Sports Marketing A Winning Brand Differentiation Strategy

Transcription

1 Sports Marketing A Winning Brand Differentiation Strategy KAREN HAKALA CFMP, SVP Marketing, Norway Savings Bank

2 Session overview Sports Marketing the opportunity build fans and fanatics! Bank Brand and Culture Alignment/Synergy Managing Celebrity Athletes an interesting addition to your resume! Sports Marketing Plan Measureable Results

3 About Norway Savings billion mutual bank, Founded in branches 300 employees Located in Western and Southern Maine Direct competition: 4 large, national/regional banks; 14 community banks and numerous credit unions Marketing Staff of four in the process of hiring a CRM Administrator

4 Sports Marketing the Opportunity Bank Marketing: Goal: Build a customer base Definition of a customer: One that buys goods or services: Goal: Seek to satisfy loyal customers Sports Marketing: Goal: Build a fan base of fanatics Definition of a fan: An ardent devotee; an enthusiast Goal: Create psychological identification with individuals and teams that goes beyond mere loyalty

5 New England Patriots Fanatics!

6 Sports Marketing Opportunities Differentiation: Athlete sponsorships offer a unique marketing opportunity. Spokesperson; brand ambassador; cool-factor Media Opportunities - From the positive media exposure to reaching consumers, the opportunity is pretty great.

7 Bank Brand, Culture Synergy 1. Does sports marketing align with/support your brand position? 2. Is sports marketing relevant to your brand, culture and customer base?

8 Bank Brand Review and Refresh Process: Brand Assessment: Market research, internal research Test campaign creative Campaign launch Post launch research (18 months/two years) Rinse and repeat steps.

9 Norway s culture & rebrand initiative Culture: Goal of building an achievement and support culture as well as a new, differentiated brand. Prior culture defined as power/role & top-down management has evolved to a new culture that fosters personal achievement in balance with teamwork support. Employees are empowered to make decisions as close to customers as possible.

10 Norway s culture & rebrand initiative Rebrand: I do not want typical bank advertising. Bob Harmon, President & CEO 2006.

11 Norway s culture & rebrand results: 2008: Best Place to Work in Maine, large company category 2009: Overall winner ABA Financial Marketing Award for the Colorful Solutions brand campaign

12 Norway s culture & rebrand results: 2009: Norway Savings sponsors Seth Wescott 2010: Seth Wescott wins his second Olympic gold medal 2011: Gold Level Well Workplace Wellness Council of America 2013: Best Banks to Work For American Banker & Best Companies Group

13 Norway s culture & rebrand results: 2013: Norway Savings adds Dave Cowens, Celtics legend and local athletes Angela Bancroft and Josh Kennison to the roster and launches sports team campaign 2016: U.S. National Freestyle Mogul Champion, Troy Murphy joins the team 2018: Troy Murphy Olympic Competitor PyeongChang

14 Are athletes a good fit for your brand? From Norway s perspective: Differentiation: While many athletes endorse products and companies globally, the combination of a Maine-based business and Maine-based athletes is less common. In Common brand and culture attributes: Key attributes of athletes symbolize the key attributes of the bank, its employees, its services: Hard work, commitment, expertise, teamwork, trust and partnership Authentic: It s not unusual for a celebrity to align with a company. What makes this association so special is that it s such an authentic fit. That s because we share the same values we both support nonprofits and our communities.

15 Vetting Before signing the deal, research the athlete as much as possible Celebrity spokespeople can sometimes present difficulties Those are some of the risks you go with. When and if something happens, you evaluate where you are in your marketing campaign, as to whether to stay with it or pull it. Any fallout from an incident mostly puts a crimp in marketing, but we feel it wouldn t really harm the reputation of our business.

16 Partnership Agreements Term typically two to three years (investing in assets) Commitments & expectations: Paid appearances how many? Cost per appearance Brand logo use for example: helmet, skis/snowboards, logowear Autographs Production number of hours per year for video, photos, voiceover, etc Restrictions other sponsored brands Bank customer

17 Sports Marketing Plan Outline 11. Strategy Objectives Creative Strategy 2. Sports Marketing Advertising Promotion Employee engagement & education Traditional Paid Media Sponsored Media Programs Other sponsorship opportunities Web Site micro site Social Media Public Relations Events/Paid Appearances 3. Results/measurement

18 Sports Marketing Plan Objectives Break through the clutter of bank marketing by creating a differentiating position Deepen audiences current understanding of the bank s brand Utilize athletes attributes to promote the bank s key attributes Incorporate athletes into the bank s product and brand advertising and social media channels Acquire new customers and accounts

19 Sports Marketing Plan Creative Strategy The Norway Savings sports marketing platform capitalizes on the strength and integrity of the athletes, inspiring the audience to want to be a part of the Norway Team. Concurrently, Norway Savings utilizes key attributes of the athletes to symbolize the key attributes of the Bank, its employees, and its services: Hardworking, driven Expertise Trustworthy, Fair Teamwork, Partnership Local, Maine These shared attributes help deepen the understanding of how Norway Savings provides colorful solutions.

20 Brand Promise: The Norway Savings Bank athletes, through their brand attributes, represent the high caliber of the bank, promising that if you team up with Norway, you can achieve anything and live a more colorful life.

21 Sports Marketing Plan Advertising Promotion Employee Education & Engagement Our employees are always the first to know before we launch a campaign Brand Summit Events create excitement and engage employees

22 Brand Summit Employee Education and Engagement

23 Sports Marketing Plan Traditional, paid media Television lends itself to sports programming/media buying Radio product ads Print product and image ads

24 Sports Marketing Plan Sponsored Media Programs Local television networks put custom sponsorship packages together to support the campaign and to help build awareness Ski & Snow Reports Financial Fitness A+ Athletes

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27 Mascots & Local Ski Area Sponsorships Other ways to build awareness

28 Sports/Ice Arena Naming Rights Other ways to build awareness

29 Shuttle Bus Wraps Other ways to build awareness

30 Bank Web Site Microsite Athlete bios Cross Sell Products & Services Landing page for social media and digital advertising

31 Social Media

32 Public Relations & Appearances Goal: Leverage media relations Efforts to extend publicity reach

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34 Sports Marketing Measurable Results What is the value of sports marketing? What is the ROI? Is it concrete? What is the investment time, dollars; other resources to build a successful campaign? What makes sense based on your strategy? Key metrics: Household growth Customer retention Campaign lift

35 Summary and Questions What have we learned? What s next? What questions do you have?

36 Thank you!