to customers

Fuse Sport's Adam Rowland explores the strategy behind reaching fans through sports sponsorship

Creating a sports sponsorship strategy can often be a daunting prospect for marketers. What sports do I target? How do I target them? Who is the audience? How are they consuming the sport? Are they interested in my products? Are they in a position to purchase when they watch, participate, leave, think about this sporting spectacle? What are my competitors doing? How can I do it differently? How do I speak with this audience as opposed to at it? How do I maximise the inventory I have purchased? These are just some of the concerns and we haven't even addressed the main question - does sport fit my business strategy? If the answer is 'yes' proceed; if the answer is 'no' turn to the next page.

We'll take it as read that sport is of interest as a marketing medium. From global audiences to visitors to the local gymnasium, brands can work with a targeted group of individuals who are actively participating, physically or mentally, in a specific activity. So the question is: what comes first, my strategy or my sponsorship?

Creating clear, fluid, sponsorship strategy is critical. Don't just brand the local football team because it happens to be round the corner and the MD fancies a few free tickets. Sure, reinforcing local links is no bad idea and keeping the MD sweet can also enhance job prospects, but thinking through sponsorships and adopting a clear strategy can make a sponsorship work so much harder for a brand, the audience and the in this case the local football club.

Before embarking on a sports sponsorship, or indeed any sponsorship, brands need to ask themselves some serious questions. What are we aiming to achieve? What is our relative positioning in the market place? Do we risk being repositioned by our rivals? Do our customers think we even stand for anything? Do we recognise who our rivals are and what they're doing? Only once brands have been true to themselves and have stared at themselves long and hard in the mirror, can they start thinking about what they can and want to achieve within a sports sponsorship.

That is, do they want to provide themselves with a clear credible position, reinforce their brand heritage, reinvent their brand heritage, target as many customers as possible, speak with the audience of that particular team, individual or sport, work in tandem with an advertising campaign or independently.

Once a brand has identified where they're at, who they want to target and what they want to achieve out of that targeting, we can then start looking at how to make sports sponsorships work for the client. It's a rigorous process; much more than grabbing the nearest and cheapest football team who have just signed a promising Spanish centre forward, look like they might do well, and slapping a logo on the shirt.

Many sports sponsors look at the sports rights; how many tickets they get, how big the branding is and how many prawn sandwiches they get per guest. Not necessarily a bad thing, just a bit shallow. Many sports media sponsors look at how many TV rating points they'll receive, or at the value per square column centimetre. Again necessary but only as part of a process that leads to a fully integrated sports sponsorship strategy. What both these approaches fail to do is look at the wider sports sponsorship opportunity and dig deeper into that arena.

For example, key to any sports sponsorship strategy is ensuring your name and brand become synonymous with the activity you're sponsoring. Whenever a potential customer thinks about that event they don't just remember your brand, they get a warm fuzzy glow! Maybe that's exaggerating, but when considering sports sponsorship it's important to consider how your brand's involvement with that event, team or person will make the spectator's involvement and experience more enjoyable, and therefore their memory of your brand's involvement in the event positive. Vol-au-vents and cheap deals can't do this. Leverage can.

A deal was struck a few years ago with a large motor organisation that sponsored full- and half-time scores across a series of sports and media platforms; no leverage just branding. The focus groups mid- and post-event had no idea who the sponsor was, and when told, had no idea why they would involve themselves with this sport. The audience of young men was right for the sponsorship, but the communication was one dimensional - a lot of branding, a few vol-au-vents. A campaign bought inexpensively, but one with no significant narrative and the 'strategy' failed.

There are, however, sponsorships that not only ensure the brand messages and values are clearly communicated, but also reward the supporter and ensure they gain from it. Sponsorships like Coca-Cola's involvement in the football league allowed fans to enter the 'Buy a Player' promotion, supporters raised money for their club and winners would receive a significant contribution to their teams transfer kitty. Nationwide's sponsorship of the England football team, amongst others and the creation of 'The Sponsored By You' campaign enables their customers to enjoy match tickets and meet the England squad through competitions across relevant platforms. 02's sponsorship of the England rugby team, and of Arsenal, allows rugby- and Arsenal-supporting 02 customers to benefit from a free pre-match pint - simple, but rewarding. And the way both England and Arsenal are going on, 02 might have to 'up' their offer; the fans will need it.

