Sports sponsorship. We all know that they’re an incredibly valuable way of increasing a brand’s exposure and authority. But once your brand’s name is on that football shirt, F1 car or as an official partner with profile stadium rights, is that it?
Then it’s time for us to step in. We specialise in identifying activations that help brands hit their objectives, deliver that sweet, sweet ROI, and really make sports sponsorships investment sweat.
This year, one of our long-standing clients, Hisense, partnered with the incredibly influential (and much-awaited) UEFA EURO 2020. Now you may think, “Great! Logos will be plastered everywhere. The Hisense name will be broadcast live across the nation. Job done.”
Not for the Hatchlings. We took Hisense’s sponsorship in the UK market and ran with it, resulting in not just national TV exposure for the Hisense branding, but blanket national media coverage with an additional combined reach of over 200 million, engaged influencers and stakeholders, and fostering long-term support from our key media contacts.
Here’s some top line examples of how we did it…
Game Plan
Just like football, to maximise a sports sponsorship you need a game plan. Tactics. A strategy. A “Jose” masterclass if you will – or to appease our Leeds office, a “Bielsa” masterclass. The brief was to maximise the rights via PR and fan engagement and drive awareness and understanding of the brand’s lucky chip creative campaign.
Golden Tickets
First and foremost, we turned our attention to tickets. With 18 months of no sporting events and access to exclusive hospitality tickets to the most talked-about event of the year, we knew that ticket invitations to Wembley would go down a storm with our contacts.
And so, in order to drive media coverage and that all-important positive preference for Hisense amongst our key media contacts – not just during the EUROs but forever – we invited the very best of the tech, lifestyle and news journos to join us in the Hisense’s lounge.
This generated immediate endorsement from our key contacts and better yet, gave us some quality face-to-face time with our top tier journalists which of course is invaluable for future product reviews and brand coverage opportunities..
Next up, we wanted to engage with the real football fans who were looking to upgrade for the tournament (and the new Premier League season) and so we devised a plan to launch a series of competition-based content with the renowned Mail Group.
By offering just one pair of tickets to the EURO 2020 final, we secured front page national paper presence for Hisense in the Daily Mail, as well as coverage in the Mail Online, the i paper and i News online – a combined reach of almost 90 million. Score. Not only did this include the ticket comp, but the content also included images of Hisense’s hero EURO 2020 TV and a news story from research we’d completed around fan superstitions to support lucky chip creative campaign profile. So, those people who missed out on the comp win had the Hisense TV front of mind when they were searching for a new screen.
The Little Black Book
Using tickets is one thing, but here at Hatch we have a very full ‘Little Black Book’ of sports contacts that we can tap into when we need. Ahead of the England v Czech Republic game, we worked with national sports press to run an interview with ex-pro, Paul Merson – Paul played and scored in the 1998 game against the Czechs. Not only did this offer genuinely engaging content for fans, but the Hisense brand was included throughout the 150+ pieces of coverage within the sports pages.
Utilising Our Assets
As part of the sponsorship, Hisense had access to the EURO 2020 trophy in the lead-up to the tournament. We decided to take it on a tour of key Curry’s PC World stores and invited fans to come along and have their photo taken with it…and buy a TV while they were there if they wanted to. Those who shared photos of their visit on social media had the chance to win a voucher to spend in store, which helped us drive two round of strong regional coverage in consumer strongholds.
Reacting to the Belle of the Ball
Following the viral video of Belle McNally receiving Mason Mount’s shirt at the semi-finals and media appearances on BBC Breakfast, we decided to make Belle Hisense’s “Lucky Chip” for the final match.
Working with managing director of Hisense UK, Howard Grindrod, the Hatch team invited the 10-year-old, her brother Mason and her father to join the Hisense team at the finals to make her dream come true.
This kind gesture led to coverage in The Sun and it’s Scottish and Irish editions, a mention on This Morning, an Instagram Reel on LadBible UK, and of course, one very happy little girl!
Final Results
The final match, which was broadcast across both the BBC and TV, saw a record breaking viewership on the Sunday night, peaking at 30.95 million UK viewers.
Naturally, this offered massive Hisense brand impact with branding rights being broadcast across the nation, but thanks to Hatch’s sponsorship PR and activation, we also secured multiple national paper coverage, creating a combined online reach of over 200 million and elevated media relations with our top tier journalists.
And whilst it may not have been the result on the pitch we were hoping for as a nation, it was certainly a win for Hisense and the Hatch team.
*Final whistle*
To speak to us about how to maximise any sport sponsorship your brand may be involved with, drop us an email at hello@hatch.co.uk
