Rugby League told to play to its strengths ... but World Cup still waiting for sponsors

[Dave T]

In the sector that I work in I think there could be real upsides for a business.

 

For example, say a relatively new banking organisation like Sainsbury's Bank sponsored the tournament or another RL event, they could get a fair bit out of it.

 

Firstly, awareness - whilst they have a massive brand in Sainsbury's already, many are unaware that they have a bank, so they are a medium sized company that would get some awareness out of this through BBC and Premier coverage.

 

Sales - RL fans need home insurance, car insurance, Personal Loans, Credit Cards etc. and I actually think you could target direct sales through channels such as; using the RFL mailing list for Direct mail, email campaigns, programme advertising (directly for products rather than brand), pitchside advertising, use of RLWC website plus other RFL sites.

 

Loyalty - as they work with a rewards partner (Nectar) they are pretty big on loyalty, you will see it mentioned on pretty much every bit of PR - well sport sponsorship is a great way of helping to build this with potential customers.

 

Comps/partnerships - they could reward their existing customers with discounted tickets or even giving their sponsors allocation to loyal customers they have - they could even limit this to people who live near grounds. On the flip side, the RFL could sell tickets to SB customers at a discount.

 

I think a company like this could invest a couple of hundred thousand pounds and get a hell of a lot out of it. Even if the direct sales didn;t materialise, it would be a relatively low marketing cost.

[Dave T]

Presumably someone is suggesting all this to these type of companies?

You'd like to think so mate, although it is difficult to approach everyone. I'm sure my company hasn't been approached (not the company mentioned above I should add) but if I'm honest I'm not sure who would make the first move on this kind of thing, as usually we have our agencies proposing this kind of thing.