I have always considered rugby as a relatively posh sport, with my judgement probably clouded by the strength of the participation in public schools and the respect shown by players and supporters both on and off the field. I’m a football nut, so I don’t make this point as part of any football bashing.
However, our new proprietary sponsorship research tool, SponsorDNA, throws up a few surprises. It’s designed to provide a deep understanding of events by measuring fans’ interests and interactions, as well as their awareness and perceptions of associated brands.
The data shows that the RBS Six Nations under-indexes on the “posh” image statement in comparison with more than 25 major British and international sporting events. It rates 10% lower than the average. This could potentially be good news for sponsors, such as Guinness, who may be looking to open up a wider target group through sponsorship, with a view to increasing purchase consideration, and ultimately sales, during major rugby events.
The tool also throws up the notion that Six Nations title sponsor, RBS, is perhaps not the best fit for the event, which came to its dramatic conclusion this weekend. Specifically, some of the bank’s image scores are a poor match when mirrored with the Six Nations event scores.
Should RBS be worried after such a long association? Not at all. Every brand is involved in sponsorship for their own varying objectives and will (or should) have robust measurement criteria in place to judge their return on those objectives. However, I suspect that one of the RBS objectives is to continue to rebuild brand trust after the banking crisis of 2008. Although the Six Nations sponsorship performs poorly in certain areas of our brand fit perceptions, there lies an opportunity to harness the event’s strong values of trust and quality. If leveraged correctly, this could generate greater positive image transfer from the tournament towards RBS.
This is just the start. Arc is looking forward to unearthing further insights via SponsorDNA to help sponsors and rights holders to capitalise on fan behaviours, interactions and perceptions.
Liam Hopkins is an account director at Arc London
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