Latest Thinking from IEG

Musical Airline Sponsorships in Barcelona
Turkish Airlines, a “Premium Partner” of FC Barcelona since January 2010, is being displaced by a change in the club’s shirt sponsor.

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Filed under: contracts, endorsements, international, negotiating, pro sports, servicing, spending, sponsorship strategy, sports, backlash

Sponsors Can’t Afford To Be Bystanders When Controversy Strikes
My WPP colleague Rob Norman has written a timely piece entitled “Is NFL Brand Safe?” which you can read at MediaBizBloggers.com.

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Filed under: pro sports, sponsorship strategy, sports, trends, backlash

Missed Opportunity for McDonald’s
You would think the marketing team at McDonald’s USA would have learned something from the backlash the Golden Arches suffered from its sponsorship presence at last summer’s London Olympic Games.

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Filed under: backlash, pro sports, restaurant, sponsorship strategy, sports, activation

Italian Cultural Partnerships Bear Watching
As oil is the Middle East’s natural resource, culture is Italy’s. The country is home to more UNESCO World Heritage sites, museums and archeological sites than any other in the world.

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Filed under: backlash, cause marketing, destination/tourism, fashion, government/municipal, international, museums/zoos/aquariums, arts

Non-Sponsors Take On The Olympics To Align Their Brands With Fair Play
The extreme approach taken by the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) to enforcing IOC marketing rules has not only not protected official sponsors, I’d argue it has hurt them. Each time the brand police tape over the logo of a non-sponsor, or warn the public about wearing a Pepsi T-shirt to the Games, or insist policemen carry their snacks in unbranded plastic bags, they drag down the brands of the sponsors.

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Filed under: backlash, London 2012, olympics, ambush marketing

Visa and the Olympics: Sponsorship In Need of an Update
Visa’s first Olympic sponsorship, signed in 1986 and launched with Calgary 1988, featured the iconic campaign: “Bring your Visa card, because the Olympics don’t take American Express.” This set in motion Visa’s ascension from number three to number one in the credit card category.

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Filed under: backlash, financial services, London 2012, olympics, activation

Will The Olympic Movement Change Its Marketing Rules? (It Better)
A key issue between the end of the London 2012 Olympic Games this Sunday and the beginning of the Sochi Winter Games 18 months from now will be what, if anything, the IOC will do regarding the restrictions placed on sponsors, non-sponsors, athletes and others.

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Filed under: backlash, London 2012, olympics, ambush marketing

Olympic Sponsorship Winners And Losers
Procter & Gamble. After its sponsorship of the U.S. Olympic Team’s participation in Vancouver 2010 united multiple brands and drove $100 million in additional sales, P&G signed on as a global Olympic sponsor.

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Filed under: backlash, London 2012, olympics, activation

U.S. Congress Launches another Misguided Attack on Sponsorship
For the second year in a row, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum (D.-Minn.) has added an amendment to the defense appropriations bill that would prohibit the U.S. armed forces from spending any money to sponsor sports. The entire bill, including the amendment, was approved by the House Appropriations Committee yesterday, as reported in USA Today.

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Filed under: government/municipal, legislation, NASCAR, sports, backlash

Bad Faith: Big Brother Pulls the Rug Out from under Venue Sponsorship
Unsettling news came out of Vancouver last week, as the provincial government of British Columbia killed a deal for telecommunications company Telus to obtain naming rights to BC Place Stadium.

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Filed under: Canada, contracts, government/municipal, in-kind, naming rights, negotiating, telecommunications, valuation, venues, backlash