eL clubs value for money ??

[A face]

What do you think lads ??

Are eL clubs value for money for sponsors ??
Is it worth in vesting in Irish clubs on the move ??
Could eL clubs be getting better deals with sponsors than thy are getting at the moment ??

[exile]

thats a tough question and you would probably need a degree in marketing to answer it with clincal honesty ,i think there are to many variables involved.
i.e how many times are the sponsors going to be seen on tv how many fans are going to matches to see the sponsors how well the team does, if you go by these then overall no
but then their is the cachement area of your team and how many people in your locality will be aware of your sponsors and how much they are in local media. if you go by this then nissan have a good deal with city and as do shels with j.w hire, so it varies team by team.
How many clubs have manged to get sponsorship from a major international brand in recent years 2, city with nissan and drogs with o2(not sure what happened there)
if you go by these then the answer no
the question unfortunatly raises more questions than answers

[OneRedArmy]

I would agree that history would probably say that sponsorship hasn't been good value for money, or possibly more accurately, nobody knows if its good value, as it hasn't been targeted or measured for value.

Historically a lot of EL sponsorship has been of the "favour" variety with fans who are also influential in businesses basically donating money from the company by way of sponsorship, without much expectation of any reward or positive financial benefit. Alternatively large multi-national companies may sponsor a local team to show that they are "putting something back" into the local community. In neither of these cases are the sponsors necessarily expecting a financial return.

Compare this with Premiership and other highly visible leagues where sponsorship will invariably be based on a cold financial value-for-money decision.

Whilst this type of market-focused sponsorship may result in increased deals for certain clubs (probably the bigger and more successful ones), a lot of clubs almost certainly would have folded in the past if it weren't for the small local sponsors who as fans of the clubs kept giving money regardless of whether they felt they were getting any return.

If sponsorship and marketing opportunities are to develop for EL clubs sponsors will certainly be demanding more than a logo on a shirt or a ad in the programme. Expect more demands on full-players time (appearances etc.), access to club member databases to tie into loyalty programmes etc.

[Ringo]

anyone hnow exactly what sponsors vare paying?

[kevincronin2000]

Just out of interest a Dublin tool hire company is not going to get much value for there sponsorship when there jersey gets displayed in Cork, Derry or La Coruna, But on the other hand you can buy a nissan in all of the above mentioned places.

It is also intersting to see that no mobile phone company is sponsoring an eircom league club or is this allowed as I remember a few years ago when it was the Bord Gais loi, saint pats had a bit of bother when there shirt sponsors where Bord na Mona.

I know the drogs had o2 for a while

[bohs til i die]

Just out of interest a Dublin tool hire company is not going to get much value for there sponsorship when there jersey gets displayed in Cork, Derry or La Coruna, But on the other hand you can buy a nissan in all of the above mentioned places.

Yes, but that tool hire company would have got a lot of exposure when Shels played Deportivo [Twice], Lille [twice] and Hajduk Split [once] on LIVE TV. When Shels beat Split, the papers were full of Shels for weeks. How many times did a Shels fan appear in the Star with a jersey with JW Hire on it. Thats exposure for JW Hire for free basically.

Companies dont necessarily sign up because they get a few free tickets to a game and a few ad boards, its TV/Newspaper exposure that they want, and in this case, very much are getting.

[A face]

I dunno ... i think you could exclude the exposure on TV as it doesn't amount t very much being honest. Infact you could look as eL clubs are deprived of TV coverage when attracting sponsorship ..... i mean it would be a whole lot easier and probably better deals would be sought and got with the added bonus of TV coverage.

It is the coverage on the paper that is more frequent and surely more successful for sponsors as regards an end product for them.

My fear is that eL clubs would be selling themselves short or that in some cases, they are not giving good coverage / service to the sponsors that they have.

[OneRedArmy]

Companies dont necessarily sign up because they get a few free tickets to a game and a few ad boards, its TV/Newspaper exposure that they want, and in this case, very much are getting.

Historically last season was very much the exception rather than the rule as regards live tv coverage. If you've been sponsoring EL teams and expecting tv coverage in return you'd have long ago got disillusioned.

