This is extracted from an interview with Professor Simon Chadwick, for our publication ‘Defining Sponsorship’. Simon Chadwick was Chair at the time of Sport Business Strategy and Marketing at Coventry University, where he was also Director of CIBS. At Leeds University, Simon gained a PhD in sponsorship in football. He is now Global Professor of Sport & Director of the Centre for Eurasian Sport, Emlyon Business School.
When I was young I had three great passions: football, motorsport and cycling. I would read countless magazines and watch as much televi- sion as I could in order to catch a glimpse of the latest race or game. As a result, I was constantly exposed to a flow of seemingly exotic names, colours and images about which I knew absolu- tely nothing: Haribo, Carrera, Ariston, Systeme U, Brembo, Ceramica Ragno and Belga are just some of the hundreds of names that I could probably recall without too much fuss. I never bought the products – I never actually knew what the products were! – but my brand recall was exceptional. It still is today. Hence, when I had a son of my own, who would ask me to buy sweets for him, I instantly recognised Haribo: sponsors of Giles Villeneuve during his heyday at Ferrari in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The question is, is the durability of my brand recall, and the length of time before my ultimate purchase of a Haribo product, typical or not? Irrespective of the answer, it says something about the power of sponsorship.
But now sponsorship faces some big challenges to the way in which it has traditionally functioned. The rise of new media and social networking are changing how people relate to one another, and to the marketing communications messages they are exposed to everyday. At the same time, as product consumption becomes ever more homogeneous, people are seeking exciting, sometimes risky ways through which they can add ‘buzz’ to what they buy, eat, drink or wear. This need is, to an extent, bound up in the desire of increasing numbers to enjoy the ‘experience’ of consumption, rather than merely the consumption itself. For organisations, this means understanding how to create a sense of com- munity, identity and association amongst often highly disparate individuals who may be spread across large geographic areas.
The problem is, while data and digital marketers forge ahead, many sponsors seem still to be stuck in the slow lane and too many still have a transaction mentality: pay-for-the-space; place the logo. However, there is evidence that some sponsors are starting to think in a new way using it as a form of relationship marketing. The future growth of sponsor- ship may rely on whether sponsors can become social networkers in their own right, can be one of the techno-savvy crowd, and can provide experiences that will never be forgotten by consumers.
Can they truly engage with their customers such that these people become brand ambassadors through their actions as well as through their words? We shall see.
