RUGBY SPONSORSHIP:As the Magners League yesterday became the RaboDirect PRO 12, JOHNNY WATTERSONlooks at how the name conforms with global trends
THE FIVE Olympic rings designed in 1913 by the modern Games founder, Baron de Coubertin, are as they ever were. The rule of thumb in sports marketing is that unless it’s an iconic symbol or name, it will be changed to suit the evolving needs of a particular market.
Yesterday’s announcement that the rugby event formerly known as the Magners League has become the RaboDirect PRO 12 represents a move from old-fashioned league nomenclature to a modern name with a twist. It is what style gurus of market placement call a clipped name and descriptive too. Timeless Magners has given way to efficient RaboDirect.
The PRO 12 tagged onto the back suggests too that the longer name will, in time, truncate but just how that happens is anyone’s guess. Are we looking at what will commonly be known as the PRO 12 League, a professional competition with 12 teams involved.
Marketing stylists might like the fizz of PRO 12, although maybe not RaboDirect. It is the way many competitions have gone. Zippy, modern and of its day, it follows global changes to the naming and construct of many competitions, that have evolved or were wholly devised as sponsorship juggernauts.
In the Southern Hemisphere Super Rugby or Super 15 evolved from the original concept of Super 10 as more franchises signed up. The modern competition was a response to the changing political scene in South Africa when apartheid ended and the game was turning professional in 1995.
The naming rights for the Super Rugby competition are sold separately in each country. In New Zealand, Investec Bank has naming rights starting this season and in South Africa telecommunications carrier Vodacom has naming rights, while in Australia, naming rights have not yet been awarded.
Tradition in sport no longer seems important. The governing factor has become a dedicated audience and television interest. Cricket and golf provide stark examples of placing the right product in the right market at the right time. In American tour golf the evolving Fed Ex Cup, first awarded in 2007, ensures the brand name is aired weekly as golfers jockey for positions throughout the season. It provides an ongoing, unfolding competition within the regular PGA Tour and adds a climax and a pot of gold for the winner. Last season Jim Furyk picked up a $10 million (€6.9m) cheque for an event that was only four years old.
The Indian Premier League, or the IPLT20, sprang from a conversation at Wimbledon during the tennis championships in June 2007 between Lalit Modi, the former vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Andrew Wildblood of the International Management Group (IMG).
IMG spotted the perfect vehicle. The franchise tender process began in December of that year. February 2008 saw a frantic player auction, something that had never before been witnessed in cricket. The start date for the competition was on April 18th of that year in Bangalore. In 2010, the 10-team IPL became the first sporting event to be broadcast live on YouTube in association with Indiatimes. Its brand value is estimated to be about €2.5 billion in just its fourth season.
That’s a long way from the RaboDirect PRO 12. How it shapes the competition and uses it to gain a platform over the next four years of its sponsorship will be just as important as buying into the venerable Celtic League. As the competition’s chief executive John Feehan said: “The PRO 12 encapsulates the structure, growth and energy of our competition.”
