Thai Athletes May Launch New Era of Sports Marketing. - Bangkok Post (Bangkok, Thailand)

Byline: Nondhanada Intarakomalyasut

Jun. 21--Thailand's top sports personalities could lead the country into a new era of marketing as the combination of their talent, dedication, determination and accomplishments could be used to help boost the images of brands.

In the past, most brand presenters were actors and models as heart-stopping good looks were the main attributes required.

But with the emergence of world-class athletes like tennis ace Paradorn Srichaphan, the country's marketing industry is about to follow a similar trend to that seen in the West where sports figures are seen promoting products from soft drinks to chequing accounts and investments.

According to David McConnell, senior international vice-president of IMG, a US-based leading sports and entertainment marketing firm which represents some of the world's most prominent athletes like golfer Tiger Woods and tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, the value of sports marketing and events in Thailand is likely to jump by 30 percent in the next few years.

He said the growth would be driven by the increasing number of Thai athletes who have the potential to become world-class sports stars.

The upcoming Olympic Games in Athens later this year would further boost the sports marketing industry as the event might end up creating new local heroes.

Mr McConnell said that a new brand's credibility would be enhanced immediately by being associated with an established sports star or world-class sporting event.

However, he noted that a key aspect in sports marketing was linking the right brands with athletes which entails understanding consumer behaviour and what motivates a targeted market segment to purchase particular goods and services.

Currently, IMG's subsidiary, IMG Services (Thailand) is representing rising golf star Virada Nirapathpongporn, who was recently signed as a presenter for Bank of Ayudhaya.

Sports marketing is also seen as tool for recruiting future customers as it uses sports personalities as role models for children and teenagers.

'I think sports marketing can become a traditional type of marketing in Thailand. I don't want it to just come and go,' Mr McConnell said.

He applauded the plan by Beer Thai (1991) to advertise its Chang Beer brand on the jerseys of Everton, an English Premier League soccer team as a very good marketing strategy.

'It can be a powerful tool for both parties as the English Premier League has huge followers in Thailand and Everton has a world-class athlete like Wayne Rooney,' he said.

But when asked to comment on the government's attempt to acquire Liverpool, another English Premier League club, he said the government needed to explain to the general public how this huge investment would benefit the country and its citizens.

'In the football industry, few clubs are financially successful as the transfer fee for players has escalated so high. I don't think shares of a football club are blue chips,' he said.

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Crying foul: scholars examine the consequences of sports marketing.(Arthur Ashe Jr. SPORTS SCHOLARS 2005) - Black Issues in Higher Education

In recent years, scholars have increasingly joined with activists to challenge marketing aimed at children. It is a widely accepted belief that marketers have sold unhealthy foods as well as questionable toys and games, to the detriment of American children. Motivated by declining measures of child well-being, such as heightened obesity rates, increased anxiety and stress levels and decreased exercise levels, some scholars have become outspoken opponents of commercialism in the lives of children.

In addition to criticizing food, toy and game marketing, scholars have questioned the marketing of sports apparel and athletic shoes. Long before the childhood obesity issue began to gain traction as a public health issue, the marketing of athletic shoes to inner-city youth had already dramatized the perils of unbridled consumerism. Starting in the 1980s, reports of violence with teens assaulting other teens over shoes and clothes revealed the alarming degree to which coveted brands provoked destructive behavior.

'I remember during the mid- to late eighties there were a lot of media reports of youths assaulting one another, stealing from others ... when the very expensive sneakers came to be marketed. That's what caught my attention, and I was just baffled by this kind of phenomena,' says Dr. Velma LaPoint, a professor of human development in the school of education at Howard University in Washington.

'(My colleagues and I) began to review the literature and there was virtually nothing there that related to this kind of phenomena,' she adds.

LaPoint says the athletic shoe obsession among Black youths represented part of a larger trend that extended to athletic apparel and designer label clothes. Concern over the larger trend pushed LaPoint and her colleagues to study how the requirement of school uniforms might improve the K-12 environment for inner-city kids. Research showed that having children wear school uniforms helped lessen the tension around youth consumer culture and created a healthier social climate within schools, according to LaPoint.

