Who is winning the sponsorship race?

Summer of ‘social’ sport puts sponsor performance under the microscopeContact:Dan MilesBrand Insight Consultantdan.miles@precise.co.ukT. +44 (0)20 7264 4767www.precise.co.uk

Agenda

Introduction and objective 3

Methodology 5

Findings 7

To conclude: tips for sponsoring future events 17

Disclaimer and notes 19

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Introduction and objective

Introduction and objective

Becoming a sponsor of major sporting events is now a calling card for brands seeking to reinforce their position as global leaders or to propel themselves into that league. In particular, brands have lined up to be associated with “the greatest show on earth”.

This year, however, has seen sponsors come under the spotlight as never before. It seems that social media has given voice to those who question the fit or indeed the fitness of sponsors to be associated with major sporting events.

Following on from our analysis of the reactions to sponsors in relation to the recent European football tournament, we have now analysed conversations around sponsors in relation to the latest major sporting event of the summer.

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Whilst many of the sponsors have been seeking to create social media conversations around their sponsorship, not all conversation is good conversation.

Despite this, many of the medal tables ranking the sponsors’ social media performance are based only on volume, or on volume and automated sentiment.

At Precise, we believe that in order to truly identify the winning sponsors at the current sports tournament, we need to go beyond this, analysing conversations in depth in order to identify which of the sponsors with the greatest share of voice are being discussed most favourably.

Our objective, therefore, is to go beyond the buzz and identify those who are truly taking the sponsorship prizes – and why.

Methodology

Methodology

Share of voice is not the be all and end all, but it is important as a first step. We identified all mentions of the Worldwide Partners (Coca-Cola, Acer, Omega, Dow, GE, Macdonald’s, Panasonic, P&G, Atos, Origin, Visa, Samsung) and Official Partners (BP, BMW, Adidas, BT, EDF, Lloyds TSB, British Airways, London Olympics), in association with different ways of referring to the sporting event currently taking place within all available English language social media (blogs, forums, Twitter, public Facebook content, comments, video and images).

Additionally, we compared the amount of opinion-led content, compared to the sharing of news, competitions and so on, the sponsors have been attracting, compared to the recent UEFA Euro 2012 tournament.

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Having identified the four sponsors with the greatest share of voice, we conducted a sentiment analysis to understand which brands were being discussed most favourably.

Rather than relying on automated sentiment, we read a sample of the content around each of the four brands with the greatest share of voice.

Not only have we been able to identify the brands that are being discussed most favourably, we have also been able, through this detailed content analysis, to understand what has driven this success.

Our research covered the two weeks to 31 July, encompassing the latter stages of the Torch Relay, the Opening Ceremony and the first few days of competition.

Findings

Share of voice analysis - the global sponsors score big

McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Samsung are the three brands enjoying the greatest share of voice within all English language social media.

That all three are Worldwide Partners is unlikely to be a coincidence, as this tier of sponsorship allows brands to promote their association globally, and our study is based on all available English language social media content, no matter where it was generated.

Of the Official Partners, who are only able to promote their association in the host nation, Adidas performs the best on share of voice, standing fourth overall and outperforming all of the other Global and Official Partners.

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The other leading brands on share of voice also found that events in the host nation - notably the torch relay - made a significant contribution to their volumes of mentions.

Some brands - including Adidas - drove traffic around hashtags rather than brand name mentions, but the top four based on brand name mentions were sufficiently ahead of the rest for us to rely on this measure for share of voice.

Share of voice analysis - the global sponsors score big

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Dow Chemicals

Panasonic

General Electric

VISA

BMW

P&G

Adidas

Samsung

Coca-Cola

McDonald's

0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000

Level of conversation around Worldwide and Official Partners(Top 10)

Samsung

Coca-Cola

McDonald's

0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000

Level of conversation around Worldwide Partners(Top 3)

British Airways

BMW

Adidas

0 500 1,0001,5002,0002,5003,0003,500

Level of conversation around Official Partners(Top 3)

Source: All accessible English language social media conversations around the Worldwide and Official Partners’ sponsorship, 19/07/12 to 31/07/12

Beyond buzz - not all publicity is good publicity

Share of voice is only the start of the story. Content quality matters more than quantity.

