The alleged match fixing charges against Pakistani cricketers which have been dominating the sporting headlines recently raise two interesting questions. Firstly, will there always be match fixing in sport? Secondly, is sport really any different to any other business?

History would suggest that the answer to the first question is unfortunately a resounding yes. In ancient Greece, Olympians had to take an oath to maintain the integrity of the competition but bribes were still common. Match fixing is probably as old as sport itself.

Getting back to cricket – the English game, which first attracted gamblers as early as the 1660s, is no stranger to match fixing controversy. A decade ago Hanse Cronjé, the then South Africa captain, was charged with match fixing and players from India, Pakistan, Kenya and South Africa have all been banned since 2000.

Our national game, football, has also been tainted by match fixing. Back in 1964, eight players from the FA were jailed for it. More recently, in 1999, a Malaysian based betting group was caught installing a device to disrupt the floodlights at Charlton Athletic’s ground and further investigations revealed that the group had also been responsible for floodlight failure at both West Ham and Crystal Palace. Another footballing scandal involved Matt Le Tissier who “revealed that he once attempted to play a part in a £10,000 betting scam while a player with Southampton”.

Across the channel, French football was shocked by a match fixing scandal in 1993 involving powerhouse club Olympique de Marseille (OM). In the year that OM won the Champions League, the club fixed a match with Valenciennes. The club was subsequently stripped of its French championship. Financial irregularities linked to the club president, Bernard Tapie, were also discovered. As punishment, the club suffered a forced relegation to the second division.

Similarly, Italian football was thrown into turmoil in 2006 when several major teams, including then league champions Juventus in addition to AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio and Reggina, were all found guilty of match-fixing (the clubs actually influenced the appointment of match referees).

There are also ongoing investigations into match fixing in several other European countries and sports. In August 2010 charges were filed against two men alleged to have attempted to influence at least 10 football matches in Germany and 14 elsewhere in Europe. As I write this, John Higgins, the snooker star, is also maintaining his ‘100 per cent’ innocence into allegations he threw frames.

Arguably the most famous case of match-fixing in sport is the ‘Black Sox’ scandal. In 1919, the Chicago White Sox threw the baseball World Series. Eight members of that team received life bans for deliberately losing to the Cincinnati Reds. The ‘Black Sox’ scandal resulted from players being linked to the Chicago underworld, and set a pattern of established crime syndicates being associated with professional sports match fixing.

All these cases, and this is by no means a comprehensive list, merely demonstrate that sport is a reflection of the human character. Unfortunately that means that traits such as greed, arrogance, self-interest, to name a few, will always be present in sport. The stakes in sport are high and the punishment for breaking rules too light. The incentive to throw matches is always going to be there – and I haven’t even touched upon other sporting crimes such as doping, cheating on the field itself, breaching salary caps and other matters.

Getting back to the second question, sport is therefore no different to any other business (just look at some of the banking scandals on Wall St).  However, the ‘rotten apples’ in sport are definitely in a minority.

Nearly all sports are played, administered and governed properly and in the right spirit. Sport is far from being broken. The growth in popularity of sport on a global scale is living proof of that. The examples of good sportsmanship are just too numerous to mention but one famous one I’d like to leave you with took place in English football in the 1999/2000 season. In a surprising demonstration of fair play from a player previously banned for pushing a referee, the Italian striker Paolo Di Canio caught “the ball rather than shoot when Everton goalkeeper Paul Gerrard was on the ground injured”.

Sponsorship has been increasing in popularity as a marketing tool for brands to create awareness, drive sales or new business, and increase customer loyalty or employee engagement.  With added interest and investment in Sponsorship, brands are now beginning to tread very carefully around the marketing tool and here are some of the reasons why. 

Mismatched brands and rights

Brands spend a lot of time and money carefully planning and deciding on the right property to sponsor (either this or its Chairman’s choice).  Despite this, there are brands that have spent huge sums of money on the wrong rights, which have not paid dividends and certainly haven’t offered much return on investment.  In some cases sponsorship has had negative effects in terms of ROI and a bad fit between brand and property has led to damaged reputations for the former and reduced commercial value for the latter.  However, today, brands have become much savvier about what they attach their name to because of the huge cost of sponsorship and with the global recession this has never been as crucial as it is now. 

