Can you tell where it is yet?

Twenty life-sized kangaroo statues appear overnight in landmark locations in London this week, as part of an initiative to promote Kangaroo Island and South Australia. Liquid created the designs for two of the Kangaroos sponsored by Qantas. We are sworn to secrecy as to their locations but you might see a few clues in the photos.

Great British Summer comes to London

This week 3 caravans roll into Land Securities locations across London to launch “The Great British Summer” – a video installation created by The Liquid Way. Live sport including Wimbledon and the Ashes will be on show on the big screens until the end of July.

Maximuscle Harnesses The Lions

Having worked with Budweiser for many years, helping the global beer brand harness sport to drive sales, I was fascinated to read about Maximuscle signing a deal with the British & Irish Lions.

There are two essential elements to a successful sport sponsorship… First you have to identify and sign the right property.  Then you need then to work the hell out of it. Maximuscle has got the first bit right – the Lions Tour is one of those events that transcends sport and actually becomes more about national pride.  OK, it doesn’t quite have the mass-appeal of a World Cup or even the Six Nations, but it will capture the imagination of a broad spectrum of sports fans, male and female, over and above rugby die-hards.  Likewise the association with such elite athletes delivers huge product credibility – if it’s good enough to feed to Lions, it’s good enough for me.

But how do you translate this feel-good factor into cold, hard sales?

It’s not so easy for Maximuscle because its products require explanation.  This campaign can’t just be about return-on-investment from an equivalent ad spend point of view.  It doesn’t matter how many people see the brand name – if they don’t understand the product benefits or feel their relevance, they simply won’t buy.  The campaign needs to be about education and return-on-involvement – getting in amongst the target audience, explaining the benefits, passing on nuggets of information that will fuel word-of-mouth.   It needs to be much more sophisticated than field marketing or sampling because, on the surface, some of the products appear to be for Muscle-Heads and Gym-Bunnies.  In fact they have a much broader appeal.  Viper, for example, could be used by surfers, golfers, tennis players… the list is endless.  The trick is to make the products, and the Lions sponsorship, relevant to all sportspeople – no matter what their discipline.

Using experiential activity is a great option, allowing the brand to infiltrate the worlds of its multiple target audiences and spend one-on-one time with the individuals within them.  While this activity won’t deliver huge eyeball numbers (remember, it’s not about old-fashioned ROI), the beauty of clever, integrated experiential activity when used within sport is that each discipline has a community within which a good product reputation spreads like wildfire.  Interact with a small number of individuals on the ground and they become valuable brand-ambassadors in their own right, delivering incredibly powerful peer-to-peer marketing.

But don’t stop there….  The best experiential campaigns are integrated and work because those first, precious, permission-based dialogues between brand and consumer develop into meaningful long-term relationships.   Digital, as part of the programme, is a great asset because it so easily facilitates personalised communication.   Bespoke messaging to heighten the relevance of the product, within the context of a truly holistic campaign, creates an almost irresistible impact.

The Lions are icons of sporting prowess – men at the top of their game.  And while not everyone dreams of being a Lion, most of us admire their strength and power. Harnessing this aspiration and applying it to a variety of sports will ensure the sponsorship reaches as broad an audience as possible, and ultimately drives sales.

Posted by Jacqui