It may change going forward, but as said above, if its tv exposure you're after, a sponsor selling to consumers and operating on a national basis (as opposed to a Dublin tool hire company) would pay more money as they'd get more benefit out of it.

I still believe most EL sponsorship isn't from a commercial basis.

[Schumi]

How many clubs have manged to get sponsorship from a major international brand in recent years 2, city with nissan and drogs with o2(not sure what happened there)

Budweiser is a major international brand.

[bohs til i die]

I dunno ... i think you could exclude the exposure on TV as it doesn't amount t very much being honest. Infact you could look as eL clubs are deprived of TV coverage when attracting sponsorship ..... i mean it would be a whole lot easier and probably better deals would be sought and got with the added bonus of TV coverage.

It is the coverage on the paper that is more frequent and surely more successful for sponsors as regards an end product for them.

My fear is that eL clubs would be selling themselves short or that in some cases, they are not giving good coverage / service to the sponsors that they have.

but how much would to cost to get the guts of 2 hours exposure once, never mind FIVE times [add in Shels games away to Cork and Pats which were shown LIVE]. Every week there is pictures from matches in the newspapers, thats advertising basically.

A lot of sponsors are local business relative to the EL grounds they are in, but jersey sponsorship is a very different. When Bohs played Aberdeen away in August 2000, Trevor Molloy was pictured in every newspaper sliding towards the Bohs fans. The middle of that jersey was empty as Adecco were still to be convinced it was a worthy investment.

Look at the positioning of Leo Burdocks in Dalymount, ideal for TV exposure.

[dcfcsteve]

Believe it or not, the majority of companies involved in shirt sponsorship aren't themselves 100% clear on why they're doing it from a strategic point of view. A lot of companies - particularly big national/international ones like drinks firms - seem to think they just need to be associated with football, without any rational impact-assessment to determine whether or not it is paying-out.

Advertising activities deliver 2 key benefits to brands - increased awareness and/or influencing consumer behaviour. By its very nature, sponsorship really only contributes to the 1st of these (brand awareness), as it is not a format in which you can convey any messages other than your brand name. The classic example of this was Green Flag in football, who went from zero brand recognition to being up there with the AA and the RAC purely on the basis of their short-term involvement with the English International team. Another good example would be Reg Vardy with Sunderland and CR Smith - a Glasgow-based firm who gained national awareness purely from sponsoring Celtic. Apart from Brand Awareness, football sponsorship as an advertising/Marketing medium does not in itself influence buying behaviour (except perhaps amongst a tiny handful of die-hard fans). How many people in Cork are seriously going to buy a Nissan over any other vehicle purely because they saw the brand's name on a CCFC football shirt ? Jokes aside - what does having Nissan on Cork's shirt tell you about the brand and its products ? Nothing.

As someone who spent 7yrs working in the Marketing industry for major global brands/companies, I fail to see what genuine benefit large extablished national/international companies like Nissan, Smithwicks, o2, Autoglass etc etc get/have got from shirt sponsorship. This also goes for a lot of sponsorhsips in England/Scotland. All these brands were well-known before hand, so didn't need their profile raised.

Where it does work is where there's a clear connection between the football team and the product concerned - e.g. Umbro sponsoring Celtic whilst providing all their kit. If Coca-Cola were to sponsor Man U and stitch-up supply of soft-drinks to Old Trafford off the back of it, then that would also be another example, although these types of things can happen completely separately from shirt sponsorship.

In short - basic football sponsorship is a waste of Marketing money for any established firms.

[pete]

There was discussion about sponsorship on the radio on sunday which i only caught the tail end of.

They said that sponsorship in Ireland now at €70-75m so i suppose that includes sports, arts, community programs etc...

Had professional on saying companies need to decide what they want out of the sponsorship which is often brand recognition. I think he was suuggesting best sponsorships are when linked to event - i suppose he meant if you say the official beer of team & can only get that at their ground that you'll assciate good times (probably depends on team ) & buy that brand at other times...

Anyone want to guess total eL sponsorship take per season...? 3m?

[A face]

Anyone want to guess total eL sponsorship take per season...? 3m?

Jebus ... that is a horrible question but is very good at highlighting one of the glaring faults with the league and its clubs.

