SPONSORSHIP GETS YOU CLOSER TO YOUR CONSUMER

We will shortly release the results of global research that explores:

- how we feed our passions online

- what kind of passion-driven content we share with others 

- how we as consumers feel about brands getting involved

Early data supports a recurring theme: that we are not only happy but eager for brands to help us 'get closer' to our passions.  By 'get closer', we mean more access, more involvement, more opportunity.  In there like swim wear, not just watching from the periphery.

The essence of this desire is not new: We always have and always will want to get as up-close-and-personal as we can to what we want.  

But now, technology has amplified this desire.  The more we engage with our passions and others who share our passions online, the more we want to feed those passions and nurture those new relationships in the 'real world'.  iTunes Genius opens us up to new bands we want to see live.  Ideo encourages us to contribute more to projects that excite us.  LinkedIn establishes new productive relationships that trickle off the screen and into conferences and coffee shops.  

It's human nature to want to get as close as possible to what you love, need, want.

All this reinforces 'the new value of help' (see earlier post) and the role of sponsorship platforms that give consumers what, without brands, they cannot have: exclusive access, privileged opportunities, priority placement.  

Consumer insight is therefore more important than ever.  Insight must be deep for content to be king.  And guess what?  Social communities built around passions are a great place to start.  Active groups of passionate people already discussing and debating what they would love more of...what they would love to happen next.

Look out for the full research report published in a few weeks.

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SPONSORSHIP SOCIALIZATION

Could Social Media be the New Lease of Life Sponsorship Needs?

Sponsorship and its activation evolved principally out of PR, it gave PR exciting and credible content to build stories around brands.

As the industry developed, other benefits to sponsorship beyond PR content evolved (brand awareness, image association, sales, etc.) and in response sponsorship became content to be leveraged across other disciplines. Whilst this has been a success for the industry, we increasingly found and find ourselves being measured by factors out of our control. ‘Our success often sits in the hands of others…’

Furthermore the economic pressures of the last few years have driven brands to either end of the sponsorship objectives continuum. On one end, Sponsorship as a ‘cost effective’ brand awareness/ stature vehicle, and the other, Sponsorship as a means of engaging consumers/ customers through their passions and in their leisure time. The middle, the unrealistic staple of the last 15 years has now gone.

If you’re using sponsorship for engagement, then we need to find a new lease of life and take back control of our discipline. Could Social Media be that opportunity? We think so. The union of Social Media with Sponsorship works, because;

1. The way consumers behave - Social Media is heavily fuelled by ‘shared interests & passions’, and 2. Sponsorship engages through ‘shared interests and passions’, but with Social Media, Sponsorship can now deliver;

-        Greater Richness and Closeness

-        Bigger Reach for Less

-        Longevity beyond a single event

-        An easy transition into CRM/ Sales

-        Measurement like never before

Ben Pincus

ben@robinsonpincus.com

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THE NEW VALUE OF 'HELP'.

Consumers are increasingly intrigued and delighted by ideas that help.  Ideas that help us run our lives faster, smoother, safer, better.  We are gobbling up all manner of nifty little life-enhancing apps, tools and technologies with an incredible appetite.   

It seems we want all the help we can get. 

Teens are more interested in what their mobile phones can actually do than what make, shape or colour they are.  Londoners are embracing Boris’s bikes like they’d never seen a bicycle before, turning a blind eye to the system’s inevitable teething troubles.  And at Glasto, it’s the beer brand that’s laying on super smart queuing systems, giving punters more time with their music, that’s really turning festival-goers on.

More and more, we are inspired and excited by those things that add real functional value to our lives.   

This isn’t to say, of course, that we aren’t just as eager to be endlessly entertained.  But what happened to the ad man’s mantra, ‘sex sells’?

Are we entering a new era where ‘help sells’?

This is interesting stuff for Sponsorship & Social Media.  Content is not just about entertainment, about running recorded footage of the lucky few enjoying real life events and experiences through broadcast channels as ‘second chance’ branded entertainment.  

Consumer desire to be enabled is fresh and insatiable.

Let’s create insightful, compelling, value-adding content that helps all consumers get closer to what they love, through the brands they will grow to love.

Let’s ‘app activation’. 

Josh Robinson

josh@robinsonpincus.com

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SPONSORSHIP AND SOCIAL MEDIA - PERFECT PARTNERS

Traditional sponsorship principles are straight forward enough.

Brands/ companies want to talk about and ultimately sell their brands, products and services to consumers. This gets done predominately through ADVERTISING in ADTIME – at best, when consumers expect it or are receptive to it.

Outside ADTIME, brands can talk to consumers in their LEISURE TIME. SPONSORSHIP sits in that LEISURE TIME, around peoples PASSIONS & INTERESTS.

Sponsorship can do AWARENESS, IMAGE/ VALUE EXCHANGE and offer CONTENT for brands to connect with consumers in that LEISURE TIME.

SPONSORSHIP CONTENT can be particularly powerful as it,

1. Has the endorsement or a credible 3^rd party and

2. Addresses an already receptive and hungry audience.

Social Media’s arrival in mainstream culture has created a huge new opportunity for brands and sponsorship, specifically.  Crucially, this not just about seeing Social Media as a channel to tell consumers about a sponsorship.

SOCIAL MEDIA and SPONSORSHIP share some dynamic and unique ground: They are both fueled and powered by people’s PASSIONS & INTERESTS.

However, when SOCIAL MEDIA is INTEGRATED with SPONSORSHIP, exciting new benefits for brands emerge:

1.     DEPTH, through a real dialogue

2.     REACH, way more cost effectively

3.     LONGEVITY, beyond a single event

4.     CRM, data to integrate into sales channels

5.     MEASURABILITY, like never before

SOCIAL MEDIA could have become the new lease of life that SPONSORSHIP needs.

A final thought - Social Media opens up a raft of new opportunities for brands.  Amongst them, Sponsorship online of social media/ blogs and the opportunity to access fans without the need for rights  – more on this to follow.

Ben Pincus

ben@robinsonpincus.com

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