This week, Superbrands contacted us seeking our opinion on two important issues for a blue chip sponsor they are working with.

We thought you’d like to read what we said.

Transference of brand values


Effective sponsorship occurs where there’s alignment of brand values, rather than a transference of values.

Given that over 80% of all sponsorship deals globally are sport related, there’s an inherent risk in the brand alignment equation - whether that be with an individual sports person or team.

The fundamental issue is that whatever it says in the sponsorship contract, sponsors don’t control the behaviour of sports personalities in their private lives.

And as recent examples have shown (John Terry, captain of Chelsea FC and Tiger Woods) – the private lives of famous personalities often make headlines for all the wrong reasons.

In extreme cases, such as the libel trial over the sexual allegations surrounding Max Mosely as the boss of F1 and the allegations of race fixing faced by Benetton boss Flavio Briatore – both of these events had the effect of putting the whole sport on trial - and its sponsors.

The messages that brand owners want to convey to their respective market and customer segments were completely lost and replaced by headlines that focused on excessive behaviour and how the sport had lost touch with ordinary fans.

Some sponsors are often forced to take drastic action in order to limit collateral damage to their reputations.


Effectiveness of sponsorship


Where sponsorship works is when the sponsor actually contributes a significant element of appeal to the activity in question. This is an important consideration when looking at selling sponsorship from the rights holder's perspective.

For example, Norwich Union (now Aviva) has been the steadfast supporter of UK athletics for over a decade in the UK and so it’s completely “natural” to see its close involvement with the sport.

However, there are brands that are using sponsorship as a ‘soft’ media buy and this applies to many shirt sponsorship deals in the football Premier League.

Many of these deals are little more than media buys masquerading as sponsorship where the real intention is to splash the brand across as much broadcast coverage of the sport as possible with little or no regard for how the brand should genuinely interact with the team and most importantly, its fans.

It’s not surprising that such arrangements are often greeted with a high degree of scepticism despite all the public relations efforts made to dress these up as supporting the club and its fans.