A top conversion: a look at the power of sponsorship

George Prior
PR Consultant
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Post date: Sunday, 5th February 2012

George Prior looks at the power of sponsorship and why it pays a top finance company to back enterprises ranging from an expat rugby club to a children’s refuge.

There’s hardly a square inch on Lewis Hamilton’s Formula 1 driver’s suit that is not taken up with a logo. Vodafone, Santander, Mercedes, Hugo Boss, Johnnie Walker and Aigo, among others, clamour to have their corporate signature emblazoned on the champion driver’s clothing.

This, of course, is not a unique situation. From mobile phone giant Talk Talk sponsoring ITV’s X Factor to the Qatar Airways idents prefacing the weather bulletins on Sky News, corporate sponsorship has become an integral part of 21st century life.

Indeed, this relatively new form of advertising has been developing rapidly in recent years with several studies showing that since the late 1990s it has grown at a significantly faster rate than traditional methods.

“Today, corporate sponsorship is a fundamental part of many companies’ communication plans,” confirms business writer Debra Watson. “And it’s growing all the time as firms of all sizes, and in every industry, wake up to its power.”

Such is the demand that American companies alone spent $46.3bn on corporate sponsorships last year, representing a 5.2 per cent year-on- year jump. This contrasts heavily to the decline in spending on generic advertising. So why are corporations investing so heavily in sponsorship?

“In general terms, it is an effective way of enhancing a brand’s visibility, it’s another way of differentiating from any potential competition, and the sponsor becomes actively involved in a project, event or cause that the audience approves of explicitly,” says Nigel Green, the CEO of the deVere Group, the world’s largest financial advisory group.

“In our experience, and depending on the type of sponsorship, it can help to develop closer relationships with current and prospective clients and it can showcase products and services. In effect, this means that if it is well-conceived and then implemented successfully, it will boost business and the company’s image in the community it’s targeting.” One of deVere’s most recent sponsorship deals is with the British Rugby Club of Paris. The partnership is described as “a natural affiliation between the world’s largest financial advisory firm that is a specialist in expatriate wealth solutions and one of the world’s leading expat sports clubs.”

The contract will see the deVere Group splashed across the BRFC shirts throughout the season. deVere Group Director, Mike Coady says: “There is perfect synergy in this collaboration. BRFC symbolises expatriates at the top of their game, and the deVere Group ensures that its 60,000 expatriate clients stay in the peak of financial fitness by maximising their wealth.”

Another growing area of sponsorship is in the form of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), whereby a company supports philanthropic or charitable initiatives for society’s greater good. With polls showing that the global economic downturn has ushered in a new era of public scepticism with the business sector, it is perhaps unsurprising to learn that most major firms now run several CSR programmes simultaneously.

“Now more than ever, a spotlight is shining on the actions of big business and therefore it has never been more important to highlight the good work that our teams across the world undertake,” explains Nigel Green. For instance, the deVere Group in Spain has recently pledged to support the Sacred Childhoods Foundation. “It is a remarkable charity. And through our latest donation we’re supporting the fantastic work of their ‘Sanctuary’, an eco village in Bali which becomes a refuge for the victims of child trafficking and organised abuse,” says deVere Spain’s Senior Managing Partner, Andrew Oliver.

He continues: “Successful firms such as deVere don’t just have collective responsibility to help where they can – they have an obligation, to do just that. And, increasingly, our clients expect us to lead to the way in this area, which we do with great pride.

“As we continually illustrate, those of us in the financial advisory sector can still turn big profits for their clients whilst helping those less fortunate. It’s just a question of wanting to make it happen.” One of the financial group’s most high-profile CSR initiatives is with Alex Flynn, a long distance runner, and a sufferer of Parkinson’s disease, who took on a personal mission of running 10 million metres around the world in three years, in a quest to raise £1m to help fund research in the hope of finding a cure for Parkinson’s.

All successful firms monitor every part of their business to ensure its delivering and fulfilling objectives, and corporate sponsorship is no different. However, the approach to such monitoring is, naturally, dependent on whether it is purely promotional, such as sponsoring a sports team, or whether it’s CSR-driven.

For the first option, Nigel Green says there are some factors to take into account. “Most sponsorship proposals are compared against other marketing options such as advertising or sales promotions to determine if the investment represents good value. With this in mind, from the outset, and within a predetermined time frame, it’s best to establish whether clients or media coverage or both have increased as a direct result of the sponsorship. In terms of Corporate Social Responsibility, we like to ensure that all our initiatives will have long-term benefits for the causes they are championing.”

This article was first published in Global Trader Magazine, Issue 3. To read the entire publication, click the ebook.

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