Sports Marketing Surveys SEA has found that the maturity of golf sponsorship and its potential audience in SE Asia, has a direct correlation to brand recollection with the consumer.
Recent consumer studies conducted at the 2005 Caltex Singapore Masters and the 2005 Enjoy Jakarta Standard Chartered Indonesia Open, SMS discovered a large disparity in the recall of the title sponsor.
In Singapore – a tournament with five years history and Caltex as the incumbent title sponsor – the average Singapore citizen had an almost 100% unprompted awareness of Caltex as the title sponsor.
Whereas in Indonesia – whose national open has been reinstated after a lengthy absence with fresh MNC sponsors, including Standard Chartered as the title sponsor, few respondents reckoned there was any sort of sponsor.
Furthermore, SMS discovered that the more Standard Chartered’s existing customers felt informed about the sponsorship, the closer they felt to the bank. This has created ripples in their marketing strategies, because for them title sponsorship of the Indonesia Open was a ‘toe-in-the-water’. But their investment has been ratified in year 1.
Across Asia, golf is finding a foothold as a viable marketing platform with sponsorship revenues increasing and tournaments proliferating.
But Asian sponsors will have to realize that ‘dipping in and out’ of any sponsorship is poor practice, as it is in the rest of the world. Continuity breeds brand empathy and in a business environment where relationships are key, a brand’s interactivity with its consumers will have to be at the top of its game if it is to win loyalty.
For more information contact: Ben Heyhoe Flint, Sports Marketing Surveys SEA
Email: Singapore@sportsmarketingsurveys.com
Sports Marketing Surveys www.sportsmarketingsurveys.com
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