Unilever is considering a dramatic increase in the amount it allocates to sponsorship within the $4 billion spent annually on communicating to consumers. A world-wide training programme is being launched to examine the options and help its marketers and agencies make better, more efficient and more effective use of sponsorship.
‘Whilst Unilever has run very successful sponsorship campaigns in the past – like the Flora London Marathon in the UK – its 5,000 strong marketing corps and their agencies are suspicious of sponsorship and don’t trust it.’ says Michael Brockbank, Brand Communication vice president.
Speaking at the IEG conference on sponsorship in Chicago he said, ‘In our experience, the sponsorship industry has focused too much on getting the highest possible price for rights, at the expense of developing a true understanding of the brand and its long-term strategy. We have also been concerned about the difficulty of getting truly independent advice and our marketers have experienced a distinct lack of transparency and accountability.’
Brockbank described Unilever as being at a crossroads and set out the way forward. Its brand teams need to reconsider sponsorship as a key strategic tool, rather than merely a secondary, or tactical one. But, for this to happen, all sponsorship programmes must be planned, executed and evaluated with the same level of consumer insight, creativity and strategic rigour that is currently exercised in the advertising development process.
Over the next 2 months, Unilever’s Marketing Academy – based in Kingston – will finalise global guidelines on sponsorship best practice. From June, workshops for marketers and partner agencies will be held. Learning programmes will then be sent to all brand groups around the world.
Brockbank promised, ‘From the end of this year, Unilever will be demonstrably more enthusiastic and well-informed about exploring sponsorship opportunities.’
Brockbank stressed, ‘Everything will be brand and consumer-led, a list of Big Ideas will be identified and tested with consumers, leverage will be planned up-front and it will all be judged in terms of outcome – its effect on consumers – rather than output – the visibility it achieves. Once all this has been done and the process analysed – and only then – will a deal be struck.
He concluded, ‘The right sponsorship for us does not have to be good – it has to be great. It has to fulfil our criteria for effective communication, as we don’t think sponsorship works any differently. We won’t escape advertising clutter just to find ourselves in sponsorship clutter. Less will be more for us and we will look for partners who share that vision.’
Further information please contact:
Trevor Gorin
Unilever Press Office
T: +44 (0)20 7822 6010