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Building
Brands through Sponsorships
By Michael Alan Hamlin
September 8, 2003
Last year, Citibank packed up the entire New York
Philharmonic and brought the renowned orchestra to Asia - twice.
The second round last October included stops in Beijing, Hong Kong,
Macau, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Singapore. As part of its sponsorship
of the tour, Citibank invited key clients, prospects, and various
rainmakers to the concerts. Colleagues who attended tell me that
they have never seen more luminaries in one place at one time in
their professional lives.
That's precisely the point of sponsoring events. First,
seeing the thousands of people who attended the concert individually
would take years. Second, they're the right kind of people. Third,
events are a cost effective way to communicate. As a communications
channel and brand-building tool, events are becoming increasingly
important as a result. Indeed, brand guru David A. Aaker says organizations
that build brands by leveraging such non-traditional communication
channels will be more successful than those that fail to leverage
the communication and goodwill-generation benefits derived from
events.
In Brand Leadership, Aaker and co-author Erich Joachimsthaler
suggest six ways that event sponsorships such as the New York Philharmonic
Orchestra's Asian tour build brands. First among them, you may be
surprised to learn, is an increased capacity to mobilize the organization.
Aaker argues that employees play a key role in successful implementation
of a branding strategy. This is for a couple of reasons. First,
if internal identity is misaligned with brand image, it becomes
extremely difficult - impossible, really - to fulfill the value
proposition underlying the brand. That's because the organization
is saying it's something it's not.
Second, employees are communication channels themselves,
both at work and away. If employees are not living the brand image,
or worse are cynical of it, those they come into contact with will
quickly become disillusioned, as will the people they talk to, and
so on. Any executive who ignores the viability and effectiveness
of such informal communication channels does so at extreme peril.
Aaker and Joachimsthaler argue that "employees
and other brand partners can receive emotional benefits that result
from pride in being associated with the sponsorships, as well as
the link between the sponsorship and their own lifestyle values.
For example, people working as part of the MasterCard sponsorship
effort felt excited about the World Cup and the fact that they had
a direct link to it."
The second way event sponsorships build brands is by
providing an experience for customers. "An event experience
(such as playing in the pro-am of a golf tournament to being entertained
in a Wimbledon facility) can provide a customer with a unique opportunity
to develop a link to the brand and its organization." Doug
Gardener, Avaya regional managing director for that company's World
Cup Program, recently confirmed that impact on customers to me.
Gardener invites customers to matches, shows off the Avaya equipment
used for the games, and provides exclusive seating. All this communicates
the prestige of the brand in a tangible, unique way and rewards
profitable customers.
The Avaya experience also demonstrates the third way event sponsorships
build brands. That's by demonstrating new products and technology.
Avaya's equipment is used to track player and team statistics. HP
and SAP both sponsor F1 racing for this purpose. HP-Compaq demonstrates
how its technology helps drivers, mechanics, and owners all do their
jobs better. SAP's enterprise software is used by a United Kingdom
F1 team to enhance its design process.
The fourth way event sponsorships contribute to building brands
is through brand exposure. "Often, the cost of a sponsorship
can be justified solely by the brand name exposure achieved through
event publicity or signage," Aaker and Joachimsthaler explain.
Citibank, MasterCard, Avaya, HP, and SAP all enjoy substantial media
coverage associated with their event sponsorships. That's aside
from marketing communications leading up to the event as well as
exposure during the event proper via onsite collateral.
An "often dominant reason" for event sponsorships to contribute
to brand building according to Aaker and Joachimsthaler is "to
gain an association among a target segment." Those associations
might be such attributes as a global presence, excellence in terms
of quality and customer service, and breakthrough innovation. Here
are some examples: Calloway sponsors golf tournaments where top
players use the company's clubs; Sony sponsors entertainment equipment
provided on celebrity cruise ships; A.T. Kearney sponsors BusinessWeek
conferences where top CEO speakers will discuss their work with
the consultancy.
And the sixth way that event sponsorships help build brands is becoming
an integral part of the event, and establishing a customer bond
through affiliation. When people closely identify with particular
events, they can also identify in a positive way with the sponsor
as well. Aaker and Joachimsthaler note that there is "substantial
evidence" that positive feelings about an event should in fact
be transferred to the brand.
Event sponsorship is a powerful, cost-effective brand
building tool. But events don't have to be as big as the New York
Philharmonic concerts, the World Cup, or F1 racing. In fact, there's
likely an event for just about any budget. And if Aaker and Joachimsthaler
are right, the event pays for itself in two ways: 1) a more powerful
brand; and, as a result, 2) increased revenue opportunities and
profitability.
(Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing
director of consultancy TeamAsia and the author of three books on
Asian economies and companies. His latest book is Marketing Asian
Places, of which he is a co-author (Wiley, 2001), and he is
currently at work on High Visibility: The Making and Marketing
of Asian Professionals into Celebrities. Write him at mahamlin@teamasia.com.).
Copyright © 2003 Michael Alan
Hamlin. All Rights Reserved.
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