Hollis Sponsorship Bulletin

Synergy fought off great competition from highly-successful consultancies Capitalize, Four Sports, Arts & Sponsorship, MEC Access, Octagon and SBI to win the top prize Hollis Sponsorship Consultancy of the Year, a category – sponsored by Icon – which is designed to recognise the work that goes on behind-the-scenes of the great sponsorship campaigns.   Synergy has managed to buck the recession, delivering £1million in new business wins.  Now in its 25th year, Synergy’s success is evident in the breadth of its work and its success rate in holding on to existing clients.  As part of the Engine Group of companies, it has managed to retain its identity whilst also drawing on the expertise of sister groups in servicing clients.

The Synergy Sponsorship team celebrate Consultancy of the Year win.

Tom Gladstone has joined Synergy Sponsorship as Account Director after seven years at IMG where his role focused on consulting, integrated marketing and sponsorship activation for a number of major sponsors of international sport.
Most recently responsible for O2’s sports sponsorship strategy and activation, Tom also advised a wide range of clients including British Airways and Visa. Gladstone joins Synergy to work on the consultancy’s portfolio of clients as well as business development.
 Tim Crow, CEO of Synergy, said: “Tom is one of the industry’s finest young strategic talents, exemplified by his work with O2, so I’m incredibly pleased that he has joined us.”

Sponsorship experts, Mike Thompson, head of Global Sponsorship at E.ON, Karen Earl, Chairman of Synergy and the European Sponsorship Association and Andy Sutherden, Managing Director of Hill and Knowlton are set to lead a panel discussion on the implications of current consumer behaviour for the sponsorship world.
Joining international trend forecasting consultancy, The Future Laboratory, for ESA’s Future Trends Forum this Thursday morning, they will launch ESA Knowledge 2010 – a programme of education and training events designed specifically for the ever-changing demands of the industry.
Tom Savigar of The Future Laboratory will discuss how emerging phenomena such as Brandtocracies and Prohibition Culture are shaping consumer behaviour, and how the industry, in turn should respond to stay in touch.
ESA Board Director and Chair of the ESA Education Working Group, Matt Rogan of Lane4 explained that the Insights Forums seek to be provoking and challenging: “The Future Trends Insights Forum is the first of four morning Forums and will provide the broad context from which the sponsorship industry will be working, with the later ESA Knowledge forums exploring how specific factors are influencing the industry”.

Future Trends will be held at the offices of Hill and Knowlton in central London on Thursday 25th February. It will start at 8.30am with a networking breakfast and conclude at 11.30am. The Insights series has been competitively priced from £100 (plus VAT) per forum, with discounts available on all sessions for ESA members, as well as discounts for multiple bookings.
To find out more about ESA Knowledge, or to reserve a place, contact ESA on +44 (0) 20 8390 3311 or visit the website: www.sponsorship.org/knowledge.asp

Congratulations to Karen Earl, chairman of ESA and sponsorship consultancy Synergy, who has been named the first winner of the Businesswoman of the Year Award at the 2009 Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year Awards.

The Businesswoman of the Year Award, a new award for 2009, is presented to the most inspirational woman running a business within the sports industry. On winning, Earl said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to win this prestigious award. It’s particularly appropriate to have won whilst Synergy (formerly Karen Earl Sponsorship) is celebrating its 25th year in business. I, of course, would not have won this award had I not been surrounded by wonderful people.”

Since setting up Karen Earl Sponsorship (KES) in 1984, Karen has become a leading figure in the industry. In 2007, she masterminded the agency being bought by Engine then successfully oversaw the re-brand of the agency to Synergy in 2008. Synergy boasts a broad range of clients including Aviva, Betfair, BUPA, Chivas Regal, Coke and Guinness.

Engine CEO Peter Scott said: “We were delighted when Karen and her team became part of Engine. Since then our admiration has grown in strides. She is an inspirational leader who has built what is widely recognised as a best in class consultancy. She is in all senses a true Olympian.”

Specialist marketing consultancy Synergy has been appointed to handle Betfair’s sponsorship planning and activation. Synergy will now develop a long term sponsorship strategy for Betfair as well as managing the brand’s experiential, PR and digital activation around this summer’s Ashes Test Series.

Commenting on the news, Synergy CEO Tim Crow said: “This is a fantastic win for us. Betfair offers consumers a best in class proposition which sponsorship can really bring to life, and we’re really looking forward to making that happen.”

There was some welcome relief for the sponsorship sector this week following the news that banking group RBS is to renew its sponsorship of rugby union’s Six Nations. 

Despite the fact that RBS is heading for a £28 billion annual loss, the bank has decided to pay around £20 million for a deal which will run from 2010 to 2013. By the end of that term, it will have partnered the event for a decade. Commenting on the decision to renew, a bank spokesperson told the BBC that the “sponsorship has been selected to meet very specific objectives within the competing nations.” 

RBS (which employs Synergy as its sponsorship consultancy) had been expected to follow other financial services groups which have dropped out of sponsorships as a result of the poor economic climate. Credit Suisse, for example, is ending its relationship with F1 team BMW Sauber while ING is to re-evaluate its own Renault F1 deal. 

The biggest story, however, is the decision by US insurance group AIG to quit its Manchester United sponsorship at the end of this season. The FA Premier League champions are now looking for a replacement from 2010/2011. Names touted include Indian company Sahara and Saudi Telecom. With its emphasis on oil-rich or growth economies, United believes it will surpass the £14m a year paid by AIG.