3 Sponsorship Predictions For 2012
Following the mulled wine and too many Quality Street sweets over the Christmas period, I thought it would be important to kick start the year with some predictions on the sponsorship industry for 2012. With so many new things happening this year, it may prove to be a unsettled year for many organisations and difficult for anyone to predict much; however, here are my top 3 predictions:
1. The Olympic Predicament
To sponsor or not to sponsor events during the London Olympic Games period – that is the question on everyone’s mind. Although most of the big brands have taken one road or the other, many brands still have not yet decided how to take advantage of the opportunity of millions of people descending upon London providing a fantastic opportunity to reach a global community locally.
The nervousness lies in history as well as legalities.
With many brands having never been involved with initiating marketing campaigns during the Olympics, it can be almost impossible to decide whether sponsoring events or even increasing marketing during the London Olympic Games will pay off or if you will just get lost in the brand mass.
Although I can’t predict whether or not every brand should go for it as it will always be brand dependent and also dependent on the activation and platform you will be pushing your marketing through – I can say that the London Olympics is providing an opportunity that won’t be coming around again in the near future and if you are able to take advantage, then you should get on board. However, I’d recommend deciding how you’ll participate sooner rather than later in order to make the most out of your sponsorship and marketing campaigns during this period.
2. Brands are Working Together
I mentioned this in last year’s prediction post, but it still rings true today. More and more, brands are working together and creating synergy of resource. Most often this is because it is cheaper, but more importantly brand partnerships achieve more together than they can apart. This is a huge benefit of sponsorship, but you can also achieve the same benefits through in-kind partnerships and joint strategies – for example, getting a Print Partner or a Media Partner on board with your event.
Furthermore, more agencies will be looking to work together rather than treating each other as competitors. We’ve even gone done this route recently teaming up with Brand Innovation Agency BITE in order to provide their Scandinavian-based clients with sponsorship services and our clients with branding services – benefiting both sets of clients!
3. The Sponsorship Market will be Cluttered!
With a significant number of public funding organisations losing their funding this year, I anticipate there will be an influx of sponsorship proposals being sent out to brands. This means a number of things for rights owners, but mainly:
Rights owners will have a harder time selling sponsorship. Great proposals and pitches will differentiate the competition rather than platforms due to lack of resource.
And for interest, you can also read my 2011 Predications Blog and find out whether I was right.
Good luck with 2012 – regardless of whether my predications are right, I can bet it will be a very interesting year for everyone. And of course, don’t forget to sign up to the Slingshot Sponsorship Blog in order to track my predication progress!
