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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