Following from the project we delivered for Manulife Asia, and after a lengthy agency selection process, Redmandarin were appointed to help Manulife determine a global sponsorship strategy on the basis of our successful understanding of Manulife Asia’s needs; our ability to articulate, anticipate and prepare Manulife for the challenges ahead; our expertise in the meeting place of sponsorship engagement and impact; and our deep practical experience.
Manulife had been a longstanding sponsor of the Boston Marathon and the Boston Red Sox – and, by virtue of of its acquisition of John Hancock in 2004, a single term IOC TOP. But now, with two major and entirely distinct consumer brands – Manulife and John Hancock; a new and important investment arm – Manulife Investment Management; and working primarily across two very distinct geographic areas – North America and Asia, the overwhelming need was to build a concensus position around the role of sponsorship amongst the multiple stakeholders, and help Manulife understand the priorities and heirarchies and flow of executing a global strategy.
Once again, Manulife generously allowed us access to integrate internal data and, after a long process of stakeholder engagement, and working extremely closely with the global head of sponsorship, ultimately produced a strategy document that set sponsorship cleanly in the context of Manulife’s global reappraisal of brand and restructure of its marketing functions – establishing a shared understanding of the objectives sponsorship would be used to address and crystal clear criteria for the next stage – the identification of a global portfolio.
