Every little helps…Tesco.
Tesco Mobile’s new promotional campaign has been out for a few weeks now and it has sponsorship at its heart. The campaign is an extension of the “I’d rather have x” creative where Tesco ‘customers’ ask for individual rewards.
The campaign would like us to believe that Tesco refrains from spending millions of pounds sponsoring a Formula One team, a Premiership football team or a golf championship so that it can provide more rewards for its customers. This is somewhat true as they do not currently have any such sponsorships, so it’s an easy claim for them to make. However, the claim is misleading.
Tesco’s is one of Britain’s biggest brands. The simple truth is that Tesco doesn’t need any of the brand awareness raising sponsorships highlighted in the advertisement. It does, however, need to continuously distinguish itself in a competitive retail landscape that sees the likes of Sainbury’s investing their marketing spend into a number of successful advertising campaigns featuring Jamie Oliver and Morrisons’ buying up every C-list celebrity in the land to push trollies across the country (literally in the case of Richard Hammond).
Contrary to the claims in the ad, Tesco has chosen to sponsor a big football team – arguably the biggest team in the country (no, not the mighty WHUFC) – England. Tesco is the official supermarket of the England football team. It also happens to be an official partner of the FA Women’s Premier League, The FA Women’s Premier League Cup, England women’s internationals and the FA Women’s Cup.
Before a brand chooses to include sponsorship as part its marketing strategy, it must first set out clear aims and objectives for what the sponsorship is required to achieve. This could include goals ranging from brand awareness, increasing sales, employee engagement, community engagement, corporate social responsibility, relationship management and corporate hospitality, improving brand favourability, etc etc.
It’s clear that the sponsorships that Tesco has undertaken are highly targeted at their core audience with activity focused around the major tournaments and big international games with the intention of increasing sales. But with one in every four pounds spent in U.K. spent at the supermarket, Tesco must feel the need to give something back to the community and have activated the sponsorship through initiatives such as the FA Tesco skills programme.
So although Tesco may not have spent millions sponsoring a Premier League team like Manchester United, they have invested in sponsorship with the national team, which wouldn’t have been cheap, but I’m sure they can afford it.
Here’s what the European Sponsorship Association had to say: http://news.hollis-sponsorship.com/news/tesco-mobile-ad-misrepresents-sponsorship-says-esa/
