Brand and event chemistry are key to success of sponsorship

Have you been to any event lately? Be it a fashion show, a play or a game, the first thing that catches one's eye is the number of companies sponsoring the event. Their banners, posters, goodies are all over the place. And as if that is not enough, their names are announced loudly in the long list of thank yous that is generally read out before the event starts. All this goes to show that companies are aware of the fact that in order to gain brand awareness or reach a certain target market you need to sponsor events. But how many companies know how to get it right is a million dollar question? According to branding experts a good sponsorship is a partnership and Emirates Business spoke to them to find out the do's and don'ts of sponsorship in order to help companies get value for their money. Duncan James, Strategy Director, Middle East, The Brand Union, said: "When a company is thinking of sponsoring something, they should first find out who all are sponsoring the event. Are they the only ones or are there others? They need to know this as each brand stands for something and they want to be in the right company." Olivier Auroy, General Manager, Landor Associates, said: "Stay away from the competition. If they are sponsoring rugby, then you sponsor tennis. But whatever you do choose an event that expresses your brand values. "A good example of how sponsorship can convey your brand values is the way BP moved away from its sponsorship of F1 because it wanted to be branded as a company that was into clean energy. So in order to enhance its green image BP stopped sponsoring F1 as it is noisy, flashy and polluting. And if you want to be taken seriously as a green company you cannot be seen sponsoring an event like that. "So they shifted to sponsoring sailing which is all about green energy." James agreed: "Your sponsorship has to tell the people what you stand for, not just who you are. The people at the event don't just need to know your name but who you are, what you do and what you stand for." James warns that companies need to be careful about what they are sponsoring as sponsorship can be a very precise branding and marketing tool if done properly. "Be careful with your target audience. You have to decide who your target audience is and then sponsor an event. While advertising in the newspapers and the television reaches a very wide audience, sponsorship can be a very precise branding and marketing tool. So you have to see what your target audience does in its free time, where it goes, what kind of events they watch, etc, and then sponsor an event as it should always be related to your target audience," he said. A very good example of this kind of sponsorship is Barclays Bank's sponsorship of the Premier League in the UK. Barclays' tagline "Barclays, now there's a thought," is intended to make the bank appear more accessible to the public. So they sponsor the Premier League in a football crazy nation. In effect what they are saying through their sponsorship is that football is important to the people so it is important to Barclays. It's the best way to show that they are a bank of the people. Giving an example of this kind of regional sponsorship which reaches out to the target audience in their area of interest, James said: "Al Hilal Bank in Abu Dhabi, which is a government bank, needed to reach out to the Emirati men. In the UAE, football is very important to the people. So they sponsored the President's Cup which is the oldest and most prestigious football championship in the UAE. This is the only cup that has the nation's president present at the final match. "They created the mascot, and created a tag line for the event which said "the people behind the President's Cup" and gave away whistles and other stuff to wave about during the match in order to help the people have a better time. "Al Hilal used the sponsorship to enhance the experience for their target audience and also successfully sent out the message that as the President's Cup is all about local pride, then Al Hilal Bank which is a bank from Abu Dhabi was supporting local pride." According to the experts, the best kind of sponsorships are partnerships as they not only cross sell each other perfectly they also last the longest. Auroy said: "Work for the long term. Build a win-win partnership for the long term. It's the best way to build the brand, you can't build brand equity with just one event." James said: "Companies have to remember that a sponsorship is a partnership. The most successful sponsorships are ones that are partnerships. The companies have to think that apart from the cash and logo what are they bringing to the event. When a company is getting into a sponsorship they have to see how the two businesses can help each other." For example, Tag Heuer sponsor the lap timing of F1. They are bringing their expertise and knowledge to the relationship, not just the money. A very good example from the region is Etihad Airways' sponsorshi