In review: Weekend of Sport April 11 – 12, 2015

In review: Weekend of Sport April 11 – 12, 2015

In a rare weekend where Football didn’t command centre stage, we’ve taken a look back

at some of the events that captured our sporting nation and the brands that maximised fan passion.

• The Grand National achieved the highest average audience of the weekend, with an average of 8.2 million tuning in to watch Leighton Aspell secure his second consecutive

victory and Crabbie's storm ahead on the brand exposure stakes.

• The Manchester derby drew the same average audience as BBC’s coverage of the Masters Day 4, even though the match was broadcast on pay-to-view service, Sky. The Masters would have likely secured higher Audiences had Spieth not run away with things.

• The Women’s Boat Race justified its new televised status, drawing an average audience of 4.4m vs. the Men’s 6m.

Read on for commentary on the brands that caught our attention including Crabbie's, Under Armour, Newton, Barclays, Nike and Adidas…. If F1 is your thing, we’ll be following up

tomorrow with an F1 sponsorship review.

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The Manchester derby may have drawn the same average audience as BBC’s coverage of the Masters Day 4 but… the Masters’ audience was sustained over a much longer programme! (Consider the audience as the area under the

graph lines). NB. The golf was also shown on Sky, so the total audience will be slightly higher than that shown below.

The Crabbie's Grand National

After tuning in to Channel 4’s Grand National coverage for anything in exceeding 10 minutes,

you would have been hard pushed not to notice who the title sponsors where. Crabbie's, seemed to police their naming rights with the respect Barclays struggle to maintain in the football columns, and their logo was copied and pasted onto every available surface.

There is no question about it. Crabbie’s successfully dominated the National coverage. A

brand that is still well in its infancy and only its 2nd year of the Sponsorship, Crabbie's is making its mark on the Grand National. The sponsorship fit is also highly commendable, resonating a lot with the audience, who are notably far removed from your typical Horse meet goer, typically 40+ yr old men. The National pulls in a younger audience, both at Aintree and on the TV so it’s only fitting that a brand like Crabbie's took over title sponsorship from John Smiths in 2013.

Sales of the drink no doubt increased on Saturday, with pink fix complimenting the green backdrop of the Crabbie's billboards (and it’s no surprise when a 20cl bottle of Moet was £20 in the stands!) Outside of Aintree’s blustery winds Brits were shrouded in sunshine, and Crabbie's took it’s place as a summer drink. To quote a mate of Simon Hearn: ‘first beer garden day of the year means the first Crabbie's of the year’.

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Jordan Spieth & Under Armour

Relatively new to the game, Under Armour are increasing their footprint as a brand in golf. In

2013, when first becoming noticed as a prodigious talent, Jordan Speith told Forbes that he joined the Under Armour stable of athletes ‘because he felt the company’s core characteristics (aggressive, slick, classic but athletic) aligned with his own.’ Speith ensured that Under Armour were by far the most prominent brand represented at the 2015 Masters, and his stunning performance clearly ties back in to these characteristics.

Under Armour intended to fight against Nike and Adidas on all fronts, and Speith has announced himself as a credible focal point for the brands efforts in golf. Despite strong performances for the best part of 18 months, Speith is still relatively unknown to non-avid golf fans – especially with regards to his personality. Under Armour have a huge opportunity to become central to his story, build his profile and become synonymous with him as Nike have

done so successfully with Woods in golf and other athletes in several sports. The immediate reaction to his triumph from Under Armour has been fairly quiet – it will be fascinating to see how Under Armour activate their relationship going forwards. It will be interesting to see how they grow over the next few years and whether they can get a greater market share and knock down a few of the bigger brands like Nike or Adi.

www.octagon-uk.com | T: 020 7862 0000

2 Waterhouse Square, 140 Holborn London, UK EC1N 2AE

Nike Advert Ft. McIlroy & Woods The Nike advert with Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods stormed the viral charts last week – an excellent and compelling Goosebumps video! Winning them the advertising battle amongst the golf brands on Sky. A well-executed advert that pulls on the heart strings and emotions of sports fans, and linked the 2 biggest stories going into the Masters; The return of Tiger and the potential making of Rory Mc. They showed they still have what it takes and used their assets

well. They had limited competition though (see Your Golf Travel below)

The video could have had more impact if the on the field performance matched the success of the adv. Nike would have relished the fact that Tiger and Rory were paired together for the final round… However, the pairing became a bit of a damp squib, with neither of them making any sort of meaningful move over the first 7 holes, and then Tiger falling away later on

in the round.

More on the Masters… Barclays continues to reap the benefits of its relationship with Phil Mickleson. Whether in purple, pink, white or black over the weekend, a well-positioned, well coloured logo goes a long way. Matsuyama achieved similar awareness for Lexus, Lee Westwood did his bit for

changing brand perceptions of Dunlop and Ricky Fowler sported the ‘must have’ accessory of the weekend in the form of the retro Puma cap. Unfortunately Mutual of Ohama (Poulter), British Airways (Rose) and Waste Management (Charley Hoffman) missed out on valuable ROI by no following suit.

The Boat Race The investment house brand, Newton, arguably receiving better awareness during the live TV coverage of the Women’s Boatrace than its parent company, BNY Mellon, who sponsor the

men’s race. A more relaxed approach to branding on boats and clothing combined with enhanced riverside branding of Putney’s many boathouses gave the city firm the upper hand and with TV audiences peaking at 5m for the Women’s race (6m for the men’s) the ROI for Newton will far exceed that for BNY Mellon.

www.octagon-uk.com | T: 020 7862 0000

2 Waterhouse Square, 140 Holborn London, UK EC1N 2AE

Adidas & MUFC

Adidas sponsorship directors would have breathed a big sigh of relief at the weekend… you could even argue that the emphatic victory over Man City secured adidas the biggest brand win of the weekend and for a partnership that hasn’t commenced yet!!

Winning the derby and turning Manchester red again after a prolonged period of blue, United’s run of form continued andf it looks like LVG has finally found his best team (and weirdly it includes Young and Fellani, something no-one would have thought at the start of the season!)

Adidas will replace Nike as Manchester United’s technical partner at the end of the current season in widely reported, eye watering £75m p.a agreement. Despite the Club’s unrivalled reach, executives at Adidas may have justifiably started to worry about the effect of the team’s performance since the deal was announced last summer (and when negotiations began long before). In their ruthless dismantling of their fiercest rivals on Sunday these fears were largely extinguished. Champions League Football is secured, ensuring maximum eyeballs on the team and a return to the Club competing amongst ‘the best of the best’ in Club Football. More importantly perhaps is the renewed positive feeling around Old Trafford and the sense of optimism that such a win will bring. The marketing platform afforded to Adidas for next season suddenly becomes much more impactful – optimism is one of the most powerful emotions to connect to fan passion through, and Adidas can now credibly create a campaign that will tie in to this when they launch their first United kit this summer, which should help drive sales.

www.octagon-uk.com | T: 020 7862 0000

2 Waterhouse Square, 140 Holborn London, UK EC1N 2AE

Thank You

Tim Collins

Managing Director

Octagon UK

@tc69

Simon Hearn

Senior

Account Manager

@hearnsimon

Daniel Haddad

Senior

Account Manager

@danhaddad86

Charlotte Kew

Senior

Account Executive

@Charlotte_Kew

www.octagon-uk.com | T: 020 7862 0000

2 Waterhouse Square, 140 Holborn London, UK EC1N 2AE

Jack Connor

Senior

Analyst

Futures S+E