There is a huge range of opportunities for great sports sponsorships, that can turn fans into customers…ask yourself the honest questions, dig deep into the soul of your brand, in so doing put together a strategy that makes the most of your spend, maximises your communication across relevant platforms, creates a positive conversation with the audience and ultimately makes fans buy your product.

About the author: Adam Roland is director of sports sponsorship agency Fuse Sport.

The Dating Game

Richard Moore of Capitalize Limited outlines how to find the perfect sponsorship partner

"When we got married I took the marriage vow, in sickness and in health I said 'I do'"

When considering sponsorship as part of the communications mix, marketing executives should take heed of Chas and Dave's catchy theme tune to the long running BBC sitcom, In Sickness and in Health, which featured Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett, a belligerent old curmudgeon, and his wife Else.

While there are not too many brands and organisations with the same outspoken characteristics of Garnett, there are lessons to be learned from the lyrics to the hit show when looking for a sponsorship property to use as part of your marketing platform.

Sponsorship is a partnership. It's about two or more organisations joining forces for mutual benefit. It is a 'marriage' and as with any marriage it means compromises and the need to understand your 'opposite number'.

But before you take to the altar you need to find your perfect partner.

Successful business man looking for tall sporty brunette...
Finding the perfect sponsorship is neither science nor art, it's a combination of both and there are some basic principles that marketers should apply when looking to craft a successful sponsorship marketing campaign. There is a simple process to help brands' structure their sponsorship marketing in an organised and professional manner. The Sponsorship Strategy Wheel (see below) identifies the important areas for consideration:

The Sponsorship Strategy Wheel

Before any brand or organisation starts to think about finding the perfect sponsorship partner it should consider very carefully what it is ultimately looking to achieve - its business rationale. Once the business rationale has been defined then sponsorship should be considered as part of the media neutral planning process and the benefits of sponsorship as a marketing tool should be compared with all other channels such as PR, digital marketing, sales promotion, etc.

Once the business rationale has been agreed and documented attention should be turned to developing a robust sponsorship strategy, which should identify the major tangible and intangible benefits you are looking for from your sponsorship partner. Your sponsorship strategy should consider such things as:

* The brand characteristics expected from the sponsorship property - a simple mapping process as outlined in figure 1 will help
* The expected term of the partnership
* Geographical considerations
* The need for staff communications
* Good citizenship
* An outline of the expected outputs resulting from the sponsorship, including:
o Media coverage
o Sampling opportunities
o Business connections
o Likely change in perception of brand
o Likely propensity to purchase

Figure 1

Figure 2 outlines some of the factors affecting successful sponsorship marketing campaigns that should be taken into consideration when planning your strategy

Figure 2

The Kiss Chase...
So you have identified your business rationale and developed a robust sponsorship strategy outlining the values and benefits you expect, but how do you go about finding your perfect sponsorship partner?

Firstly you will need to get a good feel for the market place and the type of deals that are currently being done, and their price. Ipsos RSL produces Sportscan and Leisurescan, two excellent reports that catalogue all the sponsorship deals that are reported in the UK media along with a summary of the major trends and issues that are relevant. These documents will help you understand what sponsorship partnerships your competitors are involved with and assist in producing a simple competitor audit listing the sectors and sponsorship properties that your competitors are involved with.

It will also give you a first look at the potential sponsorship categories that may be relevant to your strategy.

Next you should start to hone down your search by considering the potential sectors that are relevant to your requirements and by producing a long list of potential sponsorships. There are a couple of useful online databases that can be freely perused including www.hollis-sponsorship.com and www.uksponsorship.com but be warned, these sites are not entirely comprehensive and some of the very best opportunities are not listed.

Blind Date...
If you don't have the time or knowledge that it takes to undertake a comprehensive sponsorship audit you should employ the services of a specialist sponsorship agency such as the European Sponsorship Association (ESA) who will point you in the right direction.

Your chosen agency will know the market place, they will know what is available and what is the market price for certain rights. They will be able to produce a shortlist of potential partners, the sponsorship inventory, which broadly speaking fulfil the sponsorship strategy and they will undertake a best fit analysis to identify the pros and cons of each of the short listed properties. See the following table for an example best fit document:

Best Fit Analysis Table

The Beauty Parade:
Once the initial audit and best fit analysis has taken place you should arrange presentations with your top three or four potential sponsorship partners. The presentations will allow you to understand more about the people behind the sponsorship opportunities, the structure of the organisation, the size to the team you may be working with, their understanding of marketing and their ability to service partnerships to the level you would expect. You will have the chance to ask pertinent questions and to quiz them on their pricing policy and their willingness to undertake results orientated deals.

