Companies looking to build brand awareness should also be willing
to stick with an event for a while. Michael McLaughlin, a principal
at Deloitte Consulting LLP and
author of Guerrilla Marketing for
Consultants, says companies should sponsor events on a recurring
basis. "One-time sponsorship is not a good use of money because it
doesn't do anything to bond your targeted consumers with your
brand," says McLaughlin, who generally is skeptical about the value
of sports sponsorships. An exception for him is the Mercedes
Championships golf tournament in Maui.
McLaughlin believes this tournament is effective for Mercedes-Benz
because the sponsorship is part of a wider marketing campaign; it's
not just sponsorship for its own sake. "They advertise it broadly,"
he says. "You'll see it in print and TV, and if you go to the
event, you'll see Mercedes everywhere. You're getting more than
just a sponsorship event; you're getting a Mercedes event as well.
They get a terrific amount of exposure from it."
The Kobe Factor
Any discussion of sports sponsorships these days eventually
includes mention of
Kobe Bryant. The L.A. Lakers' star player once
was regarded as a corporate marketer's dream. Talented and
charismatic, he might have been the natural successor to Michael
Jordan as most-coveted pitchman. Then, of course, he faced criminal
charges. Though the charges eventually were dropped (a civil case
is still pending), Bryant's highly publicized legal troubles had a
ripple effect on his endorsement business. Once ubiquitous in
McDonald's, Sprite, and Adidas TV ads, the
basketball court is
almost the only place Bryant can be seen these days.
Sports marketers so often mention Bryant because he is an obvious
example of the dangers of closely associating a brand with a player
or team. As Loring Barnes of Clarity Communications puts it, "mud
transfers." The examples are everywhere: the
Indiana Pacers leaping
into the stands to fight with fans, for instance, or baseball's
ongoing steroids scandal.