Sponsoring and the role of the website

26 jun 2008

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The months during which the great sports events take place are already underway. Euro 2008 and Wimbledon are in full swing and the Olympic Games are just around the corner. Such events are usually sponsored by large corporations. For this purpose, a variety of communication channels are deployed to convey the sponsor’s message. Internet plays an increasingly important role in this respect. But how are the sponsoring activities communicated online? Is it just a matter of branding or do they also explain the idea behind the sponsoring?

Online branding

The possibilities offered by the internet are exceptionally well suited for creating brand experience and feeling. Sponsors of sports events make use of this opportunity to varying degrees:

Atos Origin restricts itself to a photo and text on the homepage, from which it can be concluded that the company is involved in the organization of IT support for the Olympic Games.
IBM’s homepage is much more elaborate in showing what sort of services the company provides for the four grand slam tennis tournaments.

IBM as partner of the world’s greatest tennis tournaments

Carlsberg, on the other hand, has created a separate website, entirely devoted to sponsoring the Euro 2008 championships. Multimedia content such as games, downloadable ring tones and match schedules have to contribute to generating maximum brand experience for this beer brand.

Carlsberg’s Euro 2008 website

Communication of the sponsoring policy

For some visitors to the corporate website, however, it is also relevant to know why a company sponsors a certain event. An investor, for example, would like to know exactly why Carlsberg has opted for sponsoring Euro 2008, since this concerns an investment of millions. In addition, it is interesting to know what kind of results the sponsoring activities will ultimately yield. This information is frequently omitted.

In the case of the IBM and Atos Origin sponsoring messages, the question of relevance will hardly require extra explanation. The online sponsoring message itself makes the relevance self-evident: IBM provides the IT services for the tennis tournaments. The same applies to Atos Origin, but then for the Olympic Games.

In the case of Carlsberg’s sponsoring of Euro 2008, this link will perhaps not be made as quickly. Another similar example is ING, which sponsors Formula 1 racing. At first sight, one might assume that a financial services provider would not want to be associated with a risky sport. However, both companies explain in great detail on their websites the thought behind their choices.

Why does Carlsberg sponsor Euro 2008?

ING’s explanation and the results of sponsoring Formula 1

The above example shows that sponsoring Formula 1 has resulted in a 25% increase in clients’ positive attitude towards ING. Moreover, 29% of non-clients expressed their intention to do business with ING. Those are interesting facts for investors.

Conclusion

The internet is exceptionally well suited for communicating messages by sponsors. Corporations make ample use of this opportunity on their websites. Some of the sponsors’ messages provide a direct answer to the question of why this particular event was chosen. If this explanation is not entirely obvious, it is advisable to provide explanatory information on the corporate website.

One should realize that financial stakeholders are also interested in the underlying reasons and the concrete results of sponsoring. Here, too, the corporate website is an excellent communication channel.