Looking for a long-term brand-building investment that pays and pays?
On November 12, 2022, more than 42,500 people gathered at Eden Park to watch the Black Ferns play England’s Red Roses in the Women’s Rugby World Cup final.
Together, we held our breath in those nail-biting last few minutes, we cheered wildly when the final whistle blew and the Black Ferns won, and we sang along with Ruby Tui as she belted out Tūtira Mai.
It’s a cultural moment we’ll share forever. That’s what sport is, says Sarah Munnik, partner at PR and communications consultancy Pead: a great uniter.
“There were people in the stands who would never normally celebrate anything together,” says Munnik.
“Often a sports activity is the only opportunity we have to let go of life and celebrate people.”
Sky’s Head of Sales, Ben Gibb, adds that in a highly fragmented media landscape, a sports broadcast is one of the few ways marketers can reach audiences at scale in moments that matter.
“The passion and sense of shared experience that live sport evokes in consumers is unique and makes for a highly effective advertising environment.
“Brands are in a battle for attention and sport gives them an opportunity to reach audiences in an environment where they are highly engaged and receptive to brand messages and act on them, delivering real return on investment.”
Bravery and longevity
It’s the symbiosis between all of these relationships – broadcaster, advertiser, sporting body and fans – that creates the best outcomes, but achieving that often requires bravery, longevity and trust, says Head of Marketing at Tracksuit, Mikayla Hopkins.
By the time you read this article, the curtain will have fallen on the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics, possibly the world’s largest celebration of athleticism.
Hopkins shares insights from a recent Tracksuit survey which asked more than 600 Kiwis about brand recognition at the Olympics to gauge which sponsors they’re actually aware of.
Coca-Cola, whose brand partnership with the Olympics dates back to 1928, was the only brand Kiwis could recall from memory, with 17% unprompted brand awareness. The next highest recall was for Visa at 8%.
For somebody who lives and breathes brand data like Hopkins, that is a top-tier result.
“If I was the marketer at Coca-Cola, I’d be one very happy gal. It exemplifies long-term brand-building by aligning with a global event that captivates billions.”
Looking at prompted awareness, 40% of Kiwis recognised McDonald’s as a brand sponsor, even though the fast-food chain hasn’t been an official partner of the Olympics for the last seven years.
“To be one of the top three most recognised sponsors and not actually even be a sponsor – kudos to them without having to put the spend down.”
She hopes this example gives confidence to marketers on the power of partnerships, despite them being a big investment.
“It’s giving power to when you invest in these long-term strategies, they actually do work. And I hope more marketers have the bravery to invest in the long term and tie around those moments, particularly for New Zealand when we are so passionate about our sport,” says Hopkins.
Bold moves
Speaking to NZ Marketing before his unexpected death in July, communications consultant and athlete Paul Gunn says the Olympics is a tricky one.
“It’s a window that’s only opens every four years, with its rights and exposure locked up.”
But in general, sport is a great marketing platform, and one Aotearoa excels in – ironically, this is often due to budget constraints, he adds.
“We do incredible work, we can’t outspend our competitors, so we have to be creative.”
He suggests marketers constantly ask how they can make the content or partnership relevant to audiences and where the balance point is between the team, the fans and the channels they’re in.
One NZ is in for the long haul – it’s celebrating 25 years of supporting rugby league team the Warriors.
It’s a partnership that represents what it means to be a Kiwi and has seen One NZ become part of the Warriors whānau, working with them to create memorable moments for fans, says Brand and Sponsorship Manager Bridgette Walker.
This includes a 10% discount on merchandise; ticket giveaways, the season-long One Big Fan competition that honours the best supporters’ sign for people watching live or at home and Home Base – a branded fan experience box for matches played at Auckland’s Go Media Stadium.
“When you look at Kiwis in general, we over-index in our love of sport and league supporters are the crème de la crème of passionate fans,” says Head of Brand and Loyalty Susannah Winger.
“To work with a brand with so much passion behind it has huge benefits. It’s a way of showing Kiwis a bit about who we are by who we support.”
Knowing sport is what people bond over, the partnership links to One NZ’s brand positioning, ‘Let’s get connected’, launched earlier this year.
“It’s not about technology, it’s about human emotion, insight… you can’t replace that human connection, it’s an innate need,” says Winger.
In honour of their 25th year together, One NZ made its boldest move yet, removing its logo from the Warriors 2024 Heritage Jersey. The jersey went on sale in mid-February and sold out in minutes.