In 1999, LaPoint's interest in the dress and fashion issue among Black children led her to organize a conference at Howard, bringing together a broad coalition of researchers and activists looking at all aspects of marketing's impact on children. That 1999 meeting proved pivotal to a group of researchers and activists who would later form the core of what is now the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC). Serving on the CCFC steering committee, LaPoint helped bring the CCFC's fourth annual summit to the Howard campus just last month (see story on page 11). Also serving on the CCFC steering committee is prominent psychiatry professor Dr. Alvin Poussaint of the Harvard Medical School and the media director of the Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston.

IMAGE VERSUS ACTIVITY

As a researcher who studies the participation of children in after-school programs and youth sports teams, Dr. Billy Hawkins, a sport studies professor at the University of Georgia, decries the tendency in sports marketing to promote objects for conspicuous consumption rather than for their intrinsic value to foster athletic activity. The marketing focus is too much on image, rather than on kids actually playing sports, he contends.

'I think you can see that with the rate of childhood obesity on the rise, shoe companies seem to be interested in pushing an image with their shoes more so than actual participation in sports,' Hawkins says.

Hawkins points out that the conspicuous consumption approach to selling athletic shoes and apparel has flourished over the past two decades while there's been a simultaneous decrease in publicly supported and school-based athletic and recreational activities for children and teens in American society. He also points out there's been a rise in private and corporate-sponsored, club-based sports team activity, which often compete for the most athletically talented kids in a community in a given sport.

There's an increased demand that talented young athletes in club sports and high-school teams show allegiance to particular brands, says Hawkins. Apparel companies have stepped up sponsorship of local sports camps, high-school teams and sports clubs, and 'they expect loyalty.'

Dr. Stephen McDaniel, a kinesiology professor at the University of Maryland, says that once companies develop successful advertising campaigns to introduce and promote their shoes and apparel, they also work hard to craft marketing strategies that create brand loyalty. Part of creating the effective advertising campaign begins with establishing a certain image, or 'street credibility' for a product.

'I think today everybody's looking for the next Michael Jordan. Not only do they look out for rising college stars, but companies have signed up high schools where they have cultivated relationships with the coaches,' McDaniel says.

NO MORE STEREOTYPES

Another criticism leveled at sports marketing is the lack of balanced images in advertising campaigns. Dr. C. Keith Harrison, the director of the Paul Robeson Research Center for Leadership, Academic and Athletic Prowess and faculty associate at Arizona State University, indicts American sports marketing for what he describes as its ongoing failure to craft advertising that go beyond stereotypes of the athletes endorsing sports merchandise.

'Look at the ad with (Atlanta Falcons quarterback) Michael Vick. His body is portrayed as a roller-coaster. There's nothing in it that focuses on the cognitive aspect of him being a quarterback,' Harrison says. 'We're never told about the academic and intellectual feats of athletes.'

He says a common stereotype of Black athletes is that they perform by instinct rather than using their minds to make decisions on the playing field. That image of the Black athlete as instinctual is pervasive in marketing campaigns, Harrison notes.

Dr. Lynn Kahle, the James H. Warsaw professor of sports marketing at the University of Oregon, says that while he has 'no problem with tasteful and appropriate marketing efforts, even ads targeted at people who live in inner cities' he would like to see a broader range of images, individuals and ideas featured in sports advertising.

'I just wish more of the ads would promote role models, such as Bill Cosby, from more career choices than just sports. Or maybe promote Michael Jordan the businessperson as well as Michael Jordan the athlete,' Kahle says.

Kahle cites the current trend in sports marketing with the selling of 'retro' shoes and jerseys as one relying not so much on stereotypes but rather memories of an earlier and more innocent time. 'Retro marketing works because people view other times in our history as at least in some respects better than now. Especially since 9/11, many consumers have shown nostalgia for a safer, simpler time when the pace of change and modern trends were more hopeful. People may want to imagine or pretend that they have returned to the happier time,' he says.

