The New World of Sponsorship

THE BRAND EXPERIENCE AGENCY

ISSUE 03 || OCTOBER 2012

THE PLAYREPORT A brief study on the changing landscape

of experiential marketing.

SPONSORSHIP

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Featuring Adidas’s Take the Stage, H&M’s Kiss for a Cause and Gillette’s Get Started Campaigns

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HelloWelcome to issue 3 of The PLAY Report.

In this issue, we have packaged some inspiring international sponsorship case studies into a simple, 12-page report. 

Sponsorship in 2012 is far more than the logo exposure of old. It's now the conduit to an emotional connection with experience-hungry consumers seeking excitement, interactivity, instant gratification, exclusivity and ultimately, bragability. Smart sponsors are craftily tailoring their rights and benefits packages to build bespoke and relevant activations to latch onto their target; "off the shelf" sponsorship packages are no longer an option. 

Celebrity ambassadors (like David Beckham for adidas) are no longer just appearing in advertising, but engaging with a handful of lucky consumers in unexpected ways and creating branded content to share with millions. As brands evolve in parallel with the web and technology, there's an emergence of new mediums which exceed the boundaries of anything we've known before. We are, without doubt, sitting on the precipice of a whole new world of sponsorship.

Take the next 20 minutes to explore how brands around the globe are moulding the future.

Best Regards,The PLAY Team

EVIANBALL HUNT

VOLKSWAGENDRIVING EXPERIENCE

HEINEKENCOLD STORAGE ROOM

ADIDASTAKE THE STAGE

GILLETTE GET STARTED

THE NEW WORLD OF SPONSORSHIP

Did you know?

Increasing brand loyalty is the most popular reason for marketers to engage in sponsorship. SPONSORHUB.COM

Nike pays Lebron James and Kobe Bryant upward of $15 million a year.FORBES.COM

In 2011 PepsiCo spent the most on sponsorship, investing between $340-345 million. ADAGE.COM

$48.6billion was spent on sponsorship globally in 2011.SPONSORHUB.COM

76% of sponsors invest in sport.SPONSORHUB.COM

Category exclusivity remains the most valuable benefit, scoring 62% in the latest survey of sponsorship decision-makers, followed by on-site signage and broadcast ad opportunities.RAB.COM

McDonald’s, Omega, P&G, Panasonic, Samsung and Visa each spent $99.6 million on sponsoring the London 2012 Olympic Games.GUARDIAN

Roger Federer is the highest paid Olympian with earnings of $54.3 million in July 2011-12. $45 million was from appearances and sponsors including Nike, Rolex, Wilson, Credit Suisse, Gillette and Mercedes-Benz.FORBES.COM

86%of sponsors use consumer attitude to the brand measure ROI.MARKETING MAG

DID YOU KNOW?

THE NEW WORLD OF SPONSORSHIP

LIGHT AND WATER USED TO SUPPORT US OLYMPIC TEAM

Gillette Lights Up Boston Nights for Olympic GloryProcter & Gamble’s brand Gillette created a spectacular display of light and water to wish Team USA good luck at the 2012 London Olympic Games. The display – that combined a series of projections onto buildings, walls and water – commenced after the opening ceremony wrapped up. The display took place on Boston Harbor, in Gillette’s home city, adjacent to the Institute of Contemporary Art. The array of splashes and flashes culminated in a water show featuring sixty-foot high holograms of athletes including Ryan Lochte diving into the harbour and Tyson Gay racing towards victory. Multiple projectors, each valued at over thirty-five thousand dollars, displayed video images onto a canvas made from water vapour sprayed into the air. Patented video mapping technology was used to create the customised graphics, animations and video footage. It was a creative collaboration between Gillette’s agency teams and formed part of the brand’s global ‘Get Started’ campaign.

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PERSPECTIVE

Leverage�projection technology in�unassuming, large format public spaces

to create dynamic brand experiences. Amplify the experience online to use

digital touch points to maximise reach and ROI.�

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ADIDAS TAKE THE STAGE WITH DAVID BECKHAM

Team GB Fans Receive the Surprise of Their LivesAdidas’ sponsorship of the 2012 London Olympic Games was executed through ‘Take the Stage’, an integrated campaign that included television, outdoor and digital advertising. As part of this campaign, Adidas erected a photo booth at the Westfield Stratford City shopping centre in East London.Participants were invited to ‘take the stage’ in Adidas attire and show their support for Team Great Britain through a series of photographs. Unbeknownst to the participants, world famous soccer star David Beckham was hiding in a secret section of the photo booth. As they smiled, posed and prepared for their photo to be taken, Beckham unexpectedly stepped out to surprise them.Adidas filmed and photographed the reactions of the sixty lucky people who posed with the star. Footage was transformed into a video that went viral.“It was a unique experience for me and the people who took part and there were some great reactions when we surprised them in the photo booth,” said Beckham of the experience.