Financial Services

During the recession’s worst moments any financial services company about to spend money on sponsorship was met with harsh criticism and serious public backlash.  Even now, as we begin coming out of the worst of it there are still strong opinions on the practice.  Bank of America ended any talks with the New York Yankees due to huge financial difficulties and UBS cancelled its sponsorship of the Hong Kong Open after it received a $59.2 billion bailout from the Swiss government.  Both did so for fear of major public backlash.   RBS on the other hand announced $41 billion in losses just after extending its sponsorship of the Six Nations – a decision which was met with outcry, especially as it is 70% owned by the government. 

The effects of digital

With digital, bad news can travel extremely fast.  This has meant that companies have had to rethink marketing strategies.  Bad press around a property can cause devastating effects for any company that has created a strong association through heavy marketing activity.  To illustrate the enormous implications of a scandal, combined with the power of digital, just look at Tiger Woods.  As soon as the story broke about his behaviour it spread across the world in seconds.  Shareholders of Nike, Gatorade, and other sponsors consequently lost a collective of $5 to $12 billion due to a significant drop in their stock’s values. 

Embarrassment 

Poorly performing teams, embarrassing scandals, politically damaging stories.  These are all reasons for brands (or in some cases properties) to cut-off associations with partners.  Famous and very recent examples of this are Accenture dropping Tiger Woods, Nationwide dropping the FA, and only last week, two Indian state-run firms – NTPC and Power Grid Corp of India – have decided to scrap their multi-million dollar sponsorships of the Delhi Commonwealth Games due to negative publicity around allegations of corruption, mismanagement and malpractice. 

In addition, the BP oil fiasco that has engulfed the Gulf of Mexico has severely damaged the reputations of many of the arts properties it sponsors, primarily The Royal Opera House, Tate Galleries, and British Museum.

Brands are now very cautious about what they attach their name to.  Understanding sponsorship and the effect that it has on consumers is key to understanding the possible risks of association, as well as the benefits.

This week has seen the release of a new FREE ebook that is designed to help grassroots sport when it comes to unravelling the dark art of Social Media. 

It has been put together by Ash Read from www.fundsport.com who has been writing for UKSN since the start in January and also is a regular guest blogger on www.sportsnetworker.com. 

Whether your a large sports club, a Sunday league football team, or an individual athlete there’s no escaping the fact that the Internet is going to play a big part in your development, and your future.

“Social media is about adding to the enjoyment of being a part of your club – giving your members more memories, more talking points and more laughs. For athletes and clubs alike a strong online presence can separate you from others and make you stand out, this could potentially be the difference between getting sponsorship and not getting sponsorship.”

In this ebook you’ll learn:

- Why should you take advantage of social media and the Internet?
- Why should you care about social media?
- The ins and outs of social media
- How can you use social media?

It is a great read and if you are involved in sport at any level and have an interest in social media then its well worth downloading.  If you have any questions for Ash you can get hold of him on twitter on @AshRead14

Click on the picture below for your copy….

Read the full story

Geolocation has been the smash hit in the social media scene of 2010. Coming from relative obscurity in early 2010, Foursquare alone now boasts over 3 million users. With the NYC start up recently breaking it’s own record for most new users in one day, the social media darling has recently took funding to the tune of $20m while reportedly also turning down a buyout offer from Yahoo.

With Foursquare beginning to assert its authority in geolocation, one of it’s biggest possible rivals decided to step in. Earlier this month Facebook announced ‘Facebook Places’, the social networking heavyweight with over 500 million users took geolocation from niche into the mainstream overnight.

Where as location based services Foursquare, Gowalla, Hot Potato, Yelp and others relied on social networking to spread their message, Facebook turned the tables and are now trying to stamp its authority in the geolocation game by creating its own platform 

With all these recent developments, let’s look at the big players in the game right now, what they currently offer, what they may offer in the future and how sports marketers should be trying to take advantage of geolocation.

Thought geolocation was just for geeks? This billboard in Times Square begs to differ.

Facebook Places

So far Facebook Places is yet to really show its hand, while currently only available to users in the United States, the social media giant hasn’t actually released full details on how businesses can take advantage of the platform, but let’s start with a few titbits from what we know so far.

You can claim your location: Whether it’s your ball park, your front office or your training facility, you can now claim it and anything else you own. If it’s not already there, feel free to create it yourself.

You can link your Fan Page to your ‘Place’: You are able to link your Facebook ‘Place’ to your Fan Page, so do that ASAP.

