Vive le (Aviva Women's) Tour

Fair enough, I am slightly biased, but whilst we all are very excited about the forthcoming Tour de France (and rightly so, as it could be one of the best editions we've seen in years) I can't help but reflect on what a fantastic event we've just had in our own country (The Aviva Women's Tour) and how women's cycling's biggest global event compares to the men's equivalent.


Now, I am a sponsorship guy. My job revolves around achieving maximum returns for my clients, for brands and for our sponsors. So that's my default lens through which I perceive a sporting event, and in particular a cycling event. I have worked on the Tour de France, and I've been to various stages over the last few years, and I accept that the crowds are enormous, and therefore the potential exposure for teams, sponsors and riders is huge. But last week, as I was reflecting on our week in East Anglia, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, I couldn't help but focus on three areas where I think the women's sport outshines and outperforms the men. And consequently, why, if I was in control of the sponsorship budget of many brands, I would be very seriously considering women's cycling as part of my portfolio, or even as my only sponsorship vehicle.


In order to explain these three areas, I'm going to use some stories and anecdotes that I've heard over the last couple of weeks that prove the points that I'm making.


Inspiration - Marianne Vos is quite possibly the most complete cyclist in the world. She is a multiple world champion in different disciplines and has been for nearly a decade. In what other sport would you find someone like that coming over to a foreign country, whilst injured, co-hosting the TV coverage (in a foreign language) and then finding the time (and the patience) to ride from the start to the finish of several stages with an assembled group of riders who saw her invitation on Twitter.


Accessibility - Now I've hung around plenty of team buses and team cars in my time, but never have I witnessed such an approachable and friendly team parking area as there was at this year's Aviva Women's Tour. I've heard stories from Sarah Connolly of how she would find children hanging around the start area, take them down to team parking, introduce them to some teams and next thing you know they're getting tours of the team buses and campers, being given caps, biscuits, gels - you name it. I'm sorry, but this just doesn't happen in men's cycling.


Athleticism - My brother in law has for years rather turned his nose up at women's cycling, purely because of the perceived speed of the peloton and the comparison to the men. He won't mind me saying this but he used to say it was slow and boring. Well, he's changed his opinion somewhat now. Over the first two days of the Aviva Women's Tour, the average speed of the race was a shade under 42 km per hour. In 2014 the Tour de France was won at an average speed of 39.5 km per hour. Now I'm not saying that the women's peloton is as fast as the men's - but hey, it's not far off!! And out of the 5 stages of the Women's Tour, the peloton caught the break within 500 metres of the line on 4 occasions - I'm sorry, but in no way is that boring.


Women's cycling, at the top, elite, level is a fantastic sport, and the opportunities for brands and sponsors to be involved, to make a difference and to see huge returns are there. Here is a piece written by Stef Wyman, owner and team manager of Matrix Fitness on the battles he faces raising the finances to run and to develop his team. http://matrixprocycling.cc/2015/06/25/a-window-of-opportunity/ . You can see from the article that for a modest sum of money, a brand can quite possibly transform the sport. A brand can have an association with a sport and with athletes that are not only accessible, but are operating at the peak of their powers. The teams and the riders are inspirational to an increasing number of phenomenally passionate fans (67% male, 33% female by the way), and from what I saw on the side of the road a few weeks ago, not only to cyclists who ride out to watch the race, but to children and to families who come out to see their heroes.


Women's cycling is relatively young both commercially and from an organisational point of view - now is the time to get involved.

Data is King, Knowledge is Power

I can't tell you which brand it was, but I heard a story recently of a major sponsor in a sport that is close to  my heart, that is realigning it's sponsorship portfolio into properties and programmes where (detailed) data is available from the rightsholder for the sponsor to use as part of it's CRM and digital marketing plans.

I'm hearing terms in my job at the moment like 'programmatic', and 'behavioral' targeting' - these are phrases I'm used to hearing when talking about online advertising - not necessarily when it comes to (sports) sponsorship.

It just shows to me how much sponsorship is now seen by brands as an effective and important marketing channel, and hence forward thinking marketeers want to integrate sponsorships into their entire marketing programme, rather than have it sitting as a 'nice to have' at the bottom of the plan.

