Sponsorship Symposium: Sports Marketers Face Mounting Pressure

Clement Discusses Reasoning Behind Aon's Four-Year, $100M Deal With ManU

Chief marketers face greater pressures to justify sponsorship spending in the current economic climate than at any other time in recent history, a group of panelists said yesterday at the SBJ/SBD Relay Worldwide Sports Sponsorship Symposium during a discussion titled "The New Realities of Marketing: The Chief Marketers' Perspective.” The recession has put marketing budgets under the microscope and inspired marketers to emphasize immediate returns on investment. Xerox VP/Marketing & Communications Christa Carone said, “We're in a position where we need to defend our spend more than we have in the past.” She added those pressures caused Xerox to pull back on its golf spending and make handling the Mets' back-office operations a key component of its partnership with the MLB team. Carone said, “It wasn't just a logo slap if you will, (and) the business end of it has been great. The Mets are a total Xerox team, true to their word.” Just as market pressures forced Xerox to reevaluate spending, it opened insurance giant Aon Corp.'s eyes to the opportunities of sports sponsorship, said Philip Clement, Aon's Global Chief Marketing & Communications Officer. At a time when other sports sponsors like banks and automotive companies were pulling back in June, Aon cut a four-year, $100M deal to be the jersey sponsor of Manchester United. The company will use the sponsorship for sales incentive contests and lead generation programs. Clement added, “The idea was to unify the company and give our executive teams and employees a common topic to talk about. We've launched a campaign called 'United in 2010' about bringing our firm together, and that really appealed to our board.”

RAISING THE STAKES: The pressures to justify spending have placed an added importance on return on investment for sponsors, but marketers said they have seen no new ROI technology designed to address that challenge. Sharp Electronics Senior VP & Chief Strategy Officer Stewart Mitchell said, “It's really on us. That's why you have to look at it from so many different angles. If you can't rationalize or tie it to very hard business goals, budgets are going to disappear over night.” Carone said that the lack of new ROI tools means a lot of sponsorship decisions still come down to a “gut check.” She added, “Frankly, that's where we got with golf. When I looked at how we expanded our audience base, it just wasn't relevant anymore. Did I have an exact analysis? No. But in my gut, I felt that was the case.”