Sports Sponsorship
Understanding sponsorship and how to exploit it
Copenhagen Business School, Cand.merc. Brand & Communications Management
Master Thesis
Student: Dennis Faurbye
Supervisor: Troels Troelsen
Handed in June 1st 2016
Characters/pages: 108.198/54
Abstract
Based on the worldwide growth of sponsorship, and its increasing importance in the world of sports, this thesis explores how sponsorship in general, and sports sponsorship in particular, can be of benefit companies in reaching communication objectives. It is explained what a sponsorship is, and this can be used as a communicational tool for companies to improve awareness, attitude, sales and image.
Several definitions of sponsorship is provided, the most broad of which identifies sponsorship as a mutually beneficial arrangement that consists of the provision of resources of funds, goods and/or services by an individual or body to an individual or body in return for a set of rights that can be used in communications activity, for the achievement of objectives for commercial gain.
Aspects of sponsorship theory such as Rights, Activation, and Fan Involvement is presented and used to answer the question of how sponsorship can be beneficial. The key to this is to understand the limitations of sponsorship, and that it should be followed by a well-founded activation strategy that aims to make the consumer understand the correlation between the sponsorship and the sponsored activity. If the consumer fails to recognize the relation between sponsor and activity, the message of the sponsorship is lost, and no goodwill will be created toward the sponsor.
However if the message is delivered with success, the goodwill that is created has to power to a bond between brand and consumer, that cannot be established through advertising.
Dennis Faurbye
Table of content 1. Introduction ...... 3 Table 1 ...... 3 Table 2 ...... 3 1.2 Motivation ...... 5 1.3 Research Question ...... 5 1.4 Delimitation ...... 6 1.5. Professional cycling ...... 6 1.5.1. The history of professional cycling and its financial structure ...... 6 Table 3 ...... 7 2. Methodology ...... 10 2.1. Research Philosophy ...... 10 2.1.1. Philosophical paradigm ...... 10 2.1.2. Social Constructivism ...... 11 2.1.3. Ontology & Epistemology ...... 11 2.2 Research Method ...... 12 2.4 Quality of research ...... 12 2.4 Data Collection ...... 13 2.4.1 Quantitative data ...... 13 2.4.1. Semi-structured in-depth interview form ...... 14 2.4.2. Data collection process ...... 14 2.4.3. Steen Leth Jørgensen ...... 15 2.4.4. Ole Egeblad ...... 16 2.4.5. Transcript of interviews ...... 16 2.5. Summary of methodology ...... 16 3. Theory ...... 18 3.1. Literature review ...... 18 3.2. Sponsorship Theory ...... 19 3.3. Marketing Mix & Marketing Planning ...... 19 3.3.1. Marketing Plan ...... 20 Table 4 ...... 21 3.4. Sponsorship in marketing literature ...... 22 3.4.1. Sponsorship history and current state ...... 23 3.4.2. Definition of sponsorship ...... 24 3.4.3. Sponsorship Rights ...... 25
P. 1/94
Dennis Faurbye
3.4.4. Sponsorship activation ...... 26 3.4.5. Sponsorship and fan involvement ...... 28 Table 5 ...... 28 3.4.6. Sponsorship and advertising ...... 29 Table 6 ...... 30 3.5. Ambush Marketing ...... 31 3.5.1. Negative perceived values ...... 34 3.6. Modelling Sponsorship Effects ...... 34 Table 7 ...... 35 Table 8 ...... 36 3.7. Sponsorship evaluation ...... 37 4. Case description – CSC ...... 38 5. Analysis based on data and findings ...... 40 5.2. What defines a sponsorship, and what does it offer compared to other marketing tools? ...... 40 5.3. What are the threats and disadvantages a sponsor must be aware of when engaging into a sport sponsorship? ...... 42 5.4. What is important when evaluating sponsorship? ...... 44 5.5. Where will sport sponsorship go in the future? ...... 45 6. Conclusion ...... 47 7. Perspectives ...... 49 7.1. Employee Branding ...... 49 7.2. Social Media ...... 49 7.3. Structural changes in the future of cycling ...... 50 8. References ...... 52 9. Appendix ...... 55 9.1. Appendix A ...... 55 9.2. Appendix B ...... 56 9.3. Appendix C ...... 57 9.4. Appendix D ...... 70 9.5. Appendix E ...... 85
P. 2/94
Dennis Faurbye
1. Introduction Sport sponsorship is becoming a bigger and bigger part of marketing solutions for brands, and it has become an integral element in professional sports. Since the early 90’s, the amounts spend on sports sponsorship has been skyrocketing across all regions and sports, and there are no signs that this trend will stop in the near future.
In 2015 Sky Sports secured the broadcasting rights for Premiere League in a deal worth 5.136 billion GBP over a three-year span from 2016-2019 (Telegraph, 2015). And the overall development of the price for Premiere League broadcast rights is obvious when looking at the table below.
Table 1: Expenditures in Premiere League TV rights 1992-2019.
(TheGuardian, 2015)
This trend is also visible on the US sports market, as the following table picturing the total sponsorship revenue for the NBA over the last 5 years combined for both league and team rights will show.
Table 2: Development in total NBA sponsorship revenue 2011-2015.
P. 3/94
Dennis Faurbye
(Sponsorship, 2015)
And while the overall revenue for sport sponsorship is increasing, so are the professional sport organisations dependencies on this source of income.
And this may be truer for the sport of cycling than many other high profile sports. Each year when a new professional season begins, viewers and followers have to learn new teams, new team names, new jersey designs, and sometimes the whole power hierarchy of the World Tour teams will be re-shuffled by either the entrance of new teams, or the disappearance of strong teams. Since the beginning of this year’s season, it has been known that the formerly Danish owned and sponsored team, Team Tinkoff, will be closed at the end of this season. And as recently as on May 23rd, it was announced on Twitter that Swiss-based Team IAM Cycling will also be shut down at the end of the current season. The reason for this is stated to be an unsuccessful hunt for a co-sponsor, needed to make the team able to compete on a high level (Twitter, 2016).
It has almost turned into a regular yearly event that teams must close because their main sponsor is leaving the sport, or change name and appearance as their license is bought by another team, or a new sponsor emerges.
The reason for this is that for professional cycling the income from sponsor partners are the complete financial foundation the teams are operating from. But negative publicity about doping and cheating has overshadowed the sport since the Festina-scandal in 1998, and this have made it difficult for teams to attract or resign their main sponsors.
Professional cycling in Denmark has also gone through a significant and negative change. Denmark lost its only World Tour team three years ago, when owner Bjarne Riis sold the team to Russian Oleg Tinkoff. The team had for years been a flagship for Danish cycling and for Danish cycling talents. The Danish professional continental team Cult Energy Pro Cycling
P. 4/94
Dennis Faurbye
moved to Germany prior to this season, and the Danish sponsor Cult Energy soon after ended its collaboration with the team. So as of this year, for the first time in many years, Denmark does not have a single team in either of the top two tiers of professional cycling.
This comes at a time, where cycling is a trending sport in Denmark. For several seasons Denmark has been prominent in the youth leagues of European cycling, finishing third on the UCI under-23 Europe Tour Ranking in both 2014 and 2015, and Denmark currently have several important riders in all the ranked age groups (UCI, 2016). Cycling as a way of exercise or leisure hobby is also growing, and cycling as a means of transport have for many years been proudly associated with Denmark.
1.2 Motivation These are all reasons that I find it interesting and relevant to examine the field of sport sponsorship and of sponsorship in modern cycling. To look at how cycling differs from other sports in terms of being a marketing platform, and to try and see if there is an untapped potential for rights buyers, or if the sport is simply not interesting for sponsors to be associated with.
My hope for this thesis is that it can act as a tour de force through the landscape of sport sponsoring, cycling and branding. And as the author it is my job to steer through these landscapes as focused and straight as possible, while also making it an interesting and insightful journey for the reader. I also hope that by reading this thesis, the reader will get a better understanding of sport sponsorship and its importance, and in particular, how important it is for companies to act professional and with care when they consider engaging in sponsorship business.
1.3 Research Question As the title suggests, my aim with this thesis is to explore the vast and expanding world of sport sponsorship and the relationship between sponsor and sponsee, and to outline this in a sensible way for the reader. Therefor I will work with the following research question:
P. 5/94
Dennis Faurbye
How can companies benefit from using sport sponsorship to commercial gain, as a part of their marketing toolbox?
Now I understand that this is a rather broad and not so straightforward question to seek to answer. Because of this I will go about it by dividing it into a set of sub-question in order to adequately answer my research question. These are:
1. What defines a sponsorship, and what does it offer as compared to other marketing tools? 2. What are the threats and disadvantages a sponsor must be aware of when engaging into a sport sponsorship? 3. Where will sport sponsorship go in the future?
1.4 Delimitation My main focus in exploring the field of sport sponsorship will be on professional cycling and in continuation of this cycling at amateur levels and as a form of exercise/leisure activity. However this will not stop me from also using examples from other sports, when I find it appropriate or useful.
1.5. Professional cycling At this point of the thesis, I feel it is important to come around what professional cycling is, the development it has been through, and how it is structured. This will help the reader to understand references and issues throughout the thesis, as well as in the conclusion. I will begin with the origin of professional cycling.
1.5.1. The history of professional cycling and its financial structure Professional cycling events as we know them today can be traced back as long as to the 1860’s. Back then races where usually held in velodromes, which enabled the organizers to collect entrance fees from spectators as a source of income (Reeth & Larson, 2016). However bike manufactures wanted their products to be seen in action on roads, so people could
P. 6/94
Dennis Faurbye
understand better how cycling could be used for transportation, and not only in sport. In 1890, only 0,5 out of 100 capita in France had a bicycle (Ibid.).
This meant that by the 1890’s, racing-events moved out to the streets, where riders would compete in races extended over long distances from one city to another. These are today referred to as Classics, and the classics that where organised back then, is still the most popular and respected cycling events today. A list of some of these races can be seen in table 3 below.
Table 3: List of cycling events, year of creation, location, distance and (first) organizer
Race Creation Location Distance (First) Organizer (km) Bordeaux-Paris 1891 France 572 Véloce-Sport Liege-Bastogne-Liege 1892 Belgium 250 L’expresse Paris-Roubaix 1896 France 280 Roubaix velodrome builders
Paris-Tours 1896 France 250 Paris-Vélo Tour de France 1903 France 2.428 L’Auto Tour of Lombardy 1905 Italy 230 La Gazzetta dello Sport Milano-San Remo 1907 Italy 288 La Gazzetta dello Sport Tour of Italy 1909 Italy 2.448 La Gazzetta dello Sport Tour of Flanders 1913 Belgium 324 Sportwereld (Reeth & Larson, 2016: 9)
A notable development can be seen in 1903 where the first edition of the Tour de France where held. What made this race special was that it took place over several successive days, something that up until then had not been possible to arrange. The Tour de France, along with the Giro d ‘Italia and the Vuelta a España are the biggest and longest cycling events organised today, and is referred to as the three Grand Tours.
This professionalization of the sport was a result of a perfect collaboration between the bicycle manufactures and local newspapers, which became the organizers of the first cycling events. Both industries blossomed in this era. The number of bicycles in France per 100 capita had by the early 1950’s risen to 30 (Reeth & Larson, 2016) as more people recognized the benefits from cycling, and the professional races helped this growth by showing people the advantages of using bicycles as a means for transportation. At the same time, cycling was
P. 7/94
Dennis Faurbye
different from other sports, as spectators along the roads would only experience a short glimpse of the spectacle, in contrary to spectators of sports held in velodromes and arenas. This created a demand for newspapers, which allowed the fans to see pictures from the race, and get information about the race results. And organizing cycling events was a great success in terms of business for the newspapers, as both L’Auto who created the Tour, and La Gazzetta dello Sport who created the the Giro obtained important rises in sale and market share. L’Auto even caused their biggest competitor Le Vélo to go bankrupt in 1904, the year after the first Tour de France (Ibid.).
Although the newspapers lost their roles as organizers and main sponsors, they only play a small role in the business of cycling events today. However their mark on the sport is still visible, most notable in the leaders-jerseys in the Grand Tours. The leader’s jersey in Tour de France has been yellow since 1919, which was inspired by the colour of the pages in the magazine L’Auto, and in Italy the leader’s jersey is pink like the pages in La Gazzetta dello Sport. These colours have stayed the same out of respect and appreciation of the heritage of the races and the role of the newspapers.
While newspapers organized the races, bike manufactures sponsored the teams by providing material and paying for food and accommodation for the riders, who in return wore the sponsor’s logo on their jerseys and caps (Reeth & Larson, 2016). Only the best riders where paid fixed wages, while the majority only had an income from race earnings. From the early 1930’s races where broadcast on live radio, which increased the popularity of the sport, and thus the wages of the best riders. As technology advanced, end the economy rose in Europe after the Second World War, bicycles were replaced with motorized vehicles. The sales of bicycles dropped, and the manufactures were no longer willing or capable of paying the increasing salaries of the best riders (Ibid.). This made the riders look for extra-sportif sponsors, sponsors from industries that were otherwise not directly related to cycling. The first such example was in 1954 when Fiorenzo Magni, Italian national champion at the time, chose to be sponsored by Nivea (Ibid.). As the bike manufacturers lost control of the sport, so did the newspapers. Upcoming media like TV and radio, erupted and competing newspapers, where able to report from the races on equal terms to the organizers. Secondary prizes, like the sprinter’s jersey and the climber’s jersey, was introduced so there could be more sponsors,
P. 8/94
Dennis Faurbye
but in the end it was no longer profitable to arrange cycling events under the current conditions.
Today the majority of professional races are organized by large groups or organisations, which own the rights to several events. This allows them to increase its income from sponsorships and minimizing costs. Besides the income from sponsors, cities all over the world pay large sums to be a part of races, while the biggest source of income is from selling broadcasting rights. The biggest and most renowned of these organisation is the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), which organizes the Tour de France, Vuelta a España, several of the ‘monument’ classics, as well as races in new-market countries like Tour of Qatar and Tour of California (ASO, 2016). Race earnings and prize money within cycling are still relatively small compared to other sports, so professional teams are totally dependent on income from sponsors.
P. 9/94
Dennis Faurbye
2. Methodology The subjects and stories picked for this thesis, come from my own interest in, and love for, sport. I am an avid follower of not only cycling, but in a variety of sports, and my interest is not limited to results or the entertainment sports can provide, I am also very much interested in the business of sports. That includes how it is organised, who pays for it, what determines success, who is it aimed at, and how come, in my opinion, sports are able to bring people together across borders and cultures like no other field or event. Now these are not questions directly linked to this thesis, but it is something that I as an author bring into my research for the thesis. It affects how I think, and how I approach data and my analysis, and this is the reason why landscaping the methods and philosophies behind science is important.
Because of this, I will use this chapter to explain and justify my methodology and philosophical approach, used to answer my research question. I will do so by touching on the relevant research philosophies, the research design, and methodological choices. I will also describe how data has been collected, and the methods behind this.
2.1. Research Philosophy The philosophical aspect of science is important in order to discover the implicit assumptions of the researcher, and help both the author and the reader to be aware of these assumptions. The philosophy of science affects how the research is approached, and thus is an indicator for the assumptions and the view of the world of the author, and how these come to show in the work for this thesis.
2.1.1. Philosophical paradigm The philosophical paradigm will be explained in this section, including a description and argumentation for how this is acting as a scope for the research process. This is done, by defining the ontological and epistemological frame, as these are “(…) decisive for the researchers choice concerning methodology and research process (…)” (Nygaard, 2012: 12, translated). This underpins that the choice of paradigm will have an influence on the research method.
P. 10/94
Dennis Faurbye
The choice for this thesis is the paradigm of social constructivism. This choice will be further elaborated in the following section.
2.1.2. Social Constructivism A paradigm is defined as a set of principles controlling the field of the research, and is decisive of how the researcher approaches the field of the research (Presskorn-Thygesen, 2012). This means that the paradigm will decide how the research will take form, and how the final research results will appear (Ibid.). In its nature, social constructivism prescribes that knowledge is created and re-created in human interactions.
2.1.3. Ontology & Epistemology Ontology defines how reality is looked upon, and is the starting point from where the field of the research is approached. Within paradigm of the social constructivism there is no objective reality, as the reality is socially constructed through human interaction and depends on the human recognition of reality (Presskort-Thygesen, 2012). The position of the scientific philosophy dictates that the field of research is being created in the processes of interaction, and in the human realisation of the field. And as such, the subject field cannot be viewed as an objective entity (Ibid.)
“The premise is, that any researcher or student inevitable is situated and positioned in a certain way according to the context of research, and this position has a defining importance of the study.” (Justesen & Mik-Meyer, 2010: 50. translated). The point is that the researcher and the research cannot be separated from one another, and thus the presence of the researcher will always influence the area of research.
Epistemology concerns itself about how knowledge is gained within the area of research, as it asks the question “(…) what is acceptable knowledge in a particular field of study.” (Saunders et al., 2009: 112). Constructivism believes in the notion that context and subjectivity are conditions that cannot be ignored (Justesen & Mik-Meyers, 2010). Since social constructivism is central for this thesis, the epistemological approach is that of subjective epistemology. The researcher cannot distance himself from the knowledge that is
P. 11/94
Dennis Faurbye
being created. So in the research there will be an interaction and the researchers will both influence and be influenced by the field of study. The understanding that is created regarding sponsorship relies on the knowledge that has been created in the interaction between the researcher and the texts and individuals the researcher has been in contact with in the process.
2.2 Research Method The research method is based upon the decisions made regarding paradigm, ontology and epistemology. It is an output of how the research study is best examined, and which methods should be used (Presskorn-Thygesen, 2012). On the basis of the chosen paradigm, it is natural to use a qualitative method approach. The qualitative method is useful in order to reach a deeper understanding for the field of study, by absorbing the knowledge that is created through interactions. This is desirable as the respondents with whom for in-depth interviews are conducted, can produce an insight and a valuable source of knowledge of the subject, that otherwise would not be available. The method in which scientific conclusions is drawn is characterised by being inductive, meaning that the empirical data is most important. However there are also to some degree.
2.4 Quality of research Based on the social constructivism paradigm, the research stays within a scientific area, where there is no desire to produce a reflection on the world, but rather a wish to obtain an understanding of the constructs. Traditional notions for reliability and validity are not relevant within the paradigm, as “… concepts such as validity and reliability are not precise terms for what takes place in study based on qualitative methods” (Rasmussen et al., 2006: 117). This is supported by Jordansen & Madsen (2010), who states that the constructivist approach to science has more consequences, and that these requirements then change character (Ibid.) Instead they propose a concept of credibility where the quality of a constructivist paradigm is based on the credibility through consistency between research question, data collecting method and scientific paradigm, and transparency and reflection on choices regarding collection and processing of data (Ibid.) So these are the standards that this thesis aims to live up to, in order to secure quality.
P. 12/94
Dennis Faurbye
2.4 Data Collection This section is dedicated to present the data collection method for the thesis. The collection method is a result of the previously described research design, and as a qualitative method is used, conducting interviews were chosen as the primary means of data collecting. I justify this choice with the following quote from Justesen & Mik-Meyer (2010:16); “Qualitative studies (…) are well suited to describe phenomena in context and, against that background, provide an interpretation that leads to a greater understanding of the phenomenon.”.
In accordance to the social constructivism approach explained in my philosophical considerations, an interview can be explained as “… an active process, where the interviewer and the interviewee produce knowledge through their relation” (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009: 34).
2.4.1 Quantitative data Although this thesis relies primarily on qualitative data, a single quantitative measure was also taken, as a short explorative online survey was conducted. The purpose of this survey was to get a sense of how cycling is viewed, and which values and associations come to mind when people are asked about cycling.
It was also conducted to investigate whether the author had a realistic view of how people relate to cycling, and which values they associate with cycling. In that sense the purpose was thus more toward the author’s study of the field, than an actual study of the field, and as such the survey functioned as a preparation for the data collection, without being a part of the relevant data itself.
Usually an explorative survey leads to a focus group interview that allows the researcher to further explore the tendencies and phenomena revealed in the survey. This allows a quantitative data to become qualitative. However for this research a choice was made to not move along with a focus group interview, as the results of the survey provided the information and inspiration needed to set up the in-depth interviews.
P. 13/94
Dennis Faurbye
2.4.1. Semi-structured in-depth interview form The semi-structured interview form was chosen, as this allowed an explorative and flexible approach to the interviews. This approach is well suited for stimulating new knowledge, and at the same time includes preselected themes for which the interviewer can get the respondents reflections on (Justesen & Mik-Meyer, 2010).
It allows the interviewer to change predefined questions and themes in the interview guide, to match the development of the conversation (Saunders et al., 2009). These changes, when conducted correctly, allows the researcher to explore the questions based on previous answers, and get the most inclusive information from the interviews (Ibid.) As knowledge is created during the interview, the semi-structured form also allows the researcher to “ (…) find out what is happening and to seek new insights.” (Ibid: 322).
This form of interview also allows the information derived from the interview to get detailed, and provides flexibility to pursue issues and subjects that come up during the interview. This way I could pursue not only my own pre-determined themes, but also themes that arose from the answers and stories from the person being interviewed.
In preparation for the interviews, while creating my interview guides, I approached relevant literature and theories in order to identify themes and questions that I found would help me collect the fitting data in accordance to my research question. This also enables me to use the preparation to familiarize myself with the context of the research question. And finally the semi-structured form made it easier for the respondent to speak as much and as freely as possible, including stories based on the respondents experience that I would not otherwise be able be able to ask about. These stories can be valuable sources of knowledge, and can “(...) lead the discussion into areas that you had not previously considered but which are significant for your understanding, and which help you to address your research question and objectives.” (Saunders et al., 2009: 324).