“It got presented to us as a concept and if I’m brutally honest, it didn’t take much to say yes. The beauty of that is when you have a fan-centred strategy and say to yourself, ‘What would a fan want?’ There was only one answer,” says Winger.
Free-to-air power
With sports broadcasting more competitive than ever, Sky’s focus has changed from thinking it needs to have every sporting event to ensuring it has the right mix that reflects its audience, says Gibb.
“We know there’s nothing our customers love more than live sport, so this is an opportunity to bottle that feeling and get them excited about the next big event.”
Warner Bros Discovery knows it doesn’t have the budget to be a catch-all sports provider, so it focuses on big sporting moments that will pull in viewers.
Senior Director Content Matt Barthow and Senior Director Revenue James Hole work hand in hand to make this happen.
As a free-to-air broadcaster, WBD offers broad and fast reach, connection with harder-to-reach demographics – that’s younger people and males – as well as massive engagement, says Hole.
The benefits abound for it as the broadcaster, the sporting body and the advertisers – facts Hole uses to challenge the narrative that linear TV is dying.
“The sheer volumes of viewers dwarf digital audiences. Eschewing TV means advertisers will lose out on an effective and efficient media to get their brand out there.
“It’s the same as if you’re in a stadium, if you’re part of a crowd, you are so much more involved than if you’re looking on your phone.”
TVNZ CEO Jodi O’Donnell also speaks to the power of being a free-to-air broadcaster, which allows profound exposure for athletes, sports and brands alike.
With 4 million streams of TVNZ’s coverage of the Euros football tournament and extensive Paralympic coverage in August and September, audiences are hungry for this content.
A Sports Hub, set up in July 2023, allows users to access live coverage, replays and highlights of recent sporting events and has seen a million profiles sign up, says O’Donnell.
AI has played a role, helping TVNZ create highlight reels for live events that can be quickly pushed out to social media, she adds.
These events include the Black Clash, which pits national rugby and cricket stars against each other in a T20 cricket match, bringing in some of TVNZ’s highest ratings and broadening the scope of the sporting code, says O’Donnell.
Free-to-air broadcast also ensures sustainability for grassroots sports – “You need to be able to see it to be it,” says O’Donnell.
Auckland-based broadcaster the Stream Shop shares that ethos.
A storyteller at heart, director Daniel Wrightson believes every sport deserves coverage – whether it’s a provincial rugby match or an underwater hockey tournament – like it’s the Olympics.
He describes the company as agnostic, happy to work with anyone to bring sports to life.
“Gone are the days where the broadcaster decided what content had to go live. It’s now in the hands of the sports bodies and, more importantly, the fans.”
Stream Shop uses compact and more affordable gear to do more with less.
“We fly away with six bits of luggage… we will use scissor lifts and marquees and furniture trucks to build temporary broadcast opportunities to make sure we can deliver the product,” says Wrightson.
The content they create can be delivered to any platform, Sky, TVNZ and YouTube as well as directly with sports bodies for bespoke offerings.
A point of difference is the data Stream Shop gains from streaming content on YouTube – the Google analytics are extraordinary, says Wrightson.
And it’s so trackable. “I can tell you every single person who watched for how long and where they’re from, their age group.”
This allows partners to speak directly to viewers, and so Stream Shop focuses on bringing brands into the sport and letting that come alive for the fans.
“It’s more than just superimposing logos on the field. Whether it’s taking advantage of the retail space in replays, graphics on screen, halftime analysis or little pop-ups, there’s lots of ways of doing things on screen and in broadcast to tell a story that can be as animated or exciting as you like.”
Wrightson describes it as a circular economy: “By injecting brand capital, you can create more content that makes the community happy. It allows the brand to talk to the community on their own terms, which creates more content and brings in more people.”
What viewers want is also evolving – they want to see athletes in authentic moments, says O’Donnell.
This is where the Black Ferns are making their mark – they’re more accessible than the All Blacks.
It takes a village
Ryman Healthcare has been a partner with the Black Ferns since August last year, a relationship that came as a result of the retirement living provider’s mission to reshape its position in the market.
“We wanted to align with a sports brand in New Zealand that complemented and helped elevate our brand. What came through really strongly is rugby – but not in the traditional sense,” says Ryman Healthcare NZ CEO Cheyne Chalmers.
“It needed to support our positioning of innovation, leadership, excellence and community, and the Black Ferns are really clear on community.
