Sports Business
Was Bavaria beer's World Cup stunt worth it?
During this week's Netherlands verus Denmark World Cup fixture, 36 "babes" were involved in an "ambush-marketing" stunt that involved wearing not-that-skimpy orange dresses and, somewhere about their persons, displaying virtually non-existent Bavaria beer logos.The young ladies were then marched out of the stadium, arrested and questioned by police. The two organisers of the stunt were charged under a new, seemingly draconian, law called the Merchandising Marks Act that is designed to protenct the interests of official World Cup advertisers.
The whole thing seems crazy to me. I understand that FIFA need to protect the integrity of sponsorship (even though the value of major event sponsorship is questionable) but by being heavy handed and neurotic they've handed far more publicity to Bavaria beer (had you heard of it?) than they could ever have achieved with their cheeky little stunt.
Of course, there will be further fall out for the advertisers, who face a criminal prosecution - and for Robbie Earle, the ITV pundit that appears to have supplied the tickets.
But come on, FIFA. Chill out and enjoy your tournament.
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
NBA Franchise Sold to Russian - The First of Many Foreign Owners?
Interesting news from the US this week, as NBA franchise the New Jersey Nets were sold to Russian tycoon
. The deal, worth more than $200m, makes Prokhorov the first-owner of an NBA franchise outside of North America.The parallel has to be drawn with soccer's English Premier League, where over the last few years many of the clubs have come under foreign ownership, creating a great deal of debate over its impact on the game. Fewer than half of the Premier League teams are now wholly owned by British subjects, with notable and controversial examples being Manchester United (the Glazer family), Manchester City (Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan) and Liverpool (Gillette / Hicks).
Will this be the start of a trend in the NBA? Does it really matter who owns professional sports teams?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10109810.stm
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Swimming Supersuits: Enough is Enough
When swimmers first started wearing body suits I wasn't swimming, and I found them curious. The technology was pretty marginal, but before long they became de rigeur at all of the top swim meets. Now, it is hard to find anyone, even at masters swim meets, wearing anything else.
When Speedo brought out the LZR Racer, I didn't get too excited, and even though the record books were being rewritten, prefered to focus on the improvements that were being made in coaching, scientific support and even facilities. The sport seemed to be gaining in profile, and maybe that accounted for something too.There were plenty of people out there, such as Craig Lord, who writes for swimnews.com, who were publicly calling for the suits to be banned.
At the Olympics, almost every finalist wore the LZR Racer, so I thought, "well, it's a level playing field, so what".
Since then a number of other suits have been brought out that make the LZR Racer look like, well, a swimsuit.
The LZR Racer has panels made of polyurethane, the same material as a wetsuit. The new alternatives are single, polyurethane suits and have sparked even greater controversy - most recently at the French championships.
In the French Championships Alain Bernard became the first man to break 47 seconds for 100m freestyle (in a long course pool), posting 46.94 in the new Arena X-Glide suit (which has still to be ratified by FINA, the sport's governing body, although an application was lodged before the French champs). He then ditched the new suit for the final, finishing 3rd in 47.51, behind Frederick Bousquet who wore another similar suit, made by Italian manufacturers Jaked. Bousquet's time of 47.15s was the third fastest of all-time.
There are statistics to be found everywhere for the impact of the new suits, and just as many opinions.
One man who didn't go for a full bodysuit was triple Olympic bronze medallist Hugues Duboscq. Duboscq was fourth in the 50 breaststroke final after pocketing 18 of the past 20 French titles.
His coach, Christos Paparadopoulos, summed up the feeling of many in swimming when he said; "We work every day hoping for a good performance and it is all ruined because we do not have the right suit."
Another interesting perspective is that these suits may change the physical profile of an elite swimmer entirely. Traditionally swimmers, even sprinters, have not been overly muscular, but some of the current crop are much bigger and more defined. It may be that the buoyancy gained from the suit allows for a more muscular - and less buoyant - physique
At another level altogether, I witnessed another suit in action this weekend - made by Blue Seventy. I haven't seen the others up close, but having done so this weekend: It is a wetsuit. I don't care how "thin" it is.