2.4.2. Data collection process The previous section introduced the components important to be aware off when tackling semi-structured interviews. This section will explain how respondents were selected, and the practical preparations leading up to the interviews. Both interviews were conducted in Danish,
P. 14/94
Dennis Faurbye
as this was believed to ensure the optimal dialogue and understanding between interviewer and interviewee. Because of this interview guides were also created in Danish, and can be seen as such in Appendix A and B. When quoted or referenced to in the analysis in this thesis, the quoted or referenced part of the interviews will be translated into English in a way in which the meaning of the statement will be preserved.
Two people were interviewed for this thesis. More interviews could have been useful to further strengthen the quality and relevance of data (Bryman & Bell, 2007), but a compromise in numbers of interviews where made due to limitations concerning time and availability of relevant respondents.
2.4.3. Steen Leth Jørgensen The first interviewee was Steen Leth Jørgensen. He was selected because of his many years working with sponsor management. He is now employed by the international sports marketing agency UFA sports. He is also an external lecturer at Copenhagen Business School, where he lectures in sports marketing, branding, activation and the development of commercial platforms for sports properties. He was introduced to me through my thesis- supervisor Troels Troelsen.
The purpose of the interview was to gain an insight into his knowledge within sport sponsorship and his experience working directly with the subject. The interview was thus expected to be both explorative and explanatory, as well as to provide actual cases and examples from previous sponsorship projects. The interview was focused on sport sponsorship as a broad entity, and not only on sponsorship and marketing in relation to cycling. This is also why this was the first conducted interview, as this provided a broad knowledge to the subject, as well as focus on emotional perspectives and image transfer, branding and advertising. This was later used in the preparation for the second interview, which had a profile more specific and dedicated to cycling.
A longer telephone conversation where held before the interview was arranged. This conversation served as basis for the interview guide which subsequently where created (Appendix A).
P. 15/94
Dennis Faurbye
2.4.4. Ole Egeblad The second interview is with Ole Egeblad, former sponsor manager for CSC at the time where they sponsored a World Tour team, and he is currently involved in arranging a new Danish open-for-all road race due to launch on June 5th. Ole was referred to by both Troels Troelsen and Steen Leth Jørgensen, and was selected due to his present work with cycling in Denmark, as well as his experience in managing sponsor operations for CSC. The purpose of the interview was thus to gain further information about both operations for case-uses, and to get the thoughts on the current state of cycling in Denmark from somebody who is working directly with the field. As this interview was more specifically aimed towards cycling, so was the interview guide. There was no conversation held before the interview, but the themes of both the thesis and the interview was quickly discussed just prior to the interview. This gave the respondent a chance to identify stories and cases that he thought would fit the themes, and the interviewer could then pursue these stories accordingly during the interview.
2.4.5. Transcript of interviews Both interviews have been transcribed, and can be found in the appendices A + B. In the process of transcribing, the interviews are written in a language that is simplified in the sense that pauses, repetitions and affirmative words from the listener, is left out where it appears that these have no effect on the message of the statement. This is done to give the written interviews a more coherent and clear language.
2.5. Summary of methodology This chapter has explained the different stages of the methodological choices for the research in this thesis. A social constructivism philosophy acknowledges that knowledge is created in the human relations, and relations between author and the field of research, as well as the relation between author and data, theories and cases. The researcher and the research subject cannot be separated, as knowledge derives from this interaction. Also the researcher’s present knowledge and opinion on the subject will influence how data and theories are processed, as there is a subjective epistemology.
P. 16/94
Dennis Faurbye
An explorative survey was conducted as part of the preparation toward the in-depth interviews, as well as for the researcher to get a better understanding of the field of study. Although the survey can also function as a way to approach questions and conclusions, the survey in itself cannot conclude anything because of its poor sample size.
Two in-depth interviews were conducted in a semi-structured manner, in order to maximize knowledge output from the dialogue between interviewer and respondent. However, being critical, more interviews with characters connected to the field of sponsorship would have strengthened the dataset.
P. 17/94
Dennis Faurbye
3. Theory In this chapter relevant theories within the areas of marketing and sponsorship will be introduced and explained to give an understanding of the theories used in the analysis section.
3.1. Literature review In my research for this thesis, I have read several books and articles on the subject for sponsorship and marketing, and I have found that there is a lack of newer publications about sponsorship.
Marketing literature has been selected based on prior studies on my master-study, such as Aaker & McLouglin (2010), Kotler & Keller (2012) and Percy & Elliot (2009). I have found that these have very little to offer in regards to sponsorship, even in relation to communication strategies, which is disappointing since data for a number of years have shown that a growing percentage of marketing expenditures are being used on sponsorship.
For sponsorship theory, I’ve worked mainly with Lagae (2005) and Masterman (2007). Both provide a good overview of the field of sponsorship. They also have good references, which have allowed me to go back and look through some of the source material.
Late in my research, I came across a new publication by Van Reeth & Larson’s; The economics of professional cycling (2016). I have been able to read previews from the book, which unfortunately have not been available anywhere in Denmark yet. I have got the impression that this book is exactly the kind of book I have felt was missing within the field, because the financial aspects of cycling are very interesting and at great importance for the sport.
American literature on sponsorship and sports management tends to be solely focused on American sports, which have a very different structure than European sports. American literature is also often focused on metrics and quantitative analysis, like Blair (2012), which does not link well to either professional cycling or the qualitative approach I have chosen for my research.
P. 18/94
Dennis Faurbye
3.2. Sponsorship Theory As sponsorship is the main theme in this thesis, this chapter is dedicated to explain sponsorship and all its facets. But before moving into sponsorship and sponsorship theories, it is relevant to present basic marketing theory to help understand that sponsorship is only one part of a company’s marketing communication, and that all communicational actions and objectives most be coherent. I focus on a few key theories that serve to illuminate the field of sponsorship. In the end of the chapter I will present Meenaghan’s (2001) comprehensive model of sponsorship effects.
3.3. Marketing Mix & Marketing Planning Before moving into sponsorship theories, it is relevant to present basic marketing theory in order to situate sponsorship as a part of a company’s marketing communication. Sponsorships are not by themselves a coherent marketing strategy, and all communicational actions and objectives must be coherent.
‘Marketing mix’ is a term commonly used to describe the sum of controllable variables that make up a company’s total marketing efforts that are used to accomplish the marketing objectives (Percy & Elliot, 2009). The components of marketing are also referred to as the four P’s, namely promotion, product, price & place, and “all components of the marketing mix must be understood if effective marketing plans are to be developed.” (Ibid: 164). It is important to recognize that the marketing mix deals with controllable variables, and if a company engage in a sponsorship it must be willing to take a risk and loose some of its control.
Of these four components, promotion and to a degree place is most relevant for the sake of sponsorship. The pricing strategy and the product properties have no direct relevance to a sponsorship or to the activation of a sponsorship. However if a brand was to drastically change either its price or its product, at sponsorship could very well be a part of a new marketing plan and the execution of a new communication strategy.
Place is referring to distribution, meaning where and how the product should be available for sale. This variable should be re-evaluated once a company have signed on to a sponsorship agreement if that sponsorship is rooted in an actual locality the distribution must adapt
P. 19/94
Dennis Faurbye
accordingly, and if the sponsorship is concentrated in time, the distribution channels should be upgraded during and after the time the sponsorship is exposed.
Promotion is used in a generic manner, and covers advertising, promotion public relations and sponsorship. How the variables are defined in the marketing mix is a result of how the four P’s link up together.
For advertising to work, it must follow a six-step process called the information processing paradigm, that involves presenting the message to the target audience, having the target audience pay attention to the message, and upon paying attention the target audience has to comprehend the message, “…understanding the conclusion being urged and, to some extent, the points being offered in support of the conclusion.”(Percy & Elliot, 2009: 66). Next, the target audience must yield to the arguments in the message, and then retain the arguments and the intent to behave positive as a result of the message. Finally the target audience will behave as probed by the message. If the message is to be success, all six steps must be met with a positive response: if any of the six steps fail, the communication will be unsuccessful (Ibid.). Therefore, a communication strategy must be developed on the basis of the overall marketing plan to ensure that each of the six steps are successful.
3.3.1. Marketing Plan In creating the marketing plan, the information processing paradigm is turned into a communication response sequence, and is shortened down to four categories: Exposure, Processing, Communication effect and Target Audience Action (Percy & Elliot, 2009). In the planning sequence the order is reversed, so that the first stage is picking objectives for target audience action, in other words what actions do we want our target audience to take (Ibid.), for example to try a brand for the first time, or to re-buy the brand. The communication effects become objectives for advertising and promotion. There are four basic communication effects; category need, brand awareness, brand attitude and brand purchase intention. Category need is about establishing a product or service aimed to remove or satisfy a divergence between the consumer’s current motivational state and a desired emotional state (Kotler & Keller, 2012: 259). Brand awareness is the wish to increase the consumer’s ability to recognize or recall a brand within the category, in sufficient detail to make a purchase. In
P. 20/94
Dennis Faurbye
short brand recognition is important when targeting consumers in a point of purchase, and brand recall is important then targeting consumers away from the point of purchase (Ibid.). Brand attitude aims to improve the perceive ability of the brand to satisfy current relevant need, and finally brand purchase intention aims to sway the consumer in a positive direction in order to purchase the brand or take a purchase-related action (Ibid.).
Once the communication objective is determined, the firm must put forward a creative strategy that will maximize the likelihood that the target audience processes the message. Finally, the marketing plan must determine how best to expose the advertising to the target audience. This involves choosing a media strategy that must include media selection, where to reach the target audience most efficiently and media scheduling to determine how often the target audience must be reached in order to produce the intended communication response (Percy & Elliot, 2009: 73). Based on the marketing plan, the final communication strategy is created through implementing a five-step strategic planning process.
Table 4: The five-step strategic planning for communication strategies
Step One Select the target audience based upon the overall marketing strategy Step Two Understand how the target audience makes decision in the category Step Three Determine the best positioning for the brand within its marketing communication Step Four Develop a communication strategy based upon the communication objectives selected Step Five Set media strategy to deliver the message and satisfy the communication objectives (Percy & Elliot, 2009: 85)
When selecting the target audience, there are three important questions that must be addressed; where are sales or usage coming from; what is known about the target audience; and where does the trade fit? (Percy & Elliot, 2009: 86). It is also useful to think in terms of usage and loyalty. The target usage can be a current user, non-user, category user, light user or heavy user, and the target can be loyal to the brand, loyal to a competitor or a brand switcher (Kotler & Keller, 2012). This knowledge about the target audience will inform the choice of communication strategy.
When the target audience has been selected, it is important to understand the purchase decision process. In order to do so, five roles that an individual can take on have been identified. The five are Initiators who propose purchase or usage, influencers who
P. 21/94
Dennis Faurbye
recommend purchase or usage, deciders who make the actual choice, purchasers who make the actual purchase and users who use the product or service (Percy & Elliot, 2009: 87). An individual can take on several roles, but it is important to identify who amongst the target audience fulfils each role, so that they can be targeted accordingly.
Except in the case of a new product, a brand will always have an established position in its market. So when determining the position for the communication strategy, the first thing to is to decide whether to keep the position or re-position the brand. Positioning is a big theme within marketing, and positioning strategies can be conducted in several different ways. But in relation to the communication strategy, the most important thing to note is that the positioning strategy and communication strategy must be aligned. In the fourth step where a communication strategy is developed, the communication effects are the same as in the marketing plan, namely category need, brand awareness, brand attitude and brand purchase intention. Finally a media strategy must be set. This involves the firm choosing between direct marketing or advertising.
This has been a short presentation into marketing theory, to explain the basics of marketing, and the decisions going into creating a marketing plan and a communication strategy. In the next section focus will be moved on to sponsorship.
3.4. Sponsorship in marketing literature Although sponsorship has become a more influential part of marketing communication, the information about sponsorship is notably absent in general marketing publications. For example Kotler & Keller (2012) just briefly mentions sponsorship in the following way: “Companies can promote their brands and corporate name by sponsoring and publicizing sports and cultural events and highly regarded causes” (Ibid: 282). Sponsorship is also only briefly mentioned by Aaker & McLoughlin (2010) who describe that branded sponsorships can be a part of a positioning strategy, without really explaining what this includes, except for how the Millennium Dome in London became the O2 Arena. They do however mention the problem of linking a sponsorship to a brand, claiming that sponsorship confusion is common, and that out of the 102 official Olympic sponsors since 1984, only half have built a link, defined as having a sponsor awareness of at least 15% and at least 10% higher than that of
P. 22/94
Dennis Faurbye
competitors who was not a sponsor (Ibid: 203). It is also stated that the success VISA and Samsung have had as Olympic partners is because they “(…) surround the sponsorship with a host of brand-driven activities including promotions […] and advertising over an extended time period.” (Ibid: 203), which should not be a critique as a sponsorship is supposed to work because of the activation of it.
3.4.1. Sponsorship history and current state Sponsorship dates back as long as to 326BC, where sponsorship can be recognized as philanthropist behaviour. Individuals as well as governing bodies would finance buildings used for theatre and games (Masterman, 2007). There were also examples of support for individual sportsmen, who prior to competing would be promised important awards for success, and in the roman empire gladiatorial contests where setup by wealthy nobles to gain popularity, social standing and office (Ibid.). This to a such degree, that in year 63BC the sponsorship of events had to regulated, as it became illegal for anyone to stage games in within 2 years of elections (Ibid.) Later in history there are examples of artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo given support for their works by the church and by aristocrats. The first recorded use of sports sponsoring I UK was in 1898, the football league champions Nottingham Forrest was endorsed by the beverage company Bovril (Lagae, 2005: 40).
Within the last 20-30 years, the use of sponsorship has become more professionalized, and the total revenue from sponsorships is still growing. In North America, sponsorship spending have is set to increase with 24% from 2010 to 2015, from 17.2 billion to 21.4 billion USD (IEG, 2015), and the growth of sponsorship has been higher than the growth of advertising and marketing/promotion from 2012 to 2015 (Ibid.).
There are several key factors for the growth in sponsorship. Some of these are listed by Lagae (2005) as the globalization and professionalization of brands, the globalization and professionalization of sports, a decreasing effectiveness of traditional adverting through mass media, general changes in the media landscape and increased television coverage of sporting competitions. This is further elaborated by the fact, that “costs for traditional advertising continue to increase, while ratings and readership decline” (IEG, 2015). The biggest problem however, is that consumers are not paying attention to commercials.
P. 23/94
Dennis Faurbye
3.4.2. Definition of sponsorship As sponsorship is the focal point of this thesis, it is important to give the concept a clear definition in order to understand the properties of a sponsorship. Several authors have each given their definition, and these will be used to integrate a definition that clarifies the essentials of sponsorship that are relevant for this research. As previously shown, general marketing offers little when defining sponsorship. The reason that it is difficult to settle on one definition is that “Over the years, sponsorship has developed into a highly versatile and adaptable medium that has, in part, contributed to the difficulties of creating an enduring definition” (Beech & Chadwick, 2004: 351).
Beech & Chadwick (2004) also states that the general agreement is that sponsorship represents a business transaction rather than philanthropy, however Calderon-Martinez et al. (2005) divides sponsorship into two categories namely philanthropic sponsorship and commercial sponsorship. In their definitions philanthropic sponsorship is aimed at improving corporate image, whereas commercial sponsorship is linked to achieve direct business objectives like awareness or sales (Ibid.).
The difficulty of defining sponsorship is partly caused by one of its major advantages, namely that “Sponsorship embraces a number of different fields and is difficult to define in any precise fashion. This is also what makes it such a useful tool in so many different situations”(Jiffer & Roos; 1999: 25). The authors continue to give their bid on a definition which states that “Sponsorship is a business method for communication and marketing, which in the short and long term has the aim of contributing to the sponsor’s brand awareness and image, as well as increasing the sponsor’s sale. Sponsorship should benefit all those involved, and lead to a result that can be measured against pre-defined objectives.” (Ibid.).
Another take on a definition of sponsorship is by Otker (1988, via Lague, 2005) who claims that sponsoring is “…buying and exploiting an association with an event, a team, a group etc. for specific marketing purposes…” (Ibid: 35). However this definition only represents one side of the arrangement. Lagae also presents a definition from Bradley et al. (1996) who says that sponsorship is “…the financing of an event, personality, activity or product to improve customer’s awareness and attain media coverage…” (Lagae 2005: 35). In both cases, their take on sponsorship revolve around a company or a brand in a buyers role, and an entity that receives money in return for its association with the buying company. Smith et al. (2008)
P. 24/94
Dennis Faurbye
further develop this definition by saying that “Sponsorship (…) involves an investment in cash or kind, in a (…) property in return for access to the exploitable commercial potential associated with that property” (Ibid: 387). This definition adds that the investment does not have to be in cash, and that the sponsee must have some commercial potential that the sponsors can exploit. Still it is unclear what this potential is, and the focus is still on the part of the transaction going from the sponsor to the sponsee
Masterman (2007) defines sponsorship as “... a mutually beneficial arrangement that consists of the provision of resources of funds, goods and/or services by an individual or body (the sponsor) to an individual or body (rights owner) in return for a set of rights that can be used in communications activity, for the achievement of objectives for commercial gain” (Masterman, 2007: 30). This articulated definition succeeds in capturing essential factors of sponsorship. It highlights that sponsorship has to be mutually beneficial, as opposed to saying that the sponsor just ‘buy something’ from the sponsee. This introduces the concept of rights, which is to say that there are some tangible assets that transcend merely ‘being associated with’, which allows for an investigation into what the tangible assets are and how they can be used. I will further eloborate on the role of sponsorship rights in the next section.
3.4.3. Sponsorship Rights There are five categories of rights, which the right owner can sell to a sponsor; title rights, presenting rights, sector rights, supplier rights and naming rights (Masterman, 2007). These categories are made, as the general term for a sponsor is often changing, and it can be difficult to understand the difference between a sponsor, an official partner, partnerships, presenter and so on, and what each of these titles exactly implies for the sponsor.
With title rights, the sponsor can have its name and logo be a part of the official title of an event, and can include the sponsor being a part of the official logo of the event, as well as in broadcast programmes and graphics. If a sponsor has bought presenting rights, the sponsor name and logo will appear in alongside the title of the event, but not be incorporated into it. Often the presenting sponsor will appear right before or after the official title, logo and graphics. A sector rights-holder will have exclusive representation from their sector, meaning that the rights owner cannot sell any sponsor rights to another company in the same sector.
P. 25/94
Dennis Faurbye
Sector rights can be an advantage for both the sponsor and the sponsee, who avoids having different sponsors that might try to compete against each other. All sponsors should also enjoy supplier rights, enabling them to be the sole supplier of their product category (Masterman, 2007). The same sponsor will often occupy sector rights and supplier right, whenever the sector rights-buyer deals with a product category that can also be supplied at the event. Like when Carlsberg buys the supplier-rights for beer and soft drinks at a sporting event, they will also make sure that no competing brand will be apple to supply the same event.
Naming rights are primarily associated with naming physical structures such as stadiums, arenas and training facilities. These are usually long-term contracts, and can secure the right- owner large sums of money. It has been quite common in the major American sports for many years, and when the NBA team New Jersey Nets in 2011 moved its franchise to Brooklyn, they also moved in to a brand new arena named The Barclay Centre, for which the London- based investment bank Barclay has paid 20 million USD annually for 20 years to secure the naming rights (Blair, 2012).
Naming rights are in important theme in professional cycling, as this is the most prolific set of rights available for the main sponsor. Contrary to most other sports, the main sponsor in cycling becomes part of the official team name, which is an important source to exposure on all media platforms. Owning a team name in cycling can thus be compared to league-naming rights and naming rights for buildings.
3.4.4. Sponsorship activation The act of exploiting a sponsorship is also called sponsorship activation. This is where the sponsorship rights are supported by the marketing communication strategy, with the purpose of fulfilling the communication objectives (Masterman, 2007). It has been a prevailing misconception that a sponsorship alone can help a company reach its marketing goals, when in fact a sponsorship that are not supported by activation will almost never become a success (Ibid.).
Sponsorship activation is important if the sponsor has any wish to receive a return on investment. The activation should be designed to aid the marketing plan, of which the
P. 26/94
Dennis Faurbye
sponsorship is a part of, whether the goal is brand building, financial growth through irncreased sales or increasing brand loyalty (Papadimitriou & Apostolopoulou, 2009). A sponsorship that is not activated is not using the rights is has bought, and is reduced to “(...) philanthropy that aims at no other return that the benefactor’s satisfaction from assisting a beneficiary in need.”(Ibid: 95).
There are several ways a sponsorship can be activated. These include advertising, sales promotion, product sampling, public relations, customer hospitality, on-site activities, and employee motivation (Papadimitriou & Apostolopoulou, 2009). The first four of these: advertising, sales promotion, product sampling, and public relations, are all within the standard use of the marketing mix. Customer hospitality, on-site activities and employee motivation can be extremely useful in business-to-business market situations, as will be made evident later in this thesis when addressing the CSC case.
A recent example on sponsorship activation in the platform created by sponsoring professional cycling is that of German company BORA. The company has been involved with professional cycling since 2012, when they entered as co-sponsors for the german pro continental team Netapp-Endura. Since the beginning of the 2015 season, German company BORA became a main sponsor and the team changed its name to BORA-ARGON 18 (Bora, 2016). The company are active using its sponsorship to “…promotional activity to specifically support its export campaign and raise its profile – worldwide” (Ibid.) I’ve you have watched any cycling events on Eurosport this season you probably know what product the company is known for. Whenever the cycling broadcast goes to commercials, the very first commercial is from BORA. The commercial does not have any reference to cycling; it is a classical German commercial with focus on efficiency and design. However the dual exposure creates a reinforcing effect. Maybe the viewer was not paying particular attention to the race, but the graphic transition to commercials makes him look up, and he makes the connection between commercial and cycling. Or maybe he is paying attention to the race, but not the commercial, but he still catches the reference and makes the connection from cycling to commercial. In any case this shows how a sponsorship can give a reinforcing effect to marketing communication if activated correctly.
