The last article
20 april, 2008
I just forgot to publish it. Really. The last article of five. But don't worry, here it is:
Hot summer for sportbrands
Article in FEM-Business
2008 will be the harvest year for sport brands. During the European Championship football and the Olympics they have a public of billions to show their products to. But competition is though.
SuitSupply is head sponsor of the formal dress of the Dutch national delegation. For that purpose they keep accurate account of the names they can put on the list. Therefore SuitSupply already has measured 1500 potential candidates. Because every athlete will get a tailor-made suit. And with that, one suit more or less is not an issue. When an athlete does eventually not qualify, the suit just goes into the shredder. Not a single tear from SuitSupply, because at sport sponsoring, in means of profit and loss calculation, it has is own rules applied. Profit mostly lays in exposure. That exposure is only useful when consumers are aware of the fact that SuitSupply is the producer.
Suitsupply is not the only one. The estimate is that 60% of sponsoring goes to sport. Nike and Adidas for example, spend about 700 million euros on this topic.
Most value is taken from media-attention. Finals and medals are therefore very valuable.
Another important aspect is the personality of the brand. Nike likes to associate itself with the adventurous and rebellious. The reason to contract the Brazilian (and Dutch) football team.
Another Nike case that shows the importance of the right person is Tiger Woods. By him Nike became well known in Golf. It was the little Nike ball of Tiger that lay on the edge of a hole, taking minutes of media attention on the famous swoosh logo. Results: millions of extra sold golf balls.
Every brand wants to profit. At the Olympics it seams that every body part at every media moment is bought. Like Minke Booij, captain of the Dutch Hockeyteam. She will wear a SuitSupply suit at he opening ceremony, during the games she wears Adidas clothes, Puma shoes, and her stick is from another brand. If the team wins a medal then Asics has a contract for the ceremonial training suits.
The article shows the weaknesses of sport sponsoring. Exposure is crucial, but only when consumers know who you are. Thereby media-attention depends on the success of the athletes. There is a serious risk they fail, or at least will not be winners of the golden plate.
So you can question the effectiveness of sport sponsoring. I believe it can work as long as the personalities and type of sport match the identity of the brand. And when being part of a consistent long term exposure, which is integrated within other activities. This counts especially for smaller brands. SuitSupply doesn't have a great brand familiarity, but their whole campaign is dressed around the Olympics.
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