Opinion
Interesting Developments At Major Sponsors
4/19/10: In recent private conversations with a number of key sponsorship professionals, I picked up the following tidbits that I thought were worth sharing:
- Bea Perez, Coca-Cola’s longtime U.S. sponsorship chief and now CMO of Coca-Cola North America, has called on the company’s sponsored properties to find ways to generate social media buzz around the soft drink giant’s brands and its involvement with their events and organizations.
Coke recently has stepped up its own social media initiatives, including its program to encourage user interaction on its Live Positively Facebook page around its Super Bowl advertising and partnership with Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Coke’s Facebook fans triggered a $1 donation to BGCA and got a sneak peak at the company’s Super Bowl ad spots by sharing virtual Coke gifts with their Facebook friends.
- Meanwhile, over at Coke arch-rival PepsiCo, the company’s Gatorade unit is interested in deepening relationships with teens and young adults—for whom newer energy drinks have taken the place of traditional sports beverages and who are likely to see Gatorade as their father’s replenishment drink of choice.
The brand is targeting youth sports participants through high schools, elite athlete camps, clubs and tournaments, while also looking at Olympic sport development programs. College-age recreational athletes will be targeted through intramural sports and fitness activities, while the brand will reinforce efforts with marathons, triathlons and cycling events
That information comes not only from industry conversations, but also by perusing the job postings at PepsiCo.com. Gatorade posted the open position of manager of event marketing on April 9. Tip to rightsholders: Online job postings should definitely be part of research into sponsorship prospects. They can yield a wealth of information, such as this nugget from Gatorade: The event marketing manager will oversee a $15-million-plus budget.
Gatorade also is hiring a manager and senior manager of sports intelligence to help solidify relationships with sports medicine professionals, including trainers, nutritionists and coaches. The senior manager will oversee the brand’s relationships with professional organizations such as the National Athletic Trainers Assn. and the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association.
- Top sponsor Lowe’s has a new sponsorship directive and a new person in charge. Rick Coffee, director of sports & partnership marketing, took over the position last month from Brian Marshall, who has become the home improvement retailer’s director of global marketing.
Lowe’s has changed the focus of its sponsorships to reaching the 25-to-39-year-old male demo. It has tweaked some of its activation of existing relationships to include more social media elements as part of that effort. For example, it is promoting contests and posting behind-the-scenes videos on its Official Team Lowe’s Racing Facebook fan page, which has 10,000-plus fans. Perhaps more importantly, the page is linked to driver Jimmie Johnson’s page, which has about 457,000 fans—a good reminder to sponsors to go where the consumer is rather than expect them to find you.
- In many cases when a company or brand becomes more active in sponsorship, its corporate siblings soon follow in stepping up their involvement. That may not be the case—at least for a while—in the Land Rover and Jaguar scenario.
While IEG SR’s article details Land Rover’s new initiative, we don’t expect the same from Jaguar given that the luxury auto’s sales have not experienced the same rebound as the SUV line. For March, Jaguar sold just 983 cars in the U.S., down 16 percent from a year ago.
One element that could change that assumption, though, is the fact that Jaguar is launching its 2011 XJ sedan in May—with a starting price of $72,500, and even in the midst of a sales slump, new model launches typically mean increased marketing and sponsorship dollars