Feature: Technology sponsorships under the spotlight - April 2005  

Credit: Empics

One of the panel sessions at the recent Sport and Technology: The Conference 2005, in association with BT Rich Media, held at BT Centre in London on 4 March, focused on the issue of technology sponsors and the role of technology in sponsorship campaigns. The moderator was Jonny Gould, managing director of Sports Media Broadcasting and his panellists were Patrick Adiba, executive vice-president, major events and Olympics, ATOS Origin; Sally Hancock, chief executive officer, Redmandarin; Toby Hester, marketing manager, sponsorship & events, T-Mobile UK; and Simon Long, managing director, ISC. The panel discussion is summarised below.

Discussions during the technology and sponsorship panel were started by Patrick Adiba from ATOS Origin, the IT sponsor of the Olympic Games up to and including Beijing 2008, who outlined the company's objectives for its sponsorship. "Our objective is clearly to demonstrate our capabilities as a company, as a system integrator, because what we do for the Olympics is very similar to what we do for all our clients," he said.

Credit: Empics

Planning starts four before an Olympics, he continued. The system is designed, and then integrated and then tested. A period of a year is put aside for the testing, which means testing for the Torino 2006 Winter Olympics is already underway.
Minimising risk is a key objective, said Adiba, with a requirement being that all technology has to be proven to be working before the actual event. There are also numerous back-up plans in case things do go wrong and problems can be fixed without anyone at home knowing. "You have no second chances with the Olympics," he stressed.
"If I am being true to the word sponsorship, what I want to do is bring my brand alive through association," said Toby Hester, speaking from the T-Mobile perspective. "And that would be across any event…. I have to deliver the best customer experience that customer can get in accessing their enjoyment of that event." The technology is the proof of the pudding, he said. "It's quite traditional in approach, but in actual delivery it's about the customer."
So, what was T-Mobile's role at the 2004 UEFA Championship (EURO 2004)? To help fund the event by providing a return in the first instance, said Hester, and secondly, providing the customer with an experience. An event owner wants people to access their event through as many channels as possible, he added. "So T-Mobile's role was to deliver the event to their customers and to amplify that as broadly as possible. That comes down to content, brand and the accessibility those customers have to that."
"Technology values might not be what the brand wants to communicate. It may be something more emotional, which is why it's called sponsorship… and sport is emotional." Hester talked about emotional flashpoints within sport - such as seeing a goal being scored. Whether that's viewed online, on a phone or on a television, "that's the thing they want", he said.

Technology sponsorships unveiled

Credit: Empics

The panel was asked what the challenges are facing a governing body negotiating with a technology sponsor compared with sponsorship deals with non-technology sponsors. Simon Long, speaking on behalf of the World Rally Championship (WRC), as managing director of rights holder ISC, said: "The best technological example is our recent association with a company called Inmarsat… a leading global mobile satellite communications provider." Four years ago, when ISC was developing the WRC brand, the company had a huge issue with communications. At the same time, Inmarsat was looking to raise its profile for a potential future sale and also demonstrate its technology in action through a global showcase. These were two companies that came together "at a time of mutual need" said Long. "We were lucky."
There were also synergies between Inmarsat launching communications solutions in some of the remotest locations in the world, and the WRC, taking place in 16 of the hardest-to-reach areas globally. "From desert, to snowy mountains, to rainy roads in Cardiff. There was a natural synergy between their ambitions and our need," described Long. As a rights holder, Long added that it was very important to understand what the brand or the company wanted, rather than trying to "shoehorn our product into their marketing mix".
Phase One, which was the first one and half years of the sponsorship, was about getting the Inmarsat name known throughout the world, through WRC's television coverage in 150 countries. It was also the company's opportunity to show its internal stakeholders that here was an opportunity to drive incremental B2B business through hospitality. Phase Two, was about demonstrating the roll-out of Inmarsat's mobile capabilities, providing the WRC with anytime, anywhere, always on data services, so that the sport could communicate on broadband the results of stages, split times, who won which rally, the GPS data from cars etc, underpinning the delivery of the sport.
Long revealed that the three year deal has recently been renegotiated and Inmarsat is now the WRC's satellite communications partner, rather than being the exclusive global partner. "They got their main marketing message out of their association with World Rally, and now their desire is to continue to be a part of it, but really focus on the R and D opportunity around their technology and services and that requires a different level of marketing investment and more of a B2B focus," said Long.