PERSPECTIVE

Adidas created� true connection and opportunity beyond the transactional

conversation. Using a simple but effective 'surprise and delight' mechanic, Adidas invoked

emotion and envy amongst consumers and fans worldwide, sending the

experience viral.

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PERSPECTIVE

Technology drives offline conversations online, and online conversations offline.

H&M have created a campaign that connects the very emotion of everyday life and relationships directly back to

the brand.

H&M USE INSTAGRAM TO ENGAGE WITH MARKET

H&M use instagram to Spread Festival Love Music festival Coachella insists all sponsorship activation be subtle and true to the property spirit. Retail clothing company H&M designed an interactive campaign that successfully achieved these prerequisites. Aptly called Kiss for a Cause, the campaign encouraged festivalgoers to generate instagram photos of themselves kissing one another with the accompanying hash tag #kissforacause.Uploaded images were then printed on site and physically stuck around the interior of H&M’s igloo (their Coachella headquarters), to build an interior full of photographs. The campaign, which was designed to raise funds and awareness for Fashion Against AIDS (FAA), was not exclusive to festivalgoers - anyone could participate by uploading kissing shots to instagram. For every photo uploaded H&M have donated $1 to Fashion Against AIDS.The Kiss for a Cause fashion collection was also on display via flat screen TVs mounted on the igloo walls. The range went on sale at the end of April 2012, using the music festival as a launching pad. Twenty-five per cent of proceeds go to FAA.

THE NEW WORLD OF SPONSORSHIP

COCA-COLA EMPLOY BAND TO ENGAGE WITH FANS

Coke Elevate the Concert Experience Coca-Cola Columbia was challenged with how to promote their online radio station, Coke FM. The soft drink giant enlisted the support of a local band with a large following to host a live concert at an altitude of fifty metres. The band was suspended above the crowd of excitable fans who were encouraged to literally and manually ‘download’ the band. Attendees had to download songs from the band’s latest album on the Coke FM mobile site. A live display on the stage screen displayed the number of active downloads. For every track that was downloaded the band was lowered until they were finally on level with the fans. This idea executed by Ogilvy and Mather Bogota was undeniably a success. 50,000 downloads were achieved in just one hour, interaction time on the site increased by 800 percent with 337 percent more visitors. Concerts were also held in Sao Paula, Mexico City and Quito.

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Online music is not new, neither is a live concert. However, when the live

concert becomes a real-time exercise to download and affect what you are

watching, it takes engagement to a whole new level. The objective: get the band

to ground. Engagement and interaction all in one place.

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EVIAN INTEGRATE THE PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL WORLD

Consumers Hunt for�Wimbledon TicketsAs part of their sponsorship of Wimbledon, bottled water giant Evian ran a real-time social media ball hunt with exclusive VIP tickets up for grabs. 

Contestants were supplied with clues via Facebook and the Evian Twitter feed @evian_uk on a ball boy’s whereabouts. Once he was found consumers were instructed to check in at the location through social media and were also handed a pink numbered tennis ball. Between the 22nd and 25th of June a number was selected at random each day and the winner received a pair of VIP tickets. The Evian Ball Hunt was designed to bring the Evian Live Young Spirit and Wimbledon partnership to life.

Other sponsorship activities included an outdoor marketing campaign with brand ambassador Maria Sharapova, an Evian cafe at the Wimbledon grounds, Wimbledon themed bottles and interactive, branded content on the official Wimbledon website.  Furthermore, those queuing at the Wimbledon entrance were invited to ‘live young’ in Evian’s pink shipping container that housed a ping pong table and photo competitions.

Evian has signed on to be the official bottled water for Wimbledon for a further five years.

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PERSPECTIVE

Evian has used a multitude of touch points to create an all encompassing brand experience, where people engage with the brand at all phases of the campaign. Each

medium plays a specific and relevant role turning the whole experience into

an integrated adventure.

