Latest Thinking from IEG

Why Leagues Should Not Regulate Team Sponsorships

English Premier League club Manchester City recently signed a 10-year deal—which includes title of the team’s stadium and shirt sponsorship—with Etihad, Abu Dhabi’s national airline, for the princely sum of £300 million ($482 million), according to media reports.

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Filed under: international, naming rights, pro sports, valuation, backlash

New Developments in Sponsorship and Social Media Come Fast and Furious

Although it was only last December that I presented an IEG Webinar on the topic of sponsorship and social media, preparing for this Thursday’s live webinar on the topic illuminated how quickly social media is changing and how deeply these changes are affecting sponsorship. Indeed, rather than update the presentation, I scrapped it and started over.

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Filed under: assets, digital media, IEG, international, new media, social media, trends, activation

Activation Watch: Praiseworthy Programs from Budweiser and Spanish Insurer

When you’ve been tracking the sponsorship industry for nearly a quarter of a century (yikes!) it can be a challenge to find partnerships that stand out or break new ground.

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Filed under: beer, branded content, international, pro sports, social media, trends, activation

The Devil’s in the Details at Formula 1

Sponsorship and sports marketing execs should read Tom Bower’s No Angel: The Secret Life of Bernie Ecclestone.

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Filed under: motorsports, international

Return on Engagement: The Art and Crafts of Sponsorship

Leading up to the 2011 IEG Sponsorship Conference, Return on Engagement: Sponsorship’s Impact on Business, I will be blogging on measuring sponsorship’s ROI: How to do it, what the research reveals, improving the value of sponsorship, etc.

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Filed under: cause marketing, evaluation, IEG conference, international, new media, nonprofit, social media, sponsorship measurement, sponsorship ROI, beverage

A Diehard Fan’s Reaction to FC Barcelona’s Historic Shirt Sponsorship Deal

As a very passionate and loyal fan of Barca, today’s news that the club will have a shirt sponsor for the first time in its 111-year history raises many questions and some confusion.

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Filed under: international, non-traditional categories, pro sports, sports, backlash

Inside London 2012’s Sponsorship Program
Charles Wijeratna, director of commercial negotiations for London 2012, delivered a great presentation at last week’s European Sponsorship Assn. conference in Amsterdam. Here are the highlights and takeaways:

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Filed under: international, London 2012, negotiating, olympics, selling, in-kind

Highlights from the European Sponsorship Assn. Conference

More than 150 delegates gathered in Amsterdam last week for the European Sponsorship Assn.’s Future Sponsorship conference.

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Filed under: backlash, digital media, international, trends, ambush marketing

The Global Gap and Sponsorship Willpower

I recently traveled to Sao Paulo, where I addressed a media and marketing conference and met with a number of brand marketers from Brazil’s largest companies. As happens whenever I travel to places away from North America or Western Europe, sponsorship practitioners I talk to bring up “how far behind” their country is compared to the “advanced sponsorship markets.”

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Filed under: trends, international

Formula 1: A Sponsorship Example Not To Be Followed

Much has been written and said about Bernie Ecclestone, the brilliant, mercurial puppet master who pulls the strings of the Formula 1 international racing circuit. While I am not expert enough in the details of F1’s business to join the polarized debate over whether he is the best or worst thing to happen to the sport—although I’m sure the answer as it always is in these cases is somewhere in the middle—I do believe he has made a major misstep in the sponsorship arena.

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Filed under: international, motorsports, packaging, venues, assets