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Sport is good for the health and helps build character.
Sporting heroes make good role models for children. They can also make
millions, or should I say billions, for corporate sponsors.
Nobody would argue with that, with evidence from around the world. In
Indonesia, however, it's a different story altogether.
For a large country, it has less to be proud of in sporting terms today
than perhaps it did a decade ago. Ask anyone for an explanation and all
the usual arguments are trotted out. Not a sporting people. It's too
hot. The sun is bad for the complexion!
Or, not enough money is put into sports. There are too many pressing
issues to worry about. But today's China contradicts these views.
The inescapable fact is that not many Indonesians are into sports or
formal exercise, in contrast, for example, to their sporting neighbors
in Australia. That's true in terms of percentages, but not in absolute
numbers.
Of all Indonesians above the age of 14, only 8 million exercise
regularly. Some 33 million have played a sport recently but only 7
million have been to see any sport in a stadium. But from the comfort
of the couch, 33 million have recently watched the country's favorite
sport, soccer, "live" on TV. That's a very large number, by any
standard. Unfortunately, most of the soccer watched is international
tournaments, not local. Yet, over 80 percent would like to buy products
made in Indonesia.
These observations are based on Roy Morgan Single Source, the country's
largest syndicated survey with over 27,000 Indonesian respondents
annually, projected to reflect 90 percent of the population over the
age of 14. That is a universe of 140 million people. The results are
updated every 90 days.
The simplistic conclusion for marketers looking to associate their
brands with sports is to sponsor a program like Liga Italia on local
television. Other than achieving visibility in yet another forum,
shallow association of this nature would achieve little else. Very
little goodwill would transfer to the brand.
In a country where over Rp 12 trillion in 2006 was spent by brands
advertising on TV alone, creating awareness isn't a challenge. For most
of the Top 100 brands advertised, awareness is likely be at
near-saturation levels, with the same over-exposed commercial appearing
ad nauseum.
Building brand equity is another dimension altogether, with very few
marketers equipped to measure it, much less monitor conversion to the
brand on a regular basis.
Imagine the power of Rp 1 trillion, a fraction of last year's
expenditure on television, channeled into the development of sport.
That's probably less than the wastage via overexposure of
advertisements. Such is the power of Big Business to act as good
corporate citizens, collectively. Even a small fraction from the annual
marketing budget of a major brand would go a long way for a club.
Supporting sports is not an act of charity, either; it is an essential
step for business at large to benefit from. The only way to develop
soccer, to take just one sport as an example, is to put serious time,
effort and money behind it. It needs to be a collective effort, and it
will take time to deliver results.
Creating a tournament just for the naming rights, then advertising the
tournament till it is burnt into every viewer's retina does little to
build real relationships with brands.
On the soccer pitch, players need to have the skills and abilities to
draw the crowds. That requires training and commitment. Unfortunately,
like most aspects of life, there are no short-cuts to success. To try
and con all of the people all of the time by advertising a trophy that
isn't worth winning, fought for by ill-equipped and sub-standard
players, is at best a shallow and foolish pursuit.
On the other hand, sponsoring and supporting a local soccer club,
putting real effort and money behind it, would pay rich dividends for a
brand continuously and over time.
If just eight non-competitive brands worked together with the national
soccer association, a meaningful contribution to the sport will have
been made by supporting at least eight clubs, consistently. Run
professionally, each of these clubs would be able to foster the
development of 20 professionals each, all adding up to the improvement
of national standards in the world's favorite game. The PR and
promotional opportunities for each brand are limited only by our
imagination.
If this sounds like the exclusive domain of Big Business, nothing could
be further than the truth. There are innumerable ways smaller brands
and businesses can contribute. Roy Morgan Single Source can monitor
conversion of consumers to sponsoring brands, quantifying the extent of
return on investment in each club, on a quarterly basis. That
contribution to the game of soccer would help turn sports sponsorship
into a science, to the advantage of both the sponsor and the sponsored.
With adequate support, a meaningful league would emerge, the dividends
measured in both material and emotional terms.
Replicating such a success with other sports and other brands would be
that much easier. Would the owners of the first eight brands please
stand up?.
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