Does Selling Short-term Sponsorship Weaken Your Brand?
Posted: 1/13/2010 9:48:36 AM by
Rob Campbell | with 0 comments
The NFL has been on a recent kick of signing short-term corporate sponsorship deals in the quick-service restaurant category.
Most recently, the league announced this week a deal lasting through March 1 making Papa John’s the official pizza sponsor of the NFL and Super Bowl XLIV. This sponsorship is very similar to the league’s relationship last year with KFC, in which the fast-feeder was the official wing of the NFL Playoffs and Super Bowl XLIII.
This season, the NFL also signed limited deals with McDonald’s, as presenting sponsor of this year’s revamped version of the Pro Bowl, as well as a limited engagement with IHOP last summer (as discussed here by my colleague Jim Andrews).
Limited relationships such as these are by no means new to the industry, but have enjoyed a renaissance as a method to secure corporate sponsorship at a time when many companies may be skittish about long-term or bigger-ticket commitments due to uncertain budget situations.
Simply stated, it is a difficult proposition in any economy (good or bad) to walk away from money on the table. Short-term deals such as these boost revenue for any property.
In addition to aiding the near-term bottom line, such limited relationships can help to open the door to longer-term and larger sponsorships.
But on the other side of the coin, while it may be a sound tactic to allow marketers to test sponsorship through short-term deals and then upsell them, the sponsor clutter that these sponsorships create can jeopardize the value of the property’s longer-term sponsorships.
The larger the amount of sponsors associated with a property, the less likely each individual sponsor (including the property’s largest and most valuable partners) will be able to distinguish itself from the rest, thereby harming the potential success of sponsorship.
While the NFL may not be at risk of substantially losing any of its brand value, the league’s latest deals provide a reminder that properties must walk the fine line between sponsorship en masse and offering a limited number of higher value partnerships.
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Filed under: packaging, restaurant, selling, sponsorship measurement, contracts