P. 27/94
Dennis Faurbye
3.4.5. Sponsorship and fan involvement According to Meenaghan (2001) fan involvement refers to the extent in which consumers identify with their engagement in a particular activity. Fan involvement can explain why consumers show different reactions to individual sponsorships as compared to advertising, because sponsorship can affect the consumer in a very different manner. With a sponsorship, the sponsor is able to intervene in the “emotional relationship between consumer and their social activities. (…) the sponsor embarks on a (…) rewarding relationship with followers of the activity, and this has major implications for the corporate management of sponsorship, the generation of goodwill, and related image effects” (Ibid: 106). If the fan sees the sponsorship agreement as a benefit for the activity, this will turn into goodwill toward the sponsor. The intensity of fan involvement, as well as the perceived benefit from the sponsor agreement, will mediate the level of goodwill. The triangular relationship is illustrated in the table below.
Table 5: Goodwill effects and fan involvement
(Meenaghan, 2001)
Even though fan involvement can result in a high level of goodwill toward the sponsor, the sponsor must also be aware that the relationship between the fan and a competing sponsor or previous sponsor, might damage the goodwill if the prior sponsorship was viewed as more beneficial for the activity (Ibid.). Also, a sponsorship aimed to create a relationship with a
P. 28/94
Dennis Faurbye
particular target audience bases on the involvement in a certain activity might damage the relationship with consumers who are not as involved with the activity, has a negative involvement with the activity, or if consumers are involved in another activity, especially within sport activities.
The triangle between sponsor, activity and fan is also one of five key trends that are driving the business of sports, according to an online article by Stanford Business (2016). Under the headline ’Using tech for sponsorship and integration’ the author writes; ”Sport sponsorship no longer means simply attaching a corporate name to a stadium. Rather, it has become a triangle of association between the team, the sponsor and the passionate fan” (Ibid.). The triangle is a recipe for creating added value, as a strong connection between the sponsor’s brand and the activity can create an affinity between the through “social currency” (Ibid.), that is, the strength that can erupt from sponsor and sponsee making their relationship about shared values, interest and objectives, rather than a question of price.
One way to get the fan more involved is to meet them where they are; the social media platforms. A fan that follows his team on social media is also likely to follow brands that sponsor his team, if the sponsorship is activated on the social media. The article from Stanford Business (2016) states, that 30% of fans who connects with a sponsor via social media later makes a purchase because of the brands association with the team of which he is fan. However this statement is not backed by any statistics or data, so jump into any conclusion. However there can be little doubt that social media already plays a huge role in marketing, consumer loyalty and sponsorship effectiveness, and I believe it will show in academic literature about sponsorship in the future.
3.4.6. Sponsorship and advertising As explained in the section on marketing theory, both sponsorship and advertising is part of the company marketing plan and consecutive communication strategy. The alternative methods also share marketing- and communications objectives, but still they are very different.
Advertising can be defined as any paid, non-personal communication through various media by organizations that wish to inform a target group, persuade a target group, or both (Lagae,
P. 29/94
Dennis Faurbye
2005). Advertising is used both to promote products, services and ideas, but most significant is that fact that advertising is controlled (Ibid.). The sender of an advertisement is in total control of the content, how it is presented, where it is presented and how often it is presented. In contrast, a sponsorship is equal to giving up control to forces outside of the organization. Even though a company has certain expectations when going into a sports sponsorship with team, there are no guarantees for how the team will perform or how the personnel will behave.
Meenaghan (2001a) has done research into the difference in consumer perception of sponsorship and advertising. As in his comprehensive model of sponsorship effects, he creates three level of aggregation of respectively sponsorship and advertising. Sponsorship is divided into three levels: at the generic level sponsorships is perceived as a phenomenon, at the category level it is seen as sports sponsorship, and at the individual activity level it is seen as a team or an individual athlete. The three-part division of levels for advertising is done through the generic level that sees advertising as a phenomenon. Medium level, for example television commercials, and finally as a media vehicle like a channel or an individual program (Meenaghan, 2001a). The key distinguishing factor between sponsorship and advertising, is the perceived benefit to society from sponsorship. This also means that sport sponsorship generates lower goodwill as other sponsorship categories, such as environmental programs and social causes, for which the benefit is perceived to be higher.
Meenaghan’s (2001a) research showed that advertising was regarded as “being selfish, involving no benefit to society.”, whereas sponsorship was regarded as; “(…) indirect, subtle, less coercive, having a more background role, involving a disguised or less commercially obvious intent to persuade (…)” (Meenaghan, 2001a: 209). Furthermore respondents were asked complete sentences stating about what a company who sponsors is, and respectively what a company who advertises is. Respondents were in general positive toward the sponsoring company. The attitude toward the advertising company was more sceptical. The answers can be read in the following figure.
Table 6: Sentence completion.
P. 30/94
Dennis Faurbye
(Meenaghan, 2001a: 208)
3.5. Ambush Marketing When exploring the field of sponsorship, it is necessary to also address the topic of ambush marketing. Ambush marketing occurs when competitors copy or imitate the communicative rights a sponsor has bought and paid for, or when a company associates itself with an event, but without paying any rights-fees (Beech & Chadwick, 2004). I will start by outlining the theory behind ambush marketing and provide some illustrative examples before moving on to the role that ambush marketing plays in modern professional cycling.
The purpose of ambush marketing is to copy the, presumably positive, image of the event onto the brand of the ambushing company, and at the same time diminish the effort made from the official partners who are often direct competitors (Lagae, 2005). In other words an ambushing brand “… could generate a positive image for itself while reducing the benefits to the rightful sponsor by creating confusion in the mind of the consumer.” (Beech & Chadwick, 2004: 360).
It might be too much to state that ambush marketing is a disadvantage for the ambushed company, but it does present a great risk of the sponsorships in the sense that they open an angle of attack for other companies. “Ambush marketing represents a nasty threat to official sponsors because their exclusivity, and thus their effectiveness, is undermined” (Lagae, 2005: 215), and it is this loss of exclusivity that can in effect become a competitive disadvantage.
P. 31/94
Dennis Faurbye
As the sums invested in sponsorship continue grow, so does the money and effort spent by non-sponsorship partners to get their piece of the action.
Ambush marketing becomes a competitive disadvantage because, if the advertising efforts, and thus that advertising costs, are the same between two close competitors, the company that is an official partner have used part of their budget to pay for the rights to be an official partner. This effectively reduces their return on investment compared to the competitor, on new sales or contracts made as a result of the advertising. However the disadvantage is more than monetary.
In their 1989 book ‘Olympic Sponsorship vs ‘ambush’ marketing: who gets the gold?’ Sandler & Shani defines ambush marketing as “… a planned effort by an organisation to associate themselves indirectly with an event in order to gain at least some of the recognition and benefits that are associated with being an official sponsor” (Lagae, 2005: 216). The key insights from this definition is that it describes ambush marketing as a planned effort, and that the goal is to leech on the recognition that comes with being associated with a prolific sports event by tricking the public into believing that the ambush firm has paid for the rights to be an official partner. People in general appreciate events such as the UEFA European championship in football and the Olympic games, and as such might have a positive attitude towards the financial powers that make these tournaments possible. So it is as much about the ambushing brands profit from the transfer of image from the event to the brand, as it is about elimination the competitors’ advantage in terms of advertising options and advertising message from being an official partner (Lagae, 2005).
A common and very visible technique is advertising ambush, and “Advertising ambush is probably the most calculated form of all and aptly illustrates the shady aspect of ambush marketing” (Lagae, 2005: 216). This method is not illegal, as it is in practice impossible to forbid a company to use a common activity like a specific sport in their advertising (Ibid.). A current example of this form of ambush marketing is in full play right now: The summer of 2016 features both the UEFA European championship in football and the Olympic games, and TV-commercials have already been in ambush-mode for a while. One example of this is the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei’s ‘Make It Possible’ campaign. The TV- commercial features Polish footballer Robert Lewandowski. He is shown playing with a football, while talking about making dreams possible. While the commercial was launched
P. 32/94
Dennis Faurbye
back in November 2015, it is now heavily exposed on Danish television, in a reference to the upcoming UEFA EURO 2016. Here Lewandowski is expected to play a key role for Poland, and it is like that his increased exposure during the tournament will have a reinforcing effect on the campaign, even though Huawei is not an official sponsor of the tournament. An older example is the brand of Pringles, who makes snacks. Back in 2000 they were among the official partners of the EURO 2000, but four years later at the EURO 2004 they instead opted for an ambush strategy. They ran a campaign involving prominent players endorsing their products by having their pictures on the packaging. Reportedly it was a deal worth 2 million EUR deal, and when they chose to engage in an ambush strategy, none of this money went to the organiser of the event, UEFA in this case (Masterman, 2007). It is worth noting that Pringles is still using this strategy, as they are also one of the brands that currently have football as a heavily highlighted theme in their commercials although they continue to not be official sponsors of any football event.
Another example is Nike which is renowned for its ability to execute ambush strategies. An example of this stems from the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where Nike had a building build along the road leading to the Olympic park, and placed Nike billboards on the building, so it was visible for all travelling along the road. Nike had no official relation with the Olympics, who had Reebok as an official partner (Beech & Chadwick, 2004).
The case of Pringles is a good example of how ambush marketing is not only hurting the official sponsors, but also poses a real threat to the rights owners. If a brand feels like it can gain the same advertising results by using ambush techniques, it might loose its interest in being an official partner, and this can eventually result in a general lack of sponsors, thus driving down the value of the sponsorship. It is becoming more expensive to be an official partner at sporting events and at high profile sporting leagues, and the price for this “…can only be justified if the anticipated benefits of the association are realised.” (Beech & Chadwick, 2004: 360).
The threat of ambush marketing is not likely to go away. Although several initiatives to counter ambush marketing have been launched, such as hosting cities of major events, making contracts with the official partners of the event that gives official partners the opportunity to buy billboard space before they are sold to potential competitors on the open market (Masterman, 2007.)
P. 33/94
Dennis Faurbye
It is difficult to imagine ambush marketing disappearing any time soon. Indeed, Masterman writes that ambush marketing must be accepted because “…in a free market a competitor is entitled to compete and sponsors are therefore fair and legitimate targets for aggressive and event direct marketing communications tactics.” (Ibid: 248). Recognising that the threat will stay a presence within sponsorship, it is up to the sponsors to counter the threat by improving their sponsorship efforts and activities. “The solution is exploitation”, writes Masterman (2007: 248) and “[sponsors] must also take responsibility for maximizing their relationship with a particular event and minimising the opportunities for competitors to adopt ambush strategies”. (Beech & Chadwick, 2004: 361). Improving the communication strategies for the sponsorship activation, emphasizing its role as an official partner, and a full exploitation of the rights that are bought through the sponsorship-deal can do this.
3.5.1. Negative perceived values When a company use advertising, it is in complete control of what is said, how it is said, to whom it is said, the frequency of its use, and to some degree where it is brought by medias (Lagae, 2005). In sponsorship, the company lose the control, and thus place it self in risk that the associated activity will generate negative values. The level of risk is highest when sponsoring individuals, and becomes lower as the size of the sponsored activity grows (Masterman, 2007). That is because when you sponsor an individual, a single mistake from the sponsored can determine how he is perceived. Nike have had two famous episodes where they have deemed it necessary to cut ties with endorsed sports athletes, namely Tiger Woods (personal scandal) and Lance Armstrong (doping).
Doping is also an example on how multiple negative incidents can create a negative perception on a whole sport. Cycling is still being punished for the several doping scandals it has endured, and it is still unclear when this ‘doping-curse’ will lift of, or if it ever will. This will be touched upon futher in the next chapter.
3.6. Modelling Sponsorship Effects In his article ‘Understanding Sponsorship Effects’ Meenaghan (2001) argued that little was known about sponsorship within the field of marketing communication, despite that revenue
P. 34/94
Dennis Faurbye
from sponsorship agreements was increasing. Sponsorship expenditure increased from 2 billion USD in 1984 to 23.16 billion USD in 2000, and sponsorship as a percentage of advertising expenditure increased from 2,5-3% in 1987 to 7% 1999 (Meenaghan, 2001). On this basis he set out to examine this “neglected area of marketing” and “…propose a comprehensive theoretical framework that seeks to understand the consumer’s response to corporate sponsorship activity” (Ibid: 96).
Meenaghan (2001) claims that a majority of research into sponsorship was at the time concentrated on either managerial practices or problems related to the evaluation of effectiveness. He further claims that the evaluation of effectiveness was limited to recall and recognition tests. The author states that “… it must be recognized that sponsor awareness and association tests are merely first-line measures of sponsorship impact, and do not themselves serve to facilitate understanding of consumer engagement with sponsorship.” (Ibid: 97).
The first step of Meenaghan in his quest to outline a comprehensive model of how sponsorship works is to list how key comparative factors differ between sponsorship and advertising (Ibid: 101):
Table 7: Four key comparative factors between sponsorship and advertising
Comparative Factors Sponsorship Advertising
Goodwill Beneficial Selfish Focus Indirect/subtle Direct/Forceful Intent to persuade Disguised Overt Defence mechanisms Low state of alertness High state of alertness
(Meenaghan, 2001)
The differences in these four key comparative factors will later be applied on the case of CSC’s sponsorship of a Danish World Tour team, in an attempt to explain why CSC’s venture into professional cycling is thought of as a success by their head of sponsorship at the time.
P. 35/94
Dennis Faurbye
The comprehensive model that Meenaghan (2001) created is seen in the figure below. The model provides a basis for how sponsorship affects the consumer.
Table 8: The comprehensive model of sponsorship effects
(Meenaghan, 2001)
Goodwill is central in sponsorship, as the type of goodwill that is used is one of the key factors that differentiate sponsorship from advertising. Goodwill in this sense is “(…) believed to be driven by the appreciation of individuals who recognize the benefits of sponsorship to activities with which they are involved.” (Meenaghan, 2001: 102). The model shows that the benefit of goodwill from the consumer becomes stronger as it reaches through three layers of filters, which differentiate the sponsor communication from the response of the receiver. The three filters are a generic filter, a category filter and an individual activity filter. The generic filter captures those consumers who observe sport at a generic level, and the sponsor will benefit from the goodwill of such consumers through this filter. Likewise a sports interested person will recognize the general good of a sports sponsorship. At the category level the goodwill is stronger: here, a cycling fan will recognize the good in a cycling sponsorship. The goodwill from there is stronger because the category filter matches the category of interest for the receiver. Finally at the individual activity level, the strongest perception of benefits and related appreciation and goodwill are created (Ibid.). This means that, for instance fans of a particular cycling team will recognize the good of the sponsor of that team.
P. 36/94
Dennis Faurbye
What this shows is that the consumer’s degree of involvement in the sponsored activity, will influence the consumer’s recognition and perceived benefit of the sponsorship (Ibid.), which in turn will “…enable the fan/consumer to recognize the sponsor, judge the congruence of the relationship, and associate the image values of the activity (team or sport) onto the sponsors brand, thereby enabling the sponsor to achieve the primary marketing objectives of awareness creation and brand image building” (Ibid: 114). In his conclusion for the model, Meenaghan points out that it is most likely to apply where an event, team or player is being sponsored rather than the competition or the broadcast, and when a single sponsor is clearly identified with an activity rather than where multiple sponsors compete for the available goodwill and exposure (Meenaghan, 2001: 114).
3.7. Sponsorship evaluation The whole process of sponsorship can be reduced to five steps. After the marketing objectives have been established (1), sponsorship has been chosen as the communication strategy (2), a good sponsorship fit has been established (3), and the sponsorship has been activated and supported with an integrated programme of communication (4), the fifth and final step is an evaluation to determine if the sponsorship has been successful (Masterman, 2007). Evaluation is both the final, and first step of the process, as the review should also serve as feedback into the decision-making process of new communication objectives and strategies for improved future results (Ibid.). Despite of this, a majority of sponsorships are not properly evaluated for a return on investment. This could be because companies are reluctant to spend money and time on an ended project, as they would rather spend so on new projects. Seeing that sponsorship is a circular and self-imposing process as just explained, failure to evaluate will result in a poor quality of sponsorship. This is way evaluation is so important.
The sponsorship evaluation process becomes difficult when there are no clear and quantitative objectives for the sponsorship. “Objectives that are not specifically measurable result in a sponsorship that is impossible to evaluate accurately” (Masterman, 2007: 226). As such it is necessary to have specific target objectives for the increase required for sales, market share, image and awareness. And since sponsorship might run for extended periods of time, and might be renewed, there is a need for these objectives to be renewed, altered or replaced during the run of the sponsorship.
P. 37/94
Dennis Faurbye
4. Case description – CSC This case description is based on my interview with Ole Egeblad (appendix D). As a result, it is biased by his subjectivity from his direct involvement in the case. However it is my assessment that the case can still be used as an example of sponsorship engagement and activation, and to a lesser degree an evaluation of the outcome of the sponsorship.
Ole Egeblad (OE) worked as sponsorship manger and later head of sponsorship for CSC from 2001 to 2007, in the period of time when they were main sponsors of a World Tour cycling team. According to OE the sponsorship was a success, and might the most interesting sponsorship case in Denmark (Ibid: OE -2). I think that this case has some good perspectives in relation to sponsorship, which is why I have included it in the thesis to use as a part of my analysis.
Prior to committing to the sponsorship, CSC where suffering from a negative public perception. Their main business was to develop IT-solutions to companies, and in the late 90’s they were hired to deliver a new system called AMANDA to the Danish board of Labour Market. The system was supposed to be ready to launch in 2000, but it was not fully operational until 2002 (Nyheder.TV2, 2012), and ultimately it was dropped. The whole project ended up costing 650 million DKK. This had a negative effect on the employees. An internal employee survey showed at many where hesitant to say where they worked when in social situations (appendix D: OE -20). The situation meant that CSC had difficulties hiring employees for vacant positions.
The company engaged in the cycling sponsorship in 2001, not because of any specific marketing objectives, but because of the interest of then director Asger Jensby, for whom the financial success of CSC in Denmark gave him the liberty to enter the sponsorship: “He made this sponsorship because he could. There was no business case. My first assignment (as sponsor manager) was to create a case that supported the sponsorship. At that time the sponsorship was already signed. I was not a part of the signing.” (appendix D: -OE -15).
According to OE the sponsorship at the time made no sense! He believed that a sponsor of a cycling team should be a brand or product with a direct correlation between exposure and sale. By this he means that a brand that is easy to buy would be able to heap the benefits from being extremely exposed during a concentrated period of time, such as during a major cycling
P. 38/94
Dennis Faurbye
event. However a company as CSC, who operates on a business-to-business level, selling complex software solutions to companies would not enjoy the same benefit, as the exposure would not lead to an immediate rise in sales.
At the time a lot of companies where outsourcing their IT-departments, so for CSC instead of have business relations with the IT-manager, they now had to approach the board of directors and convince them to outsource to CSC. This meant changing the communication channels between CSC and its (potential) customers. The sponsorship proved to benefit CSC in two ways. First, the negative public perception was eradicated, and a positive perception rose as a result of the public exposure, mainly during Tour de France.
Potential and current business partners was invited to participate in sponsor events during the Tour de France, which became a “reason to meet” (appendix D: OE -22) in what can be describes as a VIP-experience with access to the cycling team, unique experiences in France, and to network with other sponsors and business relations. OE describes that “we had some of the biggest companies from England and Germany with us to the Tour (…) the most important purpose was that it made it easier for us to talk with the client” (appendix d: OE - 23). And having a common experience made it easier to do business with clients, as opposed to when a company only interacts with a client during contract negotiations (Ibid.).
P. 39/94
Dennis Faurbye
5. Analysis based on data and findings In this chapter, I will try to answer the sub questions for this thesis based on the knowledge and theories gathered in pervious chapters, along with the data I have collected.
5.2. What defines a sponsorship, and what does it offer compared to other marketing tools? I have shown how sponsorship has been defined in several different ways, even to a degree where it is defined as being indefinable. I will not pick one definition above another, as all definitions have their own right of existence, and I will not try to come up with my own definition, because this would fall short for the same reasons as the definitions presented. Instead, I will list the components of sponsorship that I deem the most important for the understanding and usage of sponsorship in this thesis.
From the different definitions I have presented, I believe it is important to recognize that a sponsorship is an agreement between two parties, and that the agreement has to be mutual beneficial for the potential of the sponsorship to be maximized.
A sponsor can either be an individual, an organization or an institution, and the sponsored can be an event, an individual, a group of individuals, a body, an organisation an authority, an institution, a building or sets of physical infrastructure (Masterman, 2007). The form of the parties is not important for the understanding of sponsorship, but it is important in the execution of the sponsorship, as the form has influence on how the sponsorship is activated in relation to the marketing plan and communication strategy.
A sponsor will pay for certain rights that provides opportunities exclusive to the sponsor that can be exploited in order to achieve predetermined commercial objectives. In return, the sponsee will receive cash, sponsorship-in-kind such as goods or services, or a combination of the two.
Rights, exclusivity and mutual benefits are important in the definitions of a sponsorship, because these represent attributes that are not a part of advertising or other marketing actions. When a company pays for a sponsorship, in reality it pays to be able to do something that would otherwise not be an option through marketing, and this something can be able to aid the company achieve its marketing objectives. Sponsorship activation can be a regular advertising
P. 40/94
Dennis Faurbye
campaign, and the sponsorship allows the company to add something extra. Standalone advertising risks being viewed as something negative amongst consumers (Meenaghan, 2001a), however in combination with a well-designed sponsorship, advertising can increase the goodwill that a sponsorship achieves from the consumers (Meenaghan, 2001) (Papadimitriou & Apostolopolou, 2009).
