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by Martin MacGregor (@MartMacG) I was reminded the other day of a well-known Aesop’s Fable which illustrates for me the potential opportunities and dangers of sponsorship.

A man wished to purchase a donkey, and decided to give the animal a test before buying him. He took the donkey home and put him in the field with his other donkeys. The new donkey strayed from the others to join the one that was the laziest and the biggest eater of them all. Seeing this, the man led him back to his owner. When the owner asked how he could have tested the donkey in such a short time, the man answered, “I didn’t even need to see how he worked. I knew he would be just like the one he chose to be his friend.”

The company you keep

You are the company you keep and, on the upside, the credibility a brand may gain from associating itself with content with stature is huge. However, there is always a fear that the brand will get lost in content where it is not at the centre, or even worse, like the lazy donkey, end up in the wrong company.

I always think of Hyundai, which back in the ’90s was perceived as a cheap Korean brand with little traction and credibility. It then made the bold decision to become the global sponsor of the FIFA World Cup in 2002 (which was partly in South Korea). Suddenly, the brand was noticed and perceived as being a global player and belonging with other global brands

When a brand wants to communicate it really has three choices:

  • Create adverts and rely upon the message being delivered by consumer media consumption. Media fragmentation and dramatically shifting consumer behaviour are making this harder and harder.
  • Create its own content and hope that enough potential consumers will love it and share it. Red Bull does this really well, demonstrating how it needs to be done properly with a very deep understanding of consumer passion points.
  • Find existing content that you know your consumer interacts with and let the association and the halo deliver the brand message.

Viable alternative

Assessing the three options, it is clear that sponsorship is a viable alternative or supplement to a successful brand-communication strategy. It does not have the risks of trying to be heard in a very busy media environment, or the hard work required to generate a brand’s own successful content.

I was at the cricket the other day, sitting at what is now PPC Newlands and looking across at the rugby stadium which, for a few years, has been called DHL Newlands. On the surface, this may look like a blunt sponsorship, but when I started to think about how many times I heard both those names in all references on SuperSport or elsewhere to any games at those iconic stadiums, it started to feel like a smart investment. How much breakthrough would either brands have achieved by investing instead in advertising? I’m convinced it would not have been nearly as much.

Every brand that is looking to make an impact needs to at the outset look for any hard-working donkeys that may help elevate it — and ultimately ensure it becomes the one that is purchased.

 

Martin MacGregorMartin MacGregor (@MartMacG) is managing director of Connect, an M&C Saatchi Company, with offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Martin has spent 18 years in the industry, and has previously worked at Ogilvy and was MD of MEC Nota Bene in Cape Town. He contributes the monthly “Media Redefined” column, in which he challenges norms in the media space, to MarkLives.com.

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2 replies on “Media Redefined: Sponsors and the search for hard-working donkeys”

  1. Two related points stand out for me: Passion-point and Hard Work.

    Passion defines the ‘rightness’ of the sponsorship; whether it will connect with the consumer on one of the very many touchpoints they encounter daily.
    Hard Work has to define the result; a positive outcome, which in most cases is conversion of awareness to sale.

    In the case of Hyundai, I accept that every one of the World Cup fans has the potential to go out an buy a Hyundai (awareness converted) and have the extended association of that new-found prestige (added social capital).

    However, how many Newlands faithfulls would run out to buy cement or be moved to courier a parcel via DHL. Surely here the cost per reach vs rate of conversation doesn’t make for great ROI. And even if the KPI were awareness, then to what end?

  2. Good points Brehndan!
    On hard work and ROI, I agree that ideally any communication should lead to conversion. But as you note, it does depend on the objectives. If it is purely awareness, then the hard work the sponsored property needs to do is to ensure that awareness across the target market. If PPC and DHL were expecting conversion with their sponsorships, then I think we agree they got it wrong. Both could have looked at more targeted and engaging sponsorship solutions. However if awareness was the objective, the TV and radio commentary mentions alone would help achieve this. Whether a pure awareness strategy is the right call for any brand in this day and age, is another debate for another day!

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