Ryman understood that sports and sports partnerships foster a sense of tribalism, which in turn drives loyalty among fans and consumers.
“If you can demonstrate loyalty and commitment in a meaningful way, it will positively influence customer behaviour and perception of your brand,” says Chalmers.
She describes a key activation – when Ryman got a 98-year-old resident to be the ball runner for a Black Ferns match. The resident didn’t run, but she took the ball right out to the middle and seeing how the Black Ferns responded was so special.
“They all were fist pumping her, clapping her, they went up to greet her, the captain reposted the video and said, ‘It’s more than just a game.’
“What’s special about the Black Ferns is their diversity, particularly in terms of culture. The Māori and Pacific Island communities within the team hold our seniors in such high regard.”
That’s why this seemingly unexpected relationship is such a strong match.
“The partnership motto of ‘it takes a village’ is so literal in the fact that we have retirement villages, but the concept itself with the Black Ferns bringing their village – their families – with them to games is an important part of who the team is,” says Chalmers.
Broadcast evolution
The sports broadcast space, which arguably used to be Sky’s domain, has evolved considerably, with Spark, TVNZ, Warner Bros Discovery and Stuff all joining in, says Stuff Brand Connections Managing Director Matt Headland.
WBD and Stuff’s new deal to secure the linear and digital rights respectively for the America’s Cup, is a prime example. The two media companies are working with sponsor Toyota and Team New Zealand to cover the major sailing event.
A team of content creators and journalists at the Team NZ base will supply WBD’s free-to-air channels and Stuff’s 24/7 news cycle.
Together, WBD and Stuff have an audience reach of 92% for Kiwis aged 15-plus.
“We’ve got a really nice synergy and we’ve got really good processes to enable people to make the most of it across both of our platforms and audiences,” says Headland.
It builds on the two companies’ recent partnership to create daily news bulletin, ThreeNews – creating quite a big content circle for viewers to engage with, he adds.
The demands for broadcasters, sponsors and sporting bodies now extend beyond just having a brand alignment, to the quality and authenticity of the content.
“It comes down to building trust, and that’s at the core of what we do. And to be able to bring these stories out and people that we admire or that we respect and look up to, and humanise them along the way, it’s really, really important,” says Headland.
He reflects on last year’s partnerships with Sky to cover the Fifa Women’s World Cup, then the Men’s Rugby World Cup, which created a good foundation.
“The Fifa experience for us was incredible because we could feel it and see the impact we made. To be part of that and to enable stronger ticket sales and more interest in the game and more interest in women’s football was pretty special.”
The America’s Cup deal is one WBD’s Barthow suspects neither Stuff nor WBD would have got individually, but combined they made a compelling proposition to provide continuous coverage.
Continuity of coverage
Continuity is a key part of JCDecaux’s partnership with the New Zealand Olympic Committee as well, says JCDecaux NZ Insights & Strategy Director Victoria Parsons.
Using its large format digital billboards to show live results, a medal tally and athlete updates, the outdoor advertising company made sure Kiwis were kept up to date throughout this year’s Olympic, even when they were out and about.
The billboards made a beautiful canvas to display Olympic athletes in action, creating interest and inspiration among the masses, particularly among Gen Z, who are typically disengaged, says Parsons.
The partnership has created a network of goodwill among JCDecaux and other Olympic sponsors, who worked together to share each others’ campaigns.
2degrees is one of those sponsors, an official broadcast partner along with Toyota and Sky.
Besides being an amazing branding opportunity, it’s an amazing way to be part of the cultural moment the Olympics brings, says Sponsorship and Events Manager Anna Gorman.
“We’re a challenger and we are determined not to just slap our logo on a jersey and have done with it.”
At this year’s Olympics, the telco expanded its Data Clock initiative, adding an extra free hour of data to the daily offering each time a Kiwi athlete won a medal.
For Gorman it was the 2degrees Team Talk, which allowed Kiwis to send messages of support to athletes. These were shown throughout the Sky broadcast, and at the NZ team house in Paris.
“It was all about connections and bridging gaps between Paris and New Zealand. It was amazing to share their love and support and a touch of home.”
Thanks Paul
I am grateful to have spoken to Paul Gunn before his unexpected death at the end of July. We talked about all things sports and marketing – Gunn’s two areas of expertise as a communications specialist and athlete himself. It is an honour to be able to share a snippet of that lively conversation here. Arohanui and condolences to all who knew him, Zahra.
This was first published in the 2024 September-October NZ Marketing Magazine issue. Subscribe here.