According to Steen Leth Jørgensen (SLJ), “A defining attribute with sponsorship, in contrast to other media, is that sponsorships are very effective in creating loyalty, preference and sales”. (Appendix c, SLJ -1). He further explains that when you can talk to the consumer about his interests, you can create a community, from which a strong relation can be created. In my discussion of theories, I explained that the connection between the consumer and the sponsored activity determines the degree of goodwill that a sponsor will benefit from. SLJ adds that it is the consumers understanding of the relation between the sponsor and the activity, the question of ‘why’ a brand is sponsoring a specific event that determines the perceived benefit and loyalty/goodwill from the consumer.
The main purpose of sponsorship activation should thus be to answer why the sponsor is involved in the activity, as this understanding will help make the connection in the mind of the consumer with the sponsoring brand. In contrast, when the why is not answered, the consumer will not develop the same level of goodwill, loyalty and purchase intention towards the brand. SLJ states that “(without the ‘fit’)…there still is a relation, and an improvement on awareness (…) but in reality, when you use a sponsorship, you do not do so for the awareness” (appendix c, SLJ -7), the company engage in sponsorship in order to create a deeper, broader and more simple sales-channel, so when you get a new customer through the channel, there is a greater possibility that the costumer is being correctly probed all the way through the channel (Ibid.).
This shows an inconsistency between the theoretical statement and the practical experience. In the case of CSC, there was no attempt to explain the congruence between CSC and professional cycling. This could be because it was a sponsorship aimed at business-to- business rather than the business-to-consumer segment. It is also possible that the sponsorship fit between CSC and professional cycling was not about cycling, as much as it was about the opportunity the arrange exclusive events for clients. A sponsorship can be seen as an
P. 41/94
Dennis Faurbye
expression of company success, which can improve the consumers’ perceived value of the brand (Masterman, 2007).
A sponsorship is able to achieve the same marketing objectives as other communication strategies: increase awareness, brand image and sales. But on top of that, it can also increase credibility, loyalty and involvement (Meenaghan, 2001, Masterman 2007, appendix c). Especially if a part of the sponsorship activation involves using the sponsorships as a platform to meet the target audience as it was done in the CSC case, where the sponsorship was used to invite clients to Paris and participate in VIP arrangements (appendix d, OE -23,24).
5.3. What are the threats and disadvantages a sponsor must be aware of when engaging into a sport sponsorship? There are to my knowledge no reported cases of high profile examples on ambush marketing in professional cycling. This, according to my opinion, can be due to two different aspects of professional cycling.
The first reason is, that the structure of professional cycling makes it a confusing platform for lesser sponsors to be noticed, and the other is that cycling events are not fixed on a single location.
There are at least one main sponsor, an several co-sponsors per team at the event, and with usually 20+ teams participating in a race, this already results in an abundance of different sponsors. In fact, the setup of a professional cycling team is so dependent on sponsors that the official sponsors already occupy all available team-sponsor platforms. It seems like there is a rule of thumb regarding sponsoring in cycling is, that if you are not on the jersey, that is if you are not a main sponsor with naming rights, you are not being noticed.
One way of ambush marketing, as previous described, is to interfere with the location of the sporting event, such as buying billboard spaces or opening a point of sale. However these tactics are aimed at the spectators gathered at the event, and cycling very rarely attract a large amount on spectators on a single location, and when they do this location is often very inaccessible as it is on the top of a mountain. Often, the places where most spectators are gathered are centred on the area around the finishing line, so this opens an opportunity to engage in on-location ambush marketing. But even then, the location is not attractive for more than one day at the time, because either the race is over, or the finishing line has moved on to
P. 42/94
Dennis Faurbye
another city. And even then, if a company succeeds in creating an ambush marketing attack, the way in which the television broadcast is produced for cycling, a billboard or other happening will only be visible for a very short time, if visible at all. There are also strict rules for what a professional rider can wear during the race, so any ambush strategies through individual sponsorship agreements will also not show during the event.
The point is that professional cycling, as a sponsorship platform, is not very appealing for ambushing companies. The chance of being seen on the broadcast is very small, the costs are high due to the inaccessibility and constant change of venue, and even if your brand should be noticed the high amount of total sponsors associated to event makes it difficult to use the platform to create awareness. However this does not mean that there are no other risks linked to being an official sponsor in professional cycling, as the next section will address.
The threat of ambush marketing must be countered by a well structures marketing campaign by the sponsor. This should aim to emphasize the official sponsor position in the communication message, to reduce the possibility that consumers will connect the ambushing brand as an official sponsor. And the risk can be reduced if the sponsor approaches the competition with a state of mind that says: as a sponsor, I can do everything that the ambush competitor is doing, and more.
The sport of cycling is instead threatened by another subject: doping.
In my explorative survey, I asked respondents to rate a list of words and values in regard to how these was seen as associated to cycling. And not surprisingly, doping was rated highest (appendix e, Q10). When asked if cycling is a less attractive sport for a sponsor because of the problems from negative image, SLJ said that “Yes, without a doubt. Sports where there is cheating is not popular” (appendix c, SLJ -33). He continues to say, that cycling is still an interesting sport, because it has a lot of followers, but it is a problem that people branded as cheaters are still holding important positions within the sport. OE adds that “It is a problem, in my opinion, that almost every new cycling projects that appear (…) in nine out of ten times an ex-doper is behind it.(…) cycling is still shadowed by the doping-curse.” (appendix d, OE -6).
It looks to have a negative effect on the attraction of cycling from a sponsor’s perspective, which is fair to argue is the reason why the sport endure a high turnover on sponsors. It seems
P. 43/94
Dennis Faurbye
to me that the sport is caught in a position, where is it not bad enough, in terms of sponsors, reputation and popularity, for drastic changed to be made, and at the same time it is not good enough, in terms of reputation and attractiveness, that the sport can develop into a place where the negative memories can be erased.
5.4. What is important when evaluating sponsorship? The sponsorship evaluation is an important part of the overall sponsorship and marketing execution process. In order to be able to evaluate a sponsorship, there has to be a clear set of measurable objectives for the sponsorship. Such objectives could be change in brand awareness or brand attitude, sales and media coverage. Measuring the result of sponsorship requires that a pre-sponsorship benchmark has been set while defining the marketing objectives. It is also important that sponsorship activation is executed consistent during the sponsorship so only one promotional variable are at play at the time. Otherwise it is impossible to isolate the cause of change in awareness, attitude or sale. As a part of measuring sponsorship effects on awareness and attitude, the values of these must be known prior to the sponsorship, otherwise the change cannot be proven.
If a sponsorship is not evaluated, both the sponsor and the sponsored event of activity run a risk of loosing out on future business opportunities. The telecommunication company TDC attracted 121.000 new customers over a three-year span, as a result of their sponsorship involvement with the Danish Men’s Handball League (appendix c, SLJ -10). But as SLJ states “looking on the gallup-statistics for the period (of the sponsorship) and in the sponsored segment, the sponsorship created 121.000 new customers, and 439.000 new consumers chose TDC as their preferred teleservice company. The problem was that they did not know it! That is what you call a giant mistake” (Ibid.). TDC was only focused on business-to-business segments, and they did not spend any resources on sponsorship activation besides VIP experience for business partners (appendix c, SLJ -11). Although it is speculation, TDC might not have ended the sponsorship if they knew about the effect it had. They failed to exploit the sponsorship, and in turn the Men’s Handball League lost a valuable sponsor, although there seemed to be a basis for both parts to continue the collaboration.
The case of TDC is not a standalone example. Most sponsorship theory states that evaluation is still underappreciated among sponsors. They might see it as an unnecessary cost as the sponsorship process is complete, and the company would rather spend money and resources
P. 44/94
Dennis Faurbye
on future marketing engagements. There can also be situations in which the sponsor feels like it is the responsibility of the sponsee to conduct evaluations (Masterman, 2007).
5.5. Where will sport sponsorship go in the future? Based on the research used for this thesis, there is no evidence to think that the progress of sponsorships is going to stop. Although the research done by Meenaghan (2001a) that shows a negative public attitude towards advertising, there is no reason to believe that this trend has been reversed in the time gone since it was published. If anything, the technological evolution, constant online access and social media, has meant that consumers today are more exposed to advertising than ever before. SLJ said that commercial platforms created by advertising-bureaus, are being replaced by authentic sponsor created platforms (appendix c, SLJ -21).
In Denmark, sponsorship as overtaken television-commercial in turnover: “The total turnover from sponsorships in Denmark is 3 billion DKK, the turnover from television-commercials is 2 billion DKK. (…) every time you are listening to a CEO, they are always talking about their TV-spot. Why? I reality it (television) is becoming less and less relevant because no one under the age of 40 is watching television anymore… they can be reached on the social media…” (appendix c, SLJ -22).
The design of social media, and how people use social media, can be expected to open up a lot of opportunities for sponsorship in the future. If applying Meenaghan’s model of sponsorship effects (2001), social media makes it possible for sponsors to skip the generic filter, and maybe even the category filter in their communication efforts, when they want reach the target audience with the highest fan involvement. Social media can help isolate this target audience for the sponsor. When asked about, if sponsoring is booming, SLJ said “yes… and it will always be, because it is able to change channel. We (sponsors) were on TV when TV was strong…we came to Facebook when Facebook grew strong. The need is there (on the new media) instantly, because fans want to follow… when they get media the first thing they search for is ‘where is min football club’ or ‘where is my cycling team’”. (appendix c, SLJ - 24).
The next step for sponsors could be to integrate events into their organizations, so rather than sponsoring an event, they will be hosting it, and leave the brand in totally control. One brand,
P. 45/94
Dennis Faurbye
who has been doing this with great success, is Red Bull who is dominating the section for extreme- and street sports. They have been able to do so, because they have invested in creating their own events. They are in total control of the values, communications and content (appendix c, SLJ -27).
In both interviews, there has been raised critique towards Danish companies and how they handle sponsorships. OE criticize Grundfos and VELUX for choosen Handball as their global sponsorship platform, because Handball is not a global sport. (appendix d, OE -8). And when asked to why no Danish company has jumped onto professional cycling after the success of CSC, he said “I believe that … to handle a sponsorship worth 8-10 million EUR, and execute it globally, I think only 4-5 companies in Denmark are able to do that”. He follows up his statement by specifying that it’s not the economy that is the constraint, but the professional resources do not have to necessary abilities (appendix d, OE -25, 26).
Overall the interviews give the impressions that although sponsorship works, Danish companies lack quality and ability in their handling of sponsorships. This could be a result of the poor representation of sponsorship focus at educations and in textbooks. Of course there should no be drawn general conclusion based on the statements from two individuals, but it does raise concern. Sponsorship textbooks does not hold back the fact, that planning, executing, activating and evaluating a sponsorship can be a complex process, and there are always room for improvement in the management of sponsorships. Maybe there are still some leftovers from the first sponsorships that had more in common with philanthropy, and where the donation itself was the main message. This can explain why some managers still have a very loose relationship to sponsorship, which is handled based on emotions and gut-feel.
P. 46/94
Dennis Faurbye
6. Conclusion This thesis set out to explore the field of sponsorship, in order to seek an answer to the following question: How can companies benefit from using sport sponsorship to commercial gain, as a part of their marketing toolbox?
For a company to benefit from a sponsorship, the sponsorship has to be successful. This implies that not all sponsorships are successful. The key to this is to understand that sponsorship must be used in combination with other marketing tools. If a sponsorship stands alone, it is unlikely to be successful.
To engage in a sponsorship, is to buy available rights from an organisation, team, individual or other activity. This thesis has focused on activities related to sport. When a company has bought the rights to an activity, these rights allow the company to be exclusively associated with the activity in a manner described by the type of rights. This is sponsorship in its very basic form, but as I define a successful sponsorship as something more than the sponsorship itself, owning exclusive rights cannot, by itself, be defined as a successful sponsorship
Before any rights are bought, the company must establish a marketing plan that can be turned into a communication strategy. This is the most important part of the process, since it founds the groundwork for all subsequent marketing actions. The marketing plan must involve measurable objectives the company wish to achieve through the sponsorship. Buying the rights is only equal to opening the door of the business collaboration. The company must understand how to exploit the rights, and activate the sponsorship by combining it with traditional marketing actions such as advertising and promotion. This activation must seek to make the target audience aware of the relationship between brand and sport activity, as well as to make the target audience understand the fit that exists between the two parties. As such, a sponsorship is successful when it has been planned with measurable objectives, executed and activated though a communication strategy that supports the marketing objectives, and has been evaluated so the sponsor know if objectives have been met, and has acquired knowledge that enables the sponsor to re-evaluate the sponsorship and decide whether to end it, renew it or change it, a decision that depends on the formulation of new marketing objectives.
P. 47/94
Dennis Faurbye
The data collected for this thesis has been contradicting. In my interview with SLJ, he multiple times stated, that for a sponsorship to work there need to be a clear message about the fit between sponsor and the sponsored event or activity. However OE presented the case of CSC and the experience of being a sponsor on World Tour level in professional cycling. This was seen as a success, despite the fact that there was no sensible relation between CSC and cycling. This can be because the requirements for business-to-business aimed sponsorships have a different message. Their platform is not concerned with fan involvement, and even the sporting activity might be secondary. The primary purpose is to create a platform to meet clients and potential business partners, which makes the fit between sport and sponsor less important. However a single case is not enough to make any conclusion regarding this, as further data would be needed.
P. 48/94
Dennis Faurbye
7. Perspectives The research for this thesis has been limited by a limited amount of new data. Instead, the thesis has relied upon existing data and theories. There are themes within the field of sponsorship, and in particular sports sponsorship, which are still underrepresented in most publications and research within the field and it has thus not been possible to include these themes in the thesis as I otherwise would have wished. Therefore, I will give a short presentation of these, along with a call for more in-depth research.
7.1. Employee Branding In my interview with Ole Egeblad, he mentioned how the CSC sponsorship adventure with professional cycling changed the employees’ perception of their workplace. The sponsorship had a significant positive effect on the employees’ relation to the CSC brand. In the way OE described the case, it seemed as if this was an unexpected positive effect of the sponsorship.
I believe that the theme of internal branding is both fascinating and important. The way a company wishes to be seen externally should be rooted in the internal self-perception, and this starts with the employees. It would be relevant with further research into this theme in order to get a better understanding of how often, and under which conditions, sponsorships result in improvements of the internal company brand, especially when the company engages in sports sponsorships.
7.2. Social Media Today, social media plays a big role on both sides of the relationship between sponsors and activity, as confirmed by my data (appendix c, SLJ: 22, 23, 24, 25 & 27) (appendix d, OE: 13). Social media present a direct gateway for a sponsor into the fan base of the sponsored activity. The fan base, here represented by the followers of the sport entity on the social media platforms is easily identified. Whenever a dedicated fan signs up for an account on a new social media, he will look for his sport, team or player on that social media, which results in a gathering of fans into easily identifiable segments within the social media networks. Collaboration should be made between the sponsor’s social media profile, and the profile of
P. 49/94
Dennis Faurbye
the sports activity. If the profiles overlap, this creates a huge potential to reach the target audience.
And just as the fans are increasingly moving to social media, so are leagues, teams and players. This could add yet another layer to sponsorship activation strategies.
7.3. Structural changes in the future of cycling In a recent interview during the 2016 edition of the cycling race Giro d’Italia, Oleg Tinkoff gave an interview in which he explained his forthcoming departure from professional cycling, and criticized the current financial structure of the sport, which he claims has no future prospective in its current state (Nyheder.TV2, 2016). As it stands, professional cycling teams have very limited options in order to create income, hence the dependency of sponsors. The major issue is about the allocation of income from broadcasting rights. Currently, the race organisers own all broadcasting rights, and no part of the revenue is going to the teams. Tinkoff foresees a future where professional cycling will turn into a closed league; in this aspect, he compares it to Formula One, where team owners will also be part owners of the league, and all revenue will be divided between the owners. This is the same model that is used in American sports, and this has been a tremendous success financially. It would be very interesting to see how such a league could function, and how its impact it would be on both sponsoring and on the sport.
On the plus side, such an arrangement could potentially improve the commercial value of sponsorship as well as increase the opportunity to manage sponsorships. Sector rights could be made, in order for sponsors to secure their competitive advantage over direct competitors. The league itself would represent a completely new sponsor platform, enabling sponsorships to be relevant throughout the season without being associated with a specific team, which is considered to be a risk as a team’s performance could be below par, or a team could attract negative perceptions as a consequence of cheating or doping. This risk is minimized if the sponsors are associated with the league instead of teams.
It could also have several negative repercussions. As the league would be closed, meaning that there would be no promotion or relegation, and as the league would attract all the sponsors, this would effectively eliminate sub-level cycling with potentially far-reaching
P. 50/94
Dennis Faurbye
consequences for the organisation of lower-tier professional cycling teams as well as amateurs. One potential way in which this could be dealt with is if the closed league establishes a financial system where money were paid to smaller teams for developing cycling talents. However, the problem remains that there would be few racing events for talents to participate in. It could also represent a situation where, as in Formula One, it is not always the most qualified riders that make the cut. Instead, riders with independent financial wealth could ‘buy a seat’ in the league.
I agree that the current state of professional cycling is not stable, and changes have to be made in the future. At one point, the world will run out of individuals or companies who are willing to spend huge amounts to be a part of professional cycling, considering the major risks associated with sponsoring a professional cycling team, as this thesis has outlined. And ASO, along with other organizers, is not willing to simply let go of their revenue from broadcasting rights. This means that a new structure that both parties can agree on must be found.
P. 51/94
Dennis Faurbye
8. References Aaker, D.A., & McLoughlin, D. (2010). Strategic Market Management Global Perspectives. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. ASO (2016). http://www.aso.fr/us/cyclism.html. Visited 20-05-2016 Beech, J & Chadwick, S (2004). The Business of Sport Management. Edinburgh: Prentice Hall. Blair, R. D. (2012). Sports Economics. New York: Cambridge university press. Bora (2016). https://www.bora.com/en/company/#history. Visited 10-05-2016 Bryman, A. & Bell, E. (2007). Business research methods (2nd edition.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Calderon-Martinez, A., Mas-Ruiz, F. & Nicolau-Gonzalbez, J. (2005). Commercial and philanthropic sponsorship: Direct and interaction effects on company performance. International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 47, No. 1. pp. 75-99. De Pelsmacker, P., Geuens, M. & Van den Bergh, J. (2010): Marketing Communications. A European Perspective. 4th edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. IEG (2015) IEG’s guide to sponsorship. Jiffer, M & Roos, M (1999). Sponsorship – a way of communicating. Stockholm: Ekerlids & S- Comm. Justesen, L., & Mik-Meyer, N. (2010). Kvalitative metoder i organisations- og ledelsesstudier. København K: Hans Reitzels Forlag. Kotler, P. & Keller, K.L. (2012). A Framework For Marketing Management. International Edition, 5th edition. Pearson Educational Limited. Harlow. Kvale, S. & Brinkmann, S. (2009). Interview. Introduktion til et håndværk. Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag. Lagae, W (2005). Sports Sponsorship and Marketing Communications – A European Perspective. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited Masterman, G (2007). Sponsorship – for a return on investment. UK: Butterworth- Heinemann. Meenaghan, T. (2001). Understanding Sponsorship Effects. Psychology & Marketing. Vol. 18(2), February. p. 95-122.
P. 52/94
Dennis Faurbye
Meenaghan, T. (2001a). Sponsorship and Advertising: A comparison of consumer perceptions. Psychology & Marketing. Vol. 18(2), February. p. 191-215 Meenaghan, T. (2013) Measuring Sponsorship Performance: Challenge and Direction. Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 30(5). May. pp. 385-393. Mignot, J-F (2016).The History of Professional Road Cycling. In V. D. Reeth & J. D. Larson (eds) The Economics of Professional Road Cycling (1th edition, p. 7-12). Switzerland: Springer international Publishing Nyheder.TV2 (2012). http://nyheder.tv2.dk/article.php/id-47940641%3Acsc-har-flere- pede-itsager-i-lasten.html?forside=, visited 03-05-2016 Nyheder.TV2 (2016). http://sport.tv2.dk/cykling/2016-05-30-oleg-tinkov-flere-hold- kommer-til-at-lukke, visited 30-05-2016 Papadimitriou, D., & Apostolopoulou, A. (2009). Olympic sponsorship activation and the creation of competitive advantage. Journal of Promotion Management. Vol. 15, p. 90-117. Percy, L & Elliott, R (2009). Strategic Advertising Management (3th edition).New York: Oxford university press. Presskorn-Thygesen, T. (2012). Samfundsvidenskabelige paradigmer - Fire grundlæggende metodiske tendenser i morderne samfundsvidenskab. In C. Nygaard (Ed.), Rasmussen, E. S., Østergaard, P., & Beckmann, S. C. (2006). Essentials of social science research methodology. Odense M: University Press of Southern Denmark. Reeth, V. D & Larson, J. D (2016). Introduction. In V. D. Reeth & J. D. Larson (eds) The Economics of Professional Road Cycling (1th edition, p. 1-6). Switzerland: Springer international Publishing Reeth, V. D. & Lagae, W (2016). The Return of team Cycling Sponsorship. In V. D. Reeth & J. D. Larson (eds) The Economics of Professional Road Cycling (1th edition, p. 93-95). Switzerland: Springer international Publishing Samfundsvidenskabelige analysemetoder (2nd edition., pp. 21-47) Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2009). Research methods for business students (5th edition). FT Harlow, UK. Prentice Hall.