Certain sponsors, such as McDonald’s, attracted a high proportion of opinion-led content, whereas others, such as Samsung, were more successful at driving the sharing of news about them. Often, opinion-led content can be more valuable than news sharing, demonstrating a higher degree of engagement with the brand’s activities.

However, as was the case during UEFA Euro 2012, the high proportion of opinion-led content around McDonald’s sponsorship of the current sporting event is being driven more by unfavourable than favourable comments, leaving McDonald’s with a negative net favourability score of -7. On this basis, it is hard to argue that McDonald’s has won sponsorship gold.

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Samsung, Adidas and Coca-Cola fare far better in terms of favourability, with net favourability scores of +89, +35 and +26 respectively.

With a net sentiment score of +89, it would appear that Samsung has taken sponsorship gold, though Coca-Cola and Adidas were successful in generating greater proportions of opinion-led content around them.

When share of voice and favourability are considered together, Samsung and Coca-Cola currently appear best-placed to claim sponsorship gold. After looking at the sentiment breakdown of all four brands, we move on to consider what is driving sponsorship success.

Beyond buzz - sentiment analysis on the top four sponsors by SOV

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Favourable34%

Unfavourable41%

Neutral25%

McDonald's: share of sentiment

Favourable60%

Unfavourable34%

Neutral6%

Coca-Cola: share of sentiment

Favourable92%

Unfavourable3%

Neutral5%

Samsung: share of sentiment

Source: All accessible English language social media conversations around the Worldwide and Official Partners’ sponsorship, 19/07/12 to 31/07/12

Favourable50%

Unfavourable15%

Neutral35%

Adidas: share of sentiment

Net Favourability: +89 Net Favourability: +26

Net Favourability: -7 Net Favourability: +35

Drivers of success - the torch relay ignites positivity

The involvement of Coca-Cola and Samsung in the Torch Relay is clearly a contributory factor to their success – especially in the case of Coke. 12% of conversations about Coca-Cola and 5% of conversations about Samsung cited the Torch Relay.

It appears that the sponsors of the Torch Relay have seen real benefits through their association with an event that has brought the excitement of the current spectacle to more people. This appears to be one of the reasons why Coca-Cola and Samsung have out-performed McDonald’s so far in terms of public favourability towards their sponsorship.

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Social media puts the activities and motivations of brands under a forensic lens. This makes it all the more important for brands to be able to articulate a clear benefit to the public from their sponsorship. Delivering the Torch Relay appears to have been viewed by the public as a clear and legitimate benefit.

Of course, the benefits of the Torch Relay may not play out at a global level, but this only highlights the importance of delivering real, tangible benefits at a level close enough to consumers that they can engage with it.

Drivers of success - amplification

Coca-Cola succeeded in amplifying its sponsorship of the Torch Relay via its ‘Move to the Beat’ music events, with ‘beat’ mentioned 600 times in association with Coca-Cola over the two weeks researched.

The success of ‘Move to the Beat’ in driving conversations mentioning Coke aim provides further evidence that the public values tangible benefits delivered by Olympic sponsors, above and beyond their financial contribution to the staging of the sporting events.

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The inclusion of prominent popular figures, such as Mark Ronson, in the campaign was also a contributory factor to its success, tapping into popular culture to inspire excitement around the Olympics.

Of course, when amplifying an association, it helps if the events being amplified are a success, and the success of the Torch Relay has clearly fed the success of ‘Move to the Beat’ – and vice-versa.

Drivers of success – taking centre stage

With venues ‘clean’ of sponsoring brands, it is arguably more difficult for sponsors to gain exposure and create association than it is at other major events.

