State Farm Moving In Smart Sponsorship Direction
Posted: 2/4/2010 4:20:43 PM by
Jim Andrews | with 0 comments
As subscribers to IEG Sponsorship Report read earlier this week in our In Depth look at corporate sponsorship from the property/casualty insurance category, State Farm Insurance is undertaking a review of its sponsorship portfolio with an eye toward reducing the total number of properties it is involved with.
The purpose of the move is to focus on doing “some things very well, versus doing a lot of things ineffectively,” according to Todd Fischer, the company’s manager of national sponsorships.
While certainly not what some of the properties that may be on the cutting board want to hear, State Farm is doing the right thing. While we applaud the company and many of its competitors for being among the most active corporate sponsors around, spreading dollars too thinly and not having the activation and other resources necessary to make them work is a big risk of a ubiquity strategy.
About three years ago, I wrote:
“Watching the battle between insurance giants State Farm and Allstate play out through their sponsorships is like watching a long rally in tennis. State Farm signs an NCAA deal; Allstate goes after individual schools’ football programs and titles the Sugar Bowl. Allstate gets into NASCAR in a big way; State Farm becomes a big-time advertiser during broadcasts and signs driver deals. Allstate teams with the Saints while State Farm grabs NFL rights. Question: Does all this me-too volleying allow either company’s program to resonate with agents and consumers or are they deadlocked at deuce?”
Whether because of budgetary reasons, executive changes or strategic thinking, both companies have pared down their portfolios since then, while still maintaining a strong commitment to corporate sponsorship as a key part of their marketing mix.
I hope that if State Farm does make cuts, it trims properties and not property types. The company has had some unique alliances in music and other areas and it would be a shame to see all of those efforts done away with to devote more dollars to the crowded-with-competitors sports space.
The happy medium, not just for State Farm but many other sponsors, is to have diversity across sponsorship types without diluting what can be committed to individual properties.
It will be very interesting to see what comes out of this review. Perhaps Todd will be able to share the new direction in his presentation at IEG’s annual conference Unbound, next month.
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