So what does this new data-driven world mean for rightsholders? Well, that's clear - you need to have a relationship with your fans, spectators, visitors - and within this relationship you need to either own data that allows your sponsors to speak to these people, or have the ability for your sponsors to engage with them. And in an ideal world, this data can be integrated into the sponsors existing CRM strategy.

Thinking about where this can lead - will sponsors start to value a potential sponsorship, not on media value, but on the value of the data that the rightsholder owns? My guess is that this is already happening.

And what does this mean for cycling? In the absence of paying spectators, this becomes a challenge for the event organisers. Not so much for the teams though - and in this new world where data is so important, the creation of Velon, the body that now represents 11 of the World Tour Teams, could be a stroke of absolute genius. Not only are they producing and owning content, but they can also start to aggregate their fanbases into one, big, cycling mad, audience segment - a valuable group of people to advertisers.

Preaching to the converted is a good thing

As someone who has worked in marketing for nearly 20 years now (gulp!!!), as justification for changing strategy or plan, I have heard the expression ‘well we’re just preaching to the converted’ many times – and each time I hear it I get more and more angry.

I heard it recently as a justification to reduce, and I guess to ultimately withdraw from, an entire long term sponsorship programme. What a load of nonsense.

The view I take is this. Marketing is basically about relationship building. A brand wants to build a relationship with a consumer, in order to convince that consumer to buy the brand’s products now and in the future. Marketing is the way the brand develops and builds that relationship. And within that, sponsorship can be one of the very best ways of developing that relationship because often relationships are built on shared passions. If you no longer share interests or passions, then the relationship is going to suffer.

It’s just like relationships between people. If we maintain a constant dialogue, and share interests and passions, then we’re going to get along. But if, all of a sudden, your friends stops phoning you, and decides they’re not into football any more, but actually they’re into sailing, then the chances are you’re going to see less of them and you’re not going to phone them. Well it’s just the same with brands, consumers and sponsorship. If you pull out of a sponsorship, then the fans of that event, team or sport are unlikely to have the same relationship with you any more – and guess what, they’re not going to buy your product in the same quantity as they used to.

It’s fair enough to think that you’ve reached the maximum potential with a group of consumers, but if you end the relationship with them, then they will go elsewhere. Why not start to think how you can grow that number of consumers? How can you help the event or the team you sponsor grow the number of fans or spectators? Or, can you convert some of your other customers into fans or spectators? Either of these will ultimately bring additional business benefits to you.

I don’t know who it was who said it, but if you’re ever thinking of pulling out of a sponsorship because you feel the job is done then just think of this:

It can be 10 times more expensive to attract new customers, than it is to retain existing ones.

5 tips for successful sponsorship proposals

I get a multitude of approaches from teams, events, shows, charities, individuals and businesses seeking sponsorship - probably around one per day on average. Over the years that is a large number of documents, decks, emails etc that I have had to read.

I would have said that over the last three years, whilst I've been working with Skoda, I could probably count on one hand, the number that I have actually considered to be appropriate to Skoda's business. That means there are hundreds that I would consider to be a waste of both my time, and also the sponsorship seeker's time. That is possibly thousands of wasted man hours.

So what is it about the proposals that I get that make them 'appropriate'? Here's a list of 5 do's:

1. At Skoda we have a 2 page document that we can send to sponsorship seekers that lists our marketing and sponsorship objectives, processes etc - it basically tells them what we're looking for. So get on the phone, or send an email and try to find out what the sponsor is looking for. They will probably be able to tell you in about 5 minutes. One benefit of doing this is that you'll be able to quickly figure out if it's worth pursing this sponsor, or if, in fact, you are not well suited to their needs, and therefore don't need to waste your (and their) time pulling together a proposal.

2. Take the information you've found out, and pull together a bespoke proposal for the sponsor. Don't send a generic deck on it's own - ensure that if you do have a generic 'deck' that you also pull together a specific bespoke proposal for the potential sponsor.

3. Ensure the proposal includes several activation ideas that the sponsor could tap straight into. The current trend is for social media and content activation - so probably a good idea to include some ideas around those themes. This shows that you are keen to help the brand make the sponsorship work. That you'll work with them, and not just take their money and then leave them to activate alone.

4. Talk about your fans, your members, your spectators and how you can help the sponsor engage with them - after all, that's the point of sponsorship - to tap into a fan's passion and to improve the experience.

