Sport Industry Group

03 Jul 2009

David Atkinson, managing partner at Space Sport & Entertainment, explains why brands should not see experiential marketing at sports events as a short-term fix in the latest Industry Column.

Client:
“The results we achieved last year were excellent, but this year we believe we can do even better.”
Client thinking:
I’m right under the cosh to prove this is worth the money, and you boys need to step up to help me out here.

Agency:
“Great. We’re here to help.”
Agency thinking:
Here we go, more budget. That makes up for that other project heading west.

Client:
“Excellent. We think we should be targeting an extra 25% ROI, +0.5% in our kpi’s across the board. We need to reach a wider audience, so anticipate that we should be targeting an extra 10% worldwide.”
Client thinking:
And if you don’t think you can do it, I know a man who can.

Agency:
“Fine, that all seems very achievable in the right circumstances.”
Agency thinking:
Wow, this could be a real winner. I wonder how much he’s talking about?

Client:
“And the good news is that we’ve really fought to keep the same budget as last year and have done a pretty good job. We’ve only lost half, and think that our goals should be realistic within this revised cost.”
Client thinking:
Here comes the sucker punch.  Wait for it.

Agency:
“I think we might need to look at a bit of sampling, and maybe give away some stuff.”
Agency thinking:
Time to book my holiday.

Whilst similar discussions might be had in boardrooms around the country, brands and agencies needn’t look upon live experience at sporting events as a step down from major sponsorship investment. 

The biggest brands believe that a critical part of any sports investment is to take the brand values to consumers in the live environment, face to face. 

Whether it be adidas’s replica stadium at World Cup 2006, or Pepsi’s 4s and 6s cards at the Twenty20, the role of brands is to improve the experience of the consumer. This in turn, reflects some associated glory on to the brand for having made it happen. This, one expects, results in all those measures – sales, brand equity, kpi’s, brand love. 

However, this doesn’t mean that tactical live experience is necessarily something that should take place in isolation.

The most effective experiential campaigns are those that are part of a wider integrated marketing campaign.  So whilst there are plenty of ways to cut and trim investment in sport, you get what you pay for, and short term tactical work isn’t on its own the way out.