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This month has seen the team focus on a slew of sponsorship projects – ranging from insights into how to cut through the clutter in the increasingly crowded football space, to helping a beer client refine its sponsorship strategy through an in-depth study into its competitors’ European sponsorship activity. We are also delighted to launch our London 2012 blog, the first part of our forthcoming 2012 marcoms service that explores sponsorship activity and trends – from a strategic to a creative perspective – from now until the London Olympics. Other November work ranged from an ‘engaging the unengaged’ project, to a showcase of pan-regional strategies and mechanics. And, of course, we can’t let a November Newsletter go without at least mentioning Christmas advertising.


If you would like any further information on the issues explored below or on Insight services in general don’t hesitate to contact us at  mail@xtremeinsight.net  

Understand > Inspire > Direct

 

 

Football Marcoms > Cutting Through The Clutter
 
 

Consumers often respond to sponsorship with less scepticism than traditional ATL advertising so it’s not surprising that sponsorship continues to grow globally and the arena is becoming increasingly crowded. Within sports sponsorship it is the football space that is probably the most overcrowded of all which makes cut through (and thus underlying ROI on expensive rights as well as activation) tougher. Slapping a logo on a shirt is no longer enough. A recent planning project we undertook to help a major beer brand with its strategy for entering the football space explored a range of contemporary approaches and tactics that advertisers have used to successfully stand out in a cluttered sector which spans governing bodies, tournaments, teams, players

and fans. We explored a set of key trends – ranging from branded utility, own events and grass roots partnerships, to CSR and 360 degree programmes and simple out-and-out originality – with accompanying illustrative creative and best practice case studies. Our favourites included Carlsberg’s online amateur manager tool and Burger King’s innovative inside out shirt sponsorship of La Liga’s Getafe FC.
 

Beer Sponsorship Strategies
 
  The alcohol industry is undoubtedly one of the biggest investors in sponsorship – some of the most prominent (and interesting) marketing we see is drinks brands activating sponsorship in the likes of football, Formula 1, music festivals, venues and fashion shows. We were recently tasked to provide a detailed landscape analysis of  a set of beer brands’ sponsorship across Europe – from purchased rights to activation – and whether these are being carried out under a unified global or an individual local strategy. One of the most coherent brands appears to be Heineken, widely acknowledged for the way it globally leverages its Champions League sponsorship through ideas
 such as Star Experience.The brand has made impact at the local level through music – especially in Eastern Europe where it is at the forefront of bringing new music from around the world to those markets (such as with its Romanian Electrolab platform - see http://www.heineken.ro/music/). Another interesting piece of sponsorship activation we reviewed comes from sister brand Amstel in the Netherlands. The one time Champions League sponsor is now synonymous with local football. Amongst its work is its sponsorship the local federation (KNVB) and its social platform which helps amateur teams get organized more easily (www.teamlink.nl).
 

London 2012 > Insight’s Dedicated Blog Goes Live
 
  With the London Olympics now less than 1,000 days away, we have launched our Insight 2012 blog which examines the unfolding commercial story surrounding the ad industry’s biggest event. Following on from our Beijing 2008 OlympicWatch report series, the blog is the introductory platform for our forthcoming 360 degree 2012 service that combines strategic, tactical and trend insights, with an exploration of pertinent sports sponsorship issues, campaign and brand analysis, as well as monitoring  Olympic-related (official and non-official) advertising creative, placement and spend. In addition to
rolling comment and analysis of breaking 2012 marcoms, the blog features a weekly forward looking ‘2012 trends’ summary, as well as the occasional nostalgic look at stand out sports marketing from the past. And on the way to 2012, the blog will also cover marcoms from other major sports events including Vancouver’s Winter Olympics, South Africa’s World Cup, The Commonwealth Games in Delhi and New Zealand’s 2011 Rugby World Cup. For more information on our London 2012 service see www.xtremeinsight.net/2012blog

Centralisation > Pan-European Campaign Strategies & Mechanics
 
  In H2 2009 we’ve worked on several projects focused on centralisation spanning umbrella strategies, global big ideas and pan regional campaigns. This month has been no exception and we have recently compiled a showcase of stand out, multimedia Pan-European activity. Whether the trend is being primarily driven by cost savings, or by an attempt to ensure greater consistency of position and message remains unclear, but there is a very wide range of strategies and mechanics being used now in order to connect with people across multiple borders. Some campaigns, such as the pan-European activity for the Honda Insight (the brand’s first complete Pan European work under its emerging multi-regional strategy), favour connecting through a
universal emotional sentiment shared right across the continent. Others, like Sony’s Twilight initiative bring multiple markets together through a series of real world experiences. EA’s FIFA 2010 campaign joins people online through various game-related cyber connections, such as its geo-tagging tool, to bring people/players together from various different countries within a single campaign. Other interesting strategies include a recent initiative from Absolut which connected across the continent by partnering with a band’s concert tour while Nike’s Womenswear range work used a set of female sports stars and then brought the celebrity to the front that had the highest standing in each individual market.
 

