Say goodbye to the free lunch, social sponsorship and content is (still) king
Walking into this session during Internet Week Europe, I thought perhaps someone had made a mistake in sending me here. Held at the offices on Pitmans SK Sport and Entertainment LLP, a solicitor's firm in London's law central, Cheapside, it seemed at first I had walked into a law conference.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
The session, 'Going for Gold: Smart Sponsorship Strategies,' was rather a rapid-fire tour de force in the art and craft of dealing with the realities of venue and event sponsorship — a key asset in any big brand's communications and brand strategy, digital or otherwise.
The panel was convened by the affable Pitmans partner, Philip James, who outlined the rules. Three sponsorship gurus were given exactly seven minutes each to deliver the "what's happening" in brand sponsorship today. Time, he said, would be held tight. I can't tell you how refreshing that is after sitting through so many windy and seemingly directionless panels this week. But never mind.
The three panelists were Jeremy Summers of Pitmans, Tim Bleszynski of The Alternative, an event-oriented creative agency, and Jenico Preston of the British Fashion Council, and each one a pro.
Three key take-aways
There's no such thing as a free lunch: Pitmans' Summers discussed some of the emerging legal issues around sponsorship in the UK today. With Bribery Acts passed in 2010, the rules around businesses provided hospitality to perspective clients — you know, the flashy dinners at Hakasan; the "business meetings" in Chamonix — and can be construed as bribery. Similarly, UK police are cracking down on "ambush marketing," through programmes like Operation Podium. Today and going forward it's going to be a lot harder for unscrupulous marketers to associate themselves with brands and celebrities without paying for it. And brands are becoming increasingly protective of their intellectual property. So if you don't want to land in jail or get slapped with a massive law suit, mind the rules as well as your P's and Q's.
Sponsorship has gone social: Traditionally, noted The Alternative's Bleszynski, what brands want from sponsorships is "image management by association with high profile assets" — events, celebrities, sports and so forth — in the hopes that the asset's cool will "rub off' onto the brand. This can offer deeper penetration to an existing audience, help gain a new one or, in the B2B world help the brand get to decision makers by letting them hobnob with celebrities. And it still works. What's changed, said Bleszynski, is the influence of social media. Scrutiny of how a brand behaves is now taking place not only by governments and by the media, but by the customers themselves. Just look at the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The disaster made BP's "beyond petroleum" slogan and its arts patronage seem absurd. And no disaster has been more "viral," making a disaster for the planet a disaster for the brand. Bleszynski offered some positive examples of association that have been amplified by social media, such as the (RED) campaign against aids. Given how a meme can go viral at any second, it's vital for brand to carefully scrutinise who and what they associate themselves with.
We are all publishers now: Social media is all about creating, sharing and consuming content. "Brands have to have something to say constantly because today are surrounded by media," said the British Fashion Council's Preston. One of the ways to reach and engage your event audience in today's social media whorl is to engage a celebrity journalist or blogger to write, blog and tweet about it — in a realistic and honest way. In addition, he noted, it's no longer enough for a brand to merely associate itself with an activity — such as fashion, the arts or sport — the brand has to become a part of it.
Top trends in sponsorship
James asked the each of the panelists to outline one trend he is seeing now.
Summers noted that social media is "changing the rights of the people," giving them more power and brands less control. But he also added that he thinks sponsorship in the UK is shifting from sports (where it currently drinks up 62 percent of the sponsorship cash) toward the arts, fashion and other activities.
"That's two," quipped James.
Preston thought that lifestyle and how a brand affects consumers' daily lives would play a much larger role in how brands approach sponsorship. Finally, and most compelling (and controversial), Bleszynski sees a huge opportunity for brands to become involved in education, from providing scholarships in exchange for brand engagement to setting up entire schools.
And then we adjourned and enjoyed the best hors d'oeuvres at Internet Week so far, provided by Pitmans. I didn't get a chance to ask Jeremy Summers if this constituted a breach of the Bribery Act.
— Michael Mattis
