Canadian Sponsorship Forum 2012

Managing Director Kyle Romaniuk visited Montreal last week for the 2012 Canadian Sponsorship Forum. The Forum travels around the country each year, showcasing some of the most successful sponsorship stories in Canadian business. Never missing an opportunity to learn from an experience, Kyle took the time to document his insights and a few of the breakout ideas shared by some of the most influential thinkers in Canadian sponsorship.

 

 

Highlights from the Canadian Sponsorship Forum, 2012, Montreal

My biggest takeaway this year was the realization/validation that when you reverse-engineer what works in sponsorship, the same approach can be applied to a brand strategy, marketing plan, digital campaign, etc. Connect emotionally with your audience and create a memorable experience — this creates more impact, builds loyalty, and increases your market share.

A few other thoughts: Have a reason to exist beyond product and service; a shared purpose or mission, a story worth telling that will inspire internal and external audiences. The reason why you exist and the desired outcome should inspire the outputs. Produce a few very well executed touchpoints integrating digital, experiential and traditional to not only reach, but engage and involve your audiences.

Everything successful is built on a shared passion, belief or purpose. But, make sure an individual’s passion (even if it’s that of the CEO) doesn’t get in the way of what’s right for the brand and all of its audiences.

But enough from me. Here’s a sampling of the stand-out ideas from this years’ outstanding speakers. - K.R.

 

The magic number for sponsorship success – three. No more than three objectives. Set three measures. Sign up for at least three years (sponsorship always begins to maximize in year 3). No more than three activation tactics (after that it’s a waste of money and people don’t care). Three opportunities to intercept. Three minute wait time (not hours!). Three dollars per attendee.

Don Mayo, Global Managing Partner
IMI International

 

83% of consumers want a company to be involved with a cause, and it’s about more than just saying “proud supporter” and putting a logo on a box; it’s about integration and building commitment with customers.

Nancy Marcus, Corporate Vice President Marketing
Kruger

 

Switch from the four Ps to the four E’s — engagement, experience, exclusivity and emotion.

Oliver Robert Murphy, Global Head of New Business
Universal Music Group

 

When you combine YouTube with TV advertising, the drive brand recall is two-times higher than TV alone. Personalize everything; the ability to be unique online is extraordinary.

Nicolas Darveau-Garneau, Managing Director
Google Québec

 

Kyle also had a chance to check out the 30th Annual Just for Laughs Festival, the host of this year’s Sponsorship Forum. But that’s a story for another post…

 

Chuka’s ‘Check This’ – Nouns like a Butterfly, Verbs like a Bee

Everyone’s well aware that Muhammad Ali could talk. But Louis Vitton’s recent campaign honouring the boxer, and connecting a person’s journey through life to the geographical travel directly concerning their products, reminds viewers that Ali’s words weren’t just talking; they was writing.

In the spots, riveting work by Ogilvy Paris, some of Ali’s most famous diatribes are related for the viewer by Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def), while ‘calligraffiti’ artist Niels Show Meulman does his thing on the canvas underfoot.

You can’t help but be taken up in the phrases. The rhyme schemes are so pleasantly gripping, they offer fervor and repetition as the action rises, carrying you upward with them, and then break into a slowed fruition that shatters the expected rhyme and demands your attention. The metaphors and hyperbole fit so naturally into these lines, and Def delivers with his standard charisma, a brushstroke of Brooklyn in everything he does. Compounded upon Ali’s immense personality, it’s simply wonderful.

Check out Fast Company for more information on the campaign, and see the work in its entirety at Louis Vitton’s own site.

Who’s on TOP at London 2012

 

This weekend the world witnessed the kick-off to the London 2012 Olympic Games. With Danny Boyle’s Opening Ceremony drawing in over 1 billion viewers worldwide, it’s no wonder London 2012 is host to some of the largest corporate sponsorships on record.

The rules and regulations around Olympic sponsorship, however, are as fierce as the Games themselves. Since 1984, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has regulated corporate sponsorship by developing a competitive scheme which offers exclusive advertising rights at premium rates. This year, the corporations who’ve won the bid to these exclusive rights fall into four categories of brand sponsorship.

