Swiss sports sponsorship on course for growth

550 participants and 60 speakers came together for the anniversary meeting of the Swiss sports business on November 19/20, 2014 at the Lucerne Culture and Convention Center. Here are the seven most important facts about the congress:

1) Sponsorship expenditure amounts to CHF 640 million. This means that 15.2 percent of advertising expenditure in Switzerland goes on sponsorship. Pascal Schulte, Director Sales Germany & Switzerland, Repucom, knows that 60 percent of this is sports sponsorship.

2) Credit Suisse increases awareness by 15 percent. To activate its sponsorship of the Swiss national football team, Credit Suisse produced 300,000 "T-Flags" for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Under the motto "We are all the team", Switzerland cheered on its footballers. One of the most successful campaigns: the names of 20,000 bank employees were presented on an oversized T-flag in Zurich, and the campaign was shown to the Swiss team in Brazil to motivate them, which Sandra Caviezel, Head of Sponsoring Private Banking & Wealth Management at Credit Suisse, sees as a positive outcome: A significant increase in awareness (from 36 percent to 51 percent) and the most successful Swiss company in terms of communication at the World Cup.

3) Brack.ch: 500 million media mentions bring 30% growth: Brack.ch started 2013 with a name recognition value of 55% in Switzerland and its aim was to improve awareness and image by sponsoring the Challenge League. Although the third-largest team league in Switzerland is not shown on free TV, the online retailer achieved half a billion media mentions through regional sponsorship activations, the promotion of young talent, ticket competitions and cooperation with local media and Teleclub. Markus Mahler, Managing Director of BRACK.CH, concludes that awareness in Switzerland has improved by 72% and that sales among private customers have increased by 30%.

4) Wrestling king Sempach: "More opportunities for comparison with sponsors": Sempach Matthias and Roger Fuchs, owners of Fox Sports Management, gave an insight into the marketing strategy of the wrestling king. For Roger Fuchs, the search for sponsors after Sempach's victory at the Swiss National has not become a foregone conclusion: "It doesn't get any easier to find suitable sponsors just because of individual victories. But the momentum must be used. More inquiries doesn't automatically mean more sponsors, but there are more opportunities to draw comparisons." When asked how Sempach and Fuchs select sponsors, Sempach replies: "The sponsor has to be a good fit and I have to be able to stand behind the product." He emphasizes that Swissness and the seriousness of the sponsor play an important role. The two agree that the balance between good marketing and training can only be found as a team. Consultation between management and athletes is essential. In any case, Sempach's next goals are clear: to stay healthy and to compete in the next Swiss National Championships.

5) Digital revolution at the Olympics: Anthony Edgar, Head of Media Operations, IOC, reports in Sportmedien.forum on the digital revolution in reporting at the Olympic Games. He calls the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver "The first Two-Screen Olympics", while the 2012 Summer Olympics in London were the first "Social Media Olympics". He demonstrates the relevance of social media as follows: Facebook brings 20% of traffic to news sites, more than half of the BBC's coverage during the London Games was via social media. He concludes that better and more tailored content is needed for each device and platform, as user behavior and dwell time vary greatly.

6) New "cluster principle" at Uefa 2018: Magadalena Mazany, Sales & Marketing International, Uefa and Philipp Hasenbein, Managing Director Sportfive exclusively presented new hospitality concepts for Uefa Euro 2016. More flexible corporate hospitality packages are planned for the future. From the individual match to the comprehensive overall package, everything will be included. Another innovation will be UEFA's new sustainability concept, which includes various themes and campaigns such as public fan zones, fan embassies, respect and anti-racism projects as well as a European Football Championship as a completely non-smoking event. In addition, the matches in the group stage have been designed with a special "cluster" concept to give fans easy access to several games.

7) Shaqiri enjoys sponsorship commitments: Mathias Walther, Codama, together with Erdin Shaqiri, explained how brother Xherdan Shaqiri manages the balancing act between professional footballer and brand ambassador. The most common problem: maintaining brand conformity. A very important element for the FC Bayern star is his family, which now works as a "mini-company" for Xherdan's benefit, says brother Erdin. For Mathias Walther, sporting achievements (4 personal and 13 team titles) are the key to testimonial success. At the same time, he is aware of the fine line that brand ambassadors like Shaqiri tread: "The public perception is that if Xherdan plays badly, he automatically gets too much publicity. Few people realize that sponsorship commitments are a welcome change for him and that he really enjoys them."