Yep, that’s about all we really know so far.

For more info on Facebook Places, check out the slide below for a full introduction.

 
Facebook Places for Advertisers
 

Why Use Facebook Places?
This is one for the future. With very few features available so far, it is very hard to tell you to focus on Facebook Places – as being in such an early phase of its development it’s impossible to tell where it will go – but once the platform finds it’s feet, it will be crucial to your digital marketing plan.

Possible additions?

• Facebook Places ads: Ads that target you due to your location
• More game aspects: Features similar to mayorships, rewards, etc
• Hot Potato features (which are covered further down) this includes in-venue messaging

Foursquare

Currently the number one place for all your geolocation needs. It has the most exposure, has the biggest userbase (specifically for geolocation) and also allows you to take control of your venue. Not only these factors, but we have case studies. Manchester City, from the English Premier League, was the first team in all of professional sports to have an official presence on Foursquare. They had their own sub-page on the foursquare.com website, as well as the ability to let their fans “follow” them on Foursquare and become fans.

Text books will tell you that sport should be one of the few businesses to be recession proof. The argument you’ll read is that sport has legions of loyal fans and players who will remain committed and contribute financially even in difficult times. Such people will not be prepared to compromise on sport and will instead cut back on other items in the weekly spend.

Is there any substance to this argument?  A recent study by Sheffield Halam University for Sport England would seem to suggest that the answer is yes.  “Sport now plays a bigger part in England’s economy than at any time for the last 25 years”. Sport is boosting the wider economy and “accounts for 2.3% of all consumer spending and 1.8% of employment”. The study reveals that ”Consumer spending on sport was up by 138% in real terms between 1985 and 2008 to £17.3bn.”

Unsurprisingly, football has been an important catalyst in transforming UK sport to what it is today – a sophisticated, multi-million pound business.  Integral to all this is the “explosion of media rights” where the Premier League has played a significant role. Sportswear sales are up and shirt sponsorship deals for football clubs are bringing in large revenue streams too. This year the Premier League clubs have grossed £99.75 million for their shirt sponsorship deals. Liverpool and Manchester United both signed £20 million deals per year with Standard Chartered and AON respectively. The Old Trafford club switched to a more profitable deal after its previous one with AIG for £14m.

However, if you look beneath the surface there are signs that the recession may be having an impact. Going back to Old Trafford, Manchester United released an extra 4,000 season tickets on general sale in July this year. For a club that is typically many times over-subscribed, this is a rare step. The club issued a statement insisting that their sales are “healthy in a time of recession” and pointed out that late renewals for 2009-10 ticket holders are being dealt with. A similar story is developing on the other side of the pond. The new $1.6 billion Meadowlands stadium in New Jersey, joint home of the New York Jets and New York Giants NFL football teams, with a capacity of 82,500, is having difficulty selling its seats. Back in June, the Jets was forced to make dramatic price reductions in personal seat licenses (season-tickets) as a measure to prevent vacant seats as the season starts.

Sport is a business like any other, but it does have its own unique characteristics. Sport should be competitive, tribal and co-operative (especially in the US at the team level). Like all other businesses, however, there are certain disciplines to follow. Without being too simplistic, clubs should focus on the product (performance and results), grow revenue streams, smartly manage expenses,  closely monitor its competitors (of which there are many in the entertainment industry) and listen to its customers. If sport can emphasise such business disciplines, there is every reason to believe it can achieve one very important victory – beating the recession.

For many months now we have been evangelising on the benefits to sports stars of utilising social media.  It has helped bring us, the fans, closer to our favourite sports personalities such as Shaq O’Neill, Lance Armstrong, Rafael Nadal, Christiano Ronaldo and many more.

In this time of openness and transparency we are also seeing a clampdown by certain sports as they try to find a balance between giving their athletes freedom to speak to their fans but keeping what and when the say it in check for the good of the team/sport.

Twitter has brought this to a new level as it is so easy to send out a message on your phone at any time or place, sometimes not to the liking of their employers.  To give you a few examples of this on both sides of the pond I have highlighted a couple of these unfortunate souls;

Concinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco was fined $25,000 for using an electronic device to post messages on Twitter during a pre-season game.  Why is this such a bad thing?  Well, the NFL has banned players from possessing electronic devices during games and from using social media 90 mins before kickoff until the end of post-game media obligations.