Now, to be honest, if at Olympic level everyone is wearing them, should we really care? I mean, like I thought when I watched the Olympics in Beijing, it's a level playing field, right?
Wrong. What about at the levels of the sport where swimsuits aren't given by sponsors, but bought?
People could make National teams, get funding, win titles not because they are the best swimmer but because they have the right suit. And at up to £300 a go, there will always be haves and have nots. It may also be that their impact is greater on moderate swimmers than it is on the best - which may promote inferior swimmers to elite levels.
What frightens me most is the impact that these suits could have in youth swimming, on so many levels. What message does it send out to the swimmers if so much is down to the suit? What about talent identification? I mean, competition performance alone shouldn't be used to indicate talent, but it also can
't be ruled out completely and every competitor tested for physical or other markers of talent?
Apparently the rules will be changed so that no more than 50% of a suit can be made of polyurethane.
To be honest, I've been talking to friends who were swimmers*, and they now have no faith in the record books. What would Popov, Biondi or Jaeger have done in one of these suits? We'll never know. And we may never know what Bernard or Bousquet could do in a good, old-fashioned pair of trunks.
It's time to get back to basics. Stop tinkering around the margins. I'm buying the argument that men should race in trunks, women in 'normal' swimsuits. The problem is, until FINA get a grip of the rules, you can't blame swimmers for wanting the best technology they can have...
*Credit to Mike Wynn and Pete Henry for inspiring this blog. Like them, I think we should get back to trunks. But I won't share their ideas for revolutionising women's swimming.
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Wenger Transfer Policy Criticism Highlights Need for Balance
Emmanuel Petit, who played for Arsenal through many of their most successful years under Arsene Wenger, has criticised the club's transfer policy - highlighting the need to balance short term results with long-term strategy.
The worlds of business and sport are increasingly focused on short-term results. Football managers can be sacked within weeks if results go badly and confidence is lost. Business leaders talk of the need to get through the next quarter as being the priority to keep shareholders on side. In the current climate, financial collapse can be just around the corner, as many big names will testify.
Few doubt that Arsene Wenger is building a squad of players that could deliver success in the long-term, but in the meantime he has sacrificed trophies and tested the patience of many fans who expect more. Petit's criticism revolves around Wenger's unwillingness to spend big on new players, break the wage structure, and his apparent willingness to let senior players go when the squad may benefit from their experience.
Chelsea, in particular, among their rivals would appear to have taken the opposite approach, backed by Abramovich's deep pockets. Critics might point to the lack of evidence of a pipeline of home-grown talent. Clubs who buy are at risk of building a house of cards - when the current crop of players goes, where is the bench strength to replace them?Balance is not easily achieved. Manchester United have done it, although recently they've depended more on bought talent than home-grown. But they have been able to keep refreshing their squad, building for the long-term while maintaining results.
The same can be said to be true for any sport, whether 'professional' or not. Some years ago I was involved in the review of a major Olympic sport and their 'World Class' programmes. Within the sport there was some appetite for shifting focus (and funds), from what was seen as a bloated and ineffective senior programme, to their talent development programmes. A closer look, however, showed that success at the senior elite level was a crucuial driver of the whole system and that focusing on getting it right at the senior end could bring funding for the other programmes. A shift towards the junior programmes could be highly risky and ultimately result in the loss of overall funding.
Likewise, in professional sports such as football, the first team is the economic driver of the whole system. Revenues from TV, sponsorship, ticketing, prize money and other commercial ventures are dependent on success of the first team. The first team is the 'brand' in so many ways.
So maybe Emmanuel Petit is right. Clearly Arsenal aren't a bad team, but perhaps Wenger and the board have been a little dogmatic in their approach; perhaps just a little too focused on the future and not quite enough on the here and now.
