Corporate identity
It’s funny how corporate identity as a phrase is associated with just about the most rigid of branding questions: making sure a logo always looks the same. Because identity in a psychotherapeutic sense is anything but rigid. In fact, current thinking views identity more as a fluid process rather than a rigid structure: we never […]
McDonalds and the IOC: fake news from the FT
McDonald’s departure from the IOC TOP programme has provoked much commentary. Of course, big sponsorship news always attracts its fair share of clichéd reflection and the departure of McDonald’s from TOP is very big news in the sponsorship industry. But it’s been particularly interesting to observe, especially in the context of fake news. The worst […]
Ubiquity is the real elephant in the room
The new Lib-Con government is talking a big game on the topic of binge drinking. How this impulse manifests itself remains to be seen, but we are right to be twitchy about the recommendations contained in the Health Committee First Report on Alcohol (HC151) and the prospect of alcohol sponsors being told – you’re barred. […]
Some thoughts on platform
Platform really is a great name for this magazine, great because it leads away from sponsorship and into marketing. One of the discussions we manage, in trying to help brands understand exactly how much freedom they have to interpret the concept of sponsorship, is around platform, precisely because sponsorship is just one of many. For […]
Spinning the TOPs
The IOC’s TOP programme is clearly in rude good health. With seven out of 11 partners confirmed until 2020, the IOC can congratulate itself on having established itself clearly as the premier global property. The presence of businesses such as GE, P&G and Dow Chemical in the TOP programme further testifies to a value which […]
The fate of the sponsorship industry?
The current model of the sponsorship industry was spawned by media sales, driven by the entrepreneurial realisation that the aggregated exposure available through major events had sizeable commercial value. Everything else is post-rationalisation. I say this so clearly because of the huge absence of vision and any clear articulation by the sponsorship industry of what […]
Bribery Act – behold a beam
The UK Bribery Act 2010 finally came into force last week, against a backdrop of industry angst – here in the UK. Everyone feels pretty comfortable to condemn the nefarious activities of nameless international sports federations, but – what the hell is this going to do to hospitality? We’re not interested in re-hashing the various […]
Sponsorship heresy
I have to admit – I’ve never had much time for sponsorship. Is this my very own Ratner moment? I hope not. It doesn’t make much sense for the CEO of a strategic sponsorship consultancy to own up to such distaste. It’s not blanket, but a dislike for the lack of honesty which, for me, […]
Governing whims
Our CEO likes F1 ‘Grübel was planning to get in with Sauber[1]’ was how impeccable veteran F1 journalist Roger Benoit broke the news that UBS Group CEO Oswald Grübel had been planning once again to sponsor Sauber F1 in Swiss magazine Blick. Following a few days after the announcement of UBS sponsorship of Formula 1, […]
Media. Value. Cabbage
I recently received (anonymously) a ‘sponsorship valuation’ commissioned from a specialist agency by a brand: the sender was a little incredulous at what he’d been persuaded to pay for. Arguably sponsorship ‘valuation’ has a role to play in instilling rights-holders with a greater sense of confidence in the commercial value of their sponsorship offering – […]
Bang to rights
Ever since Patrick Nally corralled the global TV and stadia signage rights together on Coke’s behalf for the 1974 FIFA World Cup, sponsorhip has been dominated by rights. And, with the IOC’s bullishly announcing it expects to reach the mythical figure of US$1 billion for its TOP programme, rights certainly aren’t going away. Ultimately, the […]