This is why Samsung’s securing of a role within the Opening Ceremony for its Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note devices was such a coup for the brand, securing a huge level of exposure and - importantly - giving the brand a meaningful role over and above its role as a sponsor.

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The Galaxy devices were mentioned in more than a third of all comments about the brand, demonstrating that the central role secured for the device did indeed drive interest in Samsung, enhancing the profile the Galaxy S III in particular was already enjoying as the official phone.

It will be difficult for every sponsor to pull off a coup on this scale, but it is clear that the exposure and the imagination on display contributed significantly to Samsung’s success as a sponsor.

Limitations on success - association to other sponsors

Adidas, as a sports brand, arguably has the most obvious natural fit with sporting tournaments, and it out-performed McDonald’s in terms of favourability, just as it did during UEFA Euro 2012, gaining a net sentiment score of +35.

However, Adidas’ performance as a sponsor of the current sporting event does not appear to equal its success as a sponsor of UEFA Euro 2012, with Adidas frequently cited alongside other high profile Worldwide sponsors in critical comments.

Some social media users are critical of what they see as the commercialisation of sporting events, and high-profile sponsors including Adidas have suffered as a result.

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It seems that Adidas has suffered somewhat by being associated to other ‘corporate’ sponsors, whereas this association was not made to any great extent during UEFA Euro 2012.

It also appears that Adidas has not received as much credit for being the manufacturer of kits as it did at the recent football tournament.

Limitations on success - fit and fitness

The more unfavourable response to McDonald’s sponsorship of the Games is consistent with our findings when we analysed conversations around the sponsors of UEFA Euro 2012.

McDonald’s appears to struggle to establish a clear perceived right to be a sponsor of sports tournaments, with some social media users again questioning the fit - and in some cases the fitness - of McDonald’s as a sponsor.

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Coca-Cola - albeit to a lesser extent than McDonald’s - also attracted criticism on this basis. Coca-Cola was often cited alongside McDonald’s in conversations about the brands’ perceived “unfitness”. However, there were fewer conversations criticising Coca-Cola in isolation than there were for McDonald’s.

To conclude – tips for sponsoring future events

To conclude - tips for sponsoring future sports events

1. Take centre stage for maximum exposure

Sponsoring brands should consider how to replicate Samsung’s coup in securing a central role in the Opening Ceremony, in order to secure the exposure that sponsoring the current sporting event, with its ‘clean’ venues, does not necessarily guarantee.

2. Be imaginative

Samsung’s role in the Opening Ceremony and Coke’s amplification of the Torch Relay were imaginative. They went well beyond the traditional mechanics of sponsorship, harnessing elements of pop culture, and cut through as a result.

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3 Take account of prior reputation

Sponsoring major sporting events is not a reputational panacea, and can serve to give greater exposure to negativity around a brand, or to cause it to be associated with other sponsors who are perceived negatively. Considering what the potential negatives are and how to to proactively manage them will be increasingly important, with future sporting events likely to become ever more social.

4. Earn the right

Paying for association with major sporting events appears no longer to be enough to create permission in the mind of the public. To win hearts and minds and earn the right to association, the public appears to need to believe that a brand is creating value through its sponsorship. Identifying a clear and useful role to play can help a sponsor achieve this, but in particular, creating opportunities for the public to participate earns sponsors the right.

Disclaimer and notes

Disclaimer and notes

Disclaimer

This briefing note is not intended to imply any association between Precise and any particular sponsor or event being sponsored. The analysis has been conducted independently, and is part of a series of analyses Precise conducts into sponsorship effectiveness.

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Notes to editors

Precise regularly reviews the performance of sponsors of sporting events, using social media as a research source. This research follows up on Precise’s research of sponsor performance at UEFA Euro 2012, and Precise will be comparing and contrasting sponsor performance at future events.

Precise’s research papers into sponsorship at other events over this summer are available on request.

Thank you.