Once you have settled on your intended partner you need to work out a sensible fee arrangement and this will usually be based on both the market value for the property or similar properties and the value of the rights that come with the deal. It is a worth while exercise to breakdown the individual components of the package and price them individually and then compare the total of the individual elements with the price being asked. IEG in the States has developed a valuation model that many agencies use which values the tangible and intangible elements of a deal based on known market facts.

Signing the Register:
Stage six of the Sponsorship Strategy Wheel is the contract. When entering into a sponsorship deal it is advisable to seek specialist legal help and a list of suitable legal firms can be found from the ESA website at www.sponsorship.org. They won't cost the earth and it is money well spent for those of us who want to sleep well at night!

Till Death Us Do Part:
The title of the original series featuring Alf Garnett, may be one step too far in terms of a brand's commitment to sponsorship, but marketing executives should certainly be in for the long run and like any marriage they should be prepared to invest in it to make it work.

Marriage Guidance:
Both rights holders and sponsor companies should heed the lessons learned by Alf Garnett in In Sickness and in Health, when his long suffering wife, Else, died of natural causes depriving Alf of his most valuable possession…her pension!

Rights holders should work hard to ensure their sponsor partners are getting value for money through implementation and sponsors should strive to evaluate their investments with evaluation ROI and ensure their partnerships are working hard to fulfil the business rationale.

In the immortal words of Garnett..."It stands to reason, don't it!"

About the author: Richard Moore is Managing Director of independent sponsorship agency Capitalize Limited and director of the European Sponsorship Association.

Digital marketing - The future of marketing communication

Video marketing is revolutionising the way that companies can reach their audiences as it continues to become an increasingly popular medium amongst consumers. Mark Burgess looks at why marketers need to embrace new generation techniques and the challenges they face to keep ahead of the competition.

Marketers simply cannot afford to ignore current consumer attitudes towards communication - audiences are increasingly turning to more visual messages, and the emphasis on the written word is greatly diminished. With websites more frequently used as corporate television channels and an overall increase in the use of video marketing, having an awareness of these elements will allow marketers to position themselves as forerunners in the technological communications field.

The traditional view of corporate video communications is that they can be expensive and time-consuming. Often, those ideally placed to utilise these materials do not realise the full potential of digital marketing and are reluctant to invest in tools which, when used effectively, will set them far ahead of the competition.

Historically, companies have readily invested in marketing materials such as printed brochures and leaflets. However these can be expensive, rapidly become outdated, provide limited tracking solutions, and do not allow for measurement of figures on customer use and trends. In a changing marketplace, marketers must be able to offer some digital alternatives to their clients. Good digital marketing tools provide companies with a set of engaging, highly effective, measurable and often viral solutions with up-to-date information and topics.

Similarly traditional websites which have little or no animation or video content will soon look dated and out of touch and this is another communication tool which marketers need to consider being able to offer. As the fastest growing advertising medium available, the Internet is quickly becoming the platform of choice for reaching a wide customer base. In order to stand out, marketers need to consider where they want to be in the digital communication landscape. Instead of just text and still images, audiences will be looking for more interaction and dynamic content such as video and high quality animation.

Alongside the creative element of the digital age, marketers now have access to technology which allows the seamless integration of digital content within web sites and emails. Digital content is also increasingly being used across multiple platforms such as mobile telephones and video iPods, and by engaging with these less formal delivery methods, marketers can increase the impact of a message which would traditionally be delivered in the form of a leaflet or brochure.

It is inevitable that effective communication in the future will rely heavily on the moving image and digital formats. With companies and audience growing ever dependent on the Internet and visual communication formats - marketers will be able to deliver a vast amount of information with minimum effort if they embrace digital formats. Costs in the digital marketplace are no longer prohibitive, especially when campaign monitoring and multi-platform use can allow a project to be effectively tracked, and re-used in various formats.