P. 53/94
Dennis Faurbye
Smith, A., Graetz, B. & Westerbeek, H. (2008). Sport sponsorship, team support and purchase intentions. Journal of Marketing Communications. Vol. 14(5), December, 387-404 Sponsorship (2015). https://www.sponsorship.com/User/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fiegsr%2f2015%2f09% 2f28%2fSponsorship-Spending-On-The-NBA-Totals-%24739- Millio.aspx&Access=0&Reason=NoUser , visited 04-05-2016 Standford Business Insight (2016). https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/five-key- trends-are-driving-business-sports, visited 01-05-2016 Telegraph (2015). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/11403761/Premier- League-TV-deal-Sky-Sports-break-bank-to-dominate-5.136bn-contract.html, visited 24-05-2016. Theguardian (2015). https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/10/premier- league-tv-rights-sky-bt, visited 18-05-2016. Twitter (2016). https://twitter.com/IAM_Cycling/status/734689013492240384, visited 23-05-2016. UCI (2016). http://www.uci.ch/road/ranking/, visited 08-05-2016.
P. 54/94
Dennis Faurbye
9. Appendix
9.1. Appendix A
Interviewguide (Steen Leth Jørgensen)
Hvorfor er sponsorering et vigtigt værktøj inden for marketing kommunikation?/Hvilken rolle spiller sponsorering inden for marketing kommunikation?
Hvilket ekstra muligheder tilbyder sponsorering?
Kommunikationsplatform Aktivering Salg/Brand building Hvornår bliver et sponsoreringssamarbejde til et godt ’fit’ for begge parter? (Forklaring)
Hvornår fungerer denne kommunikationsform ikke? Eksempler – Konkret udnyttelse af platform? Hvor meget betyder følelser for samarbejdet mellem sport og sponsor?
Hvornår er dette en fordel/ulempe? Eksempler (Evaluering) Bløde værdier eller konkret ROI? (- aktiver) Er cykling, i et forretningsmæssigt perspektiv, sakket bagud i forhold til andre sportsgrene?
Imageproblemer Eksempler Som en der arbejder med emnet til daglig, hvordan har du oplevet udviklingen inden for sponsorering i de sidste 10-15 år? (Som marketing kommunikation, som business)
Er det sælger eller købers marked?
P. 55/94
Dennis Faurbye
9.2. Appendix B
Interviewguide (Ole Egeblad)
Interviewpersonens viden om feltet
Tidligere erfaring/tidligere cases Nuværende case (VM ruteløb)
Vigtigheden af sponsorater inden for cykling?
Fordele/ulemper ved samarbejdet mellem sponsorbusiness og cykling Udvikling Problemstillinger Fremtiden Dine erfaringer gennem dit arbejde med sponsorarbejde, både tidligere og nuværende
CSC Hvordan oplever ud, at ”sponsormarkedet” har udviklet sig?
Hvordan har det udviklet sig inden for cykling/ udvikling i interessen for cykling i Danmark? Er cykling og sponsorater et godt fit?
Hvad er fordelene/ulemperne?
P. 56/94
Dennis Faurbye
9.3. Appendix C
Interview med Steen Leth Jørgensen Fredag 29.04.2016
Dennis Faurbye (DF) -1: Steen tak fordi du vil hjælpe, jeg starter med at spørge hvorfor sponsorering er så vigtigt (et element) indenfor generel marketing kommunikation, hvilken rolle det spiller
Steen Leth Jørgensen (SLJ) -1: Ja… kendetegnet ved sponsering er, at det i modsætning til andre medier er meget meget stærkt til at skabe loyalitet, præference og salg. Det vil sige at man arbejder i den nederste del af salgs-tragten, i modsætning til tv-reklamer og annoncer, som arbejder i den øverste del af salgs-tragten som skaber nysgerrig, kendskab til virksomhedens brand. Og det man kan sige er, at når man sponserer noget, så opererer man med folks følelser, så man appellere til interessen for cykelløb eller håndbold eller fodbold. Når man sponserer noget som folk godt kan lide, så opstår der en relation, der siger vi snakker godt sammen fordi vi har samme interesse. Og sådan er det jo også mellem mennesker, at hvis man begynder at snakke med folk om deres interesser, så har man lige pludselig et fællesskab. Og det fællesskab det forstår folk, især hvis sponsor er meget meget dygtige til at forklare hvorfor de er sponsor.
DF -2: Du nævnte, da vi snakkede sammen tidligere, at der skabes en platform, og det er den platform man udnytter til at interagere.
SLJ -2: Ja, og kan man så sige at hvis man er en dansk sponsor, som sponserer dansk… hvis du er en landsdækkende dansk virksomhed, så kan du ikke nøjes med at sponserer i Aab, eller i FC København. Så er du nødt til at sponserer landsdækkende. Hvis du er en international virksomhed, jamen så brug – ligesom for eksempel Saxo Bank, så brug et internationalt sponsorat. Hvis du er en international virksomhed, som sponsorerer internationalt, så kan du sagtens gøre det nationalt og lokalt også. Men hav sponsorater som passer til din målgruppe, hav sponsorater der passer til dit værdi-sæt. Hav sponsorater der passer til det du gerne vil kommunikere. Og sørg for at finde den gode forklaring på hvorfor. Det viser sig i virkeligheden, at nøglen er at hvis man ikke forstår hvorfor at virksomheden er sponsor, så er der en meget lille accept bland fans på, at du er der, og der er en meget lille fællesforståelse.
P. 57/94
Dennis Faurbye
Hvis sponsoratet giver god mening… det er jo nemt nok at forstå, at Adidas er sponsor for en fodboldklub eller en håndboldklub. Det kan være lidt sværere at forstå hvorfor en fagforening er sponsor for det danske damelandshold, den danske dameliga og det danske herrelandshold; 3F (håndbold).
DF -3: Så der er en opdeling mellem de firmaer som har en direkte relation til sportsgrenen, og de firmaer som kommer helt udefra, og udnytter det som reklame.
SLJ -3: Ja, lad os nu sige at 3F havde brugt det kreative oplæg som jeg lavede til dem, det gjorde de ikke, men historien gik på at vi skulle forklare hvorfor 3F er sponsor af fodbold. Forestil dig Niklas Bendtner på banen i en landskamp, vi spiller imod svenskerne… han har bolden. Ind fra højre kommer dommeren og tackler Bendtner i knæhaserne, tager bolden og spiller den til en af svenskerne. ”3F – føler du dig også uretfærdigt behandlet på din arbejdsplads”. Nu har du lige pludseligt formået at forklare mig at det her er jo bare en arbejdsplads, det her er uretfærdig behandling osv. På den måde der opstår forklaringen på ’hvorfor’. Altså ’hvorfor’ forklaringen er i virkeligheden nøglen til, at får sponsorater til at virke. Men også at virke på højt niveau. Hvis man er dygtig til at forklare ’hvorfor’, så får du effekter på op til 2-3 gange ”mersalg” i forhold til normalt. Altså det vil sige du sælge… det højeste jeg har målt er indeks 374 i et sponseret segment, det vil sige man sælger 3,74 mere i det sponserede segment, end udenfor segmentet.
DF -4: Okay… så det jeg kalder at der er et ’Fit’ imellem de to parter…
SLJ -4: Det kalder jeg ’hvorfor’…
DF -5: Rettigheds køber og rettigheds sælger, der handler ’Fit’et’ i virkeligheden ikke om hvorvidt der er en sammenhæng, men hvor gode de er til at fortællen historien om sammenhænget.
SLJ -5: Ja, ’Fit’ det opstår når du har givet forklaringen på hvorfor. ’Fit’ det opstår… altså forståelsen af hvorfor den her virksomhed den er der, den giver et højere ’Fit’. Men det er lige præcis at nøglen, hver eneste gang, har vist sig at være det der ’hvorfor’. Og hver eneste sponsor skal stille… ikke sig selv, jo de må de også gerne, og deres reklamebureau, og specielt fans – spørgsmålet om; har I forstået hvorfor vi er der? Og hvis ikke, så er det tilbage til tegnebrættet.
P. 58/94
Dennis Faurbye
DF -6: Og hvis fansene når at stille spørgsmålet, og der ikke findes et umiddelbart svar, så falder det (hele) lidt til jorden.
SLJ -6: Ja. Det er den enkle forklaring.
DF -7: Det svarer jo så også på, hvornår kommunikationen ikke duer, det er så når man som tilskuer ikke kan se sammenhængen…så laver man ikke koblingen.
SLJ -7: Nej… altså der er en kobling, der er en kendskabsmæssig udvikling, det er også fint, men det er i virkeligheden når du bruger sponsoratet, så bruger du det ikke så meget for kendskabet… Jo det gør du også, men du bruger det så sandelig også til at skabe en dybere, bredere og mere enkel salgs-tragt, som gør at når du får en emne ned igennem din salgs-tragt, så går det hurtigere, og sandsynligheden bliver større for at du konvertere hele vejen ned igennem din salgstragten, på højt niveau.
DF -8: I mit næste spørgsmål, så vil jeg gerne høre mere om hvordan man evaluere sit sponsorat. Du snakker meget om salgsindeks, og målbar evaluering, men kan man ikke også sige at sponsorerings-sammenarbejdet også tit bliver påvirket af følelser. De følelser som sponsoratet gerne skulle give 3. parten, tilskuerne (kunderne), de kan måske også indføre sig hos sponsoren. De vil måske tit indgå i et sponsorat fordi de har nogle følelser for en sportsgren, eller i en klub…
SLJ -8: Og den slags sponsorater er udmærket, de virker bare tit og ofte ikke så godt. De er… tit og ofte ender man med ikke at aktivere, man ender med at ikke lave forklaringen på ’hvorfor’. Og hvis man skal måle på sponsorater, så er der nogle ting man skal måle på før man starter. Man skal blandt andet kigge på målgrupperne, man skal kigge på værdi-sæt, det vil sige er der et godt værdi match imellem (de to parter). Når en virksomked læner sig op ad et cykelsponsorat, jamen så skal de jo kigge på om de værdier som cykelholdet, og cykelsporten som sådan, passer godt til virksomheden. Er det noget med ’det lange seje træk’, er det noget med ’høj energiudladning’… kan man tåle en dopingsag, og så videre. Der er mange værdier man skal være opmærksom på. Så kigger man altid på, hvad er det her sponsorat værd? Og det er relativt enkelt, der ser man på, hvor meget eksponering er der, hvad er den eksponering værd? Er det et program sponsorat, er det eksponering på trøjen, på bukserne, hvor lang tid er den eksponering på tv- skærmen i løbet af en sæson. Det kan man sætte sig ned og måle med et stopur. Så måler man
P. 59/94
Dennis Faurbye
simpelthen hvor lang tid, og sætter det op imod seertallet, og finder ud af ’hvad er så prisen på den her eksponering’. Kontaktpriserne for 30 sekunders eksponering af en gulvreklame til håndbold, har jeg lige siddet og beregnet, ligger på en 2-4 kroner, kontaktprisen på en LED reklame på langsiden som skifter, er typisk 10-12 kroner, 14 sommetider, for 30 sekunders eksponering til 1.000 seere. Tøj-reklamer er mere værd, og ligger typisk på omkring 25 kroner for 30 sekunder per 1.000 seere. TV-reklamer som måles efter samme målestok har en kontaktpris på 100-120 kroner for en eksponering på 30 sekunder per 1.000 seere til sammenligning.
DF -9: Markant højere…
SLJ -9: Markant højere, men du har også skærmen for dig selv, du kan give budskaber og så videre, sandsynligheden for at jeg slår væk den er ret stor, men sådan er det jo.
SLJ -10: Det er før-målingerne… efter-målingerne der er der en lang række målinger, hvor jeg mener at den vigtigeste måling det er at måle din salgstragt, i det sponserede segment, og udenfor. Man skal forestille sig kendskab, overvejelse, kunde, loyalitet, måske endda ambassadør, de der 4-5 parametre, dem måler man på i det sponserede segment, cykelsport, håndbold, fodbold, og så udenfor segmentet. Så sammenligner man de to ting, og holder øje med hvordan salgstragten ændre sig. Normalt så sker der det, at hvis du er dygtig til at aktivere, så vil salgstragten i det sponserede segment udvide sig, specielt i bunden. Så det vil sige at det er ikke nok at måle på kendskab til sponsoratet, det skal måles med ja, men det er kun et åbnings-spørgsmål til den virkelige effekt, som er der hvor salget og loyaliteten skabes. Jeg har et eksempel på TDC som havde TDC-ligaen, herrehåndboldligaen, i en 3-årig periode. De målte ikke på det her, og når man ser på deres gallup-tal for den periode i herrehåndbold segment hvor de var sponsor, fik de 121.000 nye kunder, de skabte 439.000 nye mennesker der foretrak TDC som teleselskab, problemet var at de anede det ikke. Og det er nok det man kalder en giga-fejl.
DF -10: Waisted opportunity
SLJ -11: Yes… De brugte heller ikke penge på at aktivere i nogen nævneværdig grad, jo de brugte penge på business-to-business markedsføring overfor virksomhederne som sad i VIP- loungen og så videre, men de bruge ikke penge overfor de mange forbrugere som de åbenlyst
P. 60/94
Dennis Faurbye
fik som kunder. Det var ikke damehåndbold-segmentet, det var herrehåndbold-segmentet hvor der blev skabt 121.000 nye kunder.
DF -11: Det betyder vel også, at når man ikke for rodfæstet sin eksponering, og når så sponsoratet ophører, så risikerer man at tilhørsforholdet til TDC slutter lige så hurtigt i kundens mind-set?
SLJ -12: Nu er TDC en meget kendt virksomhed, og har mange assets, og fordele fordi det er en kendt og stor virksomhed, men de har ulige meget effekt af deres sponsorskab fordi deres kendskab er enormt højt. Så når du udviser sympati, præferencen, loyalitet, så vinder du umiddelbart meget mere end et mindre og ukendt teleselskab ville gøre.
DF -12: Ja, men hvis man ikke får aktiveret sit sponsorat og det ophører, og vi siger at en konkurrent overtager, så kan man forestille sig at de opnå en ligeså hurtig eksponering, og ligeså hurtig stigning i salg
SLJ -13: Det vil det så ikke, fordi der er noget med hvordan forhåndskendskab som har en stor indflydelse på kunde-tal og så videre. Så hvis et lille nyt, ukendt teleselskab tror at de kan gøre det samme, så kan de tro om igen. Det er noget med hvor du starter… sådan er det selvfølgelig.
SLJ -14: Arbejdernes Landsbank, i ishockey segmentet, skabte ca. 20.000 nye kunder i segmentet, i den 6-årige periode hvor de var sponsor der.
DF -13: Så det virker! Hvad med måling af… eller vurderingen af ikke målbare…værdier… goodwill, hvis man kan måle hvor mange der ser en kamp, du kan måle hvor mange der ser banneret, eller logoet på skærmen…
SLJ -15: Jamen man kan sige, umiddelbart når du sidder og ser en fodboldkamp, eller en håndboldkamp, så sidder du og kigger på kampen, og det er det primære. At der så kører en LED reklame, eller en bande-reklame eller en gulv-reklame… du registrerer det, men det er ikke det vigtigste for dig.
DF -14: Men giver det ikke også noget at man kan sende kunder billetter til kampe, (altså ting) som ikke måles direkte på eksponering, men som giver dig en smut-vej til at forbedre dit forhold til kunder.
P. 61/94
Dennis Faurbye
SLJ -16: Jo, det gør det… i høj grad. Der er business-to-consumer, som er dem der sidder og ser på som tilskuer, eller dem som sidder og ser på som tv-seer. Business-to-business delen er også meget effektivt, og det er klart at hvis du bliver inviteret (som kunde) så har det en relativt stor effekt, af en billet eller især af en VIP-billet.
DF -15: Ja, jeg tænker især i cykling, at der er forskel på, at hvis du er sponsor på Post Danmark Rundt, og du kan måle hvor mange der ser det på TV, du kan også måle hvor mange der møder op på vejene… men det giver meget mere værdi at kunne sende en vigtig forretnings-forbindelse med i bil bag rytterne. Der er virkelige en VIP oplevelse…
SLJ -17: Ja, altså der er oplevelser du ikke kan købe for penge…det er altid sådan noget der er guld værd. Og det at sidde i bilen og kører rundt sammen med cykelløbet er en oplevelse, specielt hvis man er cykelsport interesseret selvfølgelig. Det er noget som man siger ’aha’ til, og det er noget det bliver bemærket, det er noget som skaber en enorm goodwill eller loyalitet for dig som kunde hos den pågældende leverandør.
DF -16: Ja… men hvis man så som, lad os sige, Lars Seier Christensen som sponsor via Saxo Bank, hans interesse for cykelløb kan vel også blive en hæmsko, fordi han er så bundet til sportsgrenen, at han måske ikke ligger ligeså meget vægt på tallene bag sponsoratet.
SLJ -18: Nej, jeg tror at hvis Lars Seier og Saxo Bank sidder og kigger på hvem de har som kunder, så vil de faktisk finde ud af, at de sandsynligvis har en kundeportefølje der i meget meget stor grad er cykelsports interesseret. Og i meget højere grad er cykelsports interesseret end normalfordelingen er. Det ved de bare ikke fordi de har ikke målt på det, min påstand. Altså derfor skal Lars Seier og Saxo Bank måle på hvor mange kunder der har som er cykelsports interesseret, og hvor mange der ikke er. Og min påstand den er, at de vil have 2-3 gange flere kunder som er cykelsports interesseret, end ikke. I forhold til normalfordelingen af befolkningen. Og når man snakker cykelsport, så skal man være opmærksom på, at når man måler på interesse-niveau for cykelsport, så er der meget stor forskel på sommer og vinter. Så hvis du måler lige til finalen af Tour De France, så er der relativt mange cykelsports interesserede, men hvis du måler midt i januar måned så er næste halvdelen forsvundet.
DF -17: Ja, så det er meget koncentreret eksponering…
P. 62/94
Dennis Faurbye
SLJ -19: Ja, men det er også… interesse tallet går op og ned, det er det der er pointen. Det er meget udtalt i cykelsport faktisk, i modsætning til andre idrætsgrene.
DF -18: Ja, jeg har også lavet en lille spørgeskema undersøgelse, som også viser, hvor jeg har prøvet at kategorisere interessen for cykling, at det er meget få mennesker som interessere sig mere end Tour de France, og når de lige kører på Frederiksberg…
SLJ -20: En meget vigtig del i segmentering, når man måler effekt, det er at have en nuance der hedder, fan-interesseret, meget, mellem, lidt, og ikke-interesseret. Det er sådan at man har nogle kategorier. Fordi det viser sig at, det er dem som er meget interesseret og fan- interesseret, du kan påvirke gennem sponsorater. Dem der er mellem-interesseret…der forsvinder connection, så skal du være virkelig dygtig til at aktivere. Men for dem der er mellem-interesseret, der er det sådan set ikke sponsors opgave, det er faktisk sponsor- udbyderne, altså det vil sige cykelholdet, eller UCI, eller dansk cykelunion, der har som opgave at opgradere dem fra at være medium-interesseret til at blive meget interesseret. Det er en vigtig oplysning, fordi at de der medium-interesserede, de har vist at de er interesseret, men de følger måske Tour de France på Alpe d-Huez etapen, og så lidt af resten, og så ser jeg måske lige Champe Elyssé og så er det det. Men kan man konvertere dem til at blive mega- cykelinteresseret, ja så har man en mere (mulig kunde) at tilbyde til sine sponsorer. Det er en ting man kan se, for eksempel på konkurrence imellem håndbold og fodbold i Danmark. Håndbold har flere interesserede end fodbold, fodbold har bare flere meget-interesserede end håndbold. Interessen for håndbold er lidt større totalt set, men blandt dem der er meget interesserede der er interessen større for fodbold end for håndbold.
DF -19: Okay… hvordan har du oplevet, nu du arbejder med det, udviklingen i sponsorering som marketing værktøj inden for de sidste 10-15 år?
SLJ -21: Ja, 25 år kan gå tilbage… jo, da jeg startede der var der en TV-station i Danmark. Og et tre-bande karambole sponsorat kunne sælges (én bande) for 100.000 til 120.000 kroner… Tre, fire år senere, da TV2 var kommet på, der kunne de sælges for en 10.000- 15.000 kroner, nu kan de ikke sælges for en krone, og det har de ikke kunne i de sidste mange år. Dengang solgte vi bande-billetter og bespisning, eller i virkeligheden mest bander og billetter, VIP-arrangementer var ikke noget man sådan gjorde noget særligt ved, det har ændret sig over tid. Så blev det bande/billetter og bespisning, så blev det til… ja i dag er vi
P. 63/94
Dennis Faurbye
nået hen til det man kalder fuld-fede kommunikationsplatforme, hvor man i meget meget højere grad begynder at erstatte reklame-bureau skabte platforme med autentiske platforme. Altså, autentiske platforme er i håndbold, fodbold, cykelsport, hjerteforeningen, røde kors og så videre… det er autentiske platforme og de virker. Reklamebureau-skabe platforme dem bliver der færre og færre af, fordi folk kan godt se at det er noget bluff, det er noget reklamebureau skabt. Og man kan se virksomheder i højere og højere grad bruger sponsor- platforme til at promovere deres brand, deres værdisæt, og rykke på at bruge det i kampagner og så videre. Faktisk kan man sige, at udviklingen på sponsorater fra dengang, jeg tror at den første måling vi lavede på sports-sponsorater sagde at der blev omsat for 200-250 millioner, omkring 1990. I dag, der omsættes der sports-sponsorater –give and take- for 2 milliarder i Danmark. Der omsættes sponsorater for ca. 3 milliarder i Danmark. Der omsættes TV- reklamer for 2 milliarder.
