BPX are proud to be associated with all things sport.  When the question was posed “what does the value of sports sponsorship mean to our business” by a local Sports Trust it made me sit down and consider the “why” and what did we expect in return…

Why sports sponsorship for us

As one of two owners of BPX, we both have a passion for health & fitness and are actively engaged in a number activities ranging from multi-sport events, mountain biking, squash, to running around every Saturday pretending to be a footballer.  We wouldn’t call ourselves fanatics or top athletes by any means but one thing is key for us and our business – we value and place an emphasis on a healthy lifestyle to the extent it’s one of our core 10 consultant selection criteria when recruiting new staff.  If it’s important to us, we expect it to be important to the people working with us. 

What did we expect in return

For us brand association with health & fitness was easy, but our core market is not the health & fitness sector – in fact it’s not a market for us at all so what were our expectations – did we even have any?  Our main motivators were primarily about giving something back to the community and in particular kids – so for us as fathers of young children making financial contributions to the clubs where our kids get benefit was an easy investment.

Over time with the additional sponsorships and marketing investments we have in place we’ve had to put our business hats on and justify the spend – but in truth sometimes we do things because it feels bloody good – not because we expect a direct commercial and measurable return.  I know that probably goes against what marketing 101 tells you not to do…..but for us value return isn’t always about increasing revenue…intrinsic value gained from knowing others directly benefit provides a value in itself.

How have we made this work

In saying the above we still operate in a commercial and competitive market and don’t have the luxury to call our marketing investments ‘donations’ therefore our main motivator is generally about increasing brand awareness and local profile.

In terms of leverage we are conscience that an investment in isolation is a poor investment and needs ‘a helping hand’ or leveraging, as the marketing guru’s will tell you.  For us it’s about getting as many ‘touch points’ as possible.  For example with our Sport sponsorship additional ‘touch points’ like radio and newspaper advertising and simple low cost things like promoting the event via your own customer newsletters, website and email don’t take a lot of effort.  The thing to recognise is that making an investment without any additional effort or spend is a little naĂŻve.

Any lessons learnt

Good things take time, so don’t expect one hit wonders.  We now have a marketing strategy and recognise that any investment needs to be sustainable year on year.  Previously we’ve been a little ad hoc with our spend but now we have a ‘plan’ and a committed yearly budget.  We’ve also recognised that we’re not Saatchi and Saatchi even though we might think we know what’s best in terms of marketing effort and now utilise a marketing agency to keep us on track.