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HEINEKEN IMPLEMENT FINGERPRINT RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY

Festivalgoers Keep Their Drinks Cool with Hi-Tech Storage RoomKeeping drinks cool at a music festival has long been an issue plaguing multi-day festival goers. Official sponsor of the 2012 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Annual Festival, Heineken, offered a solution to this problem by introducing "The Cold Storage Room", a fingerprint recognition refrigerator.The Cold Storage Room was set up at  the opening gate of the festival to ensure it was visible to all entrants. The activation was accessible to all camping ticket holders and allowed them to store up to two cases of Heineken canned beer at no cost. The onsite team scanned consumers fingerprints, then tagged and stored each person’s brew at a chilled one degree. Beer was retrieved by simply re-scanning fingertips. Participants who purchased a twelve pack were also entitled to a $25 rebate off the purchase of their festival ticket. Heineken successfully created genuine added value for Coachella attendees.

PERSPECTIVE

Simplifying seemingly out of reach technologies into a youth based experience brings the idea of the future to life. Further,

it solves a market problem in the process. Technology has the answer to everything,

we just need to open our minds to identify the right solution.

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THE NEW WORLD OF SPONSORSHIP

MOUNTAIN DEW SEEK FANS PARTICIPATION

Mountain Dew Use Earnhardt to Promote The Dark Knight Pepsi Co’s Mountain Dew, the official sponsor of NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Junior, collaborated with Warner Bros to promote the much- anticipated movie, The Dark Knight Rises. In celebration of its release, Earnhardt was supplied with a custom fire suit to race in and his No 88 car received a Batman-themed makeover. The design of the real life ‘Batmobile’ was voted for by members of the ‘Dew Crew’ - an online, brand-led club. The Dew Crew’s Facebook application became an online hub where users had access to exclusive content and movie teasers, some of which was only accessible by product code. The hub also included interactive elements, where users could earn points and win prizes by doing simple tasks. One of the prizes was a copy of The Dark Knight Rises script, signed by the movie director. Not only did this campaign resonate well with comic fans, but it also gained traction in the 18 - 24 year old male market by allowing them to be a part of the NASCAR decision-making process.In addition, Mountain Dew released a Batman inspired flavour, Dark Berry in the lead up to the film. The packaging included the Bat symbol, which changed colour when the drink was chilled.

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Gamification is not new, we have been testing ourselves since the dawn of time with real time rewards. Leverage brand

collaborations by utilising the crowd, social media and tangible outputs and

what you have is total consumer engagement.

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SYDNEY SWANS INTERACT WITH THEIR SPONSORS

Volkswagen Drive the Swans in Top Gear PLAY have executed many sponsorship activation projects, with one recent being Volkswagen’s Drive Days for the Sydney Swans AFL team. To celebrate their sponsorship of the Sydney Swans, Volkswagen invited a team of 30 players and staff to attend an exhilarating day on Sydney’s Eastern Creek Circuit. The day’s focus was to not only familiarise the players with the Volkswagen product range, but also to give an educational driver training experience. Participants worked one on one with professional driving instructors to help them understand the vehicle’s technology and how to implement the technology in everyday driving. The day’s learnings culminated in a full circuit lap in the highest performance Volkswagen vehicles, testing the athletes’ limits.

PERSPECTIVE

Brands need to add reciprocal value to properties to ensure the partnership is beneficial on many levels. Forge strong relationships by creating engaging and

relevant activities to entertain and interact with property owners

and talent.

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PLAY is a communication agency that specialises in Brand Experience Marketing. We activate brands, leverage sponsorships, create events and branded environments, and maximise every connection through mobile and digital amplification. We are known for our strategic, accountable and business centric approach. Our clients understand that we deliver sales, differentiate their brand and products, and build loyalty across consumer, trade and internal audiences.

WHO WE ARE

We are experiential thinkers. We place the customer experience at the centre of what we do. This enables us to identify channel neutral, high impact marketing opportunities for our clients and ensures a relevant and meaningful dialogue with consumers.

WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT

WE HAVE AN EXPERIENTIALMIND AND A DIGITAL SPIRITConsumers don't differentiate between a digital and real life experience with a brand. Neither do we. We fuse our strategic, creative, digital and activation capabilities into a seamless experience, delivering against defined business objectives.

For new business and press enquiries please contact:Simon Horauf // Founder & Directorsimon@playcommunication.com.au or phone 0422 055 839

For other business enquiries please contact:Shani Langi // Managing Directorshani@playcommunication.com.au

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