DF -20: Så det har overhalet…
SLJ -22: Yes, og endda big time. Fordi TV-reklamer er stagnerende. Der omsættes altså for ca. 3 milliarder kroner sponsorater i Danmark, for 2 milliarder kroner TV-reklamer i Danmark. Hvad er det, hver eneste gang at du hører en CEO stille sig op og snakke med deres reklame direktør eller marketing direktør… de stiller sig altid op og snakker om TV-spottet. Hvorfor? I virkeligheden bliver det mindre, og mindre, og mindre betydende… TV- kampagnen bliver mindre betydende, fordi der er ingen mennekser under 40 der ser TV længere… du kan kun nå dem på digitale sociale medier… du er nødt til at tænke anderledes. Og sådan er det også i sportens verden, og i cykelsporten, når vi følger vores superligahold, vores håndboldhold, vores cykelhold på mobilen, på nettet på facebook, på twitter, på instragram… på alle platforme. Og det sjove er, at de store plateforme er nødt til, lynhurtigt, når der opstår et nyt medie, når instagram opstår, så skal de være der (med det samme), og de bliver tvunget til det, fordi deres fans begynder at skrive til dem på facebook… ”vi er i øvrigt snart ved at hoppe af det der Facebook, fordi vi er unge og vi er hippe og vi er med på noderne, hvorfor er i ikke på instagram?”…
DF -21: Ja, og nu har de lige etableret sig på Facebook de fleste virksomheder…
P. 64/94
Dennis Faurbye
SLJ -23: Ja, så nu… virksomhederne er jo i virkeligheden hele tiden bagud, fordi de unge, de hippe, de smarte, de er videre. Facebook er efterladt i en sky af hestepære… for min generation
DF -22: Så kan man sige at, indenfor feltet marketing, der sponsorering booming?
SLJ -24: Ja, det vil det hele tiden være, fordi det skifter kanal. Da TV-var stærkt der var vi på TV, da Facebook var stærkt der kom vi på Facebook. Der er et behov lige med det samme, fordi fans de vil følge… når de har et medie, så det første de kigger på, det er ”hvor er min fodboldklub” eller ”mit cykelhold”.
DF -23: Så når man er direkte involveret som sponsor i en klub eller sportsgren, så kan man måske springe nogle af de her problemer over. Så er du mindre afhængig af mediet, fordi at som sponsor følger du med?
SLJ -25: Ja, det er det der er det gode ved de sponserede platforme. Det er at de sponsorerede platform, hvis de skal være up to date, så er de tvunget til at agere på de medier som følger målgruppen. Og det vil sige, unge idrærtsgrene som basketball, wind-surfing, kite-surfing og så videre, de eksistere overhovedet ikke på TV, men til gengæld er der nogle enorme communities på youtube, og på de sociale medier, som bare kører! Og min generation ser det ikke, med mindre ma følger med på de medier… jeg er tvunget til det om du så vil sige…
DF -24: Jeg har ikke så stort kendskab til sportsgrenene, men jeg ved da at firmaer som Red Bull har været front-runner på rigtig meget indenfor de her ekstrem-sporter…
SLJ -26: Enig… og de kører jo de her extreme-sport events… (afbrudt af kaffe)
DF -25: Så ruller vi igen. Ja, Red Bull har virkelig sat sig på det her extreme sport segment, meget meget tydeligt.
SLJ -27: Jeg var med til at lave deres udspring i København, det første år, de var her. Og det er meget meget tydeligt at de interesserer sig meget meget lidt for tv. De interesserer sig rigtig meget for deres egne kanaler. Red Bull tænker meget meget anderledes end andre sponsorer. De tænker ikke: ”Vi skal sponserer noget”, de tænker: ”Vi skal eje eventen, vi skal eje de aktive, vi skal uddanne de aktive.” De aktive, de Red Bull sponseret, de kommer på Red Bull- skoler, de bliver skolet i hvad Red Bull gerne vil have, hvordan de gerne vil kommunikere.
P. 65/94
Dennis Faurbye
De vælger deres aktive efter, at de er stærke i det unge segment så de skaber de rigtige profiler. Det er kontrol at værdisætte, det er en kontrol af kommunikation på en helt en måde. Nemlig den måde, at man skaber sine egne begivenheder. Og du vil se meget meget mere af den slags i fremtiden. At det er brander, der overtager og driver, fordi de kan gøre det bedre.
DF -26: Men det er vel svært at gøre ved etableret sportsgrene?
SLJ -28: Nej. Altså, du kan altid. Hvis du har penge nok, så kan du jo købe superligaen i fodbold. Hvis du har penge nok kan du købe et cykelhold, hvis du har penge nok, kan du købe et håndboldhold. Der er massere. Red Bull har jo købt Salzburg fodboldhold. Red Bull, når de går ind, så er det ikke bare, så er det meget offensivt. Den form for sponsering er ny og en lidt ny tankegang. Carlsberg har også haft deres egen King of the Mountain events i Schweiz, hvor vi inviterede alle deres gæster og deres sponserede ned og stå på ski over en hel weekend, Og holdte konkurrencer. Som Carlsberg kunde kunne du komme til at konkurrere med (professionel skiløber) ved at køre ned ad en bakke i Schweiz. Du startede bare et stykke tid før han startede og så kørte de ned af, og hvem kom så først i mål. Og der var det sådan, at der havde du et handikap om man så og må sige. Sådan nogle sponsor ejet events vil du se mere og mere. Hvor den skabte kommunikationsplatform ikke er skab af nogen udenfor, men er faktisk skabt af virksomheden selv. Så derfor så bliver, årsagen er selvfølgelig at navnesponsorater total ejet kommunikationsplatforme sælger bedre. Det gør det nemmere at forstå, det gør det nemmere at styre. Så Red Bull skal ikke sidde og diskutere med mig, som sponsorsælger om hvad de nu må og hvad de ikke må. De gør det bare.
DF -27: Så de springer bare hele ledet over?
SLJ -29: Fuldstændig. Og der tror jeg, at det er der at den nærmere fremtid vil vise, at man vil se at Champions league i fremtiden bliver overtaget af en piratliga? Ja, det tror jeg på. Jeg tror på at man får MBA, NFL lignende tilstande, hvor man har x antal hold, der spiller ud over hele Europa. Man kan ikke rykke ned, for du ejer selv en del af ligaen. Og hvad vil man gøre ved det hvis man er FIFA? Man kan ikke gøre en skid.
DF -28: Ja, det har vist sig på det amerikanske marked, at det er en fantastisk forretningsmodel, hvor de tjener rigtig mange penge.
P. 66/94
Dennis Faurbye
SLJ -30: Præcis. Og du kan styre det, du kan kontrollere det og du kan drive det langt mere effektivt end man ellers kan.
DF -29: Ja, for der er jo højere krav for selvkontrol. Der er en interessere i en selvkontrol.
SLJ -31: Ja, lige præcis.
DF -30: For at komme lidt tilbage til cykling. Jeg har jo valgt cykling, som primær sportsgren, fordi jeg synes, at den på rigtig mange interessante område adskiller sig fra øvrige sportsgrene. Set uppet omkring både det forretningsmæssige er anderledes og også som sponsor. Det her med at købe navnerettigheder. Men cykling har også været igennem nogle ret store image problemer, må man sige.
SLJ -32: Ja, ligesom. Jeg har arbejdet med international atletik i AAF, som er VM i atletik og der har atletik og cyklesport måske være de to, der har været hårdest ramt. Måske svømning også.
DF -31: Så det er ikke forkert at sige, at cykling er en mindre attraktiv sportsgren fra et sponsor synspunkt?
SLJ -33: På grund af det. Ja, det er der ingen tvivl om. Sportsgrene hvor der bliver snydt, hvor der kan blive snydt, er ikke populære sportsgrene, og jeg tror også at man vil have set, at hvis man målte lige så effektivt på fodbold, så ville du have set langt flere dopingdomme specielt i Sydeuropa igennem mange år.
Man kan ikke sige det med sikkerhed, men der er nok en del italienske, tyrkiske, græske, portugisiske, spanske hold, der har været væsentlig dopet i en længere periode.
DF -32: Så cykling er sakket bagud. Kan det blive en interessant sponsorplatform igen?
SLJ -34: Jo, men den er interessant. Du har stadig masser af mennesker, der cykler, masser af mennesker, der interesserer sig for det. Seertallene på cykelsport i Danmark fejler ingenting. Tværtimod. De er markant højere end både fodbold og håndbold, når der er den spændende del, den sidste del af etaperne. Så jeg mener ikke, at det fejler noget. Problemet er, at sponsorerne ikke gider snyd. De finder sig ikke i det. Der er ikke blevet taget hårdt nok ved det. Bjarne Riis skulle ikke have lov, skal ikke have lov til at komme tilbage. Alle snydere skal ud og det er på livstid ellers har det ikke nogen effekt psykologisk set over for sponsorer.
P. 67/94
Dennis Faurbye
Du er nødt til at finde rene mennesker til at drive det der. Man sætter jo heller ikke en forbryder til at drive en stor dansk virksomhed. Altså, det er et dårligt signal. Du ville aldrig nogensinde drømme om det. Hvis jeg var blevet smidt i fængsel for at have stjålet af kassen, så ville jeg jo heler aldrig nogensinde få lov til at drive en stor dansk virksomhed. Det ville aldrig ske.
Man kan så sige, undtagelse er Saxo Bank, i øvrigt. Meget apropos. Som vist nok har været drevet af to sidegade vekselerer som har været inden og bore.
DF -33: Så hvad vægter højest. Fordelen ved cykelsport som i mine øjne er meget koncentreret eksponering, dog i små tidsperioder og så det her med holdnavn, hvor jeg vil mene at eksponering bliver meget større fordi at en ting er at tv-tid, så er der artikler hvad enten det er printet eller kommentatorerne. Når man læser resultatlisterne, så står navnet der.
SLJ -35: Man skal her kigget på og der kan man godt sammenligne cykelsponsoraterne og ligasponsoraterne og stadionsponsorater. Det som det i virkeligheden er, det er at det er navnesponsorater. Navnesponsorater er meget meget effektive. Navnesponsorater er, fordi at de skaber et højt kendskabsniveau mange eksponeringssponsorater har et problem med at du bliver eksponeret ja, men du bliver ikke husket. Fordi en ting er hvad du ser, en anden ting er hvad du ser og hører en anden ting er hvad du ser, hører og oplever. Så hvis du deltager i et cykelløb, der hedder Post Danmark rundt. Hvis du selv deltager som tilskuer eller fan eller cykelrytter, så husker du det meget meget bedre. Altså så står du der og hvis du har deltaget i Post Danmark rundt, så vil du huske det resten af dit liv. Det er sådan noget ”to-do” ikke. Hvis du er fan eller tilskuer, så vil du også huske det i mange år. Så ting, som du oplever det husker du meget meget bedre end ting, som du bare ser og så kigger du på noget nyt. Man bliver påvirket af 2, 3, 4000 reklamebudskaber hver eneste dag.
DF -34: Og sponsorater er med til at bryde det?
SLJ -36: Det er jo noget andet, når du kigger på noget, som du godt kan lide. Det er jo noget, som du selv vælger. Og hvis det så ovenikøbet er den bank, det forsikringsselskab de sponserer det som du godt kan lide og du så står over for at skulle vælge en ny bank, et nyt forsikringsselskab, så vil jeg vove den påstand, at så er sandsynligheden relativ stor for at de får muligheden for at give et bud på din bank eller forsikringsforretning. Det er i hvert fald sådan, at det fungerer. Og det er også derfor sandsynligheden for at du vælger dem, når du
P. 68/94
Dennis Faurbye
finder ud af at de tre banker der har givet dig et bud på din bankforretning, at de er nogenlunde det samme i forhold til din bankforretning, så er der hvor deres mulighed er at de sponserer noget, som du godt kan lide. Og derfor så betyder det relativt meget. Spar Nord i Aalborg har et mersalg i AAB segmentet på omkring 20.000 kunde. Dvs. at de har 20.000 flere kunder i AAB segmentet end uden for i Region Aalborg, og det er meget for en bankkunde er ca. 5000 kr. værd for en bank om året. 5000*20.000 er altså 100.000.000 og det her er business to consumer, altså B2C, så vi glemmer B2B her.
DF -35: Så afrundende. Du sagde tidligere, at der bliver omsat sponsorater for 3 mia. i Danmark. Det tal vil vel bare stige?
SLJ -37: Ja, for i sin tid der målte vi et tal på sportssponsering på omkring 200 mio. nu er det omkring 2 mia. Det er vokset på omkring 25 år. Tallene ligger inden på dansk xxx hjemmeside. Der er ikke et mål på de senere år. Jeg har nogle forsigtige tal på det. Der kommer nogle nye målinger på dansk xxx igen. Det var nogle målinger, jeg var med til at starte i sin tid, så droppede de dem igen, fordi de ikke kunne finde folk til at levere målingerne. De er ret kompliceret at lave de her målene ud til at de her klubber man skal spørge for at danne sig et overblik over hvor stort markedet egentligt er.
DF -36: Så et felt, der vil blive ved med at blive vigtigere og blive større?
SLJ -38: Ja, fordi det som virksomhederne søger det er autentisitet. Det er autentiske platforme nu om dage, og reklamebureauernes reklame skabte.. Altså Harry og Bentzen, som var så kendt og brugt og som der blev brugt millioner af kroner på at gøre kendte, de er også taget af. DSB bruger også i højere grad nu autentiske platforme, så vejen frem er platformen hvor man skaber autentisitet, hvor man går i dialog med målgruppen og kigger på: Passer det her værdimæssigt, passer det her målgruppemæssigt, passer det sæsonmæssigt. Altså alle de her ting skal gå op i en højere enhed. Det nytter ikke noget at du sponserer Ishockey, hvis du er Frisko is, fordi ishockeysæsonen ligger om vinteren. Selvom is og ishockey, den var da egentlig meget logisk, men der bliver bare ikke solgt nogen is i den periode.
P. 69/94
Dennis Faurbye
9.4. Appendix D
Interview with Ole Egeblad
Tirsdag 03.05.2016
Dennis Faurbye (DF) -1: Ole, tak fordi du vil snakke med mig. Jeg vil gerne snakke med dig qua dit nuværende arbejde som cykelløbs-arrangør, og dit tidligere arbejde hvor du var en del af Team CSC’s sponsor afdeling
Ole Egeblad (OE) -1: Ja, jeg var ved CSC hvor jeg var, det skiftede fra sponsor manager til head of sponsorship. Så jeg styrede CSC’s sponsorat med Team CSC og IT-support af Tour de France i syv år, fra 2001 til udgangen af 2007.
DF -2: Hvordan var det?
OE -2: Det var intet mindre end fantastisk. (kort afbrydelse). Det var et fantastisk projekt, jeg var relativt nyuddannet indenfor cand.merc., havde arbejdet i et medie bureau i et par år, og havde skrevet hovedopgave om sponsorater, og arbejdet med rådgivning omkring sponsorater og markedsføring i MediaCom. Så var vi ved at lande CSC som kunde, og så ville Asger Jensby have det internt, så fik tilbudt jobbet som sponsormanager derude. Så blev jeg ansat, og det var meget sjovt, fordi de vidste jo ikke noget som helst om hvad de skulle med det cykelhold. Jensby vidste godt hvad han ville med det, men virksomheden havde aldrig nogensinde haft sådan noget her før. Så min jobbeskrivelse den var meget simpel; jeg skulle sådan bare gøre det her sponsorat til en succes for virksomheden. Og så skulle jeg selv definere succeskriterier, og selv sætte diagrammer op og det hele. Og det var enormt spændende. Det startede som dansk, og var dansk i et års tid, indtil Jensby forlod CSC i efteråret 2001. Så blev det europæisk i tre år, og Europa stod for ca. 17-18 procent af CSC’s globale omsætning. Og så lykkedes det de sidste tre år, at få det op som et globalt sponsorat. Så det var drevet ud af København, men forankret globalt i CSC. Det var fantastisk, og rent marketing mæssig, og sponsor-case agtigt, så vil jeg påstå det er nok en af top-3 casene i Danmark, og hvis du ser på business-to-business sponsorater, så er det formegentlig stadigvæk den… det kan godt være jeg er subjektiv her, men den mest interessante case.
P. 70/94
Dennis Faurbye
DF -3: Okay… nu er du, her mens vi snakker, ved at arrangere et nyt cykelløb, her om fire uger, 5. juli… det er selvfølgelig to forskellige størrelser, men hvordan er det at arbejde (i dag) med at skaffe sponsorater til cykelsport i Danmark?
OE -3: Der skal du dele det op i to ting… hvis du tager elite-delen, og at skaffe sponsorer til elite løb eller til elite hold, det er den ene del af det. Og hvis du så tager over i motion og bredde cykling, hvis du lige kan perspektivere her. Jeg kan sige at jeg havde fornøjelse af at side i Danmarks Cykelunions Repræsentantskab i 2 periode, det vil sige 4 år, hvor jeg var politisk aktiv, og dermed også kender det inden for den organisatoriske side, og fra den frivillige verden. Der er jo sket en kæmpe udvikling indenfor cykelsporten. Hvis du tager, afhængigt af hvilke tal du tror på, så er der omkring 500.000 danskere der klæder om for at tage ud og cykle. De laveste (tal) jeg har set siger omkring 400.000 og de højeste siger 600.000. Så det tal jeg har set siger en halv million, og det var via indeks-Danmark som har spurgt de her 15-16 tusinde som de spørger (ved en undersøgelse). Så ringer de og spørger ’hvad er din idræt’. Kriteriet er altså at der bliver klædt om, så det er ikke pendleren eller når du kører til bageren. Det er hvis du klæder om for at tage ud og cykle. Så kan det være at du kun gør det en gang om året, men stadigvæk…
DF -4: Det er også en god formulering…
OE -4: 500.000 var der, og det er jo vokset helt vildt. Jeg tror at DBU har omkring 320.000 som spiller fodbold, så er det er jo en folkebevægelse. Og det løb vi laver, det er det første løb der har været på VM-ruten siden VM (i 2011). Der har aldrig været løb på ruten for motionister, og det har været forbavsende nemt at finde sponsorer til. Vi havde to hovedsponsorere, vi kunne vælge imellem MENY, som ligger … altså per definition ligger sponsorer jo aldrig nok, men de ligger en pænt beløb. Det er et fornuftigt beløb. Og vi er så privilegerede med det løb, at vi har kontant sponsorater. Som regel er det jo nemt nok at få præmier, og få materiel-sponsorater, men her er det primært kontant-sponsorater. Og her har vi nok… vi kan gennemfører løbet uden deltagere og gå i nul. Det er vi meget stolte over. Så det har faktisk været relativt let. Jeg kan så sige, at vi har jo en god historie vi sælger det på. Det er ikke bare et cykelløb, det her skal skille sig ud, fordi det kan godt være at antallet af folk der cykler er steget eksplosivt, men det er antallet af løb også. Der er flere løbsarrangører i Danmark end der er kebab-barer på Nørrebro. Det er helt skørt. Man kan køre løb hver weekend, og mange gange kan du som regel… ja det er så måske ikke fysisk muligt, men
P. 71/94
Dennis Faurbye
mange gange kan du 2-3 løb hver weekend. Og der er jo fordi, ja lidt ligesom analogen til kebab- og pizza-barer, at kan du smække lidt dej sammen kan du lave en pizza. Og så kan du håbe at nogle køber det. Og halvdelen går sikkert konkurs hurtigere end de kommer op, men mængden er der stadigvæk. Og det er det samme som løbene, der er rigtig mange motionsløb. Så vi tænkte ’hvordan konceptualiserer vi det her’, og kiggede på hvad er den største kommercielle succes indenfor Dansk idræt, det er DHL-stafetten. Uden sammenligning, de har 220.000 der løber, og omsætter for… hvad jeg har hørt… en 22-23 millioner, og har 17- 18 fuldtidsansatte og så videre. Så vi tænke at vi laver et stafetløb på VM-ruten. Via min fortid hos CSC så får vi Carlos Sastre og Jens Voigt til at komme og køre med, og så har vi ellers givet den fuld skrue på primært virale medier, og så lidt sammen med Feltet.dk, som er det førende cykelløbs medie, og som her er medie partner. Men det er nemmere at skaffe sponsorer end det er er at skaffe deltagere, det er ret grotesk. Det er formegentlig fordi, det er en ny ide det her med stafetløb, havde vi lavet et løb hvor folk bare kunne komme og cykle fire timer, så havde der været udsolgt over-night. Nu er det et stafetløb, hvor folk skal finde to makkere at køre med, og det tror jeg bare er nyt (for mange).
DF -5: Cykling, tror jeg, er stadig for mange en individuel sport…
OE -5: Det er en individuel sport ja, folk kan godt lide at køre sammen, men mentaliteten er ’det er mig som skal køre’… det er jo meget mig, mig, mig. Jeg er ikke i tvivl om, at vores koncept er skræddersyet til virksomheder, og 2017 er jeg ikke ret meget i tvivl om at der bliver udsolgt. I år er vi for sent ude, vi kunne ikke gå i luften med løbet før marts, og det var på grund af tilladelser fra politiet. Vi havde aftalt med politiet at vi ikke skulle markedsføre løbet før vi havde fået lov. Det er der andre der gør, men af hensyn til det tætte sammenarbejde med kommunen og politiet, så valgte vi ikke at gøre det. Det gjorde at vi ikke kunne lancere før marts, og der har rigtig mange virksomheder allerede planlagt deres aktiviteter. Og de har måske ikke en ressource som lige kan slave et stort medarbejder arrangement eller kundearrangement på to måneder. Så det (problemet) er vi løbet ind i. Men det skal nok gå, det skal nok blive godt.
DF -6: Så cykling i Danmark på motions-fronten, ser ud til at have det vældig godt, hvad med professionel cykling?