Some advice for marketing companies looking to embrace the digital age:

* If you can't do the work in-house, then make sure the company you use is reliable, and that it can actually do what it says it can. Lots of companies are jumping on the technology band wagon, and not all of them have the necessary skills or experience to give you the best results for your money.
* Don't be afraid to ask the question. If you have an idea to make use of new technology which you think may not be feasible, then ask your supplier if it is. If the company is any good, they should at least try to find a way to make it happen if it isn't something they've done before.
* There are technological advances happening every day and it can be difficult to keep up. There are many seminars and workshops which take place on web 2.0 and the future of marketing technology - so attending a few of these will not only give you an insight into what is happening in the marketplace - it will also allow you to forge new relationships with those in the know.
* The future is very much heading towards more electronic marketing - and the key to keeping ahead is to be creative, and to come up with innovative ways to get your message across, utilising this new technology.

About the author: Mark Burgess is Creative Director at Big Button Media, who specialise in corporate video and multimedia production.

The way to add value

The web is winning in the war for advertising cash, but are companies actually using it to boost business, asks Frank Lombos?

Web advertising has become a standard marketing tool in recent years. Spend on TV advertising has dropped 4.7 per cent since 2005 while print advertising has dropped 2.7 per cent. Online commercials now make up ten per cent of all UK advertising spending. Online advertisements feature in a range of websites - from multinational brand sites to smaller, independent pages - as well as through email, pop-ups and on blogs. The explosion of social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, has created even more opportunities for online marketing, blurring the lines between public and private internet domains.

Given its limitations and cost, the decline in 'traditional' above and through the line advertising using TV, radio and print - is somewhat unsurprising. Online advertising can give more instant returns, as the internet offers a live marketplace through which the target audience is already receptive and responds with immediacy. The internet also gives companies the opportunity to raise their profile to a wider, global audience. But in order to achieve tangible marketing success, companies need to use intelligent web analysis and the insight it gives to improve their marketing techniques - both online and in traditional media.

Web analysis tools can show companies how a customer has been directed to their site - whether through an advert or direct URL, highlighting the position in which adverts have been most successful. The right technology can also oversee the whole online buying process, indicating at what point in their search customers are most likely to start buying. This means that advertisements can be strategically placed to convert online visitors into online buyers - making the most of web marketing knowledge. Online marketing allows companies to build up a profile of the customer, showing their interests and, more importantly, what they buy online. Advertisers are already ahead in collecting consumer data and interactivity, the challenge is to turn data into intelligence.

But if companies already know who clicks on what and when, this knowledge is useless unless they respond to what they discover. The information gained by customer profiling needs to be fed back into the business and integrated into the larger business strategy. If a company traces a high percentage of its customers to a certain geographical location, for example, the marketing department needs to shift its advertising strategy accordingly. If a company realises that its prices aren't indicative of a sudden spike in demand for a product - or even that there won't be enough products to handle such demand - businesses should be primed to react. The web is unique in being able to provide this kind of insight into the customer experience.

By tracking the way that users interact with websites, online marketing can offer the visibility unavailable in traditional advertising. With the right technology, customers' behaviour can be demonstrated, predicted and used to the buyer's advantage. Google has just announced its intention to invest in a biotech firm, which will ultimately allow consumers to trawl their genetic profile online. This, one day will allow marketers to precise profile consumers. Companies need to use this insight to anticipate the wants and needs of its isolated demographic.

Having turned online visitors into customers, companies' next objective is to ensure as many of these as possible can become repeat purchasers. So if a significant number of customers of a certain online shop also turned out to be MySpace users, the company would know this could be used as a productive advertising space. Similarly, if a significant number of people were abandoning purchases at a particular time, the company would be able to pinpoint the off-putting section of the website and update it.

Now that the majority of companies have understood the potential of the internet and the insight web analysis can give to their marketing, they need to step up the way they respond to this information. Companies should capitalise on the insights given by online marketing and web analysis, integrating demographic knowledge into a wider business and marketing strategy. Once they have done this successfully, the next step is real-time decision-making that will drive sales and marketing strategies automatically.

Online advertising is territory to be embraced. Unlike traditional advertising it breaks the mould and offers a multi-dimensional space. The consumer's role is far more complex than ever before, demanding that businesses continuously rethink and analyse their marketing strategies to meet their needs. The marketers challenge is to continue to think outside of the box, and develop balanced online advertising campaigns that are connected to consumers' desires.

About the author: Frank Lombos is regional vice-president of web analytics and precision marketing specialists Coremetrics Europe.