The first and most prestigious sponsorship category belongs to the Worldwide Olympic Partners, who together, constitute The Olympic Partnership (TOP) Programme. At the London 2012 Games, the corporations which fall under this category include: Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos, Dow, GE, McDonalds, Omega, Samsung, P&G, Panasonic, and Visa(see campaign shots below). TOP partners tend to be multi-national corporations whose advertising campaigns are targeted at international audiences. To advertise at London 2012, these companies have invested a combined total of £704m (around $1.1bn CAD – that’s $100m CAD each!), which they’ve paid into the IOC’s Olympic budget. In return, TOP sponsors receive exclusive monopoly rights to advertise their companies in and around London 2012 venues and to affiliate their products with the greatness of the Games.

The second group of Olympic sponsors are known as London 2012 Olympic Partners. This year, companies such as Adidas, BMW, BP, British Airways, BT, EDF and Lloyds TSB have earned a place in this tier by partnering with the London Organisation Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) through unique sponsorship deals. The combined total of these deals at London 2012 is an estimated £500m ($786.9m).

The rest of Games supporters fall into one of two final sponsorship tiers. This year, there are seven companies who have invested approximately £40 m ($63m) each to be classified as a London 2012 Olympic Supporter. They include: Adecco, Arcelor Mittal, Cadbury, Cisco, Deloitte., Thomas Cook, and UPS. And finally, there are over two-dozen London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers who have each paid a £10m ($15.7m) price tag to secure an official ‘provider’ or ‘supplier’ title at London 2012. (For a full view of the London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers, visit the official London 2012 site).

With this much invested in the London 2012 already, this year’s Games sponsors are sure to activate some exceptionally stimulating and creative brand campaigns over the coming weeks. So to see who takes home the gold, stay tuned as ClarkHuot/Cocoon continue its design coverage of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

 

To read more about the London 2012 sponsorship programme, visit:

The official site of London 2012

The official site of the Olympics

The IOC Marketing and Media Guide for London 2012

London 2012 Sponsorship List: Who are they and what have they paid? (The Guardian)

Chuka’s ‘Check This’ – Ptcher Me Rollin’

 

Ptch is a new social media service now available in the App Store, and what is said to be an Instagram-esque platform for videos. The service allows you to combine your videos, pictures, Instagram shots, and music into montages directly on your phone. You then share your creation through Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+ Instagram, and Viddy. It seems interesting, but we shall see how it fares upon the unforgiving seas of the cyber.

 

 

Bry Spy Vol. 34

Here’s a sneak peak at the London 2012 Olympics identity in use, courtesy of Creative Review. The London 2012 brand was developed by Wolff Olins. Follow the links for a closer look.

 

Chuka’s ‘Check This’ – Play With Google

Google’s Nexus Q is a social entertainment hub that intends to weave human interaction into digital media and social networking platforms. I must say, this little sphere of futurism has already got me thinking about an Android phone.

Check it out on Google Play, or read about it on Fast Company.

Chuka’s ‘Check This’ – Transparent Giants

Over the years, myths of fast food photography have abounded. Frozen vegetables to plump the burger, a quick greasy rub down to glisten the patty, even utterly plastic buns and cheese. In the interest of dialogue, McDonald’s has created a video about their food photography process, in response to a customer’s inquiry. The brand has also created a complete Q&A website, to quell all the rumours about their food’s makeup. In this instance, rather than deflecting accusations that the vittles in their advertisements look better than store-made food, they’re showing exactly why this is the case.

Surprisingly enough, the intensive photography process actually defends the brand. The backwards tilts of the bun explains the visible ingredients, and the overall responsivity of the company naturally reflects well. Certainly, one can question the veracity of the video, as well as McDonald’s selectivity in choosing questions to answer, but the brand seems to have shone a positive light on itself. It’ll be interesting to see what other questions they respond to.

Also, for absolutely no reason, SoulDecision.

Cheers.

