Harlequins won the Premiership rugby final last Saturday in a wonderful match in front of a full house at Twickenham. Over the week-end there were lots of pictures on and off line showing the action with their sponsors reaping the benefits of all the media coverage. 

By Tuesday it was bound to die down with Euro 2012, the French Tennis Open and the cricket test match taking centre stage. But no, a full page colour advertisement appears in the sporting pages of at least three national papers I saw with a natural but clever link to their main sponsors ‘other’ team. It is a simple advertisement featuring two very highly respected sportsmen with an undisputable headline. 

Sponsoring sporting teams and individuals is a rollercoaster, which pretty much explains that no sponsor supports just one individual as one injury can mean months and months away from the public spotlight.  

I hope from a British perspective we win a few gold medals at the Olympics and if so, I suspect there may well be a another race to produce a similar advertisement with a gold medal draped around the athlete’s neck to go with a glorious winners smile.  Indeed, I am sure a sponsor of Usain Bolt’s has already instructed their media buying agency to pre book some space though as Bolt has comfortably more than one sponsor it may well be a lively marketplace. The same applies to our gold medal hopefuls like Rebecca Adlington, Ben Ainslie, Jessica Ennis, Sir Chris Hoy who all have more than one main sponsor. All will have media days planned for the first few days after their last event but does it have to be gold to attract huge headline interest?

The answer will be a balance whereby quite a few advertisements appear, but some hastily arranged photo shoots with the athletes are conducted and sent across the wires with undue haste. As ever, planning is the key. Plus, also appreciating that they are not all going to win their respective gold medals on the same day which will give some leeway and a bit of leverage. Add to that the now crucial social media strategy and you have some quick decisions to be made.

However, sport is not predictable, upsets happen, favourites do not always win and suddenly an unexpected hero emerges on the world stage that no-one saw coming. Exactly that happened with Rebecca Adlington in Beijing who made it an even better story by winning two gold medals. Who knows what the surprise story will be this time and where it is going to come from but it could just as easily be a sad story as opposed to a happy one.

I do hope from a British bias that alot of people here in Advertising, Marketing and PR are going to put a new meaning on working 24/7 when the Olympics finally begin.

About Jamie Salmon:

Jamie Salmon is a Director of Juniper Sport, a PR & Event Management agency who represents such clients as Mercedes-Benz, Polo Ralph Lauren and Rolex on a global basis. They are also responsible for the exclusive PR of Olympic medal swimmers Rebecca Adlington and Kerri-Anne Payne and for Zara Phillips.

Mercedes-Benz retains Juniper Sport as its international PR agency specialising in golf. Also, for the past five years, Juniper Sport has worked with Ralph Lauren to maximise its sponsorship of The Wimbledon Championships through a global public relations campaign and a polished, on-brand corporate hospitality experience. In addition, Juniper Sport’s working relationship with Rolex has been extensive within its sports sponsorship programme covering Golf, Tennis, Motor Sport and Equestrian. Juniper Sport’s current role is the co-ordination of its international golf programme. 

Jamie Salmon is a former rugby international for both England and New Zealand and has worked extensively in the press and broadcast media as a columnist and commentator for rugby union.

Jamie Salmon’s 

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Liverpool Chief Executive Ian Ayre will leave the Premier League club at the end of February to join German second-division outfit 1860 Munich.

The 53-year-old first joined the club as Commercial Director in 2007, and has been Chief Executive for over three years having previously served on the Board and as Managing Director.

Ayre initially declared his intention to leave the club last year, and has since played a vital role in restructuring at Anfield.

Liverpool hope to have a new Chief Executive in place by summer.

Location: Hull, UK

Closing Date: January 27, 2017

Overview:

This is a role that will be responsible for leading the development of Hull City Tigers CRM strategy including the development and implementation of a new CRM system. The role will also help deliver the membership scheme to retain and develop the supporter base, in order

Key Responsibilities

• To maximise the effectiveness of the Clubs marketing activities
• To be responsible for maximising data collection at all customer touch-points
• To take ownership of confirming requirements, gathering data, drawing conclusions and presenting findings to stakeholders with recommendations and supporting materials
• Producing targeted sales lists based on data trends
• Involved in the construction and sending of all marketing comms, e-mail, SMS, DM
• Providing regular data insight across the club
• Working with the ticketing sales department on data quality and call campaign reporting
• Manage the CRM system, and analyse areas of data weakness for improvement
• Assisting in development of the new Club website from a data perspective
• Stakeholder in the loyalty scheme, administering and maintenance

Skills & Experience Required

Desired:

• Sports management/marketing degree/CIM qualification (would consider stats or maths background)
• Experience of managing a CRM system preferably Microsoft Dynamics
• Strong PowerPoint and excel skills
• Enthusiastic and driven, able to follow a lead but also use initiative
• Good knowledge of the football industry preferred
• Ambitious with a willingness to learn and accept feedback
• Ability to work as part of a larger Marketing and communications department
• Must have U.K. driving license

How to apply: visit http://www.sportsrecruitment.com/jobs/details/2464/customer-relationship-executive

The Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) today announced the appointment of UK-based Pro-Active Broadcast to manage and distribute the broadcast and webstream output from their World Cup and World Championship events during the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

Pro-Active will be responsible for the creation and distribution of highlights programmes from all rounds of the UIPM World Cup including the World Cup Final, as well as the Senior World Championships.