APAN Presentation > Trends & Challenges: The Future of Brand Communication
 
 

This month Insight spoke in Lisbon at the annual conference of the Portuguese Association Of Advertising & Communication (APAN) on the subject of ‘New Media, New Challenges’. Our presentation focused on whether the rise of new technology platforms and the challenge to the traditional marcoms model means that advertisers and marketers now have fundamentally different roles than they did a decade ago. We used expert opinion and stand out case studies to explore the rise of integration and the use of future facing media from the perspectives of advocacy, authenticity, dialogue and openness and

then followed up with a wider discussion. The consensus was that whilst the approaches, emphasis, platforms and strategies may be changing fast (and that the brand-consumer power balance may well be shifting), the underlying aims and functions of advertisers today remains by-and-large the same. Discuss…
 

Engaging with the Uninvolved and Disinterested
 
  This month we have also been working on a couple of projects exploring ways to reach and engage uninvolved or disinterested consumers. One client, which operates in the automotive sector, found a significant demographic segment that claimed not to be at all interested in the products and service and is thus unengaged with the brands and their marcoms that operate within it. Understanding the drivers behind the disengagement, identifying the weaknesses in the alternative solutions currently being used and communicating the compelling benefits of the client’s offering has the potential to bring a whole new segment of potential consumers into the fold (and new
source of income). Our project segmented the different principle drivers behind unengaged consumers, highlighted how direct and indirect competitors were using marcoms to connect with these disinterested groups by either allaying their fears, educating them, highlighting the functional and emotional benefits of their offering and by developing possible future new products/solutions that meet these groups half way. Finding new engaged targets in mature industries is a tough challenge, but when successful the rewards can be great.
 

Modern Warfare 2 – Record Breaking Launch
 
  This month we saw the so called biggest entertainment launch in history - the release of Activision’s Modern Warfare 2 computer game. Blitzing previous records set by the Harry Potter franchise and Hollywood’s ‘The Dark Knight’, gamers across the US and UK bought 4.7 million copies on release day (10 November) alone – generating £187m of sales in 24hours. Of course, this certainly wouldn’t have been possible without a hefty marketing budget – a reported £118m was invested marketing this single game title. Leaving aside the pre-launch cyber buzz element of the marcoms, the above the line work took a fairly traditional approach and revolved around a highly rendered and impressively produced TVC, with supporting print and online activity. This fairly
conservative approach was perhaps offset by the CSR element of the campaign which saw the brand donate $1m (directly from game sales and with more to come) to the Call Of Duty Endowment – a fund set up to help to help US vets re-assimilate into civilian life when they return from duty (see http://www.callofdutyendowment.org/). If our monthly Entertainment and Gaming Creative Review is anything to go by this kind of original, powerful innovation is an increasing feature of games sector advertising.
 

And Finally – Christmas Ads Are Here Again
 
  It’s hard for anyone to avoid Christmas advertising at this time of year - whether seeing or analysing – and we at Xtreme Insight are no exception. Via our regular ad analysis work we’ve noticed two macro trends in Europe thus far this year – firstly a trend for self-referencing and secondly an enhanced appetite for celebrities. The self referential trend sees links and nods to previous seasonal brand advertising embedded into contemporary executions in order to build Christmas ads themselves into the Yuletide tradition. This attempt to make ad campaigns as much a part of a traditional Christmas as snowmen, sleighs and Santa Claus is perhaps a touch self-mythologising. Brands are also enthusiastically embracing the return of the blockbuster
celebrity – or more usually, multi-celebrity – endorser. This could be a sign that these advertisers feel the recession is as good as over and that they do not fear a consumer backlash criticising them for paying stars for adverts when the customers are feeling financially insecure and are cutting back where they can. Both trends could, of course, come back to haunt these brands. This year’s UK Marks & Spencer seasonal TVC illustrates both trends. Life on Mars star Philip Glenister is just one of a slew of stars paid to front the TVC and his line claiming that Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without that ‘M&S girl prancing about in her underwear’ aims to position M&S Xmas advertising as part of annual seasonal tradition.
 

About Us
 

Xtreme Insight is a boutique marketing consultancy providing bespoke research across the advertising, branding, communication and marketing space. Our work includes campaign, brand, competitor and media analysis to provide insights into areas such as ad auditing, benchmarking, best practice, as well as briefing, creative and strategic development through reports, presentations, showcases and workshops.

 

If you would like any further information on Insight’s services visit our website at www.xtremeinsight.net or contact us at mail@xtremeinsight.net 


 
 

 
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