TENNIS
Andy Murray (above) and Laura Robson (below) highlight British Tennis success. (Insert) Jayne Pozio
Our most recent series of research showed that 60 per cent of tennis enthusiasts would consider AEGON products
Brothers collapsed. If we had tried to do this a year later I’m sure it would have been much tougher. Although, that said, we’re very confident about our product and the benefit we can offer to spon- sors,” he says. The new British Tennis commercial
package is like a pyramid, with AEGON as the lead partner. BNP Paribas and High- land Spring (Andy Murray’s sponsor), are the two supporters and benefit from branding and hospitality at the Queen’s Club Tournament. Nike, Intercontinental
Hotel Group and Lucozade are official suppliers and also have rights.
BRAND ASSOCIATION
Although the financial details of the sponsorship deal have not been publicly disclosed, it is believed to be worth in the region of £25m – the biggest deal in tennis history. This funding offers a huge benefit to the sport, but what does the sponsor get for this level of investment? According to Ponzio it was definitely
money well spent. “We needed to iden- tify a property which would appeal to our target market of 45- to 60-year-olds, and there were some specific sports we knew this age group were interested in,” she explains. “We moved fast when we heard the LTA was changing its sponsor- ship strategy because we knew there would be other interested brands. The deal was signed just four weeks after the negotiations began.” It isn’t just getting the name out there
which has been of benefit to AEGON. The association with tennis, especially at grassroots level is good for the com- pany’s image. “We wanted to get the
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point across that we were a brand that could be trusted and so our involvement with tennis at grassroots level helps this. There’s the warm feeling in help- ing people and drawing talent through the system,” says Ponzio. “It has cer- tainly helped in getting higher levels of awareness for our brand, because the tennis enthusiast is a mirror image of our target market. Our most recent series of research showed that 60 per cent of tennis enthusiasts would now consider AEGON products.” In sports sponsorship, this brand as-
sociation is just as important as the financial underpinning and is partly what makes sponsorship such a power- ful tool. According to Karen Earl, chair of Synergy Sponsorship and chair of the European Sponsorship Association, when positioned in the right deal, the sponsor will use its marketing muscle to help promote the sport: “Getting the right brand, or company, to associate with your sport and then joining forces in terms of who you want to market to, how you want to market and using a lot of their marketing expertise and their
Issue 2 2010 © cybertrek 2010
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