Lesa Ukman Jul 24
Drowning Sorrows: More Bad News for Sponsorship
As I noted in my last post, because sponsorship is so much more visible than all other media, it is highly vulnerable to attack. Scottish politicians are having a field day tying the tragic closing of the Johnnie Walker bottling plant in Kilmarnock with the brand’s sponsorship of Formula One’s McLaren Mercedes team. The logic: F1 has fueled Johnnie Walker’s growth globally, rendering its home market insignificant and enabling Diageo to close the plant—along with a Glasgow distillery.
On the one hand U.S. officials say sponsorship is a waste of money and should be off-limits to recipients of TARP funds, while across the pond officials are asserting that sponsorship is so successful brands can ignore current customers in local markets and instead focus entirely on new markets abroad.
"£15 million of sponsorship sees the Johnnie Walker brand go from its origins in Kilmarnock to be drunk around the world," said Kilmarnock MSP Willie Coffey. On the eve of the German Grand Prix, he urged motorsports fans to sign an online petition to save the Johnnie Walker plant. “This weekend as Johnnie Walker is advertised to the world, it's the turn of Formula One fans to show their support."
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Filed under: beverage, sponsorship ROI, backlash
Lesa Ukman Jul 14
Good News/Bad News for Sponsorship
Some good news for sponsorship: Compared to other forms of marketing, brand sponsorship experienced the greatest increase in levels of trust in the two years since the last Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of more than 25,000 Internet consumers from 50 countries. A full 64 percent of consumers surveyed in April said they trust brand sponsorship, up from 49 percent in April 2007.
Latin American consumers are most trusting of brand sponsorships, with 81 percent of both Colombians and Venezuelans, and 79 percent of Brazilians, trusting brand sponsorships. U.S. consumers came in 12th, with 72 percent trusting brand sponsorships. Sponsorships held the least sway among Swedes (33 percent), Latvians (36 percent) and Finns (38 percent).
Latin Americans appear to bring their positive feelings about sponsorship with them to the U.S. IEG research reveals that Latino consumers are among the most responsive audiences to sponsorship.
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Filed under: evaluation, financial services, research, sponsorship measurement, sponsorship ROI, automotive