Originally published in 2009.
‘The fundamentals of sports marketing were laid down in the mid-1970s, and the same issue applies now as it did then, price still has nothing to do with a quantifiable return.
Coca-Cola’s partnership with FIFA is where it all began. Until then Coke’s involvement with sport, like that of every other sponsor, had been at a local level as there was no central marketing budget. When I went to Atlanta to offer Coke the opportunity of a global package, this was new territory.
This relationship created the global industry we know today. It meant that international federations such as FIFA and the IOC were able to sell themselves as truly global platforms. Coke was able to activate its marketing objectives globally using football to reach the world’s youth. The impact of this shift in approach was hugely significant to the sports business we know today as the ceiling on rights values that had been in place was lifted.
The concept of the rights package grew from this moment. Stadium advertising had been controlled by television, the stadium owner or anybody who felt like sticking something to a wall. No thought had been given to what was sold in the stadium, as for the pouring of soft drinks, who cared? The Coca-Cola Company did. They also cared that every one of their global markets (all now paying for the rights to the FIFA relationship) wanted to promote their association with FIFA during the World Cup and expected it to be exclusive – no Pepsi – in any market. Every major rights-holder from the IOC to the IAAF adopted this model, but like all new developments it has a life cycle.
My view is that the package concept is dying; and outside of FIFA, UEFA and possibly the IOC, things are changing rapidly. Sponsors no longer want a packaged solution. They want bespoke, they want brand connection. They want sophistication, they want measurement, they want social responsibility, they want to be concerned about sustainability, education, heritage, living their ideals and being focused on corporate expenditure. This is sport’s version of the ‘circle of life’, the sponsors want what we started with in the beginning, and they want sport to be ‘a means of communication’, to achieve their own bespoke goals and objectives, not just an off the shelf package.
The industry that has grown so fast over the past two decades is about to face its first big mid-life crisis. How it responds is the story of the next twenty years.’