Sponsoring Champions

As a sports fanatic and marketer I always find it interesting to see the team and sponsors for each season. For one I find it a fascinating form of revenue, for instance Manchester United may be changing their sponsors from AON Minet this season, adding an element of prestige to this season’s team kit. So I thought I’d turn to what I know best (ORM) and see what the status is of the online conversation around the Champions League final.

I took the liberty of tracking the conversation between the 25^th May and 1^st June to see what interesting topics were trending. Interestingly, only 0.33% of the conversation during this period mentioned Heineken resulting in an earned media value of 0.13% of the total returns on the league final. However, what were the returns for AON for being the Manchester United sponsors? In terms of the Twitter conversation there was very little mention of the main sponsor.

In the traditional marketing model, sponsorships were very popular. However, as the community matures and new media begins to become the norm, ‘awareness’ campaigns may not be ideal. When comparing AON to Heineken, Heineken may have received more online returns for the sponsorships which are why they have decided to extend it. The argument here though is that the only reason there have been successful is because they have taken their sponsorships and added more value by enhancing the user experience. For instance, Heineken had various campaigns targeting the consumers with the aim of bringing them all together. The idea is not that sponsorships will reap for a brand benefits, but rather help position more innovative marketing initiatives.

Furthermore, the benefit of this model is that once again we can measure online performance by taking the offline communication (sponsorships) and pushing it online with more interactive experiences.

Ultimately, in order to sponsor champions you need to think like champions and push your brand to the limit in order to be the best. Sponsorships are not enough anymore; it is not about getting your brand name out there anymore. It is about enhancing your users experience through the association of your brand with their favourite sporting heroes.