Harrison says he believes it's critical that scholars and others concerned about stereotypes and negative images in sports respond with initiatives aimed at breaking them down. To that end, Harrison is one of the developers of the 'Scholar-Baller' program that can be adapted by college teams to boost the academic performance of their student-athletes. The program title unites the academic 'scholar,' with 'baller,' a popular hip-hop term meaning successful.

Sports marketing firm to move its headquarters, 90 jobs to East Norwalk, Conn. - Stamford Advocate (Stamford, CT)

Byline: Peter Healy

Jul. 7--Velocity Sports & Entertainment LLC plans to move its headquarters and about 90 jobs from Wilton to East Norwalk next month. The new 33,700-square-foot space at 230 East Ave. will provide room for the sports marketing company to grow, said Robert Wilhelmy, Velocity Sports' chief financial officer.

Founded in 1999, Velocity Sports had been at 10 Westport Road in Wilton for the past three and a half years, Wilhelmy said. The company's Wilton lease of 27,000 square feet was up, so it chose to sublease part of 230 East Ave. from Modem Media Inc. until 2009, Wilhelmy said.

He said Velocity Sports expects to add 25 employees a year and its space at the East Norwalk building can hold 150 to 160 people. Velocity Sports helps customers such as FedEx Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. plan and carry out sponsorship activities related to sports. Velocity Sports is a unit of Aegis Group plc, a marketing services company based in Great Britain.

The new space for Velocity Sports is next to the East Norwalk train station. The convenient location for rail commuters can help Velocity Sports recruit new workers, Wilhelmy said.

'We have a lot of folks who want to live in (New York) city and can do a reverse commute here,' said Wilhelmy, a principal and co-founder of the firm.

Fred Brown, chairman of Norwalk-based Desmond Virgulak Brown Commercial Realty Inc., said 230 East Ave. has been hard to market because the placement of its elevators and stairs make it difficult to subdivide into smaller spaces.

That meant Velocity Sports was able to lease the space at below-market rates.

Velocity Sports is paying between $12 and $20 per square foot per year for its office space, said Jeff Gage, senior vice president at Stamford-based Albert B. Ashforth Inc. commercial real estate. The average asking rents in Norwalk are $26 per square foot for Class A space and $22.34 for Class B space, according to CB Richard Ellis commercial real estate.

'My guess is Velocity got a very good deal,' Gage said.

Gage and John Stoddard of Ashforth represented Modem Media in its sublease. James Randel, president of Rand Real Estate Services in Westport, represented Velocity Sports.

Modem Media Inc., an Internet marketing company, no longer fills the bulk of the 117,000-square-foot East Avenue building, at which a Fitness Edge gym is another tenant.

Boston-based Digitas Inc., a digital and direct marketing company, acquired Modem Media last year.

Originally constructed as a factory in 1910, 230 East Ave. later became the Norwalk Factory Outlets retail center. It was redeveloped as an office building in 1999.

To see more of The Stamford Advocate, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.stamfordadvocate.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, The Stamford Advocate, Conn.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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ISL own-goal flaws sports marketing. - Marketing Week

The collapse of ISL and its parent company ISMM has exposed major flaws in the sports marketing industry. Whether or not ISMM does go to the wall, it is likely to make agencies re-examine their strategies.

Shockwaves have rippled through the sports marketing industry at news of the imminent collapse of International Sports Media and Marketing Group (ISMM).

Reputed to be the world's second largest sporting group, ISMM is waiting for a Swiss court to make a final ruling on whether to declare the company bankrupt. Though its future now looks bleak -- reports indicate ISMM needs $300m ([pound]208m) just to settle its debts -- the company's plight has at least given the sports industry a wake-up call.

M&C Saatchi sponsorship chief executive Matthew Patten says: 'ISMM is part of the fabric of the business of sponsorship sales. What has happened is of very serious concern for those judging the temperature and fitness of the sports business as a whole.'