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
The iStadia Twitter Rollcall: Sport & Exercise Professionals Who Tweet
iStadia is a mine of knowledge and experience in a whole range of sport and exercise disciplines. Of course, many of us use multiple platforms to get our message out. Here are a selection of the sport and exercise professionals who are using both iStadia and Twitter.
sportshypgaz on twitter / Gary Baker, Sports Hypnotherapist on iStadia
Sports Psychology Consultant and Director of The Centre for Sports Hypnosis
liannepacker on twitter / Lianne Packer, Sport Psychologist on iStadia
Philosopher, intellect, ponderer, theorist and general all-round master procrastinator.
johnnyfontana on twitter / John Fontana, Fitness Trainer on iStadia
Fitness Professional, Fitness Writer, Entrepreneur...
L_I_W on twitter / Jonathan Monks, Event Manager on Stadia
Looking to build online network for leisure sector inc attractions, health and fitness, sport and the licensed trade
Sportstest on twitter / Garry Palmer, Physiologist/Sport Scientist on iStadia
Fitness testing, nutrition and coaching for runners cyclists & triathletes
Sports_Nut
on twitter / Matthew Renton, Sports Social Media Marketer on iStadiaI play, watch, referee & work in sport & always have an opinion! I work for a sport science publication called Peak Performance
keithirving
on twitter / Keith Irving, Specialist in Performance Psychology & Psychometrics and co-owner of iStadia Co Founder iStadia and expert in performance psychology and related psychometrics
mikegarth on twitter / Mike Garth, Sport Psychologist on iStadia
Helping racing drivers perform better - love it!
BenWilsonUK on twitter / Ben Wilson, Personal Trainer on iStadia
micoach / David Hinchliffe, Cricket Coach on iStadia
Cricket coaching and athletic development
tennisopen on twitter / Michael Peterson, Tennis Professional on iStadia
pindaregirl on twitter / Gina Block on iStadia
SPORT LEISURE COACHING THIS IS PINDARE-DYNAMI CELL PHONE DIRECTORY AND MORE
annetteht on twitter / Annette Huygens-Tholen, Sporting Mindset Coach on iStadia
Olympian, Athlete Transition Coach, NLP & Master Results Coach
brianmccormick on twitter / Brian McCormick, Basketball Coach on iStadia
Coach. Entrepreneur. Author. Filmmaker. Globe Trotter. Gypsy.
DrDickB / Richard Bailey, Consultant on iStadia
Writer. Researcher. Geek. Interested in sport, learning, philosophy, macs and almost everything else.
dmfreedom
/ David Fuller, Sports Marketing Specialist on iStadiaCEO of Pilote Media. Specialist in Sports Marketing, sponsorship, activation and the use of emerging technology to bring sports stakeholders together.
DanielPeterson / Dan Peterson, Sports are 80 Percent Mental on iStadia
By day, IT stuff; by night, writing about sports, brains and science @ my site & LiveScience.com
BadenBall_Tam / Tam Nguyen, Sales & Marketing Manager on iStadia
I have an unhealthy and potentially dangerous addiction to all Seattle Sports Team.
Why not add your ID as a comment, or by sending me a message and I will update the roll-call.
Let's all support each other as we try to get our message out there.
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Follow me on Twitter@sportpsychrob
Scolari Sacking a Sign of the Times?
On one hand 'Big Phil' Scolari's sacking from Chelsea this week was a great surprise. Indeed, when the axe fell, it fell quickly and without much warning. Many commentators were surprised, even though Chelsea's recent results had been poor - or at least not good enough to satisfy owner Roman Abramovich's thirst for trophies.
Looking at it differently, however, Scolari's swift exit is merely a sign of the times that we are in, both in sport and in business. Both are about results. Both seem to be increasingly about short term results. Indeed, football and business are one and the same. Big football clubs, whether PLC or privately owned, just like any businesses, are at the whim of shareholders and other key stakeholders.It has long been recognised that balancing short and long term results is one of the toughest tasks of a business leader. There's no point in having a great strategy if you don't get good enough results to see it through. If there's no strategy, short term results are going to be hard to sustain. Likewise in football. You've got to earn the right to see through the strategy. You need the youth system, but you need to still be in the Premier League when the new talent starts coming through.
