Sporting bodies now need to give sponsors more bang for their buck

Given the current economic climate, KEVIN EGAN argues that sports organisations need to be more proactive in terms of attracting sponsorship while also ensuring sponsors get better value for their investment. In good times or bad, there"s one thing that will always go down well in Ireland - a nice bit of moral indignation, perhaps with a bit of shock and disgust thrown in for good measure. Whether our rugby teams are winning Grand Slams or collecting wooden spoons, whether we qualify for World Cups or simply disappear when the big boys come out to play, our ability to thoroughly disapprove of something, to suggest that some innovation will send us all to hell in a handbasket, is unsurpassed. Those following the smaller paragraphs in the national papers may have noticed a minor furore recently with the news that a certain website which specialised in arranging affairs for married individuals was planning to come to Ireland, with a full advertising campaign set to be rolled out in the summer. Now Irish people may have become a lot more tolerant in recent years, but the idea of a website facilitating such activity is likely to get a lot more tongues wagging in indignation, at least until people get home and behind closed doors, where they will no doubt check out what the fuss is about for themselves. The likely success rate of such an enterprise in a small country like Ireland is another matter of course. Indeed, whereas in other countries individuals using such a service might worry about the spouse they were set to meet being an acquaintance, in Ireland dabblers would probably worry that the spouse they might be lined up to meet could be their own. However, such pitfalls aside, sports organisations in Offaly and beyond would do well to note the planned marketing strategy of this venture. Not unlike quite a few companies in Ireland, this particular website has mastered the art of getting a lot of bang for very little buck. They lined up a big billboard advert on Times Square and another prime time Super Bowl advert, leaked the news and caused a national debate about whether such an advert was appropriate. Having dominated the airwaves, they then 'generously' offered to pull the ads, thus saving them the bulk of the cost even though their goal of national awareness had been attained. Offaly sport, not unlike most sport in Ireland and beyond, is heavily dependent on the support of generous benefactors - both of the philanthropic and the corporate variety. The philanthropists, hard and all as they can be to find, will continue to chip in where they can, but the corporate sector is experiencing a serious squeeze at the moment and sports clubs and organisations will soon find that they have to up their game in order to continue to receive the levels of support that they have previously been shown. An example of how much this mindset will have to change in Offaly was to be seen a couple of months ago when the new Offaly jersey was unveiled to the paying public. The Carroll Cuisine logo which had featured on the jersey ever since sponsorship of county jerseys began suddenly took on new life as it was printed in a vibrant red, as per the full colour logo of the company. This caused some uneasiness among traditionalists as red had never been a feature of the Offaly jersey, notwithstanding a few occasions when a misplaced overhead pull with a hurl caused a cut of the forehead in the pre-helmet era and a bloodstain or two might have added some claret to the green, white and gold. With the economic climate as it is, the county board did the only thing open to them - they allowed the sponsors display their logo in the company colours and worked within those parameters - to take any other course of action would have been tantamount to taking a trip to Las Vegas and sitting down into a poker table full of professionals with the year"s budget. However, the unease that was caused by such a small gesture illustrates how much mindsets will have to change if people are to adapt to the new landscape. Sponsors now demand a lot more bang for their buck - no longer are they content to sit back and hope that their name on the jersey will do the work for them. They will expect a regular presence both in the national and local media, they will ask that the big names that wear the jersey make themselves available to promote the product, and above all they will make unconventional requests that must be met with more than a blank refusal on the grounds of 'that"s not the way we do things around here.' Some teams will be lucky enough to have a sponsor who chooses not to make such demands, but this is all the more reason why the team involved should go the extra mile and make the running themselves. Sponsor"s liaison officers are a regular feature of professional clubs for some time now and it is notable that many county boards within the GAA are creating a similar position within their management committees. More and more companies, looking for some cheap promotion, will be keeping one eye out to try and see loopholes where they can engage in 'ambush marketing', the term used to describe events where a company or group pulls off some form of stunt to hijack a sporting event for which some other institution is paying the bill. Teams of marketing officials have been employed for years with little more to do than sign cheques and turn up at official launches, but now they will have to work for their wage and it is to this kind of low cost and indeed destructive technique that they will turn. Offaly sport, whether it be football, hurling, soccer, golf, rugby or whatever, is entering a new era where the sponsors will no longer be chasing after the jerseys, but the jerseys will have to chase the sponsors. As with all evolution scenarios, there will be casualties who will fall by the wayside. Those who adapt best to their new conditions will emerge on the far side, a leaner, meaner and better entity. It is up to each of the sports involved to look at what they have to offer and to make sure they offer it. As any government economist will tell you these days, there is only so much money to go around, and any penny won will be a lot harder earned than in the decade gone by.