The ‘Berlin Wall’ of sport governance is crumbling…how long before other brands follow Adidas and make a break for the exit? Following Adidas ending its IAAF sponsorship deal early in the wake of the doping crisis, John Owrid, Chairman at Sporting Mouth, looks at the wider implications for brand sponsorship.
It isn’t much fun being a sporting body at the moment. Never before has the integrity of sport been so challenged on so many different playing surfaces as it is currently.
It has been a long time coming but the latest nail in the coffin comes in the form of Adidas terminating its sponsorship deal with the IAAF four years early, understood to be a direct result of the doping scandal sweeping sport.
Adidas isn’t having much luck with sports as of late. Only a few weeks ago, the brand’s chief executive Herbet Hainer criticised the way Manchester United are currently playing football. And while it hasn’t stopped them selling record numbers of United shirts, the associate values of the team’s performance apparently aren’t in line with the sponsor’s stripes.
This foreshadowed something that has been brewing for quite some time and following the latest move by Adidas to disassociate its brand from the IAAF, it raises a red flag that all is not entirely rosy in the world of sports sponsorship.
Corruption within governing bodies is rife and this begs some uncomfortable questions about the value of sponsorship. Very crudely, sponsorship works by providing brands with special access to something that contains positive associative values for their customers. Now that that association with the IAAF has been tainted, I don’t expect it will be long before we see a march of brands making a break for the exit.
In my opinion there is no doubt that the current sponsorship model is crumbling and its demise is currently very obvious. While sitting on the sidelines and with significant commercial irony, it is the brands that get involved in sponsorship outside of sport’s governing bodies that now have the opportunity to create initiatives that ooze credibility and have clear grass roots appeal.
There has, arguably, never been a better time for brands to look for alternative routes to engage with sports fans.
Originally posted NetImperative 25 January 2016