This rule is replicated in the NBA as we see sport in the US attempt to control how social media is used by athletes whilst encouraging them to do so in helping to increase the reach of their sport.

Back here in the UK the most recent example we have is England U-19 cricketer Azeem Rafiq reacting angrily to being dropped by writing that coach John Abraham’s was a “useless w****r”.  This has lead to a ban from cricket for 1 month and a £500 fine.

England cricketers are now potentially facing a ban on using social media on the upcoming tour of Australia if media reports are to be believed.  Apparently the England management see them as a potentially divisive influence which could lead to dressing room secrets being leaked.

I hope it doesn’t come down to that as most of the senior players have a valuable presence online, especially Graeme Swann, James Anderson and Steven Finn.  With the fact that the ECB have recently hired a Social Media Executive themselves they obviously see social media as a valuable asset for now and the future.

We have yet to see a majority of footballers in the UK using Twitter but it is becoming more common with Rio Ferdinand, Robbie Savage and many others doing a good job so far.  Once it becomes more popular and we see the first incident of a player being punished for tweeting during a game then I am sure we will see similar rules being applied as in the US.

Whilst looking for some inspiration yesterday I saw a tweet about Jason Peck’s new post on ‘Sports and Social Media – why should fans care?’ which includes the views of UKSN’s very own Ash Read.

Its an interesting topic and one which is one that everyone involved from a club/league’s point of view wants to understand.  I don’t think this is a black-and-white subject with a straight forward answer; there are, as with many things, various shades of grey.

For one, each fan is not going to care the same amount about the sport/person/team and will have different reasons as to why they are a follower/fan/like.  From my own point of view when I ‘like’ something on Facebook they are not all for the same reason.

I am a Manchester United fan (though live in the South of England) and have not been to a match for a while, what you may call an armchair fan.  I am happy to advertise my allegiance but am not actively involved on the page. 

I’m also a fan of Richmond FC (because a friend of mine works there), Animal Kingdom (2 friends play in the band), 1000 Heads (I like their work), The UK Sports Network (I run it), Lotus Racing (they spoke at an event of mine) and in total about 20 given ‘likes’.  They are a mix of companies, athletes, football team, causes, friends pages and other sports.  Some are true passions whilst others are pages I have an interest in through my work.

What can you read from that?  You can make a guess about what I like and why but only I’m going to know the reasons behind it and to what level I really feel about the company/athlete/team/cause.

People pick and choose where they are active and where they are passive.  I am not very active on Facebook but more so on LinkedIn and Twitter.  We all have our favourites for what we feel most comfortable using and is of most benefit to us.

So when we talk about social media and sport, and more specifically why fans should care, what do we know? 

Sport is a very emotional subject that has at its heart a very tribal approach.  But what remains a fact is that only a small percentage are active on any one platform.  For example, on the Manchester United Facebook Page there are over 1.8m fans who have joined but for an update there are only up to a max of 14,000 comments (most less than) and many will involve more than one comment from each person.

This begs the question with social media, is it actually only a small audience you are speaking to and calling to action?

Many people on Facebook I feel use the Manchester United ‘like’ as a badge for their profile rather than something they are active on and want to become involved with.

On Twitter most people will use the updates as another source of information to go alongside the club website, main news channels and newspapers.  Basically most are what we would call a ‘passive’ audience.

Getting back to the question ‘why should fans care’ when it comes to using social media in sport, many of them don’t.  It is another source of information for some, a badge for more and a few will become very involved with you on that platform. 

This is why it is important for the club/brand to be clear about why they are using social media and have done their research before choosing which platform to use. 

If clubs can give them a reason to come to your site with behind-the-scenes info, breaking news, interviews with players and competitions then great. 

I am huge advocate of sport using social media to better connect with fans and bring all sides closer together.  But if it just about getting lots of followers then clubs are missing the point.

The massive advantage sport has above other sectors is that passion, tribal following and masses of content they own.  What clubs need to do is work out how best they can add to the experience for fans outside of the event.  Keep fans interested in what is going on and use that continued buzz to help sell match tickets, create awareness and keep people coming back for more.

This is a massive topic that Jason has tapped into and gained a few insights into but there are so many grey areas to it.  So I will ask the same question to you….

 Why should fans care??

