Sports marketing is dull and ‘stuck in the 70s’, says Iris as agency launches new division
Nico Tuppen: Fans want more creative, provocative and challenging campaigns
Creative agency Iris has revealed plans to open a dedicated sports marketing division after launching a withering attack on the sector which it claimed was out of touch with modern trends and stuck in the “dark ages”.
Sports marketing simply has not moved on in 40 years, Iris Sports managing director Nico Tuppen said, with many brands and sporting properties still too focused on traditional media.
Today’s sports fans are “bored” of the current marketing efforts which belong in the 1970s rather than 2016, he said.
The savage criticisms came as Iris said dedicated teams are in place in Singapore, Sydney and Amsterdam to bring what it claimed would be a new approach to sports marketing.
It will look to “harness the power of passion, provocation and participation” to create meaningful, two-way conversations between fans and brands, it said.
The agency, which lists Adidas as among its global clients, described its condemnation of the current state of sports marketing as an “uncomfortable truth”.
It suggested brands and sports properties are still hooked on traditional media and favouring “Chairman’s Choice, rather than real innovation”.
They are also failing to evaluate whether their marketing efforts or assets are driving any business or brand value.
“Sports Marketing is still stuck in a 1970’s world. It’s still middle-aged men talking about passion and glory, trying hard, and the joy of being a fan,” he said. “A whole new generation of male and female sports lovers is bored of this. They want sport to be colourful, diverse, entertaining, social.”
Fans have changed, as have the channels they access and operate in, he said.
“It’s more than being passionate about the game or displaying loyalty to a team. We believe it’s as much about culture as it is about sport – and should resonate with what we describe as the ‘Slash Generation’; an audience that wants brands, assets and campaigns to be more creative, more provocative and more challenging.”
Iris said its sports marketing teams have backgrounds in sport, lifestyle and entertainment. They will also work closely with its consulting, CRM, data and insight team, Iris Concise, to “add commercial rigour across all activity”.
That will involve identifying the right partnership or influencer, evaluating the activity and proving its worth, the agency said.
“This means better performance from sponsored assets, better real time analysis of the activity and better integration of campaign metrics from the start.”
Tuppen added: “This is where the real difference and benefit for clients lies. Our approach with iris Sport actually understands the real commercial return of sports marketing.”
The agency was recently been behind the All Blacks Force Of Black activations for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and opened the digital Ferrari garage to F1 fans with Shell.
Other work in sport includes Step Inside with Johnnie Walker in Singapore.
Steve Jones is regular contributor to Mumbrella in Australia and Asia having held the title of chief reporter for several years. He is a journalist with more than 30 years experience and has worked for a number of consumer and trade titles in the UK and Australia
I certainly wouldn’t describe the above johnny walker video from Iris as being creative, provocative and challenging…in fact, just the opposite.
Guess we can put this down to the sheer hyperbole that all agencies just cannot stay away from….
Having said that, I will agree that the current HSBC Golf and Rugby Sevens marketing has been tragic.
ReplyWonder if they will slave away this team like they do the rest of the staff.
ReplyWhether or not they deliver on the promise, the points are extremely valid. It’s all broadcast, OOH, print, spokesmanship, licensing… There is a whole landscape out there that has not been tapped by the sports marketing world.
It’s about fan engagement now. With twitter, fans are used to a direct line into celebrities. Getting contact. Successful campaigns that actually drive behavior change and transfer fan passion to brand passion should involve interactivity. And that doesn;t mean just digital interactive, but ways fans can get involved, “in the game,” if you will. Millennial Consumers don;t want to ride the bench, they want to have their say. Papa John’s has way more brand recognition thanks to Peyton, so you cannot totally discount traditional media, but for smaller buys there will be way more power for the budget in activations that get fans to be a part of something bigger than them, to have a voice in the activation, and be a part of something that connects them to other fans, other consumers and the athletes that figurehead the campaign.
Replywouldn’t it be great if agencies could for once back up their big talk with some real examples. I honestly can’t see how the above Guinness/adidas ad and the dull F1 piece are in any way taking us out of the dark ages.
Oh, they mentioned ‘real time’ and ‘integrated’. Must be progressive after all
ReplyIt’s the number one trick in the self promotion book….elevate yourself by saying that everyone else is substandard and unworthy…reeks of dishonesty and Im not sure who such people think theyre kidding.
One great example of such disingenuous chatter comes from the commentator at 3.49am. Talking about Twitter and fan engagement, like he’s just discovered it. The currently running Cricket T20 world cup is already using twitter to get fans to ask the captain of the winning team questions at the post match conference…
Since it seems fashionable to do so, I might also postulate that ALL digital advertising, too, is garbage….it is stuck in exactly the same place that advertising was before bill bernbach etc came and rescued it.
ReplyJesus, seriously?! Nico Tuppen clearly needs to get out more. It’s hilarious that Iris is calling best practice sponsorship – which is happening all over the world – a “new approach”. And as for “chairman’s choice”, while it does still happen in isolated cases, the Global Financial Crisis all but put an end to that type of unaccountable sponsorship. Of course there are a few dinosaurs still around, but just because you say something is a “new approach” doesn’t mean it is. But, I guess saying something that is controversial, yet patently untrue, is a good way to get media coverage. Too bad for them that the industry sees through this BS.
ReplyWhen are people going to get it. Why sponsor anything unless you can point right back to sales. Tweets and digital are trending so high it’s redicoulas. Measure it with sales, Bloring or not SALES.. If you create sale in a big way it can’t help but to be any thing but fun and creative. Anyway who cares if it boating as long as the sales spike above and beyond a like period.
ReplySorry, @Michael Croghan, but short-term sales-thinking went out with second gen sponsorship, and putting it in all caps doesn’t make it right. That’s not to say that it’s not part of the equation, but only part.
You are right in saying it’s not about mechanisms (likes, follows, shares, etc), but just like sponsorship is vastly multifaceted, so are the objectives it achieves.
Best practice is all about hooking sponsorship back into overall marketing objectives – changing target market perceptions, and changing target market behaviours. These can include increasing preference, affinity, alignment, trial, loyalty, advocacy, understanding of brand attributes, staff pride, and many other measurable, accountable brand objectives.
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