SPORT! NO CHANC
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Haulage and sport might not seem natural bed fellows, but a number of companies in the industry have been at the forefront of sports sponsorship. What used to be a passing interest is now big business and inevitably many of the biggest deals are linked with the national game.
Football
If a self-confessed non-footie fan such as Eddie Stobart has signed up to sponsor local football team Carlisle United, you can be sure he has good financial reasons.
Ten years ago sports sponsorship was pretty much limited to supplying the local football team with a new set of shirts or providing a match ball. Particularly daring firms might have paid to have a horse or greyhound race named after the company, but in the main it was a low-key affair.
Today sports sponsorship in the UK is valued at £280m, and that figure is going to increase, according to Bob Peach of the Sports Council. "We have seen phenomenal growth in this sector," he says. "Companies have suddenly woken up to the opportunities sponsorship can bring."
This certainly seemed to be the case when CM watched West Ham play Liverpool as the guest of Hammers' sponsor, Iveco Ford truck dealer Dagenham Motors. Dagenham got involved with West Ham in 1992 when the club had fallen to the First Division and the existing sponsor had pulled out. "We came in at a uncertain time for the club, but almost as soon as we did it all seemed to take off," says IP
Dagenham Chairman David Philip. He never misses a home game and, despite admitting he used to be an Arsenal fan, says sponsoring West Ham has become a central part of Dagenham's business." We put in about £400,000 a year and the coverage we get is fantastic," he says. Looking around the ground it's difficult not to agree. You can't move at Upton Park (West Ham's stadium) without seeing the Dagenham Motors name.
But this is not just the whim of a man who likes his football. Philip says Dagenham's sponsorship deal was recently valued at £4m. "Every time we are on TV our name is visible," he explains. "Anyone opening the sports pages on a Sunday morning to read match reports sees our name and anyone walking near the ground will see 10,000 fans all wearing our shirts We get good value for money."
The other side of the coin is corporate entertainment. At each game, the dealer entertains a group of 45 customers and potential clients. On the night we joined them a diverse bunch including a number of celebrities was tucking into canapes, dinner and a free bar. "It's a good place to get to know customers as well as give the staff a good day out," says Philip. "Quite often we give the whole box over to the staff as a way of saying thank you for the hard work they put in over the year."
Many tong suffering England fans will probably be surprised to hear that there is a company out there prepared to pay Lim a year to be associated with Terry Venables' team. Roadside assistance specialist Green Flag (formally known as National Breakdown) signed a four-year/4m deal to sponsor the England team in February and, despite the team's recent performances, the new sponsor is said to be "delighted" with the deal.
Green Flag sponsorship manger Jonathon Pearson says the whole exercise is designed to raise awareness of the new brand name: "We changed the name quite significantly and were looking for an opportunity to get the new name across to the public," says Pearson. "The contract forms the main focus of our marketing strategy. All the home games are called Green Flag Internationals and we cover Wembley in advertising hoardings. We also supplement our coverage with the guaranteed 24 player appearances each year around the country."
Like Dagenham Motors, Green Flag takes its clients to the games, and also invited the winners of customer competitions: it gets 180 tickets for every England game.
Not every sponsorship link between haulage and football is on quite such a grand scale, however: parcels carrier hiterlink Express has signed up to sponsor the Midlands Football Alliance for an annual outlay of just £33,000
Power boating
Football isn't the only game in town. Birmingham-based international haulier Chambers & Cook has been sponsoring power boating for 10 years. It started as the hobby of owner Pat Blackburn but was quickly hijacked by his son Paul.
What started as a bit of weekend boat movement soon developed into a major obsession—and the company's involvement is no longer restricted to traditional sponsorship deals. Paul has been runner-up for the past three years in the Formula Three World Series and he's now looking for a drive in Formula One.
During the season the boat competes as far afield as the Lebanon and throughout Europe. In fact the sponsor is now sponsored: "We get considerable help from our sponsors, Castro!, Iveco Ford and P&O European Ferries," says Paul. "The main problem is time. As we have become more professional it has cost the firm less and less." Paul has recently taken over the day-to-day running of the firm from his father and has to divide his time between running a major international haulage firm and competing at the highest level. But he stresses that the racing has helped the business: "We will take clients along to see the racing and it always goes down well, especially in Europe where power boating is more popular," he says.
Motor sport
There has always been a natural alliance between the motor industry and motor sport. The industry has always tested new products on the race track but Dunlop's marketing manager Bob Heywood stresses that it is also done for sound commercial reasons.
Dunlop supports the Kenny Roberts Yamaha motorcycle racing team as well as a number of car racing championships—in particular the Rover GTi Championships and Turbo Cup. "Pound for pound we get excellent value for money out of the deals," he says. "We are trying to sell a pretty boring product here, and the image of racing cars or bikes is very strong. The message is, we can make a tyre good enough for the track and the tyre the customer is putting on his car is equally good.
The common theme between the various sports and their sponsors seems to be that sponsorship is good for business. Hauliers, possibly more than any other businessmen, need to present a good image to the public and potential customers, Whether ifs supporting the local football team or even a local community project, sponsorship sends the right sort of message about your firm. As well as winning business, the right sponsorship deal might win the company a few friends in the local community—and that could have all sorts of benefits when it comes to getting on with the neighbours.
O by Miles Brignall