08/08/12

Olympic sponsorship – the good, the bad and the plain ridiculous

Coca-Cola freebies given out to crowds waiting to see the torch relay through Maidstone

by David Philpott, Chairman of the Institute of Directors Kent branch

So the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games are finally upon us. Hurrah.

I am hesitating slightly, though, before I go on, since I have to assure myself that it is legally acceptable for me to use the word “Olympic” and I must be doubly careful about what I say in this column because it has not been cleared by the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG).

They have ensured there will be brand police on duty for the duration just in case anyone dares to use the trademarked phrase “London 2012” in the wrong context, or anyone other than McDonald’s sells fries on Olympic sites, or anyone with the temerity to use the five Olympic rings.

What remedy they have I cannot say – perhaps a civil prosecution – but the whole matter of sponsorship has taken on the characteristics of a pantomime.

“Oh no it hasn’t!” might shout LOCOG. And they would no doubt point to that fact that the British taxpayer has been saved many millions of pounds because of the desire of so many large corporations to be linked to the Olympic brand.

I suspect that for many companies, brand association like this is nothing more than vanity advertising. Indeed, the chief executive of G4S recently admitted to the Home Affairs Select Committee that he wished his company had never tendered for the Olympic security contract. Nick Buckles said the company had taken on the contract to “build its reputation” but admitted that its reputation was now “in tatters.”

You would think, then, that I take a pretty dim view of sponsorship like this but actually nothing could be further from the truth. Inertia by successive governments meant that we would have had a patchy national air ambulance service in this country were it not for the intervention in the late 1990s of the Automobile Association.

I had the great privilege at the time of having a modest role in brokering what was then said to be one of the largest corporate sponsorship deals in British history as £14 million was distributed to county-based helicopter charities – Kent Air Ambulance included. In that business, money means lives saved and the impact of the AA’s sponsorship cannot be underestimated.

And, of course, we in the Institute of Directors benefit enormously from the sponsorship of our marketing partners. Here in Kent, Warner’s Solicitors, Wilkins Kennedy Accountants, Kent Science Park (where we have our offices), the KM Group and Westgate Communications, our new PR partners, help us to deliver more than 70 quality events for our members every year.

Maybe the great differentiator between all this Olympic sponsorship and our partnerships with Kent companies – apart from the money involved – is that we truly build relationships with our sponsors. That is why the IoD calls them marketing partners.

I prefer to call them friends.