While reviewing my news feeds a week or so ago, I came across an announcement that Qantas had taken up naming rights sponsorship of the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix. It was a short announcement, but the implications are much bigger.

The first consideration is that Qantas is already the official airline partner of the Australian Grand Prix, giving them a credible and appropriate platform around this event. In 2001, they actually downgraded from naming rights to that level.

I believe they’ve got this wrong and should have stayed at the official partner level, as they were in the perfect position to do what is referred to as “ambushing up”. The thinking is similar to ambush marketing, but not the mechanics. In an ambushing-up situation, a sponsor takes their perfectly legitimate sponsorship and leverages it so effectively – creating so much target market connection and meaning – that they get the marketing results you would expect from a much bigger sponsor.

While there are plenty of good reasons to take up naming rights sponsorship, in most situations, it is unnecessary. Being thorough and creative and focusing on the connection with the target market, not the property, can create huge results – much bigger than your typical naming rights sponsor, who concentrates on visibility, not creating real returns for the brand.

Every sponsor can benefit from ambushing up, and the airline category is in the ideal position to do it. They have planes full of bored people reading their magazines and watching their videos. They have lounges, terminals, and gates. They have ongoing relationships with millions of frequent flyers to nurture. They have travel agents and corporate accounts who need fostering. They send millions of emails to their customers and frequent flyers. Their online experience is heavily used, but virtually commoditised, and could do with some interesting, relevant content.

Airlines have so many customer touchpoints – and most of them provide a comparatively lengthy and captive opportunity to enhance the customer experience. They have countless opportunities to create real, meaningful wins for all or most of their target markets, so why aren’t they doing it? Why does Qantas they think having a bigger sponsorship is a better approach than actually… you know… using the one they’ve got?

As a Qantas customer who both flew with them and bought tickets online just last week, I can tell you firsthand that what they are doing is pretty standard, old school stuff. Case in point, if you go to their website – www.qantas.com.au – you’ll notice a that you could “win a trip to the Grand Prix”. Hoo-wee, now there’s some innovation! I get to give them my details for the slim chance of being the one person who wins two economy class tickets to Melbourne to watch the racing for the weekend!! Yawn.

Oh, and any frequent flyer can pay almost $2000 to use the Qantas Skydeck at the race. Any frequent flyer – you don’t have to be loyal or important to Qantas, you don’t have to be invited to participate, and it’s not in any way exclusive. You just have to have $2000 and a frequent flyer number. Their most frequent flyers can’t even cash in any of their millions of points to get a spot.

Seriously, it’s two weeks before a huge international event they’re sponsoring – now at an even higher level – and that’s the best they can do? They should be embarrassed.

Naming rights of an event of this size is a huge financial commitment and provides a commensurately huge platform to leverage. If a sponsor is prepared to fully leverage the opportunity – investing the time, creativity, and resources required – then naming rights is a viable option. On the other hand, if a sponsor can’t be bothered getting a lower level sponsorship right, stepping up is an opportunity wasted.

There is also the issue of timing. The announcement was dated 24 February. The race weekend is 25-28 March. Even if Qantas is justified in spending up for this bigger platform – and I’m not at all convinced that they are – all they’ve done is bought a larger opportunity. Leverage is what turns that opportunity into results for a brand. What kind of leverage program will create a result from a platform of that scope? One that takes a lot longer than a month to plan and implement!

As canvassed in my recent blog, Bad Idea #77: Sponsor the Olympics Three Weeks Before the Games, strong leverage planning takes time to build buy-in and go though the creative process. It also takes time to implement. Does Qantas have time to create in-flight content? A new ad? Create and launch a loyalty promotion? Anything of meaning that is above and beyond what they could have done with the lower level sponsorship, and do it in the space of four weeks? Doubtful.

This leaves the question of why they bumped up the investment, when it was both unnecessary and unworkable, from a marketing point of view. Without being a mind-reader, experience tells me there are three main options:

1. They have let their corporate ego get the best of them
2. They are under the impression that potential inbound passengers (people coming to Australia) are unaware that Qantas exists and that simply seeing the name Qantas ad infinitum during the telecast will somehow magically make people understand why they should choose Qantas for their travels. (It would have to be magic, because reams of research have proven that visibility does not change the perceptions or behaviours around a brand.)
3. They are trying to position themselves in a positive light with state and local government by stepping in with major, white knight funding at the last minute.

I’m very interested in your take on this. Why do you think they’ve done it? Do you think this major sponsorship increase is justifiable and why? Please post your answers below. Comments are moderated, but only because there are some real creeps in this world. Go ahead and fire away!

After hundreds of thousands of downloads, I thought it was high time to give my white papers a format that is as professional and well thought-out as I hope the content is. While I was at it, I also did some updates and revisions.

Want to have a look? The download links are below. All are in PDF form and most are around 250kb. “Last Generation Sponsorship” is around 1mb, as it has a lot of diagrams.

You are welcome to share these documents around, but please do not link directly to the PDF download (called “deep linking”) without my permission. You are more than welcome to link to this blog or our Sponsorship Articles and Tools page.

