WHAT HAPPENS WHEN COMEDY SPONSORSHIP GETS SOCIAL? HERE'S AN IDEA...

Comedy has huge potential for brands, not least because of its power as social currency.  The question is, are brands making the most of this potential through sponsorship and if not what could a more socially-supercharged comedy platform look like and deliver?

Historically, brands have looked down upon comedy like it’s the dark arts.  The black sheep of the sponsorship flock.  Underground, unpredictable and grungy, not polished, planned and professional like sport or even music.  Interesting then, that over the last 18 months we’ve seen big brands including mobile phone operator 3, Innocent Drinks and Fosters shift sponsorship budget out of sport and music and into comedy.  Here they find loyal audiences, cost-effective access to talent and the opportunity to show they don’t take life too seriously.  And that’s not all.  Comedy isn’t just good entertainment.  It’s great social currency.   In a world where the right kind of content is shared more quickly and easily than ever before, comedy has massive ‘share value’.   Here lies the opportunity to get so much more from comedy sponsorship than awareness that lacks value, PR that lacks relevance and live experiences that lack reach.   

When you embrace the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of comedy fans out there, active across the social web, you open up a new dimension to sponsorship activation.  Online communities give you great insight into what fans want and the cost-effective channel through which to give it to them, thanks to the social web’s built in advocacy-button.  To get the true potential out of comedy, the first question has got to be, what do comedy fans really want? 

By tapping into live forums and social networks we can listen to the natural banter that runs through communities of everyone from comedy connoisseurs to everyday people who love to laugh (aren’t we all fans of comedy in some form or other?).  One thing rings loud and true.  People love live comedy and they want more of it.  How often have you heard someone say, ‘We went to a comedy gig last night.  Never heard of most of them but it was bloody brilliant.  Don’t know why we don’t do it more’? 

Where there’s desire, there’s opportunity to add value.  And it’s the stuff that’s valued that gets shared and remembered.  If we were a brand engaged in comedy sponsorship or thinking about it, we would set out to become the hosts and facilitators of the most active comedy community.  Nike boast the world’s largest running community.  It works because the fan base is there and the opportunity to add value is broad, varied and long term, from soundtracks to crowd sourced runs to product purchase.  This is not a dip in and out activation.  It’s a longterm relationship.  Running fans will love running til their knees give out, just like comedy fans will always want to laugh.

So, what would our Comedy Club look like and how would Brand X benefit?   Comedy Club would host the best of the best in live comedy content and give members access to an ongoing and ever-evolving calendar of live gigs, from up-and-coming talent at your local pub to Alan Partridge at the MENA.  Members would earn ‘Smile Miles’ when they shared their favorite content.  Smile Miles would act as live event credits, a kind of Comedy Currency.  On average, people share content with 66 others, so Comedy Club would grow and grow.  Brand X would support grass roots by rewarding the most shared talent with their own gigs.  Comedy Club would always lead with the best content as voted by the people, so quality of content would always be high. 

This is a platform built on audience insight first, not sponsorship opportunity.  Comedy Club would be fed by a number of sponsorship deals and associations with Brand X’s pick of new talent, big talent, venues and ticket sellers.  It’s hard not to point how incredibly appropriate Comedy Club would be as a footfall driver to pubs and bars, the natural home of easy-access live gigs.

Comedy Club is an example of what a more ‘social approach’ to sponsorship can look like.  It shows how a layer of real value that is often missing from traditional sponsorship activation can be created and how choice of assets should be driven by concept, not vice versa.

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SOCIAL MEDIA MAKES FANS INTO BIGGER FANS

Some of our research into how fans feed their passions through social media is starting to come through.  

It's interesting stuff.

As is always the case with the best stats, we're finding ourselves nodding and smiling as it all makes so much sense.

We really liked this one: 

Across fans of sport, music, fashion, film, arts and gaming an average of 60% of those questioned (501 respondents) said they were 'more engaged in their passions because of social media'.

Football fans are loving their teams more.  Live music lovers are following their bands further.  Goggle-eyed gamers are playing harder and more.  Culture vultures are going deeper. 

So folks, this reinforces how social media isn't just a new place to put stuff.  

It's a place where you will find the most direct connections to the biggest numbers of the most active fans of the passions your brands are involved with. 

We're pulling the research together now and will have it ready for you in the New Year...fresh facts and figures for 2011.

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SPONSORSHIP'S ROLE IN RETAINING 'CONTROL' IN SOCIAL MEDIA.

Sponsorship gives brands a fantastic access point into Social Media, especially those with concerns about 'loss of control'.  Consumers are given free reign to say what they think, wherever and whenever they want...and for some brand owners, this is scary stuff.

The Social Media industry gives some stock responses to the calls for clarity and confidence:

"Your consumers are talking about your brand through social media anyway.  You have no choice but to get involved."

"It's not a question of whether to do social media.  It's a question of how."

"You've just got to jump right in with both feet.  Fortune favours the brave."

Although true, none of these responses restore confidence or give brand owners a sensible pathway into social media.  Sponsorship is a great way to dip that toe in the wide open ocean that is Social Media.  Here's the '3 Ps' that make the difference:

1. PASSION-POWERED CONTENT

Sponsorship operates in a space where activity is inspired by people and their passions or interests.  

In Social Media, the Sponsorship-driven conversation is smaller, warmer and more welcoming than many other brand conversations that take place, such as customer service.   

2. PARTICIPATIVE COMMUNICATIONS

Great Sponsorship ideas are 'participative'.  Social Media facilitates participation in a big way.  

When consumers are part of the solution, Sponsorship platforms are co-created and co-owned.  This strengthens a brand's positive bond with the community that helped build them and share them.

3. POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP

The big opportunity for brands in Sponsorship is to help consumers and customers get more from their passions.  Today, it's more about enablement than entertainment.  Sponsorship's social voice is insightful, helpful and value-adding - part of an intrinsically positive conversation. 

So, yes.  Regardless of whether your brand 'does' Social Media or not, consumers are 'doing' it and they are talking about you.  And, yes. you do have to get involved to reap the rewards.  

Sponsorship is a great way to enter the world of Social Media confidently and positively.

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FEED THE FANS AND BUILD BRAND HUNGER

Communities of fans are a hotbed of high quality insights, inspiration and ideas for brands looking to create Sponsorship Platforms that give their consumers what they want.  

Something exciting happens when you ask fans what they want and then give it to them: they get hungry for more.  

Not just for more of what they want, but for more opportunities to contribute their thoughts, voice their needs and express their desires.

As these thoughts, needs and desires are answered in the form of new experiences and content from brands, consumers get savvy, they get a taste for it...and look out for the next opportunity to shape their lifestyle experiences through brands.

The brand becomes the catalyst, the enabler, the man that makes it happen.

This is interesting stuff.  

This is not brand PUSHING to consumer.

This not brand PULLING consumer in.

This is consumer PULLING brand in.

For the consumer, brand becomes 'opportunity to get me closer'.

josh@robinsonpincus.com

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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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