The open seminar “Sponsorship in Sports: Advices of the Marketing Specialists for the Sports Content Right Holders” organized for the representatives of sports federations took place in Moscow in the building of the Olympic Committee of Russia by the RIOU and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation. During the event the representatives of the RIOU, the Committee of Business Activity in Sports Area of the CCI of the RF, members of the subcommittee of marketing and communications and the leading marketing and analytical agencies discussed the topic of sponsorship development as investments in the sports industry.
Sergey Barkhudarian, the head of the Publicis Media Sport & Entertainment and also the head of the subcommittee, told the viewers about the condition and problems of sports marketing in Russia, having elaborated on the opportunities for the sports right holders and the formats of cooperation with advertisers and marketing agencies, as well as on the requirements set by the potential advertisers towards the sponsorship packages developed by the sports organizations.
Sergey Glamazda, the development director of the Nielsen Sports international analytic company, elaborated on the methods of estimating advertising opportunities of sports events existing at the sponsorship and advertisement market for the potential advertisers and sports organizations.
“The sports organizations of our country are in crosshairs now. Everybody understands that it is required to actively work in order to expand the financial sources, but not everybody knows how to do this effectively. The sponsorship is still considered to be the patronage, not the investments of business companies into promoting their image, products and services by associating with sports events, teams and sportsmen. Therefore, the sports organizations do not have the skills of successful cooperation with potential sponsors of various levels; instead, they expect the ‘fan patron’ of their type of sports to appear among the owners or top managers of the companies or the state to support them either by money or by administrative and political influencing the business,” said Viktor Kudriavtsev, head of the department of educational program development of the RIOU, while beginning the seminar.
As a result of the meeting, the representatives of the federations wished to continue holding such seminars regarding the relevant sports management trends and issues next year.
