Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Marketing and sport: a tricky situation

The latest news from the Tour de France are a very bad sign for cyclism and for sport.

To recap:

- the former leader of the Tour was found positive to a banned drug
- the two major german TV Stations immediately stop to broadcast the race
- the new hero of the Tour, and the favourite racer at the beginning of the race, was found positive to testosterone

All this in a race who claimed to be the cleanest one.
Most of the sponsors will probably withdraw their money for the next season.

Is this story limited to cyclism?
I'm afraid not. And if I was a marketing manager who put money in sport events I would worry about it.
Who can reassure me that my brand is not linked to a doped athlete?
How badly my brand can be hurt by such a correlation?

If you were is such a tricky situation, how would you react?
Withdraw?
Resist?



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Withdraw and not come back for a long time. What's the point of sponsorship when credibility and popularity is low? You act as any reasonable advertiser, and redirect your budget to other avenues that provide a better return on investment.

gianandrea said...

Mario, thanks for the comment.
But what if you should stay there and commit to a clean team, putting up a campaign about the cleanest team?
Sounds stupid? Maybe, but it could pay off.