I took up boxing about six years ago. I used to play rugby until dragging my arse down to training on a Tuesday and Thursday night in the torrential rain became too much for me, so I thought what will provide a comparable amount of physical pain on a regular basis? Boxing it was. I decided I wanted to have a crack at the amateur circuit rather than just do it for the fitness so spent a significant amount of my spare time in boxing gyms. If you’ve never been in a ‘proper’ boxing gym then I can highly recommend it. The people are cool, the coaches always willing to help, they’re cheap compared to the mainstream gyms that have infiltrated most high streets and you will be left in no doubt that you have done some exercise. More people should box!

The one thing I have always loved is the inspirational quotes which are invariably scrawled on the walls and l think some of them can be applied to a social business.  See what you think of these three I’ve picked out:

Learn to Listen

This one is from my first club in Lambeth (South London). They have some of the best amateur coaches in the country and if you listen to them…you will stand a far better chance of staying upright! In social media, listening ( aka monitoring, research) should be the corner stone of any preparation before beginning your activity, and then form part of your tool kit for ongoing brand management and program evaluation.

Protect Yourself At All Times

As one of my favourite boxers, Ricky Hatton, likes to remind us – Boxing isn’t a tickling contest. The first lesson all new boxers get taught is to keep your hands up and your chin down (which is easier said than done after a few rounds, I assure you!). If you do that and nothing else for the whole fight, you may lose but its unlikely you will get badly hurt. In social media, we have seen plenty of examples of brands getting burnt because they have had no strategy in place for a social media crisis. They don’t have their staff trained to deal with negative posts, they are too slow to respond to a crisis or they go missing completely. One of the first things a business should do before launching themselves in social media is protect themselves against getting badly hurt. Too many of them wander in with their hands down and their chins’ in the air!

It Aint The Size Of The Dog In The Fight…

From my second gym in Eltham (South East London). We all know the second half of the quote …’It’s the size of the fight in the dog’. While boxing bouts are organized by weight, as you move up the weight classes it is possible to get some major disparities. When David Haye fought, and beat, Nicolai Valuev for the heavyweight title last year , he was giving away about a foot in height and seven or eight stones (about 100 pounds) in weight! For businesses, social media can be a great leveler and provide SME’s with the same opportunities as the big guys to become major players in their sector and spread their content to the widest possible audience. You don’t have to spend millions on traditional advertising or marketing to be successful (although it helps!). By putting the hours in and being passionate, dedicated and having a great product, service or team, you can compete with the big guys and punch above your weight!

Those are just three that I picked out but I am sure there are more from other sports that could apply. If you have any favourites, then drop them in the comments.

www.spearfishlabs.com

News broke last month that the Government is to merge UK Sport and Sport England in order to streamline the running of sport in England (sport is devolved in the Celtic nations).

Sport and Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson provided Inside The Games with an exclusive, announcing that under the proposal UK Sport, Sport England and the Youth Sport Trust will form a new body that will be answerable to a single governing board.

While UK Sport and Sport England are, to all intents and purposes, Government Quangos, the Youth Sport Trust holds independent charity status and the new proposals will need to find a way around this in merging the three bodies.

What the proposed streamlined structure does is to align the way sport is managed in this country in a way the current model does not.

The development of sport from the very bottom of the grass roots to the very top of the podium should be a continuum, an unbroken chain. Indeed, there is something called ‘the Sports Development Continuum’ which has been overlooked by Government and its Quangos for too long.

The Sports Development Continuum provides a simple model to ensure sport is catered for at all ages, stages and abilities and although only four words long (Foundation, Participation, Performance and Excellence) serviced properly, it covers all elements required in a way that lumping great aspirations together and hoping they find linkage does not.

Under the previous Government, we have seen little understanding of this basic principle as sport has been ‘lumped’ into either ‘Elite’ or ‘Mass Participation’ or ‘School Sport’. No flow, no continuum.

This has, in part, been due to the fractured administration of sport where UK Sport looks after their ‘lump’, Sport England theirs and the Youth Sport Trust theirs. Although each has their ‘strategy’, this is Horizontal Integration of strategy where Vertical Integration is clearly called for.

That Vertical Integration of strategy will be further aided when other Government departments, who have a stake in sport, such as Education and Health, find they only need to communicate with one body when coordinating plans. Revolutionary thinking I know, but I did say cautious optimism and I am typing with my fingers crossed!

