Our news MEC Access launches report for sponsorship and partnership success

Tuesday 2 June 2009

MEC Access launches report for sponsorship and partnership success

Game Change report reveals how partnerships can deliver high ROI for brands

MEC Access, a leading partnership marketing agency specialising in sport, entertainment and cause (www.mecaccess.com), today releases a report advising brand-owners on how to create successful and winning partnerships.

With a projected investment of around $44 billion forecast for 2009, global partnership spend is bucking the current trend in the face of a decline in traditional above-the-line advertising. There are unprecedented global partnership opportunities for brands including the first football World Cup in the African continent and the Olympic Games returning to London. Annual events such as the Oscars, the MTV Video and Music Awards and Earth Day will also continue to grow. Partnership marketing is a complex part of the marketing mix. In an ever changing landscape for brand owners, with digital and content opportunities increasing, partnership marketing is more than just about simple brand association. It is about understanding the strategic reasons behind partnerships to ensure brand owners have significant opportunity, working with the right partners, to fully explore the commercial potential of partnerships.  

The report provides recommendations ranging from contract negotiation and sponsorship activation through to what this means for global brands and global partnerships to make them both effective and accountable. It also looks at how brands can deal with growing media fragmentation especially as London 2012 draws ever closer.

The report outlines clear and concise guidelines – backed by proprietary MEC Access insights and expertise – to steer marketers to partnership success. Offering a comprehensive list of the ten most effective principles for successful partnership programmes, it helps focus marketers on the importance of understanding a brand and its challenges, programme research and long-term strategy, amongst other key insights, before entering into a sponsorship opportunity.

Jeremy Clark, managing director Europe, Middle East and Africa, MEC Access, said: “Partnerships are a complex marketing business with huge potential to harness consumer passion and build meaningful relationships with a brand’s target audience, it is no longer a luxury discipline, but a $44 billion industry that continues to evolve as digital and content opportunities emerge.  The playing field has changed. Partnerships have the potential to solve media fragmentation issues; but only with the right strategy, activation and evaluation can these be successful for brand-owners. Finding the right partner to advise, support, plan and evaluate is critical to the success of any partnership.”