The Rugby World Cup 2015 And England’s Early Exit - Immediate Impact And Wider Implications For Sponsorship

The UK Sponsorship Awards asked Rupert Pratt, Managing Director & Co-Founder of Generate Sponsorship for his thoughts on what now for England sponsors and sponsorship in general post England’s defeat.  We would like to hear from you too - send your views to info@sponsorship-awards.co.uk

The RFU was counting on a good performance to ensure an uplift in interest and participation in the sport as well as increased commercial investment. England Rugby sponsors are likely to drop their leverage around the tournament and possibly down weight any increased sponsorship activation plans for 2016 and beyond.

A good England result would have also brought new sponsors looking to capitalise on a surge of interest in the sport.  That said, it’s not a disaster because there will be a positive uplift -  it’s more of a missed opportunity to significantly grow the game on and off the pitch. But you can’t control everything and that’s what makes sport so exciting.

The biggest impact will be on ITV but and indeed the press who would have been counting on the bandwagon advertisers seeking to capitalise on the increased interest as the England team progressed.

But what about the wider implications?

Firstly this is a very important tournament for World Rugby, the organiser of the Rugby World Cup, who tends to alternate the tournament between the more commercially lucrative European Nations and either the Southern Hemisphere Nations or developing nations. This balances out the increased broadcast, ticketing, hospitality and potential sponsorship income with the requirement of developing the sport globally (which will in turn increase the commercial appeal!)

Therefore, it has been interesting that the level of sponsorship involvement and activation has been lower than I would have anticipated with no new major sponsors coming into the tournament and those activating heavily above and below line around it restricted to official sponsors, O2 the official England Team sponsor and a flood of betting companies.

Interestingly, the perceived lack of big mainstream traditional ATL activation has been replaced by very targeted and tactical digital campaigns. Therefore, the perception that there is less commercial activity isn't the necessarily the case.

What does this tell us about the state of the sponsorship industry?

Firstly, is the investment in major, high profile and global rights becoming less attractive? Whilst global sponsorship investment continues to increase,  it’s potentially because fewer companies are investing more money in higher profile rights. Most of the newer major businesses on the block have a digital or online business model with no traditional marketing legacy. Do they perceive sponsorship as expensive and hard work? Or inefficient and ineffective compared to their normal highly targeted, tangible and digital campaigns?

Secondly, the activation of sponsorship has clearly shifted. The traditional approach of buying up major media 'real estate' and brand experiences is increasingly being seen as expensive, untargeted and intangible against highly targeted, direct and trackable digital activation.

In additional to this, companies are shying away from the major sponsorship investments and focusing on tactical more cost effective investments that they can leverage digitally. Beats being a good example across both London 2012 and this Rugby World Cup.

How will sponsorship evolve?

Sponsorship does need to evolve, but interestingly it needs to go back to what it does best -  which is delivering emotive engagement with 'fans' and experiences for customers that no other marketing medium can, whether that be the opportunity to meet your heroes or get closer to the action than anyone else. Turning fans into customers and customers into fans (of your brand). These are genuinely unique experiences and exclusive content that can all be activated in a targeted and cost effective way.

From a digital activation perspective – when you are paying by results it’s easy to pull your campaign back!