3m .... that is very low though and if that was the figure then you'd have to wonder how they all do it ??

[CollegeTillIDie]

It would depend on what sort of TV and Press coverage the EL clubs get from here on in. Those involved in the Setanta Cup represent good value at the moment. But I believe they have their shirt sponsorship deals sewn up.

However the naming rights to Tolka Park while Shels are still there is another thing!

[A face]

I believe they have their shirt sponsorship deals sewn up.

Boom boom !!

[Slash/ED]

It really depends, as Bohs till I die said JW Hire got more than their moneys worth last year. Their brand name covered every paper in the country for around a week or two and they were on TV around ten times, with some massive ratings for some of these matches. While that amount of coverage is not the norm Shels and others should be on TV a few times again next year between the Setanta cup and hopefully better coverage of the league, for big games there'll be more pictures in the paper of either fans or players, or both, with the logo clearly displayed. If there's another big European result it'll be the same exposure again, I bet Dulux are kicking themselves.

[dcfcsteve]

It really depends, as Bohs till I die said JW Hire got more than their moneys worth last year. Their brand name covered every paper in the country for around a week or two and they were on TV around ten times, with some massive ratings for some of these matches. While that amount of coverage is not the norm Shels and others should be on TV a few times again next year between the Setanta cup and hopefully better coverage of the league, for big games there'll be more pictures in the paper of either fans or players, or both, with the logo clearly displayed. If there's another big European result it'll be the same exposure again, I bet Dulux are kicking themselves.

No Dulux won't, and you're missing the point here.

Dulux are a well established brand with huge levels of brand-recognition across Ireland already. They simply don't need to spend money on awareness-raising activities like football shirt sponsorship, as it won't deliver any additional benefit to them.

And seeing the name of an already well-known company on a football shirt a few times a season on TV or in the papers isn't gonna make you suddenly want to buy Dulux paint - even if you were in the market for paint at that particular time anyway. Without any associated message about the product (e.g. "we're the cheapest/best/widest range of colours etc etc") no-one will buy an already well-known brand purely because they see it's name. Nothing short of hypnotism would have that effect !

So if Dulux are kicking themselves, it's probably in recognition that they should've thought-through a bit better why they were looking at football sponsorship in the first place !

[Slash/ED]

No Dulux won't, and you're missing the point here.

Dulux are a well established brand with huge levels of brand-recognition across Ireland already. They simply don't need to spend money on awareness-raising activities like football shirt sponsorship, as it won't deliver any additional benefit to them.

And seeing the name of an already well-known company on a football shirt a few times a season on TV or in the papers isn't gonna make you suddenly want to buy Dulux paint - even if you were in the market for paint at that particular time anyway. Without any associated message about the product (e.g. "we're the cheapest/best/widest range of colours etc etc") no-one will buy an already well-known brand purely because they see it's name. Nothing short of hypnotism would have that effect !

So if Dulux are kicking themselves, it's probably in recognition that they should've thought-through a bit better why they were looking at football sponsorship in the first place !

But it's exposure, okay so Dulux didn't really need it which is a fair point but JW Hire got massive exposure for not alot of money compared to the coverage their brand name got. It may not have had any kind of slogan or whatever but people everywhere are not at least aware of the company, which wasn't the case before. When people see their name against aload of other names in the same industry that they don't know the fact that they know the name JW Hire from the exposure through Shels would help them alot, if you see what I mean. Constant exposure of a brand name has an effect on people even if it's just the name on it's own and it's only a small effect.

[dcfcsteve]

JW Hire is a great example of where football shirt sponsorship works/makes sense.

I agree with you on the need for all established brands to keep themselves in the limelight in order to maintain high levels of recognition, but would argue strongly that it was money wasted for Dulux to use Irish football for this. They have enough ads on TV and a dominant in-store presence in key paint retailers to ensure they're never far from any paint purchasing decision anyway. Dulux also have one of the world's most ingenius brand symbols as well - every time you see an Old English Sheepdog, you instantly thing of the brand.

I do hope Smithwicks reps don't read this website...

[Xlex]

a little experiment.

P.M me the answer....

Give me the name and business of each eL teams sponsor.

I'll post the results on Friday.

Be honest with it.