- C.E.

Chuka’s ‘Check This’ – The New Register

Clothing brands tend to market on lifestyle, attracting customers based on the atmosphere and culture of their products. Clothing lines have established identities, and the people who are faithful to them endorse those identities. However, the hardest part of presenting clothes this way is the disconnect between the handsome vagrant wearing the jacket you want and incessantly living life, and you actually going to the store and buying the jacket. The fantastical moment where you develop desire for the item gives way to the mundane minutiae of travelling to the store, purchasing the item, and returning home. To combat this, Danish fashion brand ONLY, champions of the “denim revolution” and “true jeans-attitude”, created an interactive film that is both impassioned narrative and robust product catalogue.

 

The film, titled ‘The Liberation’, follows three rambunctious young ladies as they roll through a sleepy town, and proceed to wake it up. The three go about a day’s worth of adventures, changing outfits repeatedly and bleeding the ONLY brand in everything they do. ONLY collaborated with agencies Uncle Grey and North Kingdom to create the responsive film. At any point during viewing, the viewer can pause the film by clicking their mouse. When paused small icons appear over the girls’ clothing, and the user can mouse over them to get more information about the item. They can then post to Facebook, tweet, pin, or buy the item. It’s both promotion and point of purchase, completely connecting the desire to buy to the actual decision to do so.

 

Interactivity is very popular, and for obvious reasons. People spend more time on an experience they have some control over, and the novelty of it drastically increases the likelihood that they’ll share the experience with their friends. ONLY’s site aims to push the envelope for responsivity, just like this solar-powered annual report for Austria Solar, as on-brand as you can be. In particular, interactive print is always nice to see.

 

Brands will surely continue to create immersive experiences that are larger than any single medium. As Andrea Phillips posits in this transmedia article, there are several hurdles hampering audience engagement across media. So, to blend offerings the way ONLY did is both astute and exciting. And so does the wheel roll, ever-advancing.

 

- C.E.

Chuka’s ‘Check This’ – The Talkies

A real quick one this week folks. This year, two novels I love intimately will be turned into films. Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Basically, this has me sick with worry, but the films may turn out fantastic. It’s improbable, but I’m thinking wishfully. For those who haven’t seen them yet, here are the trailers.

 

Gatsby

 

On The Road

 

Also, this trailer for upcoming film The Master is just wild and awesome. Enjoy.

 

Cheers,

- C.E.

Chuka’s ‘Check This’ – Picture Films

Branded films are the logical evolution of commercials and product placement. Rather than just inserting their product, message, or offering into content that audiences are flocking too, brands are electing to create that content — to become that flocking point. It’s not a new avenue, but it is an advancing one. For example, this short film titled ‘A Therapy’ was commissioned by Prada and recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Recent years have seen branded films from Chivas Regal and Dior, to name only a couple. A somewhat similar tactic is now being employed by Nike Football, who created an interactive cinematic experience on YouTube. The marketing for the film Prometheus is also using short films to extend the word of the feature-length, something I mentioned in an earlier blog post.

These branded shorts aren’t marketers emulating filmic direction and tropes to evoke the sense of cinema. They are marketers hiring Hollywoodland talent (actors, directors, the whole kit and) to build their products and brands into immersive experiences. The films go a long way in defining the tone of a brand, and building a narrative for its products. They can range from conjuring mystique and intrigue around an understated brand to standing as a veritable instruction manual for a boldly presented one. Even standard 30-second spots are coming to resemble these branded films more and more.

The question that lingers around these branded films is whether they are hearkening to media trends gone by, or the evolution of the old ways into something modern and relevant. Brands sometimes serialize the shorts (New Era for example) to create identification between their characters and the audience. The coming years will either see these films fall by the wayside, or develop into something even more immersive. But as they are, largely events of passive viewership, they may not last. However, if the films are now considered impartial enough to screen at Cannes, who knows where they can go. Genuine entertainment will hold audiences, whether there’s a brand behind it or not. If you can get your audience knowingly engaged with your brand for seven straight minutes, you must be doing something right.