The WTA Argument: Do Title Sponsors Really Scare Off Other Partners?
Posted: 8/25/2010 1:56:29 PM by
Jim Andrews | with 1 comments
As my colleague Bill Chipps reveals in IEG Sponsorship Report this week, the WTA Tour has decided not to market the title sponsorship position about to be given up by Sony Ericsson. (Subscribers can read the full story here.)
Given the current sponsorship market, some may assume the tennis sanctioning body made this choice because it was concerned it could not sell a title package for a decent price. But the tour’s stated rationale is that having a title sponsor makes it too difficult to secure other partners, thus diminishing overall revenue potential.
This is a very high profile example of an issue that every property faces: what is the optimal way to structure sponsorship programs—levels of sponsorship, number of sponsors, benefits in each package—to maximize income.
Although the idea of a title sponsor being an obstacle to cosponsor sales is not new, and in many situations entirely valid, I’m surprised that the WTA Tour faced such a problem during the five-plus years that Sony Ericsson has been on board. While Sony Ericsson has done many good things with the sponsorship, it never appeared to me that they meshed the brands so well as to become synonymous with women’s pro tennis.
Yet tour officials say prospective partners stayed away because those marketers did not want to align with another corporate brand. I certainly take them at their word that they heard this in sales meetings and negotiations, but still find it curious.
Seems to me there would have been plenty of room for other sponsors to carve out platforms—and forge the association with women’s tennis they were looking for—alongside Sony Ericsson.
Perhaps the companies who walked away were unwilling to invest in the activation and leveraging programs necessary to do so. If they were looking for a quick branding exercise through signage and tournament titles, then Sony Ericsson’s presence would have been a hindrance.
We will see if the WTA’s non-title strategy pays off. Tour executives point out that two new regional deals—Peak Sport Products and Oriflame Cosmetics—have been concluded since it was announced that Sony Ericsson was stepping down to a lower level.
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