Sponsorship white papers

• “Last Generation Sponsorship” – My blockbuster white paper on best practice sponsorship, downloaded almost 400,000 times, reprinted in many, many industry publications in eight languages. Download it for yourself. Download it for your partners. Download it for your boss, board, or colleague. This article is guaranteed to get anyone thinking more strategically about sponsorship!
• “Sponsorship in a Scary Economy” – A very topical paper with practical skills for both sponsors and sponsorship seekers.
• “Survival Guide for the New Sponsorship” – Practical things you can do to shift your organisation’s approach into best-practice.
• “Don’t Go to Another Sponsorship Conference Until You Read This” – All sponsorship conferences are NOT created equal. This great guide will help you sort the good from the bad (and make organisers of the bad ones really miserable, if you want to).
• “Sponsorship and the Public Sector” – A wake-up call for all government sponsorship seekers.
• “Top Ten Tips for Sponsorship Seekers” – Short and sharp, this is a must read for sponsorship seekers, particularly if you’re new to the game.
• “What Every CMO Needs to Know About Sponsorship” – Aimed at corporate chief marketing officers, this white paper offers advice about the high-level decisions and directives that will impact on sponsorship results.

Sponsorship cheat sheets

• “Cheat Sheet: Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Sponsorship Broker” - This is a compilation of questions that will allow great brokers to shine, expose the shonks, and clarify the weaknesses and strengths of all the brokers in between.
• “Cheat Sheet: Marketing Terms a Sponsorship Seeker Must Know” – This is a list of some of the most common, but confusing, terms that sponsors use when describing their objectives and target markets. If you want to ensure you know what sponsors are talking about, be sure you know all of them!

Please, tell me what you think!

Have you read any of these white papers or cheat sheets? Got a comment? Please, add your comments below. I’d love to see them!

Please note, comments are moderated, but we get through them quite quickly. Spammers just get sneakier and sneakier!

The Winter Olympics are in full swing and the organisers are busy implementing draconian “anti-ambush” laws. Too bad they won’t work.

Anti-ambush legislation is mainly about tightening existing IP laws, bolting on a few proximity laws, and trying to control old-school communication channels. It is pedantic to the point of restricting freedom of expression – just ask the people of Vancouver – but still doesn’t stop ambush marketing.

Rather than “we’ve got you covered” platitudes, major events should front up with some home truths. They won’t, however, so I will. There are three major things that a sponsor can do to protect themselves.

Ensure your brand is a natural match

The first thing you need to do, before you commit to any major sponsorship, is to ensure that your brand is a natural match to the sponsorship – better than your competitors. One exercise for determining the fit (and your competitors’) goes like this:

First, make a list of all of your brand’s attributes and values. Describe your brand really thoroughly. Then do the same for your key competitors. Go through the lists and cross out any attributes and values that you share with your competitors, because they don’t count. Now, you’re left with the ways in which you are different. Compare these lists with a list of all of the attributes and values of the event you’re considering to determine which brand is the best match.

If your brand is clearly the best fit, it will be hard work for any of your competitors to create a strategic ambush. On the other hand, if one or more of your competitors is a better natural match than your brand, don’t invest. You will be a sitting duck for ambush. Even if they don’t do any overt ambush activity, people will tend to assume they’re the sponsor. That’s what is referred to as a “natural ambush”.

Think outside the event

Major events cost a lot of money, so it’s easy to think that’s where the value lays and concentrate your leverage on the event itself. Bad idea.

Of course, you should leverage the event itself, but do not ignore the larger event experience. There is a whole world of event experience outside of the major event you’re sponsoring. Just ask the people of Vancouver whether they’re having an event experience. I’ll be having an event experience watching those nuts on luges on TV at the pub. All the chatter in social media is part of the event experience. The real value is in the personal experiences, the stories, of the people you are targeting. That isn’t controlled by the event and laws can’t control it either. The winner in the sponsor vs ambusher competition is the one who leverages the entire event experience.

Add value

The question is then, how do you leverage that entire event experience. Do you try to “own” the experience? Turn your message up to eleven? Again, that’s a bad idea.

First off, it won’t work, because the whole point of the larger experience is that it is owned and controlled by the people, making it the most authentic forum around the event. Disrespect that – try to “own” it – at your own peril.

Instead, concentrate on adding value to that event experience. Improve the not-great stuff and amplify the best stuff, with the goal being to provide small, meaningful benefits that will demonstrate your understanding of your target markets, enhance their experience, and make your brand a welcome and appreciated part of it. If you don’t, an ambusher will.

A good example of this in Vancouver is the Bell Ice Cube, hosted by Bell (Canada). They have created a purpose-built venue that will operate as a free live site and host a live show every afternoon with Olympians. Yes, they will certainly be showcasing their products, but they are also creating an epicentre where people who may not have got tickets to the events can meet Olympians and immerse themselves in the Olympic experience. A number of Games sponsors are doing live sites, some are embarking on great social media campaigns – the key for them, and for you, is to think outside the event.

Ambush prevention really isn’t that tough, but it’s not the law or the event that will save you. In fact, ambush prevention has very little to do with defence and everything to do with your choices, your creativity, and your thoroughness. Sponsor well and there is no room for ambush.