In bringing the different bodies together care and consideration will be needed to ensure that where there has been good work it is continued and ultimately improved upon while the lower quality delivery all too often seen in many areas must not be mistaken for being better than it is.

UK Sport for example, have overseen a rise in excellence in elite sport in this country the envy of much of the world although behind the headlines there are sports which have struggled to keep pace and medal counts have been boosted by a small group of overachieving sports rather than higher levels across all (or at least the majority). Delivery of Excellence can only be maintained and improved if the supply route bringing talent through Foundation, Participation and Performance is strong; you cannot plan one part of the continuum without consideration for the rest.

Below national level there will undoubtedly be a rush to restructure before any new unified, Sports Development Continuum based strategy is in place. Such restructuring must be avoided until the demands of strategy are known for, as I have said before in this blog, structure should be strategy’s servant, not its master; a mistake from the past which must not be repeated.

A further benefit to sport which I am sure the Minister has considered, and much of grass roots sport will applaud, will be the reduction in waste as, theoretically at least, more money finds its way to sport rather than to its (currently) overpopulated administration.

So; cautious optimism from this corner but, as ever, the real devil will be in the detail

Lately, it appears that the dreaded ‘S’ word has started to lose its negative connotations in the aftermath of one of our worst economic crises in recent times. Yes, sponsorship is slowly beginning to reassert its authority in the marketing mix and with just cause.

The recent announcement that consumer giants Procter and Gamble has signed up to become the 11th global sponsor of the London 2012 Olympic Games will be a huge morale boost to those involved in international sports sponsorship. P+G, as you would expect from such a world renowned firm, are in good company on the 2012 list, which also boasts tech giants Panasonic, Acer, Atos Origin and Samsung. And it is not only global corporate who are being encouraged to sign up. As the BBC reports, small and medium sized firms are also lining up to get a piece of the Olympic dream in 2012.

The International Olympics Committee has confirmed that close to $900m has been accumulated in sponsorship revenue and it is hoping to top $1bn. And they say that sports sponsorship is suffering…

With just over 700 days until the start of the 2012 Olympics, it is worth recognising the plethora of opportunities that exist for brands wanting to gain true global recognition through a sports association. Whether it is the four yearly bonanzas like the Olympics and the World Cup, the truly international annual motorsport championships like Formula One or MotoGP, or more regional events or series, the perfect sports opportunity is there for the taking, if only you know where to look.

An article on PR Week a few weeks ago looked at the results of a recent Echo Research poll (of 1,002 adults in the UK) which found a surprisingly low awareness rate of brands sponsoring this year’s World Cup in South Africa. Coca-Cola and McDonalds, both sponsors of London 2012, garnered the highest recognition but less than 50% in both cases. Interestingly, Nike was identified by 20% of people even though they were not actually sponsor.

It is hardly surprising to see a name like Nike on the list, just as we may well see Coca-Cola on a similar poll in modern day Formula 1. This unintentional or intentional ambush of rival brands on high level sporting events is to be expected and brands should build that into their own activation programmes to minimise the impact. Activation is more critical for less visible sponsors as they seek not only to gain a bigger piece of the sponsorship pie for any event, but also to fend off their own rivals attempts at hijacking coverage.

The low recall rates themselves have nothing to do with the value of sponsorship as a marketing tool, but perhaps more to do with the audiences that were targeted or the ways in which the sponsorship was activated.

Before we start writing off sports sponsorship because recall rates in this particular research are low, let’s remember that McDonalds may only have used the World Cup to target 20% of the UK audience and with that achieved their sponsorship objectives. Success from sports sponsorship is a very individual analysis and cannot be assessed by sweeping judgements based on a small cross-section of society. As long as brands like McDonalds continue to plough substantial finances into sponsorship of sporting events, one must assume they are deriving the necessary return on that investment.

The same must be said for technology brands whose primary objectives in a sports involvement may be less to do with outright branding and more to do with technological showcase of their product in a sporting environment. We have worked with a number of tech brands for whom this last point is the single most important aspect of their marketing strategy and in these instances the returns from a sporting involvement far outweigh the impact of their corporate logo in a stadium, on a shirt, on a car or on a website.

Sponsorship is not a one case fits all marketing tool. It is bespoke, adaptable and tailored to each company’s own strategy and unique brand attributes. To say that sponsorship is not successful on the basis of a small non-targeted questionnaire is short sighted and completely misses the point.