They will also develop and co-ordinate a Live World feed from the latter two competitions, the flagship events on the UIPM calendar, working closely with the host broadcaster hired by the Local Organising Committee of each competition to optimize coverage.

Tommasina Kay, Senior Project Director, Pro-Active Broadcast, said: “This is an exciting project where we aim to raise and change the profile and interest levels in the core Olympic sport of Modern Pentathlon over the next two years. UIPM has taken great steps in the last few years and there is great potential to develop the sport as a broadcasting spectacle. Our tightly co-ordinated, multi-skilled and very experienced team will be an ideal partner for UIPM in the next stage of its development.”

Already Eurosport are committed to taking all available output from the UIPM and Pro-Active are now looking to build the take-up worldwide as well as increase the impact of the web streaming and social media output from each event.

Shiny Fang, UIPM Secretary General, said: “UIPM presented Modern Pentathlon at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in a fresh and innovative way that attracted mass media attention on a different scale to previous Games. That said, we still see room for improvement in the presentation of our sports, especially in the way we tell the story of a Modern Pentathlon competition to a TV audience. ”

“The complexity of Modern Pentathlon creates a challenge of presentation and UIPM is delighted to welcome Pro-Active Broadcast on board with a view to boosting our online and traditional TV audiences.”

“We have been in connection with Pro-Active for a couple of years and collaborated with them on some small projects and videos, and in those initiatives we have seen their passion for our sport and their own professionalism shine through. We are excited to see how their innovative way of thinking will enlighten our own thoughts about the broadcasting strategy for Modern Pentathlon and how we improve the service we provide to both existing and new fans of the sport worldwide.”

Pro-Active and UIPM will begin their two-year collaboration at the first round of the 2017 UIPM World Cup in Los Angeles (USA) on February 23-27.

Manchester City have announced that Valvoline^TM, and a global automotive lubricant company, apoplectic has signed a multi-year agreement as the Club’s ‘Official Automotive Lubricants Partner.’

Throughout the partnership, sick  Manchester City and Valvoline will work together on a series of marketing campaigns that will bring them closer to their respective supporters and customers across the globe.

Commenting on the new global partnership, Damian Willoughby, Senior Vice-President of Partnerships for City Football Group, said:

“Everyone at Manchester City is excited to kick-off our partnership with Valvoline. As a globally recognised organisation which operates across a range of markets where our fan base is strong and continuing to grow, we are looking forward to collaborating with them to connect with our global supporters in new and engaging ways.

“Innovation and progress are at the heart of both of our organisations and working together will allow us to develop creative campaigns everyone can enjoy.”

Sam Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer of Valvoline, said:

“This high-powered partnership is a great fit, connecting two future-oriented global brands, each with a strong heritage and committed to the shared value of winning the right way. I am confident this next phase of our 150-year history will be even more exciting as we seek to accelerate our growth around the world.”

Econet Media’s Kwesé and ESPN have announced a media collaboration in Africa.

The deal comes into effect in early 2017 with the launch of an ESPN channel in 19 countries, salve which is exclusive to Kwesé. 

ESPN will also produce daily SportsCenter updates for Africa, pills bringing the sports news and highlights brand to the channel.

In addition, by mid-2017, ESPN and Kwesé will together launch an African edition of the ESPN website and mobile app. 

With the conclusion of this agreement Kwesé adds NCAA American football and basketball to its existing broadcast rights for the NFL, NHL and the NBA, making it the home of American sports in Africa.

Speaking about the significance of the agreement, Joseph Hundah, Chief Executive Officer of Econet Media said, “Ultimately our goals are the same, to bring fans the best in global sports. The synergies between Kwesé and ESPN allow us to achieve that goal by leveraging our collective ability to deliver premium African and global sports programming to sports fans across Africa. We look forward to collaborating with ESPN in Africa and providing African sports fans with access to global sports like never before.”

Added Russell Wolff, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, ESPN International, “ESPN’s focus around the world is simple: to serve sports fans. This long-term collaboration across television and digital media will do just that — serve millions of sports fans across Africa with exceptional products, content and coverage. We are very excited about the opportunities that lie ahead as we bring ESPN’s great content, including SportsCenter, and decades of experience in sports media together with one of Africa’s most dynamic and vibrant companies.”

CSM CEO Zak Brown is set to depart from his role as CEO of CSM Sport & Entertainment at the end of this year.

He runs the agency along with Lord Coe and has said that his future lies in motorsport.

This comes after Liberty media’s recent takeover of F1.

“I feel privileged to have been a part of an extraordinary team at CSM during my tenure and to have achieved the successful integration of JMI into CSM. I know this organisation will continue to accomplish great things and I am fortunate to have been a part of their success.

Having spent the past three years seeing up close the whole CSM team at work, I can say without hesitation that the business is in great hands, with unrivalled expertise, insight and knowledge throughout the organisation.

I would like to thank Chris Satterthwaite, CEO of Chime Communications, CSM Chairman Lord Coe and everyone at CSM for their invaluable support and commitment during my tenure, without which these accomplishments and more would not have been possible. I will take this experience forward to my next chapter in the arena I know best, motorsport,” said Brown.