The Industry Column – 25th September

With around 1000 days to go until the curtain rises on London 2012, Vange Kourentis of sports media agency Sports Revolution argues that it’s time for sport marketing to break out of a ‘locker room’ mentality.

I was thinking about the Olympics the other day, calculating how old my son will be in 2012 and mentally ticking off the events we’ll need tickets for.

But then I started thinking of work, and, with ‘only’ around 1000 days to go, I began to ponder what could happen – what needs to happen – in the sports media industry in that time.

One thing is for sure. There will be a marketing rush into sport. From tea-bags to televisions, every brand will be clamouring for a sporting connection.

But to stand out from the crowd, the wise ones will know they need to take an especially intelligent, carefully planned and well-integrated approach.

For us in the sports media business, it’s a superb opportunity, but it’s also something we need to get right, and be prepared for.

It still surprises me how much sports marketing is often treated as a separate and less sophisticated silo in the marketing plan.

So much sponsorship is still one-dimensional badging, rather than truly joined-up thinking with a wider communications strategy. And, to be fair, our industry has not offered brands the kind of media intelligence and consultancy they need to achieve this.

But that’s changing. The industry is raising its game. Properly media-led sports sponsorship consulting, combining high-level media intelligence and communications planning with sports marketing expertise, is at hand.

Brands can now truly plan and assess their investment in sport, and ensure that the old style of sports sponsorship – the so-called ‘chairman’s wife’ syndrome – is a thing of the past.

Vange Kourentis is commercial director of Sports Revolution. He is also director of the sports sponsorship consultancy SMG Sports, a joint venture with Starcom MediaVest Group UK.