Sports marketing agency ISL, part of ISMM Group, is the reason for the company's collapse. It broke the bank when it guaranteed the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) $1.2bn ([pound]788m) over ten years for the marketing, broadcasting and licensing rights to the men's tennis championships. But it is understood that ISL has failed to raise the required amount and at the beginning of the month it was reported that the sports marketing agency was trying to break the deal by paying the ATP between $150 and $160m ([pound]111m).

ISL has other major problems. It is being sued for $100m ([pound]69m) by Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), the US equivalent of Formula One, after terminating its marketing agreement with them in February. ISL claimed there had been 'numerous breaches' of the contract and a legal battle looms on the horizon.

ISL is also believed to owe Uefa [pound]10m in unpaid merchandising revenues for Euro 2000.

Tie-ups with its various sponsors and sporting bodies are in chaos. The most high profile of these is the 2002 World Cup, which is being jointly held in Korea and Japan. ISL also owns global marketing rights and worldwide television rights (excluding Europe and the US) for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups.

Fifa, football's world governing body, could face marketing the tournament itself for the first time if the court's decision does not go in ISMM's favour. It was confirmed last week that ISL had sacked Patrick Magyer, who was running the 2002 World Cup's promotional campaign.

ISMM's future is likely to be decided in one of three ways. A potential suitor could come and bail it out. Latest rumours suggest that Canal Plus, the French cable TV company which is part of Vivendi Universal, is interested. There is also speculation that ISMM could sell the rights to one or more of its properties. A third possibility is that rivals will let ISMM go to the wall, leaving them in a position to pick up contracts at a deflated price.

Karen Earl director of consulting Tim Crow says: 'The demise of ISMM highlights the fact that the economy of sports businesses is the same as in the real world.'

He adds: There is no doubt the situation at ISL has sent a shudder through companies which are buying rights to make profits.'

ISL's troubles stem from a high-risk and aggressive strategy that involved the company stretching its business interests beyond selling TV rights, the company's traditional role, to the major sporting events.

Just as IMG's strength was built on athlete management and Octagon on consultancy and event management, ISL's strength was the close relationship it forged with organisations such as the International Olympic Committee, Fifa and Uefa. ISL has sold TV and sponsorship rights for the past five Olympics, the past four World Cups, as well as the Euro 96 and 2000 tournaments.

But that influence has now started to fade. As one chairman of a major sports consultants association says: 'You can sell anyone the World Cup. But men's tennis, which is very much a second-tier tournament, is not as easy.'

He adds: 'ISL has made the mistake that many other lesser companies make. It is making guarantees at a time when rights fees in many areas are contentious and dangerous.'

Indeed, ISL has been described by one marketer as a 'sales house' that understands the art of selling television rights but not that of sports sponsorship.

Many say that a company such as Octagon has a far greater understanding of brands because it has an agency background.

An ex-employee of Octagon believes ISL is 'arrogant' and 'lacks empathy'. He says: 'ISL was after very big contracts, big rights and big commissions -- but once it had secured them, it thought the job was done. It just paid lip-service to the back-up services.'

ISL's thinking behind the ATP contract was to get the majority of the money through sponsorship and not television tights, preferring to sell television rights to cable and pay-per-view channels, where it believed it would get higher revenues.

As one sports marketer says: 'Its business plan was two-thirds sponsorship and one-third television.

'But audiences for non-terrestrial channels are far smaller than terrestrial channels, making it unattractive for sponsors. Effectively it has shot itself in the foot.'

Octagon has also had a tough time of late. It bought Brands Hatch for more than [pound]100m, hoping to redevelop the track as an alternative sporting venue for Formula One. But the plan was scuppered after the Department for the Environment and the Regions turned its application down.

Then, last December, it announced a deal with the British Racing Drivers' Club, granting it a 15-year lease to manage the Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire.

The future of that deal, which involved a $60m ([pound]42.8m) investment to upgrade the Silverstone circuit in order to continue hosting Grands Prix, is uncertain after Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers said it raised competition concerns 'in respect of the market for the provision of motor racing and related activities.'

It seems likely that rights holders will have to change the way they negotiate their deals with the media and marketing agencies.