5. Do include, where you can, estimated media coverage, numbers of fans, spectators etc that will be engaged with, and how often. Even though most sponsorships do not have success metrics that include media coverage, this information can be useful when the sponsor initially is 'selling' the concept in internally.

So that's 5 do's. I promise that if you follow these suggestions you will have a great deal more success with your proposals, and also save yourself a lot of wasted time.

Cycling can learn from the America's Cup.

Hey

Did you see the TV coverage of the America's cup? If not, check out this link and forward to around 15 mins and watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHdmviq1kyg

This is sailing, possibly the worst spectator sport in the world, and they've transformed it into a fantastic TV spectacle. They've put cameras on top of masts and all over the boat. They've put a microphone on all of the sailors. They've got cool graphics showing how fast the boats are going and how far ahead the leading boat is. They even show the wind speed and direction.

Wow - wouldn't that be cool if they could do that for cycling? How difficult can it be? What reason is there that it can't be done at least for the Tour de France, but ideally for all major races. Hey - I've had a thought - maybe SKY could think about incorporating into their coverage?!?!?!?

If we could have the following, wouldn't it make TV coverage of cycling 100 times better - and so much easier for commentators:

1. A wind speed and direction graphic at all times.
2. Speed of the leading group and of the chasing peloton.
3. Footage from the bikes (camera pointing backwards and forwards on every bike)
4. An audio stream of race radio (anyone who's been in a team car or race car will tell you how fascinating race radio can be).
5. Distance between the break and the peloton.

These are just five things that other sports incorporate into their coverage - why can't we have this in cycling? If we did then I would be willing to bet that TV audiences will be up, which would attract more sponsors, allow teams to charge sponsors more, allow broadcasters to charge more to advertisers and generally bring more money into the sport.

Can it be done? Surely it can.

Trouble with professional racing in the UK

It's quite apparent at the moment that the professional cycling racing scene in Britain is at a crossroads. Never has the sport been in such rude health in terms of popularity, with Team Sky at the forefront, and our top cyclists more succesful than ever. So if this is the case, then why are there only 6 Premier Calendar races in the pipeline for 2013, and our only UCI one day race, the Melton CiCLE Classic, under serious threat due to lack of funds?

Funding is always going to be main reason. And here's the problem that cycling has - no gate revenue. As cycling events are free to attend and spectate, then the sources of revenue are limited. One assumes that the host council stump up some cash, but sponsors and broradcast revenue are key.

All three of these sources of revenue rely on spectators and viewers - and without these then it's going to be hard to convince broadcasters and sponsors to invest in an event if noone's going to watch it.

Here are a few thoughts on how we can get more people waching our races - both live and on TV

1 - The teams themselves need to build more of a following and support. Team Sky do this well.
2 - Event promoters need to work with the councils more to promote the event and to offer familes a good day out.
3 - Run a sportive on the same route (or part of it) on the morning of the event - this guarantees you an audience at the finish (plus rider's families who will come to support).
4 - Broadcasters need to make the coverage more 'newbie' friendly.
5 - Package the races to make the competition more interesting (team and individual competitions running throughout the series).
6 - Give some kind of ownership of the race to the teams - if the teams and the riders benefit (financially) from the success of the race, then they will work hard to attract spectators.

The Sponsorship Holy Trinity

It seems to be all the rage in sponsorship circles at the moment to talk about 'modern approaches' and '21st Century sponsorship' - for me it's quite simple. We've all suddenly woken up to the fact that there are three important groups in a successful sponsorship, and if you don't consider all three, and address the needs of all three, then the chances are you're wasting your money.

1 - The brand - clearly, as a sponsorship consultant, my focus begins on the brand. and the business and marketing objectives that have been set. Any recommendation that I make has to be rooted in fulfilling the objectives that have been set.

2 - The property - this could be an event, a person, a club - basically it's the property we're looking to sponsor. Whatever kind of deal and activation programme that we come up with has to work for the property. For example, in my view, Audi were a great partner for Manchester United. Chevrolet - hmm, I'm not so sure.

3 - The most important party in this equation - the fans. For any sponsorship to work, then the fans have to win - and to win, their experience of the property has to be improved.

I like to view this as the holy trinity - brand, property and fans. Others refer to it as win, win, win.

Whatever you want to call it, ignore it at your peril.