There have been a few great questions on LinkedIn groups lately, particularly the Sponsorship Insights group. I put my two cents in on the discussion boards, but thought other readers might find them useful.

One question I found was about the five key factors sponsors take into account when selecting sponsorship. Great question! The problem is, the factors some sponsors do use for selection are a long way from the factors sponsors should use for selection.

Being a best practice sponsorship zealot, I’ve gone the route of what sponsors should be taking into consideration, and these are my top five:

1.

Did the event/property do any homework before they contacted me? Was the proposal customised? Was it about my brand at all, or simply about their worthiness or need? Customisation is not an absolute requirement, but in the initial stages, will tell you a lot about how professional and astute this potential partner is.

From here on in, they are absolutes…

2.

Is the event/property relevant and meaningful to my target market? Note, I didn’t say “does it reach my target market”. Getting in front of a market is old school thinking, connecting with them in a meaningful way is where it’s at now.

3.

Do we have sufficient lead-time to create and implement a leverage plan? For most major sponsors, we are talking several months, at minimum, and six months to a year or more for major investments.

4.

Do I have buy-in, internally? Sponsorship is no longer supported by huge amounts of incremental support, but is used as a catalyst to make already budgeted activities work harder, or replace less effective existing activities. (Yes, there are exceptions, such as quadrennial events, which are so big as to warrant war-chesting some budget and spending up on extra activity.) The key to using sponsorship in this way – maximising results and minimising incremental spend – is to get buy in and a commitment to leverage before starting negotiations. An extra bonus is that the process of creating that buy-in also creates a brains trust for creativity and troubleshooting.

5.

Can I negotiate the benefits I need, which based on the leverage ideas emanating from my stakeholders, are probably much different that they are offering? Can we get those benefits at a price point that is appropriate and within my budget? If it’s appropriate and desirable, but more that I have to spend, can I access other budgets, offer useful in-kind benefits in lieu of some of the fee, or otherwise get creative without disadvantaging my potential partner?

There are a few more hygiene factors, such as ensuring it doesn’t contravene any category exclusivity you require and that it fits in the context of your whole portfolio, but assuming those areas are in line, those are my top five.

If you want more on sponsorship selection, you can find more specifics in some of my other blogs. I suggest you click on the topics of sponsorship selection and sponsorship leverage.

There are also some good white papers for sponsors, downloadable from the Free Stuff section of this website, http://www.powersponsorship.com/free-stuff.html.

Good luck!

I have recently started getting involved in discussion groups on linked in and wow, what a lot of great questions there are! Today, I addressed a question about the top five things a sponsorship seeker should bring to a presentation to a sponsor.

Before I found the question, many people had answered, but those answers had a lot more to do with how sponsorship has been sold in the past than how it should be sold, and how the world’s most successful sponsorship seekers sell it. And when I talk about the world’s most successful, I’m not talking about the biggest. No, I’m talking about the sponsorship seekers who increase their sponsorship year-on-year, even in really tough years. I’m talking about sponsorship seekers who deepen and extend their relationships with sponsors, until they become one of the highest-performing sponsorships in those sponsors’ portfolios. I’m talking about sponsorship seekers who engender such fierce loyalty and support from their sponsors that they actively advocate the property to other sponsors.

If that’s what you want, you need to drop all the crap about “impression rates” and ROI. Impressions and visibility as sales tools are about 20 years out of date. And as a sponsorship seeker, you are in no position to be able to tell a sponsor what the sponsor’s returns are against their many and varied objectives. While you’re at it, drop all the overt, self-important hoo-ha about how great or needy or worthy you are. You’re selling. It’s about the sponsor’s need, not your need or your ego.

That said, this is what I recommend you bring/discuss/incorporate into your offer:

1.

Evidence that you understand the sponsor’s brand (attributes, values, personality), target markets (psychographic more than demographic), and objectives. This is actually quite easy to get, if you know where to look.

2.

Creative ideas for leverage. Your proposal must be anchored on creative ideas you’ve come up with for them to leverage the sponsorship. Put yourself in their shoes. If you could do ANYTHING what would you do with the sponsorship. The best several ideas will form the core of your proposal.

3.

Examples of how your other sponsors have achieved a commercial return, defined as changing the perceptions and/or behaviours of their target markets. This can include financial data, but much of this can be measured in other ways, such as increasing propensity to try or trust. This shows that you know how to be a partner and know it’s not about you and your need.

4.

Market research from your most recent event. Bonus points if you have asked what the three best and three worst things are about the event, as it shows you are a) asking the right questions; and b) have some opportunities for your sponsor to amplify the good stuff and fix the bad stuff, creating added value for the audience.

5.

Short case studies about how other similar sponsors have done amazing, creative things around sponsorships like this. This shows how astute you are and gives the sponsor a high comfort level about working with you. Again, this information is not hard to find, but you have to know where to look.

If you need a rundown on the whole sponsorship sales and servicing process, complete with numerous checklists, brainstorming exercises, and templates, you may want to get hold of my book, The Sponsorship Seeker’s Toolkit 3rd Edition.