Although it is easy to understand why major sporting events such as the World Cup command astronomical fees, it is a lot less easy to justify the greed of minor properties.

In sports marketing, 'micro' matters as much as 'macro'.(Biz Ledger) - Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)

Back in the 1960s. my Little League team was given the opportunity to sell books of chances, with a goal to raise money for the hugely popular kids' baseball program at Thillens Stadium at Devon and Kedzie on the far north side of Chicago.

So there I was on a hot summer Sunday evening, dressed in my wool flannel baseball uniform, carefully rolled baseball-stirrup stockings pulled over my white cotton sweat socks, and gym shoes, sweating to death!

I stood in the bright sun in front of a popular restaurant asking unsuspecting diners whether they would like to help support the game I loved.

My parentsdropped me off in front of that restaurant in order to give me something of a life lesson in dealing with people. They even provided me with some basic sales training (i.e., 'It's not chances you're selling, it's yourself!'). They knew that if I didn't sell the chances, they would have to buy them.

I don't remember how many chances I sold that night. I do remember introducing myself, telling people a little bit about Thillens, and then offering them the opportunity to support the cause by purchasing a chance, preferably a whole book of chances, to win a grand prize.

That was my introduction to 'sports marketing' on a micro level.Today, most of us think of sports marketing as something 'macro' -- or gigantic.

Corporate sponsorship and sports marketing as we know it started in the mid-1970s, when then-PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman transformed golf from a game with a lower profile than bowling into a multimillion dollar sport that's on TV all the time and even has its own cable channel.

Beman convinced large corporations to put up big purses and purchase television advertising packages in exchange for putting their company names on the tournaments.As a result, this generation of PGA Tour-ists recently played for an $8 million purse at the BMW Championship, while Jack Nicklaus took home a winner's share of $20,000 when he won the 1967 Western Open.

It didn't take long for other sports and marketing types to figure out Beman's formula.

In the '80s, Nike founder and visionary Phil Knight and perhaps the world's most potent sports marketing machine,Michael Jordan, became an icon. His rise propelled Nike.In the mid-90s, Knight correctly identified Tiger Woods as golf's version of Jordan. Woods was on his way to becoming the first billion-dollar athlete, thanks in part to 'macro' sports marketing.

But every day we still see signs of 'micro' sports marketing.The photo of the local Little League team hanging on the wall of the local dry cleaners, bank, insurance office, pizza joint or barber shop.The team jerseys with the names of the local business sponsor on the back.The sponsors in the ad books for the junior hockey teams.

I still believe that for local businesses, the best way to build awareness and real brand loyalty is to support your local sports teams.Get the photo. Hang it on your wall proudly. Maybe you think people don't notice, because they don't say anything to you.

They do.

Like those poor innocent diners who listened to my sales pitch back in the day and bought a book of chances,local businesses can make a difference.They may not think of it as sports marketing, because maybe it isn't.

It's more like community.

New Sports Marketing and Sponsorship Data Have Been Reported by Researchers at University of Georgia.(Report) - Marketing Weekly News

'This study examines the relationship between spectator motivation and sports consumption behaviours in the context of an adaptive sport. Respondents were spectators from five matches held in the Midwest United States involving registered United States Quad Rugby Association teams,' scientists writing in the International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship report.

'The Motivation Scale for Sport Consumption (MSSC; Trail & James, 2001) was adapted to measure spectator motivation and predict repatronage intentions and online media consumption among wheelchair rugby spectators. indicated that two spectator motivation factors, physical skill and knowledge, were related to repatronage intentions,' wrote K.K. Byon and colleagues, University of Georgia.

The researchers concluded: 'In addition, knowledge and vicarious achievement were found to be related to online media consumption.'

Byon and colleagues published their study in International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship (Marketing murderball: the influence of spectator motivation factors on sports consumption behaviours of wheelchair rugby spectators. International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship, 2010;12(1):76-94).

Additional information can be obtained by contacting K.K. Byon, University of Georgia, Dept. of Kinesiology, Ramsey Center 361, Athens, GA 30602, USA.

