Our commentary on our 2006 Sponsor Survey

December 2006, Sport Business

Content is king – again?

Redmandarin’s Research and Evaluation team specialises in delivering actionable insight for sponsors. This frequently requires us to challenge assumptions - and all too often means asking difficult questions.

This is the same approach we’ve taken here - not just probing the givens, but the unspokens.

Ambush is a great example. Year after year I’ve read injunctions not to ambush, not to erode the rights of official sponsors for fear of undermining the foundations of the industry.

But the reality is – rightly or wrongly, depending on your perspective - that the practice of ambush has continued to evolve, not just behind the scenes, but on the largest of world stages, with some of the world’s largest brands. And the reality of a market economy means that legal sanction - not subjective morality - is the only arbiter of what’s right or wrong.

Our survey simply shows this is the reality in which we are all operating.

The election of Red Bull as sponsor’s sponsor is fascinating because, despite its growing involvement in motorsports, most of the traditional approach of sponsorship, including the entire contractual spine – the rights-holder relationship – is largely absent from Red Bull.

I would argue that the brand is best known for precision segmentation, intimate consumer relationships, inventiveness in event creation, and intensive leveraging. As one respondent put it, ‘they bring their brand to life without any of the typical sponsorship ****’.

Almost as fascinating is the fact that Coke and McDonalds, two of the industry’s most thorough sponsors, were not even mentioned.

This also feels – intuitively – like a further significant contour of a new reality.

The majority of our questions produced very unequivocal findings: there are, very definitely, more women in the industry; reporting lines are formalising; professional backgrounds are evolving, integration is increasing. There is a clear ‘sense’ of an industry changing shape.

The shape it’s taking is open to interpretation. Every interpretation is ultimately subjective, and mine is definitely influenced by my own professional background. And for me, it feels exciting, dynamic and creative.

In fact, I’m taken back to the late 1990’s, when I last remember the ‘content is king’ wisdom being headlined - as channels began to multiply, broadcasters began to grapple with the concept and potential of channel branding / building and AFP was advertising’s latest nemesis.

And to me it feels as though I’m hearing the first mumbling articulation of a different sort of revolution, sponsorship’s own echo of ‘content is king’.

Sponsorship’s value derives from its ability to connect with people, because its content is relevant to people’s emotional lives. Rights-holders are a source of content which, it’s assumed, come with a guaranteed audience. But Red Bull is creating unique, targeted, engaging content. So is Nike. Both brands understand themselves and their consumers so well, their internal levels of brand confidence are so high that they feel free to take and shape their content from anywhere.

Our recent client experience at Redmandarin supports this. We’re finding a growing number of brands resistant to conventional sponsorship, with a growing willingness to think laterally and a greater pragmatism around what really works and what doesn’t, what really constitutes an emotional connection with consumers. Which can only be good.

This view is supported by other report findings : brand equity building is cited as the over-riding objective of sponsorship for the first time, brand management leapt up the charts as the professional formation of 40% of respondents.

The final survey point : highest rates of increase in sponsorship spend were predicted for CSR (as well as sport). Predictions are not guarantees - but it doesn’t require too much analysis to recognise a familiar and attractive landscape for brands in the entire not for profit world, with its elaborate and established understanding of customer loyalty; its direct, potent and understood emotional connection with consumers; the broad horizons of activation opportunity.

The actionable insight?