I was at a conference before Christmas, where the speaker was talking about business leadership increasingly being about getting through the next quarter. Abramovich might be seen as being twitchy or impatient, but that's roughly where Scolari was. Abramovich was unhappy, basically, with this quarter's results, and wasn't confident that the next quarter - basically to the end of the season - would be good enough. So, he's bringing someone in - most likely Gus Hiddink - that he believes can provide those short term results. If Hiddink earns the right to stay for the long-term, however, it remains to be seen whether he will choose to.
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Get updates on Twitter@sportpsychrob
Internet Marketing & SEO for Sports Business - iStadia Works
For any sports business looking to use the internet as a marketing tool, iStadia works.Here is a relatively trivial example, yet one that demonstrates what can be achieved by posting on iStadia - whether that be through blogs, articles, news, jobs or events.
Some time ago, I reposted a video of former England football manager, Steve McLaren, and his rather strange and newly acquired Dutch accent. I noticed that it had received a lot of hits. Of course, the subject has been a popular one in the United Kingdom, so I didn't hink too much of it. Tonight, however, I Googled "Steve McLaren Dutch" out of curiosity.
Here are the results:
Posting iStadia put us ahead of the Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mirror and The Daily Mail newspaper sites, which are all major National papers. All have the keywords in the title. It even puts us ahead of Wikipedia (though their entry doesn't have 'Dutch' in the title) and the original Youtube post itself - which was further down the page than my image.
Of course, it isn't just in this case that we can punch above our weight. During the summer we were on Page 1 for 'Olympic News' above many of the leading news agencies, as as a result our visits multiplied by around 300%.
How do you make your content work for you?
1) Choose the keywords that you want people to find your content for
2) Embed your keywords in the TITLE, TEXT and TAGS of the post
3) Include a signature with a link to your own website or iStadia profile, using your keywords as 'anchor text' (of which this is an example). This is easy to do with our editor (highlight the text and choose the chain icon).
Find out how to get even more SEO, marketing and networking benefits from iStadia.
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
DIY Promotion and Roy Jones vs Joe Calzaghe
The BBC this morning is reporting that tonight's Roy Jones Jr versus
Joe Calzaghe fight at Madison Square Gardens has been suffering from a low-key build up and
sluggish ticket sales.Some might say that the problem is that the two guys involved are both 'nice guys', while both counter that you don't have to have bust ups to sell a fight.
One thing's true. There's no professional promoter for this fight. No Frank Warren, no.. ...dare I say it... Don King to raise the temperature. This fight was agreed with a text message, the takings are being split 50:50 and in many ways this fight is the antidote to the ills of the sport.
On the other hand, sometimes you just have to accept that there are professionals who, despite appearing to take a lot of money for their input - whether it be promoting a sports event, selling a house, or or marketing a product, do actually create value. They may take a larger slice of the pie, but if they are good the whole pie is big enough for everyone.
Check out more sports marketing blogs & articles.
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
How do I get more publicity for my sport or exercise business?
I'm just back in from a day where I've had two rounds of a job interview, and managed to squeeze in a radio interview for the BCC World Service in between!Between my own site and my iStadia profile, I now get a lot of enquiries from the media. What do I mean by a lot? Well, it depends on what's happening, but most weeks I have some kind of contact, even if it is just for a quick comment. This week I've been quoted in The Times, been on BBC World Service, and have had an invitation from BBC Scotland to do something tomorrow. The irony is that I'm not really looking for publicity as a sport psychologist right now, but it is good fun to do it when I can. Sometimes, they will also pay (though not a lot).
The point is, I get these requests because I am easy to find. If I were more serious about marketing my sport psychology business, I would make sure that they mentioned my site (or my company, if I had one). I don't really exploit them to their full potential, but maybe you could.
I'm easy to find because of my activity, not just on iStadia (though for obvious reasons it's where I focus my activity, but on other networking and bookmarking sites too. So, when people search for a sport psychologist, they often find me - either my own site or my iStadia profile. Sometimes, like this week, one media appearance creates others, because journalists read other newspapers and will then search for a specific person.
One other person I know that does quite a bit of media work is Amanda Owens. I can tell when she's done something, because Google analytics tells me that a lot of people have visitors have found her profile by searching for her name (normally, people would search for other search key words).