P. 72/94
Dennis Faurbye
OE -6: Altså professionel cykling har stadigvæk doping-forbandelse over sig. Det vil sige… og selv om nogle vil sige at det ikke betyder så meget mere, så tror jeg stadigvæk at det ligger i baghovedet på rigtig mange tunge beslutningstagere i store virksomheder. Og så skelner vi imellem virksomheder der er personligt ejet, altså små virksomheder hvor ejeren sidder for enden af bordet, der er beslutningsprocessen enkel. Den anden type virksomhed som enten kan være fondsejet eller andet, og hvor det er en professionel ledelse der sidder og skal stå til ansvar for andre… det er en anden problemstilling. Jeg er overbevist om at doping-spøgelset betyder rigtig meget. Det er også lidt et problem, og det er min personlige holdning, at stort set alle de cykelprojekter der kommer frem, de kan være nok så godt skruet sammen og professionelle, men det er i ni ud af ti tilfælde en eks-doper der står i spidsen for det. Og det er ikke fordi jeg skal sidde og dømme nogen, det er bare… hvis jeg sad som administrerende direktør i en virksomhed, og jeg gik op i coorporate governance, CSR og så videre, så ville jeg have et lille problem med at gå ud og sammenarbejde med en, hvor der sidder en sportslig svindler ved siden af… og så kan vi sige at alle svindlede dengang, og det er også rigtigt, men det er lidt det samme som hvis Claus Riskjær, Kurt Thorsen, Lindblad fra CapiNordic… nogle af alle fallenterne… de kan sagtens komme med et projekt som er fuldstændig fantastisk, og solidt og med stort potentiale, jeg tror bare de fleste ikke-personligt ejede virksomheder de vil sige… man kan ikke engang komme hen til præsentationen af projektet, for der hænger bare denne her… der er røde advarselslamper. Og det tror jeg stadigvæk rammer (cykelsporten)… du kan bare tage Bjarne Riis, han har en af Danmarks rigeste mænd bag sig…der er virksomheder som Grundfos, Danfoss, Novo … nu kan man altid diskutere om medicinalvirksomheder (har sin plads i sporten), men det har jo allerede deres eget enzym-hold, så Novo er massivt inde i cykling… men der er masser af virksomheder, også store virksomheder vi ikke lige kender, som kunne få ufatteligt meget ud af det her. Man kan mene hvad man vil om Riis, men er der nogle der kan lave et cykelhold, der kan gå ud og gøre sig gældende i Touren, så er det Riis. Det er ikke Hamburger, eller nogle af alle de andre, det er Riis der kan det. Og de danske sponsorer står jo ikke i kø.
DF -7: Nej… en af de ting der vækkede min interesse, da jeg var igennem alle de her tanker i vinters, i forbindelse med speciale, det var et interview med Oleg Tinkoff sidste sommer… han sagde til en dansk rapporter at ”Nu må i glemme alt om at det her hold (Tinkoff Saxo Bank) plejede at være dansk, det er et russisk hold. Hvis i vil have et dansk hold, så er der masser af firmaer (i Danmark) der kan støtte et professionelt hold i Danmark. Så tænker jeg,
P. 73/94
Dennis Faurbye
at ja det er sjovt at et sponsorat i cykling, er stadig relativt beskedent i forhold til større sportsgrene. Og du kommer meget langt for 100 millioner kroner. Alligevel er interessen blandt de store virksomheder, som kan gå ind og finansiere et helt hold, ligesom Team Sky i England… det vælter jo ikke ind med store bud på markedet…
OE -7: Tænker du på Danmark…eller også internationalt?
DF -8: Primært Danmark…
OE -8: Hvis jeg må lave et lille sidespring, hvis jeg skal kigge på danske sponsorater over en bred kam, så er danske virksomheder ufatteligt dårlige til at udnytte deres sponsorater. Og det… kan jeg godt sige som citat, for det har jeg sagt nogle gange hvor jeg ikke er blevet super populær, men prøv at se; det er fylder mest i Danmark er stadigvæk herrehåndbold, damehåndbold og superligaen. Og det jo også fint, og man kan jo aldrig sige en vinder imod, og der er stadig mange tusinde som sidder og ser damehåndbold, og fuld respekt for dem, det er fantastisk at TV2 weekend efter weekend hvis håndbold, og at de har fået lavet det projekt sammen med håndbolden, og at der er mange der sidder og ser på det. Min pointe er bare at når store danske virksomheder som Grundfos, VELUX, og andre, går ud og skaber en international platform til at brande sig på, så er det bare lidt, i min verden, at vælge håndbold. Og det er ikke fordi jeg har noget imod håndbold, men det er fordi… og i danskerne hoved at vi gode til at sige ’det vi mener er det rigtige, det vi mener passer er det der passer’… og det er så selvfølgelig hele verdenen. Det vil sige at når du snakker med nogle at de store danske håndbold sponsorere, så vil de sige at håndbold er en global sport. Og det kan da godt være at EHF, eller at det internationale håndbold forbund har en egypter, ja de spiller jo også håndbold i Egypten, i Angola og så videre… man kan bare ikke kalde det en global sport! De store globale markeder, Kina, USA, BRIK-landene, Brasilien… de ved ikke hvad håndbold er. Så at gå ud og sige at man er global spiller på markedet, det holder ikke. VELUX der sponsere håndbold…”Vi skaber liv gennem lys”… altså, med al respekt for Brøndby Hallen og andre haller, i forhold til branding holder den ikke en meter, fordi der er jo ikke meget lys inde i en håndboldhal, der er ikke meget liv via lys. Der hænger nogle lysstofrør, men hvis der nu var glastag, og man kunne rulle det af og alt muligt.. men branding mæssigt fungerer det bare ikke i min verden. Og det jeg tror der er, et er at der stadig er alt for mange sponsorater i Danmark som er præget af personlig interesse. Hvis ikke Grundfos i Bjerringbro havde en historik med klubben, så havde de formegentlig aldrig sponsoreret håndbold… barnebarnet af
P. 74/94
Dennis Faurbye
stifteren er selv gammel håndboldspiller… og det ser man hele vejen (igennem markedet). Så generelt er de bare ikke særlig professionelle…
Danske virksomheder ser det stadig som en stor satsning at man køber en stribe bander til et Europamesterskab i håndbold, eller at man køber bander i Parken… og det er bare der vi er. Sammenligner man med Sverige og Norge så er de lysår foran. Det er stadig væk sådan at når direktøren han vælger, at nu laver vi et sponsorat i virksomheden, så går han ned i marketingafdelingen og spørger ’Hvem har spillet håndbold, hvem har spillet badminton?’, så er der en der rækker hånden op, og så bliver vedkommende sponsoransvarlig – sådan groft sagt. Og det var det samme billede jeg oplevede i 1999-2000, hvor jeg sad i MediaCom hvor vi rådgav virksomheder om sponsorater. Der er ikke sket meget siden. Og det synes jeg er frygtelig ærgerligt…
DF -9: Og man kan vel så sige på den anden side, at sponsorering som marketing værktøj og som forretning, er steget globalt og europæisk…
OE -9: Det er steget voldsomt globalt
DF -10: Det bliver mere og mere professionaliseret, der kommer flere akademiske artikler, fagbøger og så videre…
OE -10: Det der selvfølgelig er den helt store udfordring for sponsorater eller partnerskaber, det er selvfølgelig dokumentation. Og så… og det ved sikkert mere om end jeg gør nu hvor du har været i bøgerne, det er nogle år siden jeg har været i bøgerne… Og så er det bare sådan, at når der kommer en krise, så skal man som økonomiansvarlig eller i ledelsen vise handlekraft, og så sparer man på marketing fordi det er penge på bundlinjen lige med samme. Når du så kommer ud af krisen igen, og begynder at bruge penge på marketing igen, så er det jo ikke fortjeneste på bundlinjen igen med det samme… så går der en vis periode… og når du så tager marketing, og tager sponsorater som en del af marketing mixet, så er det helt klart det der ryger allerførst (hvis krise), med mindre man selvfølgelig er kontrakt betinget, fordi det er der hvor effekter er længst. Du kan trods alt tracke på en helside annonce i Berlingske, eller på en bannerreklame eller på en TV-reklame, det kan trackes i et eller andet omfang… det kan du også på sponsorater hvis du er dygtig nok, der er bare ikke så mange der gør det.
DF -11: Ja, så det er de kortsigtede løsninger der bliver prioriteret…
P. 75/94
Dennis Faurbye
OE -11: Ja, så derfor bliver det cuttet. Og der er danske virksomheder simpelthen ikke dygtige nok. Min pointe er, at der hvor sponsorater, eller sports marketing, der hvor det er stærkt, det er selvfølgelig at det skaber engagement. For det her cykelløb vi laver nu, der kører vi banner-reklamer på Feltet.dk, som er den førende cykelportal i Danmark, jeg har svært ved at se… de klik der kommer via bannerne er altså til at overse. Og det er ikke på grund af Feltet.dk, det er på grund af folks adfærd. Jeg ved ikke hvornår du sidste har klikket på et banner?
DF -12: Aldrig…
OE -12:… Vi overvejer om vi skal smide et billede op af Linse Kessler bare for sjov… altså det skal vi nok ikke, men jeg overvejer ’hvad kan man gøre?’. Hvor tæt kan man komme på at være useriøs, sjofel, politisk ukorrekt, for at tricke folk.
DF -13: Kommunikationsvejene (i det hele taget) flytter vel også væk fra hjemmesider, og over på de sociale medier. Jeg forestiller mig at der er der i får mest omtale/omsætning
OE -13: Vi kører mest på Facebook i øjeblikket, når vi kører noget kampagne og nogle artikler så booster vi dem selvfølgelig som annoncer, når der er noget interessant, og der vi en reach på 45.000 mener jeg… og det er jo fint, problemet er bare at hvis ikke de… og der er rimelig mange, et par tusinde, der interagere hvilket jeg tror er relativt fornuftige tal, men altså hvis de ikke tilmelder sig så er det jo lige meget. Så vi bruger meget de sociale medier, det er også sådan et sted hvor Jens Voigt han klarer sig og bliver interessant, studievært Søren Reedtz uploadede vi interview med fra Geels Bakke, og smed den på og boostede den. Vi snakker i øjeblikket med en halv-kendt person til at skulle køre med Jens og Carlos, og det er klart at en af betingelserne for det er, at vi kan lave nogle små klip med ham. Og det er helt rigtigt, at det er via de sociale medier der er…
DF -14: Vejen frem… så vender jeg lige tilbage til… Danske virksomheder underudnytter sponsoraternes muligheder, hvis man kan sige sådan?
OE -14: Ja
DF -15: Og branchen for sponsorater er stigende… hvor godt et fit, eller hvorfor er sponsorater et bedre fit i cykelsport end det er i andres sportsgrene?
P. 76/94
Dennis Faurbye
OE -15: Jamen jeg ved ikke om det er et bedre fit… det man kan sige er at der er to veje man kan gå med sit sponsorat. Man kan sige at der er den akademiske, den der var da jeg var i MediaCom, hvor vi lavede en klar værdiprofil på et sponsorat, og så bonner det ud på nogle forskellige parametre, såsom godt til ungdom, troværdighed, seriøsitet… En værdiprofil af sponsoratet. Og så går du ud og finder en virksomhed som har den samme profil, eller gerne vil flytte sig hen til den samme profil, og så laver du et mix (der passer). Min påstand er… det er selvfølgelig den rigtige måde at gøre det på, at du vælger værdimatch, enten kender du din virksomheds værdimatch eller også definerer du der hvor du gerne vil hen, og så bruger du sponsoratet som platform til at komme derhen. Det er selvfølgelig den akademisk rigtige måde at gøre det på.
Hvis du tager CSC sponsoratet, som jeg jo i al beskedenhed, og det tror jeg mange vil bakke mig op i, det var en fantastisk case, og også meget succesfuld for CSC, så er det jo sjov at se, fordi den måde det kom i stand på, det var jo… I dag så store virksomheder som CSC, der kan en dansk eller nordisk præsident ikke slå en prut uden han har fået lov. Og han skal selvfølgelig have lov af nogle økonomi-folk primært. På det tidspunkt i 2000, der var CSC Norden… det gamle Data Centralen, den enhed i CSC globalt, den enhed som tjente flest penge relativt til størrelsen. Det var stadig kun halvanden til to procent af den globale omsætning, men på margenen var CSC Norden en helt unik forretning. Det gjorde at Jensby kunne tillade sig mere end andre. Og på det tidspunkt var der ikke de samme kontrol- mekanismer som der findes i dag, og så længe han leverede resultater ind til det europæiske hovedkontor som Danmark/Norden hørte under, så var han kongen. Og han lavede det her sponsorat fordi han kunne. Der var ingen business case… det første jeg blev ansat til var, at jeg skulle lave en case der understøttede at vi skulle lave det her sponsorat. Og der var sponsoratet allerede indgået. Så jeg var ikke med til at indgå den..
DF -16: Så det foregik i omvendt rækkefølge…
OE -16: Ja, jeg skulle efterrationalisere og retfærdiggøre sponsoratet. Jeg er sikker på, at hvis du havde taget fat i nogle af alle de lærde folk på det tidspunkt, måske mig selv undertegnet, og havde sagt; CSC – hardcore b2b virksomhed, primært statslig IT, og der begyndte outsourcing bølgen at komme, så også drift at store virksomheders IT, gerne ville sponsere et cykelhold… jeg havde måneden før udtalt mig til TV2 om, det var der hvor holdet kæmpede lidt med de gamle sponsorere, dengang det var Team Home Jack & Jones eller Memory Card
P. 77/94
Dennis Faurbye
Jack & Jones, og der arbejde alle sammen for Torben Kølbæk, der udtalte jeg mig til TV2 om, hvad er det for nogle virksomheder, hvad er det for en retning de skal gå når de søger sponsorer. Og jeg gav dem den klassiske; det her er et masse-kommunikationsmiddel, det er masserne der sidder og ser Tour de France, det vil sige at eksempelvis Mars bar ville være fantastisk, så har alle fået Team Mars ind i hovedet hele sommeren, og når de så står nede ved kassen og kigger på en Yankee bar og en Mars bar, så tager de Mars baren fordi det er fyldt i deres top of mind.
DF -17: Så virksomheder hvor der er kort fra kommunikation til salg (point of purchase)
OE -17: Ja, præcis. Det er der hvor salget bliver tricket, og hvor de hele tiden skal kæmpe om at beskytte deres top of mind position.
DF -18: Det kan man vel egentlig også sige havde været reglen i Dansk cykling … som jeg husker tilbage, så var der Fakta som er ret tilgængeligt, og…
OE -18: Men Home var jo en ejendomsmægler kan man så sige… det er jo en blanding, det er jo en b2c, men det er stadig længere købsprocess
DF -19: Det er rigtigt, men man kan gå fra sofaen direkte ned i butikken
OE -19: Det er rigtigt, og der kan være nogle præference… og det er jo der hvor sponsorater er skarp, det er der hvor det kan skabe præferencer. Fordi støtter det noget du elsker, noget du nyder, så… nu ved jeg godt at forbrugere i dag vel per definition er illoyale, men hvis der noget der kan skabe en relation så er det sådan noget som sponsering. Og der kan man så sige at med CSC casen… antallet af kunder i CSC var omkring 150. Så går vi ud og sponserer noget der rammer en million mennesker, jeg kan huske at Byager og flere af de øvrige eksperter var ude og ryste med hovedet… det der var interessant med det her, det var at CSC var ukendt. Vi havde rigtig svært ved at få medarbejdere. Da jeg blev ansat var der 400 stillinger man ikke kunne få besat. Og det var fakturér-bare stillinger, det vil sige ligeså snart der kom en anset, selvfølgelig vil der altid gå lidt tid, men så var vedkommende rentable. Tallene viste at en account manager typisk omsatte for mellem 1 og 2 millioner kroner om året… de tjente så måske 7-800.000 der af. Det er jo en super forretning af få ansat dem!
OE -20: CSC var kendt for AMANDA… AMANDA er moderen til alle IT skandaler. Det var arbejdsmarkedsstyrelsens IT system. Et kæmpe system der blev udviklet, og dengang
P. 78/94
Dennis Faurbye
fungerede det sådan at når du udviklede et nyt system, efter du gik i gang havde du det færdigt tre år efter. Og de koder der blev brugt var ikke open-source, de var lukkede, så når systemet blev afleveret efter tre år, ud fra nogle specifikationer der var defineret tre år før, så var det per definition forældet. Og så kunne man ikke bare gå ind og justere i det, fordi det var et kæmpe og lukket kompleks. Det er man heldigvis gået væk fra i dag. Det var altså moderen til alle IT skandaler i Danmark, og var sådan at da jeg blev ansat hos CSC blev der gennemført en undersøgelse omkring medarbejdernes selvopfattelse. Og der var nogle meget gode eksempler på, at når man sad ved et middagsselskab, så ville man ikke fortælle hvor man arbejde. Fordi hvis man sagde at man arbejde for CSC, så ville folk sige ”nårh, AMANDA…’, det blev ændret med cykelholdet! Der gik meget kort tid, før den danske sportspresse kastede sig over projektet. Det var så den anden ting, de siger jo navnet ukritisk. Der er ikke nogen der siger… jo måske TELIA Parken siger de faktisk… de siger ikke Parken, det er lidt bemærkelsesværdigt hvor nemt det har været (for PSE & Telia at ændre)… ellers også er det måske TV2 og TV3 fordi de er så kommercielle… men i hvert fald TV3 der dækker Superligaen, de siger Telia Parken konsekvent. Det er bemærkelsesværdigt, fordi det ville man ikke føre for nogle år siden.
OE -21: Med cykelhold der blev det, ligesom med Formel 1 hold og båd-projekter, der siger man ukritisk sponsorens navn. Så ret hurtigt blev Team CSC, eller CSC Tiscali som det hed i starten, kendt. Og det gjorde at det blev lidt mere sexet at arbejde i CSC. Det var både i forhold til kunde håndtering, men også i forhold til at medarbejderne pludselig syntes at det sjovt at sige man arbejde for CSC, fordi der var ikke længere nogen der sagde AMANDA.
DF -20: Så det slog højt ud på den interne branding (af virksomheden)
OE -22: Meget…og vi lavede en ekstern undersøgelse efter fire måneder, og der var kun 5% af de adspurgte, vi spurgte 1.500 via Gallup eller noget lignende, og så vidt jeg husker var der kun 5% der nu forbandt CSC med AMANDA. Så medarbejderne havde en opfattelse af, at ’ham der sidder derovre han tænker AMANDA hvis jeg siger jeg arbejder for CSC’, men det gjorde han ikke, og det ændrede cykelholdet meget på. Så det store spørgsmål, i forhold til b2b sponsorater, det er ’sælger det noget’. Og der er mit svar, at vi var i dialog med CSC Tyskland som var en meget stor enhed, hvor jeg var til et stort årsmøde hvor alle deres account managere var til stede, og de var ekstremt skeptiske over for det. Det var før Jan Ulrich blev rigtig knaldet (for doping), og de var måske allerede lidt lune på Ulrich, men det
P. 79/94
Dennis Faurbye
kunne bestemt ikke lide Riis. Og der var en der spurgte mig, jeg blev virkelig ristet, ’vil det her sponsorat sælge noget for os?’…Jeg svarede at som udgangspunkt nej. Jo, måske hvis der sidder en cykeltosset direktør for en virksomhed et eller andet sted og er irrationel, så kan det godt være han vælger CSC som leverandør på grund af cykling, men ellers nej. Det sponsorat skal ses som et ud af flere værktøjer, der alt andet lige vil gøre jeres job nemmere. Det der skete i IT branchen dengang var, at man gik primært over til outsourcing. Tidligere når man solgte almindelige services, så var CSC’s kontakt it-chefen. Nu går man i stedet hen og sælger outsourcing, så i går var du til møde med it-chefen, og næste dag forslår man virksomheden at gøre it-chefen overflødig, fordi overtager hele hans afdeling. Det er en lidt svær dialog med en IT-chef. Så man skulle op i fødekæden, op på direktions-niveau. Og på det tidspunkt sad en IT-ansvarlig ikke i direktionen, ligesom marketingschefen. Så pludselig skulle vi et niveau op, og der havde CSC ikke nogle kontakter inde i virksomheden. Via det her sponsorat, og primært vores Tour de France events, der tiltrak vi CX niveauet. Finansdirektøren, administrerende direktør, bestyrelse og så videre. Så sponsoratet blev en dør åbner, a reason to meet.
OE -23: Og vi lavede et sæt retningslinjer for, hvordan agere man når man har en gæst med ude. Vi havde nogle af de aller største virksomheder fra både England og Tyskland med til Touren, og regel nummer et det var, at som vært skal man aldrig tage initiativ til at tale om business, aldrig, no go. Der skal selvfølgelig snakkes business, når kunden tager det op. Og så er hele formålet med at have en gæst nede… fordi det kostede jo, et event i Paris hvor man fløj ind om eftermiddagen, så var der noget fagligt arrangement, nogle gange var det seriøst, andre gange var det en undskyldnings-aktivitet, så var der noget socialt om lørdagen, enkeltstarts arrangement i en pavillon et stort sted i Paris om eftermiddagen, festen om søndagen med kørsel på champs-elysee, og så afslutningsfest om aftenen. Det er altså fredag til mandag, tre nætter, og hvis kunden ville have hustru eller partner med, så måtte den CSC ansvarlige også have partner med. Det kostede måske noget der ligner 40.000 per gæst, så en kunde kunne nemt koste 60-80.000 for en weekend. Så der skulle selvfølgelig være en plan for hvem man tog med. Og det der klart var det vigtigste var, at det var klart nemmere at snakke med kunden bagefter. Har du denne her fælles oplevelse… det kan godt være de synes de så står lidt i gæld, det er jo ikke det man gør bevidst men følger den med så tager man den med, men primært handlede det om, at hvis du kun mødes med din kunde når du vil forlænge kontrakt, ved levering eller møder om manglende levering, det er bare noget andet end hvis
P. 80/94
Dennis Faurbye
du kan snakke om at ’der da vi cyklede op af alpe d’huez, det var bare stort!’… Og så er det bare lidt nemmere at lave business med nogle man har en fællesnævner med.
