The Sponsorship Game: The View from Vancouver

Vancouver is well known for its scenery. Ocean. City. Trees. Mountains. But there's a new view that's dominating the city: A certain five-ringed show and the bevy of sponsors that are using the event to further build their brands within the host country and around the world.

While the medals will be won by athletes performing on snow or ice, a different kind of prize is also up for grabs. Big events build brands and when it comes to sponsorship, there are few bigger than this. The Vancouver games have attracted some of the biggest names around.

Back when the city won its bid in 2003, it instantly set itself apart from previous hosts. First off, Vancouver will be the largest city ever to host the winter games and the nearby resort of Whistler is one of the leading outdoor attractions in North America. While only a third of the size of the summer version, the winter games air during a critical sweeps period -- in the middle of winter and right after the Super Bowl. The opportunities for sponsors are rich.

So with less than a week before the party kicks off, what's going on in Vancouver?

We Are the World

There are nine worldwide partners and all of them are making their presence known in Vancouver:

• Omega is the official time keeper for all sporting events, but it also has a prominently featured countdown clock that ticks away the minutes and seconds to the Opening Ceremony.
• GE is heavily branding its health technologies and has paid to rebuild a downtown outdoor skating rink - a location that has proven popular with families and tourists alike.
• Coca-Cola is a co-sponsor of the 45,000 kilometer torch relay that will travel for over 100 days to over 1000 Canadian communities. They are also the only soft drink beverage available at the event and along with extensive advertising and branding promoting their sponsorship, on-site pavilions are being constructed at live entertainment locations in Vancouver and Whistler.
• Visa is the only credit card option for purchasing tickets and their "Go World" campaign is blazoned on everything from transit stations to the downtown games superstore. In fact, if you want to by a poster or a pair of those popular red mittens, you'd better have a Visa in hand.
• Samsung is making a big splash for its Omnia II smart phone. Tourist busses and a central skyscraper are wrapped in the brand and interactive displays in public areas encourage passersby to play with the mascots and Samsung's technology.
• McDonalds is the official restaurant and will be serving up fries in the athletes; village in both Vancouver and Whistler, inside the media center, with restaurants open 24 hours. They will also "share the gold" with promotions in Nordic countries where winter sport is a national passion, and will feature homegrown snow and ice sport favorites in the United States and Canada.
• Acer, Panasonic, and Atos Origin round out the list of global partners.

Oh Canada!

Nationally in Canada, there are six partner sponsors and all of them are using the event to build their brands.

• Bell Canada signed on as an early sponsor. While Bell is the leading telecommunications company in Eastern Canada, their presence in Western Canada wasn't as prominent. Their multi-million dollar investment in the West Coast city;s 7-year journey is also a 7-year branding exercise for the telecom giant.
• General Motors in Canada is also a major sponsor. GM and Vancouver made headlines in the mid-1990s when the city's new hockey arena became one of the first major naming-rights deals, but some 15 years later, that venue will host the coveted men's hockey championship. In the meantime, the streets of Vancouver are humming with over 5000 Chevrolet, Buick and GMC vehicles used by event organizers and volunteers, all marked with specifically branded decals to illustrate GM;s sponsorship.
• RBC Financial Services is the other co-sponsor of the torch relay. Also an early sponsor, RBC has built the sponsorship message into much of their branding and advertising. They are currently wrapping up their 35-floor Vancouver headquarters to commemorate the pride they have in their sponsorship.
• And if you are looking for merchandise, look no further than Canada's oldest company, the Hudson Bay Company (HBC). They are dressing up the Canadian national team, the volunteers, games organizers and their own historic downtown department store, not to mention many of the visitors and fans coming to Canada for the games.
• National gasoline supplier Petro-Canada is fueling the sprit of the games through promotions and drinking glass sales at their retail stations (a tradition picked up from their successful sponsorship of the 1988 games in their hometown of Calgary).
• And Canadian home building supply retailer Rona is building for the games to build their brand from coast to coast.

Clearly, millions of dollars have been outlaid to support and sponsor the games and much is on the line in Vancouver. Many marketers are looking at events such as this month's winter games to help build their brands. But what is the value of these kinds of sponsorship and what is the best way to attach your brand to an event?

Measured Sponsorship

At Ipsos ASI, we help companies evaluate the value of a wide range of sponsorships by measuring how successful the brand is at getting noticed by consumers, and assessing the resulting impact on the brand.

Our research shows that time and again brands associated with great and exciting events that attract media and public interest can benefit greatly from the "halo effect" of the event. But any sponsorship has to be weighed carefully and a complete sponsorship strategy should be devised and executed.

Some Tips

Event sponsorship is a powerful method of reaching audiences, but for marketers, there are critical options to consider.

Choose sponsorships that match your brand objectives. If there is a disconnect between the event's values and audiences and those of your brand, there will be a disconnect with your consumers. The sponsored events should be appropriate or relevant to your brand. You will see better performance when you leverage the event for your brand's benefit, and when that connection is obvious and recognized by consumers.

Link the creative to the sponsorship. The creative quality of advertisements is a key driver of recall. Ads that have strong branding and carry a relevant, yet different message are always the most successful. Event-themed creative is often more effective than non-themed creative.

Time your media just right. For an advertising campaign to work, it has to elicit recall and response from the consumer. Our research shows that recall levels are far higher during the event than beforehand.

The Final Score

Whether you are considering sponsorship on global or local levels, make sure you have a strategy in place to fully leverage your sponsorship investment and that you have measurable benchmarks and objectives in mind.

That's where Ipsos ASI can help. We use our suite of research products and tools to the success of your sponsorship dollar. With these measures in place, you can see the benefits of your investment, and determine whether your overall sponsorship objectives have been achieved. We can help you measure and assess the success of your sponsorships and fine tune sponsorship strategies to build greater brand equity.