If you want publicity you have to go and get it. But you don't necessarily need to engage PR agents or seek out journalists. You just need to put yourself out there and iStadia is a great mechanism for that (by blogging, writing articles, and using the forums/clubs) . I have to say, too, that since we created different levels of membership, my visibility has gone up further, because my PremiumPlus membership gives me additional tools to help me - such as a personalised profile title (good for searches), profile summary (good for getting people to click on your link from search engines), and links to all of my latest posts from my profile (because I've very active, the "spiders" come back to my profile more regularly to get updates).
So, if you want publicity, you might want to consider upgrading. But even if you don't, being more active on iStadia will help. If you have upgraded, and aren't using it to it's advantage (it isn't just media enquiries that you'll get) then what are you waiting for?
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P.S. I'll be directing more media requests to the Media exchange club on iStadia (or to people in my network) so be sure to join. I'll also advise people so search the business finder (perhaps it should be the professional finder), so check your personal settings and make sure you are listed (no extra cost).
Rob Robson
iStadia - Networking for Sport & Exercise Community
Is Olympic Sponsorship Worth the Money?
Global corporations such as Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson and Adidas, along with Chinese businesses like China Mobile and Bank of China have paid a total of $850 million to be official sponsors of the Beijing and Turin Olympic Games.With Western economies slowing down, one of the main aims of this spending spree is to gain a foothold among China's middle class (numbering approximately 250 million).
But research by the China Marketing Research Group, reported in Forbes Magazine, has investigated the effectiveness of Olympic sponsorship as a tool for developing brand awareness, brand loyalty and sales. This research suggests that on these measures, Olympic sponsorship may not be justified.
The vast majority of Chinese consumers interviews “did not care” who the official sponsors were, and “did not consider official Olympic sponsorship” when buying. According to the publishers of the research, it is more important for multinationals to reach out to Chinese consumers by fitting “their image of the ideal life” and focusing on longer-term brand image than looking for a quick Olympic fix. Indeed, the research appears to contradict a prevailing belief that Chinese consumers and not brand loyal and would be easily swayed by association with the Olympic Games.
An example of this insight is that consumers, when asked to identify the official sponsor from a number of choices, often plumped for the brand that they considered “best” in the market – using already developed perceptions. Specifically, unless they could recall a specific Olympic ad for Adidas, they tended to believe that Nike (perceived to be the superior brand) was the official sportswear sponsor. Rather than splashing out on offical sponsorship, Nike appear to have gained from their association with Liu Xian, the World and Champion (and World Record Holder) in the 110m hurdles.
Perhaps this will lead to a change in tack over branding in China, and may even influence future decisions to pay huge sums to sponsor the Olympics. But then again, maybe the multinationals are not as naïve and narrowly focused as the publishers of the research imply. Perhaps for many of the Olympic sponsors, there are other strong benefits – for example the potential cost of allowing competitors to have the global platform provided by the games – or even the feelings of pride and prestige that may be experienced not by consumers, but by employees, of the official sponsors.
More sports marketing blogs & articles
Euro 2008: The economic cost of non-qualification
I was listening to Radio 4 this morning, and the item that got the greatest attention in the sports news (alongside the Champions League final build up and the climax to the Scottish Premier League) was Ed Smith's (former cricketer) new book, What Sport Tells Us About Life. I mean no offence to Mr. Smith when I say this, but it must have been a quiet day in the world of sport yesterday. I mean, I'm sure it is a good book and all that...
Anyway, it got me thinking. Surely by now, if England had qualified for Euro 2008 we'd be gearing up for a major spree of flag waving and beer consumption, and if Scotland (when will we qualify again) and Northern Ireland had just managed to get through qualifying, then the frenzy would have been all the greater. (Sorry Wales, but as a half-Welsh Scot - and I don't often tell people about that - you were never in the running.)So how much would have this have been worth? There's the beer sales in pubs and supermarkets, of course, and lots of naff little flags to stick in your car window, and the loss of revenue to bookies and travel providers, amongst many other businesses. Then there's TV and other forms of advertising. How much would advertisers have spent trying to get our attention during the tournament?
