Corporate Organizations and Intellectual Property Owners Forge Compromise

The “Beyond Football” Sponsorship Seminar which held at the MUSON Centre on October 14 2009 has come and gone. But the memories continue to linger. Many passionate brand managers and content developers had defied the disagreeable weather on that fateful day to participate in the one-day seminar, just to lend their voices, and defend their different but equally enlightening points of view on the issues militating against the development of sponsorship management in Nigeria. From this singular act of defiance, it was quickly established that the subjects of corporate sponsorship and content (property) marketing were passion drivers for these progressive businessmen. The emotional appeal of the subject matter presented for discourse was also very obvious, in that, it took little time for observers to sense the intellectual cold war between the two principal parties at the seminar [independent content providers vs. the sponsors]. It may suffice to postulate that the battle line of wits was drawn from the onset, as property marketers charged against the sponsors with claims that their companies were not doing their best to invest in alternative sponsorship platforms. But the representatives of corporate Nigeria came prepared, accusing the content developers/ property marketers of not arming their sponsorship decision-making process with irrefutable facts based on valid research.

Having sensed the subtle rancour between the creative minds and money muscles, the facilitators of the seminar, quickly established their role as the ‘referees’ in this epic battle. In his opening remarks, the managing director of Connect Marketing Services aptly stated that the second annual Connect Marketing seminar, “Beyond Football” was inspired by the need to bridge the gap that was created by escalating tensions between property owners( content developers) and sponsorship property buyers (marketing/ brand managers)  establishing the role of his company as the formidable middleman addressing the cancerous issues mitigating against corporate involvement in developing alternative sponsorship platforms. Tunji Adenyika’s keynote address revealed the origin and causes of the underlining issues stifling the development of other viable platforms, and creating an unhealthy cluster around football-related properties. “Our mission is to open up, and grow investment opportunities in the area of sponsorship in Nigeria,” Mr. Adeyinka said, “to facilitate such investments by providing the stakeholders with irrefutable data churned out from up-to-date research and knowledge of the major passion drivers for consumers  thereby enhancing the relationship between property owners and sponsors”.

After Tunji Adeyinka’s keynote address, the seminar opened with various presentations from the scheduled speakers  Bimbo Ilo of Insight Communications spoke in place of Steven Mccarthy. Mr. Ilo presented a paper titled ‘Olympics Marketing: Looking Beyond Football’ which revealed the commercial potentials of other sports based on research findings from the Beijing Olympics. Joe Hundah of DSTV/ Multichoice Nigeria presented another paper that examined the understanding of sponsorship property transfer  insisting that professional sport is entertainment business, with interesting illustration of how the entertainment value of sports drives the business. Shola Lawson’s presentation dwelt on the sponsorship opportunities in the game of golf, going further to educate companies on the sponsorship theory of “investment vs. philanthropy”, maintaining that until sponsors redirect their perception from thinking that ‘sponsorship is philanthropy’ towards seeing sponsorship as a business investment, it would be difficult to reap the benefits presented by alternative sponsorship platforms. He cited golf as a perfect example of an under-utilized platform, revealing data that showed how some sponsors (in Nigeria) had hugely benefitted from their association with golf  saying that, “the game brings your brand into a relationship with the twin passions of successful golf enthusiasts/fans  their passion for sports and their passion for business, creating invaluable business networking opportunities for your brand”. He also urged companies to get actively involved (long term) with the development and upgrade of the properties/ content they sponsor, as opposed to putting down money on the short term.

The highlight of the seminar was the interactive forum between seasoned experts and members of the audience, where a panel of industry experts selected from the entertainment, media, sports, and marketing industries fielded posers from oftentimes irate participants who were eager to find answers to the nagging questions bordering on sponsorship. Amongst the panelists were Funmi Iyanda, Remi Ogunpitan, Brenda Nwagwu, Godwin Dudu, Bimbo Ilo, Shola Lawson, and Joe Hundah. The debate intensifies, with members of the audience directing posers at corporate organizations through their representatives in the audience. Amongst the multinational corporations and marketing organisations represented were: First Bank PLC, resented by Celine Lauder; GlaxoSmithKline, represented by their marketing director, Hannah Oyabanjo; Stanbic IBTC Bank, represented by their Head of Marketing and Communications, Izehi Kuye; Integrated Marketing Communications MD/CEO Daniel Kure; Media Craft Associates, represented by their CEO, John Elegushi.

Accusations that the decision making process of sponsorship activities are marred by the “man-know-man” philosophy were hauled at corporate organization and marketing organisations, to which Remi Ogunpitan (who is a content/property owner/developer) reacted to by positing that oftentimes business thrived on already established relationships, stating that corporate organizations are more confident doing business with individuals or organizations with a track record of quality service delivery. Fumi Iyanda’s standpoint was also in tandem with Remi Ogunpitan’s position; she clarified by saying that most times ideas that sound great on paper often fail to meet the quality requirements of the sponsors, hence the reason why most novel ideas are met with lines like “let’s see the finished work first before we decide whether to invest or not” from the sponsors. The corporate organizations had a strong defence. They presented the fact that most property owners don’t approach them with well researched facts to facilitate their decision, which made the issue of research one of the predominant determinants in any brand association exercise.

The general atmosphere that permeated throughout the seminar was the revelation that passion was big business in Nigeria. After the seminar, while the guests were being treated to lunch, many of them acknowledged the fact that the seminar was a huge success, but implored the organizers to make the seminar a quarterly seminar instead and annual event. In reaction, Connect Marketing stated that they are working actively to expand the topics of discourse to inculcate more alternative platforms of sponsorship other than sports, music, and television. The organizers concluded by noting that the areas of dance, culture, film, events, exhibitions, entertainment, and arts have revealed enormous brand association potentials, stating that their expert staff are currently working with professionals from both sides of the fence to forge new ways and mediums to enhance the viability and appeal of properties generated from these sectors for sponsorship investments.