The publisher of the International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship can be contacted at: International Marketing Reports Ltd., 23 the Coach House, 2 Upper York St., Bristol, BS2 8QN, England.

Keywords: City:Athens, State:GA, Country:United States, Advertising, Marketing, Sports Marketing and Sponsorship

Doing Away with Foul Play in Sports Marketing. - Marketing Weekly News

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/0df2a1/doing_away_with_fo) has announced the addition of the 'Doing Away With Foul Play In Sports Marketing' report to their offering.

With the 2010 FIFA World Cup in the books, the major questions leading into the tournament were convincingly answered. Spain overcame tough competition for a dramatic victory. South Africa proved not only capable of hosting the event but earned praise for new infrastructure and social progress. And the drone of the vuvuzela was every bit as annoying to TV audiences as was suspected.

Yet over the 31-day tournament, brand protection issues stole some spotlight from action on the pitch. Nikes Write the Future campaign outshone rival Adidas, FIFA's official partner, with a record 7.8 million viral views in its first week online. Guerilla marketing ads from South African brands Kulula Airlines and Nandos earned international headlines, as did the Dutch women arrested in the Bavaria Beer scandal. In addition to ticket scams and other trademark breaches, these stories will make marketers remember this FIFA World Cup for its implications on future sponsorships and intellectual property (IP) protection. Brands have long invested in sports properties to boost awareness, loyalty and fan support for products or services. Sports sponsorships and athlete endorsements give brands mass exposure and the ability to interact with particularly passionate fan bases, creating strong brand attachment, affinity and emotional connections with the consumer. The cross-cultural appeal of many professional sports has helped the business explode into a giant global marketplace with projected revenues of $141 billion by 2012.

The negative consequence of this growth, however, is that trademark trespassers have intensified their efforts to get a piece of the action. For years, counterfeit merchandise was the main violation confronting sports marketers, and brand protection meant physically tracking down knock-off artists and advocating the merits of officially licensed goods.

Today, Internet connectivity, mobile communication and the ability to deliver rich media experiences over broadband pipelines are creating an even larger, more interactive audience for sports content. But these innovations are also introducing new threats and trademark infringements at record rates. Online ticketing scams, brand hijacking, illegal merchandise sales, pirated TV feeds and the unfiltered dialogue in social media channels are undermining the interests of property rights holders, as well as the integrity of sponsors and media partners.

Brand sponsors and sports associations also face more frequent and increasingly clever ambush marketing campaigns by competitors. These marketers seek to capitalize on the media exposure and popularity of major events without paying the expensive fee for official rights. While growing numbers of marketers are attaching their brands to leading sports properties and franchises, they dilute the value of their investments by not implementing proper brand protection programs.

Doing Away With Foul Play in Sports Marketing is another global thought leadership initiative to help sports sponsors and franchises deal with trademark trespassing, property rights violations and online fraud that compromises their brands and content assets. More than 225 senior level sports marketers were surveyed across relevant industries for an assessment of how brands safeguard themselves and whether those measures are effective. This study also interviewed more than 20 executives from top leagues and corporate sponsors.

While the research confirms that IP and trademark violations negatively impact brand value and consumer trust, brands are not adjusting to the new violations made possible by evolving technology. A startling number also neglect brand security entirely. Consequently, sports marketers are leaving themselves vulnerable to brand infection and unable to reap the full benefits of their sports spend. With the amount of money invested in sports marketing and the opportunity to tap into passionate sports audiences, this neglect of brand protection is disconcerting.

Marketers have long understood the value of investing in sports. Now they must take brand infection dangers equally as serious and learn how to better protect their assets. Brands should emulate the NFL, NBA and other leading sports properties by investing in their futures and proactively attacking the source of the problem. Educate potential violators on why IP laws are important. Engage them in the process and preempt violations before they can occur. Only then will brands harness the full marketing potential of sports properties and events. Key Topics Covered: Introduction

Summary of Key Findings

Detailed Findings

Contributed Content

Executive Insights

About

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/0df2a1/doing_away_with_fo

Keywords: Advertising, Marketing, Research and Markets.