The Centre for Economic and Business Research put the economic cost of England's failure alone at around £1 billion. This is based only on comparisons with 2006 and 2004, and therefore does not consider the impact of not having Scotland and/r Northern Ireland at the tournament. Of course, Scotland's economy is a lot smaller than England's, and Northern Ireland's smaller still, but the prospect of multiple British teams playing in a tournament for the first time since 1998 surely would have had created more excitement, across the whole of the United Kingdom (well, maybe not Wales).
Then again, maybe it's worth it not to have to go through all of the references to 1966 over and over again....
Roll on the Olympics
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If Manchester United is the most valuable football (soccer) club in the world, which is the most valuable sports club?
Forbes magazine have valued Manchester United Football Club at £905m ($1,800m), making them the most valuable
football (soccer) club in the world, ahead of Real Madrid at £646m ($1,285m) and Arsenal at £603m ($1,200m) in third.I was interested in finding out which sports clubs/teams are the most valuable in the world. With a bit of digging (also from Forbes) I found out that in American Football, the Washington Redskins are worth $1, 423 million, making them the most valuable NFL team.
In Ice Hockey, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the most valuable NHL team, are worth a paltry $332m, and the most valuable NBA team, the New York Knick are only worth $592.
Even the most valuable baseball team, the New York Yankees, are not worth as much as Manchester United, at $1,200m.
Note that these valuations were not all made at the same time, but even still, it is unlikely that any of these teams are currently more valuable than Manchester United.
I guess that shows that despite the incredible marketing pull of the American sports, the fact that football is played and watched the world over, is what drives their value?
Join the world's sport and exercise community today!
Can this man make Twenty20 cricket the most popular team game in the world?
Texan Billionaire Sir Allen Stanford (as a 'Sir', I imagine that he's not really Texan) believes that he can turn Twenty20 cricket into the biggest team sport in the World and is putting his money where his mouth is.I can only imagine that his calculations are based on the popularity of the game in India and the increasing wealth of that country, rather than the likelihood of converting non-cricketing nations. Maybe the popularity of the Indian Premier league (IPL) hs got him all excited.
Has he overestimated the popularity of the game?
Has he underestimated the challenge he's set?
Is he a visionary?
Is he a marketing genius?
Or is he raving mad?
Here's the story on the BBC website.
What do you think?
Join the world's sport and exercise community today!
Just how fast can a swimsuit be?
It is interesting to note the furore over the latest Speedo swimsuit, the LZR Racer bodysuit. It has been designed with the help of NASA and, get this, apparently "aids streamlining and reduces skin vibration and muscle oscillation". It has welded, rather than stitched, seams, and is partly made from neoprene, so may increase buoyancy.Of course people are going to say that it has been responsible for 36 world records so far since its release 2 months ago, but there's another side to this story.
First of all, it is Olympic year. Athletes the world over are essentially 'jockeying' for position in the run-up to the games. Some of the major Nations have had their Olympic trials. The Aussies broke eight records at their trials. But even the best swimmers have to be at their best to qualify for the Australian team. LZR suit or no LZR suit. We've also had a European Championship, and a World short course championship. That's a lot of fast swimming in a small amount of time.
And 18 of these records were set at the World short course champs. Now, I know that there were some real stars that didn't turn up, but there were plenty of great swimmers there, in great shape after - or before - attempting to qualify for the Olympics and - perhaps importantly - treating it as a bit of fun. That makes for fast times. The Olympic finals will be a whole lot more serious, more about winning than anything else - including times.
Perhaps Speedo realised that the stage was set for them to release their new costume, and planned the release to coincide with this period of frenetic competition. No? Maybe the release date was an accident and not a clever piece of marketing at all?
We'll never know what difference the suit can make until there are controlled tests and the results released. But that may now be impossible anyway, if the swimmers believe that it will make a difference. As Kirsty Coventry, one of the world record breakers said "Getting this suit on for me is a lot about mentality, having that extra edge and confidence, but it's about the swimmer at the end of the day."