DF -21: Det giver et kæmpe udslag på aktivering (af sponsorat)
OE -24: Fuldstændig! Og det er jo hele koden i b2b sponsorater. Så det kunne da godt være at CSC ville kunne have gjort det samme hvis man bare var blevet business partner på projektet, og så havde lagt… vi lagde 10 millioner euro det sidste år jeg var der… så kunne man bare have lagt 2 millioner euro, været businesspartner, logo på tøjet men ikke navne-sponsor, og så havde man kunne køre det samme hospitality-program. Jeg tror bare ikke det havde været det samme.
DF -22: Så når du fortæller om det her som en succes-historie, hvorfor er der så ikke noget der har båret faklen videre i Danmark
OE -25: Min påstand er … der er to ting; at gå ud og drive et sponsorat til 8-10 millioner euro, rulle det ud globalt, det er der måske 4-5 virksomheder herhjemme som kan. Det lyder arrogant, men det er min holdning.
DF -23: Du skal være økonomisk gearet til det?
OE -26: Nej, nu tænker jeg på at være fagligt dygtige nok, dem der rent faktisk kan rulle det ud, dem der kan drive det i en virksomhed, dem der kan tale op ad til en direktion, op til kunderne. Motivere medarbejderne internt, håndtere leverandører… dem der kan være projekt-direktør på det her. Der er det min påstand, at der er måske 4-5 personer i Danmark. Det vil sige i en virksomhed, hvis en administrerende direktør sidder i Danfoss og siger, bare et eksempel, vi vil det her. Så kigger han sig rundt i organisationen, og så finder man ud af ’hvem kan løfte den her opgave’, og det er der ikke noget der kan. Der er ikke specielt på Danfoss, men det er der ikke nogen der kan. Så skal man til at ansætte et bureau eller til at ansætte folk til det, og så er det sådan at så er den daglige drift, den daglige udvikling… det fylder så meget at sådan et projekt bliver skudt til hjørne, fordi det er flere fuldtidsjob ved siden af (sponsoratet)…
OE -27: Så med mindre du er vanvittigt passioneret omkring det.. tag VELUX, de gik ind i Volvo Ocean Race, som også var en stor satsning. Desværre gik de på grund, på andet eller første ben, så det var en kort fornøjelse. Det virkede sådan lidt drevet med venstre hånd,
P. 81/94
Dennis Faurbye
Maersk var også inde og sponsere Volvo Ocean Race i en kinesisk båd, men altså det var også noget halvhjertet noget. Og skal man gøre sådan noget, så skal man gøre det fuldt ud. Og jeg er ikke i tvivl om, at netop danske virksomheder som ikke kan være med på de store globale marketing budgetter, der ville jeg netop sige at, det kan godt være man ikke skal ud og sponsere OL, eller være hovedsponsor på FIFA og verdensmesterskaberne i fodbold… der er man jo oppe og snakke budgetter på tæt på en milliard… så er det jo netop cykling, det kunne være noget sejlsport, det kunne være, ja nu er motorsport også halvdyrt hvis man skal op i Formel 1… men det jeg tror man skal, især når man ikke har den store økonomiske muskel, det er at man skal gå ud og finde noget der er unikt..
DF -24: Hvor man ikke drukner
OE -28: Hvor man ikke drukner, og så skal man sørge for at man via et bureau, via de folk man henter ind, har folk der er dygtige nok til at levere. Fordi at levere varen, og levere et sponsorat, er primært et spørgsmål om evne, færdighed, dygtighed, end det er et spørgsmål om at have verdens største budget. Og netop som vi snakkede om før med sociale medier, selvfølgelig skal man have et budget for at drage ud på de sociale medier, men det er vigtigere at du er dygtig end at du er velhavende. Det er mig stadigvæk en gåde, at der ikke er danske virksomheder som har givet den her fuld skrald. Tag Kevin Magnussen, hvor (-) Paulsen har skudt jeg ved ikke hvor mange millioner i. Der har der stået en lille smule Jack & Jones nogle enkelte gange, det er klart McLaren havde Boss som partner… de syntes nok ikke der skal stå Jack & Jones, men altså … Lars Larsen med sin store golf turnering… Det er jo sådan nogle projekter hvor så kan det godt være at der kommer til at stå Jysk nede i det ene hjørne, det kan godt være der kommer til at stå J&J, men de er jo ikke drevet ud af virksomheden, de er jo ikke drevet ud af ønsket om, at de skal gøre en forskel for virksomheden. Det er, det kan så være skatteteknisk og andet at man køre det over virksomheden, men det er bare, jeg synes det er så ærgerligt. Der er så stort potentiale på det her, og det bliver bare smidt på gulvet.
DF -25: Så hvis vi afrundende skal kigge lidt fremad, så kan man sige at for to år siden havde vi et dansk World Tour hold, vi havde et dansk kontinental hold, og nogle hold på tredje række. Nu har vi kun hold på tredje række i denne sæson… det har jeg læst på som om, at der er et clash imellem interessen for cykling, antallet af folk der cykler, og cykler i professionel gearing (tøj, udstyr), som motionister, de er stigende. Men det danske aftryk på den professionelle cykelsports verden er faldende. Vil det umiddelbart ændre sig (i fremtiden)?
P. 82/94
Dennis Faurbye
OE -29: Jeg håber det, men jeg tror det faktisk ikke. Den danske cykelscene er præget af rigtig mange entusiaster, det er relativt billigt at drive et cykelhold, på det niveau det drives på herhjemme. Du kan få udstyr, om ikke smidt i nakken, så i hvert fald billigt. Dem der kører på de danske hold, selvom de kalder sig professionelle, de får jo 0-og en skid i løn. Du kan jo drive et kontinentalhold for, jeg tror du kan drive det for et par millioner. Det er selvfølgelig mange penge i min lomme, og måske også i din, men springet derfra, og så til at kunne køre i anden division (Pro Kontinental), og hvor du kan få wild card til at køre med i de store løb, det er bare så stort et spring, at… det virker som om at der er de danske cykelhold ikke helt gode nok. Og så er det sjov at om lidt skal jeg snakke med en af mine gode venner i DCU’s bestyrelse, og det skal jo ikke være nogen hemmelighed at DCU har jo i den grad, af flere årsager… fakta er bare at den danske cykelscene sådan rent kommercielt, er totalt underudviklet. Vi har Post Danmark Rundt en gang om året, det er ikke ret meget et kunne drive et cykelhold på, at du måske får lov at køre Danmark Rundt 4-5 dage om året. Det der jo er den helt store udfordring for disse hold er, at der er en kæmpe interesse for cykelsport, der er en kæmpe interesse for Tour de France. Seertallene for Touren, seertallene for Paris- Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Giro, Vuelta, stiger – så vidt jeg ved – så interessen for motionscykling, og for at følge med i cykling er stigende. Cykelsporten er lidt ligesom, hvis du sammenligner med ridning eller sejlsport som jeg også har arbejdet med. Der hvor cykelsport er helt unik, er at min nabo på 67, kører et par gange om ugen, har kørt løb som yngre men har aldrig være elite eller noget, blot meget entusiastisk. Han interessere sig meget for Touren og de ting, så han følger meget med i Touren, P-R, L-B-L og så videre. Hvis du nu tager sejlsport, så er sejlerunionens helt store dilemma i forhold til elite og konkurrence delen, at de har 50.000 medlemmer, der er rigtig mange der interesser sig for sejlads, med de interessere sig ikke for sejlsport. Det vil sige at når du tager ned til Rungsted eller Svanemøllen havn, så ligger der tusindvis af både, størstedelen af dem interesserer sig for sejlads… de er ligeglad med sejlsport. Og i ridning er det det samme, der er rigtig mange der interesserer sig for ridning, men de er ligeglade med ridesport. Cyklingen, der er det unikke, at stort set alle som interesserer sig for cyklingen, hvis vi sammenligner med de andre sportsgrene, de interesserer sig også for cykelsport. Og derfor, ved at gå ud og sponsere en ekvipage, såsom Prinsesse Natalie som rider dressur og skal til OL, så rammer du ikke alle dem der rider, fordi mange af dem der rider de interesserer sig ikke for hvad hun laver. Sponserer du et cykelhold, primært på World Tour niveau, så rammer du alle dem der
P. 83/94
Dennis Faurbye
interesserer sig for cykling. Så det gør cykelsport helt unik. Ligesom alle dem der spiller fodbold, selv bare for sjov, de ved godt hvem Ronaldo er, og ser Barcelona i Champions League. Så derfor er cykelsporten bare unik. Det der er udfordringen, det er… TV er både godt og dårligt. Det er godt på den måde at der er cykelløb på højeste niveau fra tidlig marts til VM i slut oktober. Hvem gider at tage ud og se en Post Cup, hvor de danske hold, hvor mange ikke kender navnene fordi man kender kun navnene fra Pro-touren, så en dansk Post Cup hvor den hjemlige elite og de danske semi-professionelle hold kører, det er ikke et tilløbsstykke. Så kan vi altid tage den anden diskussion om hvorfor det ikke er et tilløbsstykke, men faktum er at det ikke lykkes for DCU eller arrangørerne at gøre dette til et tilløbsstykke. Det er stadigvæk et løb der er arrangeret af nogle frivillige, og jeg skal være den første til at forgude frivillige, hvis ikke der var frivillige så fik jeg ikke lov til at lave mit cykelløb, og jeg har selv aftjent ganske mange år i klub som frivillig, det har bare sin begrænsning. Så det at pakke et event ind, hvor den hjemlige elite cykler, det er stadigvæk som det var for 20 år siden, 10 år siden… du står ude på en mark i Hillerød, der er en håbefuld speaker og sådan lidt, men det er bare lettere…
DF -26: Under-udnyttet
OE -30: Ja, lad os sige det sådan. Man har ikke formået at sælge den vare. Så derfor er det utrolig svært for den hjemlige cykelscene, at udnytte den globale popularitet cykling den har.
P. 84/94
Dennis Faurbye
9.5. Appendix E
Results from explorative survey.The purpose of this survey is to measure the interest in, and perceived values associated with, the sport of cycling in Denmark
1. Gender
Response Response Answer Options Percent Count
Male 47,5% 29
Female 52,5% 32
answered question 61
skipped question 0
2. Age
Response Response Answer Options Percent Count
Under 18 0,0% 0
18-34 91,8% 56
35-54 8,2% 5
55+ 0,0% 0
answered question 61
skipped question 0
3. Where do you live
Response Response Answer Options Percent Count
Copenhagen (including suburbs) 82,0% 50
Sjælland/Sealand 4,9% 3
Jylland & Fyn/Jutland & Funen 11,5% 7
Other 1,6% 1
answered question 61
skipped question 0
P. 85/94
Dennis Faurbye
5. Do you practice cycling as a sport or training
Response Response Answer Options Percent Count
Yes, on a normal bike 21,3% 13
Yes, on a racing bike 19,7% 12
Yes, on a mountain bike 0,0% 0
No 59,0% 36
answered question 61
skipped question 0
6. Do you follow cycling, either on TV, through the news or on social media?
Response Response Answer Options Percent Count
No, not at all 34,4% 21
Certain events, for example Tour de France and Tour of 47,5% 29 Denmark
Several professional events throughout the season 13,1% 8
Both professional, amateur and local events 4,9% 3
answered question 61
skipped question 0
7. Do you pay any attention to brands or companies associated with cycling as sponsors of teams or events in Denmark?
Response Response Answer Options Percent Count
Yes 39,3% 24
No 49,2% 30
Don't know 11,5% 7
answered question 61
skipped question 0
P. 86/94
Dennis Faurbye
A survey on cycling
Please name any brands or companies, that you recall as being connected with cycling in Denmark
Answer Options Response Count
51
answered question 51
skipped question 10
Number Response Date Response Text
apr 10, 2016 6:25 1 PM Cult, Christina watches
apr 10, 2016 11:47 2 AM Can not think of any :(
apr 9, 2016 9:17 3 AM Saxo, Rynkeby, Fakta, Ravnkilde
Designa
Rynkeby apr 8, 2016 9:07 4 PM
apr 8, 2016 7:07 5 PM Rynkeby
apr 8, 2016 6:23 6 PM Saxo bank, cult
apr 8, 2016 4:22 7 PM Saxo bank
Saxo Bank
Easy-On � apr 8, 2016 4:05 8 PM Cult
apr 8, 2016 3:26 9 PM PostDanmark
apr 8, 2016 3:20 10 PM CSC, Saxo bank, Post Danmark, Rynkeby
Saxo Bank apr 8, 2016 2:43 11 PM Memory card
P. 87/94
Dennis Faurbye
Cult
apr 8, 2016 1:40 12 PM Kildemos
apr 7, 2016 6:05 13 PM Dont know
Shimano
Winther apr 7, 2016 3:56 14 PM Sco
apr 7, 2016 1:57 15 PM Post Danmark
apr 7, 2016 9:34 16 AM Shimano
Brands/companies which are not in the cycling business:
- Saxo Bank
- Meny
- Lapio apr 7, 2016 9:24 17 AM - KPMG
apr 7, 2016 9:24 Saxo Bank, Bioracer, Soigneur, Rynkeby, 18 AM Kildemoes, Post Danmark
apr 7, 2016 9:22 19 AM Can't name any
apr 7, 2016 9:06 20 AM Saxo bank, ryngeby, post Danmark,
apr 7, 2016 9:03 21 AM CSC, Saxo Bank, Post Danmark
apr 7, 2016 8:59 22 AM Don't recall any
apr 6, 2016 11:46 23 PM Saxo bank
apr 6, 2016 7:39 24 PM Saxobank, Redbull,
apr 6, 2016 7:31 25 PM Saxo, Cult, Novo
Tinkoff, tidligere Saxobank apr 6, 2016 7:24 26 PM Team Novo Nordisk
27 Saysky apr 6, 2016 7:01
P. 88/94
Dennis Faurbye
PM
apr 6, 2016 5:58 28 PM CSC
apr 6, 2016 5:49 Home, Jack & Jones, Christina Watches, 29 PM BlueWater, Cult, Saxo Bank
apr 6, 2016 4:36 30 PM Post Danmark
apr 6, 2016 4:02 31 PM Saxo bank, Cult, Designa, Post Danmark
apr 6, 2016 4:00 Home, jack&Jones, Saxo bank, rynkeby, 32 PM Christina Watches
Team Rynkeby apr 6, 2016 3:47 33 PM PostDanmark
apr 6, 2016 3:16 34 PM saxo
apr 6, 2016 2:31 35 PM Principia, Banani, Tornado, Centurion,
apr 6, 2016 2:29 36 PM Post Danmark
apr 6, 2016 2:23 Saxo Bank, Trefor, Designa, Blue Water, Cult, 37 PM Novo Nordisk, Post Danmark (Post Nord),
apr 6, 2016 2:15 38 PM Post Danmark
apr 6, 2016 1:49 39 PM Skoda, redbull post Danmark NCC
apr 6, 2016 1:44 40 PM CSC, Tisscali, Monster,
Post Danmark, TV2, DCU, UCI a bunch of cyclingbrands like Shimano, SRAM and stuff apr 6, 2016 1:33 like that, that always advertice at cycling 41 PM events.
apr 6, 2016 1:26 42 PM Post danmark
apr 6, 2016 1:25 43 PM Saxo bank, CSC
apr 6, 2016 1:15 44 PM ColoQuick, Saxo Bank, CSC
apr 6, 2016 1:08 45 PM Saxobank. Cult. Christina Watches.
46 CSC, Saxobank, Sky apr 6, 2016 1:07
P. 89/94
Dennis Faurbye
PM
apr 6, 2016 1:06 47 PM Ridley, Rotor, FFWD,
apr 6, 2016 12:47 48 PM Rynkeby
apr 6, 2016 10:05 49 AM Saxo Bank
apr 6, 2016 6:40 50 AM Rynkeby (very active on Facebook currently)
Soigneur
Trefor
Cult Energy apr 5, 2016 8:05 51 PM Post Danmark
A survey on cycling
Please name 3 or more words, you associate with cycling
Answer Options Response Count
56
answered question 56
skipped question 5
Number Response Date Response Text
1 apr 10, 2016 6:25 PM Armstrong, Sky, doping
Free
Fast
2 apr 10, 2016 11:47 AM Independent
Dyrt grej, doping, gode oplevelser, 3 apr 9, 2016 9:17 AM natur, søndag, Frankrig
Tour de france, mountainbike, 4 apr 8, 2016 10:57 PM transportation, importent for me
Peserverance
5 apr 8, 2016 9:07 PM Doping Scandals
P. 90/94
Dennis Faurbye
Bjarne Riis
6 apr 8, 2016 7:07 PM Transportation, cardio, accidents
7 apr 8, 2016 6:23 PM Unbelieveable, doping, teamsport
8 apr 8, 2016 6:21 PM Hårdt, mænd, varmt
9 apr 8, 2016 4:22 PM Bell helmet headwind
Summer, freedom, silence, short 10 apr 8, 2016 4:05 PM skirts
Doping
11 apr 8, 2016 3:26 PM Tour de France
12 apr 8, 2016 3:20 PM Farligt, cykelløb, doping
Doping
Passion
Lifestyle
Landscape
13 apr 8, 2016 2:43 PM Ekstreme
14 apr 8, 2016 1:40 PM Easy, freeing, cheap
15 apr 7, 2016 10:00 PM quick, easy, fun
Bjarne Riis
Tour de france
16 apr 7, 2016 6:05 PM Summer
Transport
Healthy
17 apr 7, 2016 3:56 PM Wind
18 apr 7, 2016 1:57 PM Tour de france, doping, mens sport
19 apr 7, 2016 9:34 AM Tour de France, endurance, doping
Nature
Exercise
20 apr 7, 2016 9:24 AM Social
Mountains, joy, community, speed, 21 apr 7, 2016 9:24 AM adrenaline
22 apr 7, 2016 9:22 AM road, drink, yellow (shirt)
P. 91/94
Dennis Faurbye
23 apr 7, 2016 9:06 AM Hard, races, shaved legs
24 apr 7, 2016 9:03 AM France, Crashes, Fresh air
25 apr 7, 2016 9:02 AM Ironman, Tour de france, spinning
Armstrong, Bjarne Riis and Tour de 26 apr 7, 2016 9:01 AM france
27 apr 7, 2016 8:59 AM Transport, easy, convenient
28 apr 6, 2016 11:46 PM boring, hard, stupid
29 apr 6, 2016 7:31 PM Race, social, training
Fun
Free
30 apr 6, 2016 7:24 PM Fredag air
Mountains
Doping
31 apr 6, 2016 7:01 PM Wheels
fun, speed, nature, sport, transportation, convinient, typical- 32 apr 6, 2016 5:58 PM danish
33 apr 6, 2016 5:49 PM Speed, eccentricity, doping
34 apr 6, 2016 4:36 PM Tdf, doping, bjerge
Training, elite, Doping, mountains, 35 apr 6, 2016 4:02 PM indurance
36 apr 6, 2016 4:00 PM Doping, endurance, male
Music (kraftwerk)
Legs
37 apr 6, 2016 3:47 PM Weather
38 apr 6, 2016 3:16 PM Doping, doping, doping
39 apr 6, 2016 2:31 PM Steel, Columbus, Fixie, Vintage,
40 apr 6, 2016 2:29 PM Tour de france
Tradition, passion, udholdenhed, 41 apr 6, 2016 2:23 PM doping, lirens
42 apr 6, 2016 2:15 PM fresh air, team work, landscapes
43 apr 6, 2016 1:49 PM Healthy - skinny - doping
44 apr 6, 2016 1:44 PM Copenhagen, fresh air, doping
P. 92/94
Dennis Faurbye
45 apr 6, 2016 1:33 PM Sport, lifestyle, class, fashion, races.
46 apr 6, 2016 1:26 PM Slanke mænd, doping og landevej
47 apr 6, 2016 1:25 PM Doping, too long,
endurance
style
48 apr 6, 2016 1:20 PM stort-telling
49 apr 6, 2016 1:15 PM Pleasure, health, relationships
Beautiful nature, illegal drugs 50 apr 6, 2016 1:08 PM unfortunately, high energy sport
51 apr 6, 2016 1:07 PM Tough, Bjarne Riis, Doping
52 apr 6, 2016 1:06 PM Shop owner - bike rider
53 apr 6, 2016 12:47 PM Summer, mountains, doping
54 apr 6, 2016 10:05 AM Doping, Competitiveness, Stamina
- Doping
- Hard-working
55 apr 6, 2016 6:40 AM - France
Professionalism
Health
56 apr 5, 2016 8:05 PM outdoor activity
10. Please rate these words/values on a scale of 1 to 5, in regards to how much you associate these with cycling.
5 - Rating Response Answer Options 1 - Low 2 3 4 High Average Count
Training 2 5 13 19 22 3,89 61
Health 1 3 15 29 13 3,82 61
Diet 11 16 13 15 5 2,78 60
Nature 4 3 13 28 13 3,70 61
Social activity 12 15 23 3 8 2,67 61
Professionalism 5 13 14 19 10 3,26 61
Dedication 1 11 9 18 21 3,78 60
Equipment/Gadgets 5 5 14 14 23 3,74 61
P. 93/94
Dennis Faurbye
Extreme sport 10 17 16 12 6 2,79 61
Popularity 2 12 23 19 4 3,18 60
Cheating 12 8 10 14 17 3,26 61
Doping 5 3 10 14 29 3,97 61
answered question 61
skipped question 0
Please rate these words/values on a scale of 1 to 5, in regards to how much you associate these with cycling.
Cheating Extreme sport Dedication Social activity Diet Training 0,00 1,00 2,00 3,00 4,00 5,00
P. 94/94