How do you actually market a World Ski Championships, Christian Pirzer?
This year, the momentum in global sports marketing has pretty much run out of steam: 2017 is a break year for soccer. There are no World Cups or European Championships. There are no Olympics, either. That’s why the FIS World Ski Championships in St. Moritz were such a highlight. How well were they marketed? How much of its budget did the host city, St. Moritz, invest in a marketing showdown? How innovative were the sponsors? An analysis of the ski festival featuring exclusive comments from chief marketer Christian Pirzer of the Swiss agency Tridem Sports.
Of course, Red Bull was in the TV picture. Milka, too. But the two brands were only ever seen briefly. As a helmet sponsor or as a teat bottle signet. The big stage of the Alpine World Ski Championships in St. Moritz belonged to others. A total of nine brands played the leading roles as main sponsors at the slope festivals in the canton of Graubünden. Longines, Lindeberg, Ochsner, Helvetika, Raiffeisen, Caffè Latte, BKW and Pirelli sat in the very front row. They were the "Main Sponsors" of the 44th Alpine FIS Ski World Championships. Longines & Co. occupied all the advertising boards, start numbers and gate flags. Only one brand came out even bigger: presenter Audi. As usual - and learned from the public - the four rings with the claim "Home of quattro" occupied all the start ramps, slope balloons and finish lines. Audi was also integrated into the official FIS World Cup logo. Striking brand message all over the world under the famous St. Moritz lettering.
For 14 days, St. Moritz was the focus of world sporting interest. And rarely before have the sponsors shown off their brands with so much special budget, creativity and sustainability. Here are a few examples:
- Longines presented a new spectacular time and pace measurement for the World Championship races. The notorious "free fall" (45 degree drop) was used to determine the starting speed of the racers. After seven seconds, this was usually already a speed of 140 km/h. Played live into the TV picture, with an additional speed display during the race, the main sponsor thus provided TV pictures with new infotainment. Longines also organized, among other things, the race of the Future Ski Champions 2017. 13 girls (up to 16 years) from 13 nations were at the start. The winner's national ski association was able to enjoy a $20,000 grant.
- National sponsor Swisscom had taken up a larger space on the Swiss team's race suits, with tiny photos of hundreds of fans and customers printed on them.
- Exclusively in sales, main sponsor Ochsner (part of the German Deichmann Group) had launched an extensive merchandising program (e.g. cuddly mascot Moritz for CHF 19.90).
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Read the full article by Peter Ehm in the current Werbewoche 4/2017 of February 24, 2017. Not yet a subscriber? Here you get the license to read.
