The Secret Lives of Sports Fans
If you’re interested in the psychology of fandom, it’s worth taking a look at Eric Simons’ ‘The Secret Lives of Sports Fans‘. Simons is a journalist, author and diehard Cal Golden Bears fan who approaches the subject by trying to understand a number of his own experiences as a fan. What he calls The Secret […]
The 10 best World Cup sponsorship ambushes
Out top 10 FIFA World Cup sponsorship ambushes to warm you up for Qatar. Everyone loves a bad guy.
The practical guide to sponsorship ambush
Here’s our essential guide to sponsorship ambush. From the outside, it’s a scary subject. The large rights-holders talk a good game on sponsorship ambush and rights protection. Sponsors demand it. Because at every Olympics and every World Cup, there are a host of irritating minor infractions : brands taking advantage of the timing of a […]
FIFA’s new sponsorship : all structure, no strategy
The latest changes to FIFA’s sponsorship strategy are eminently sensible. The growth in popularity and commercial value of both the women’s game and gaming represent untapped potential for FIFA, who have been struggling for a number of years to grow the quantity and quality of their sponsors. FITNESS COURSE BOX — All Olympus Avant BOX […]
Sponsorship as ‘social object’
Mark is a recovering adperson who now writes and talks and works independently under the banner of HERD Consulting, helping people and organisations and their collaborators come to terms with our social or HERD nature. Prior to HERD Mark held senior positions at Ogilvy Group Worldwide and the radical creative co-operative St Luke’s. This interview […]
We ❤️ sponsorship storytelling
Sponsorship storytelling was originally published in December 2015. Making sense of Father Christmas It’s that time of year again – and the question: is Father Christmas real? It’s not my question of course but my son’s. And although my wife – who’s from a country which doesn’t believe in the first place – wants to […]
Just do it
‘How to murder your wife’ was released in 1965. It tells the story of cartoonist Stanley Ford, played by Jack Lemmon, who stands wrongly accused of murdering his wife. Lemmon’s character uses the defence of justifiable homicide. The pivotal scene takes place in the courtroom. Ford conducts his own defence, and with his best friend […]
A Christmas story
Jack Daniels’ Christmas advert shows a 26’ Christmas tree made entirely of whiskey barrels, covered with Christmas lights, surrounded by people. It’s the first time they’ve done it, according to the ad copy. (sweet-factory) The lead line: It’s not what’s under the tree that matters, it’s what’s around it. The tree is in the main […]
CR Campaign-ability
The Body Shop remains the paradigm buster. Its campaign, Stop violence in the home, originating in Canada, wasn’t based on the usual passion drivers. Instead, it addressed the taboo of domestic violence, a subject which at the time even western governments would barely acknowledge. And from that counter-intuitive platform, it launched a campaign which by […]
Projection and brand theory
In our research for ‘Working the Olympics’, we came across a fascinating insight into the Olympic brand. Terrence Burns, formerly of the IOC and up to recently President of Helios Partners, was sharing his experience of running the IOC’s first brand audit: ‘At the time we did the un-prompted word association research, there was only […]