Credit: Empics

Credit: Empics

Measuring a return

Of interest was how ATOS Origin measures its return on its Olympic sponsorship, with such a large commitment in terms of servicing the deal and the time-lines. Adiba explained that this is done in several ways. One of which is to invite key clients before and during the Games to showcase what they do. "We even train some of our customers on site during the Olympics in some high level situations such as security." They not only entertain clients during a hospitality programme, but show them how the technology works during the event. Any business generated from these visits is tracked and measured by ATOS to provide an indication of return on their sponsorship investment.
Measurement is more important than ever, argued Long. "We're not the FA, we're not the Olympics, but with the World Rally we're a new, young sport with big aspirations, but where there isn't a track record of measurability and definable success. Whether you are young, new and starting, or old and established, the same questions are being asked by the brand companies which is no longer the chairperson's whim."
The main question according to Long is 'why should I spend money on a sponsorship rather than on a through-the-line consumer promotion?'. "One of the things I love about technology," continued Long, "is the fact that there are transparent areas within technology and alliance that allow precise measurability."
Sport has been found out, agreed Hester. "Sport for a long time has been living off the fact that they get tens of thousands of people in a stadium and it's all very emotional and passionate and we have to be associated with that because we are a business and we're in the locality or whatever. One of the things that BT has learned over the years is that you don't have to be a main sponsor to get the benefit from it… There isn't the science in sport to back up what the return could be."
Hancock mentioned some research her company did in 2004 that looked at fans' attitudes to technology within sport in China, Brazil, the US, the UK and Germany. These were fans of several sports as well as participants.
The feedback was, according to Hancock: "We are sick of technology for the sake of it, we are sick of gimmicks. We want to be able to watch a game of football without interruption. I might click the red button on the screen once out of curiosity, but I don't go back to it as it doesn't add value to my enjoyment of the game." However, there is a high demand from an internet perspective to access that sort of information when a fan chooses to do so. "But don't interrupt the broadcast and don't interrupt the enjoyment within the stadium either."
Hancock said technology companies should be more aware from a consumer-facing perspective. "We should be careful that we aren't creating technology without reference to the fan. And it's interesting working with technology companies that never ask that question."

What's good about technology?

Long said that without technology, the WRC just cannot be developed as a sport, due to lack of television coverage. UK fans for example have to wait for the delayed action on a Sunday afternoon. "So for us to achieve critical mass, but more specifically, to provide the fan with what we need, that's why we are now working with Premium TV on our new media platform, and why we are exploring new data-rich ways of communicating and packaging regional and local-language feeds." In relation to Hancock's point, he commented: "In some cases technology is a lovely add-on. In others it is a fundamental enabler of the way we deliver the content and entertain our fans, and we're very much in that camp."
The consumer should be the centre of the universe, agreed Hester, and therefore delivering something that benefits them and makes it relevant.
Long added that for its first two years, World Rally sent the same product out to everyone, without appreciating that fans in Norway have different interests to those in Spain for example.
Long welcomes partnerships with media or gaming partners that allow him to get his message across. "Whether it is Sony delivering a PlayStation product to help me to get to an 18-year old who I wouldn't normally get to, or whether it's a mobile partner to enable people around the world to access data." We also shouldn't forget that children are prevalent consumers of new technology and that therein lies an opportunity to engage new fans into a sport at an early age through technology, added Long.
Hester summed up by saying: "Technology sponsors should use sport to build their brands and to create acceptance and permission from their consumers."

The article above has been extracted from the official post-event paper for Sport and Technology: The Conference 2005, which can be purchased from the official conference website at www.sportandtechnologyconference.com, along with video downloads of the individual panels.

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