TYPES OF SPONSORSHIP 355sponsored the Rugby World Cup worldwide. It was estimated that, in the UK, 83% of all men
were exposed to the Heineken brand name, each of them at least 22 times.^36
Event sponsorship is also fl exible in achieving diff erent kinds of objectives. It can increase
awareness with actual and potential customers, and improve the company’s image and the
image of the company’s products. It is a tool in relationship-building and corporate hospitality,
it can be a platform for advertising campaigns, database building and sampling, and it is
effi ciently capable of avoiding advertising bans. For instance, as far as the latter is concerned,
in a 1984 survey it was – sadly – found that the cigarette brands that were most widely recalled
by children were those brands that were most commonly sponsoring televised sporting events.^37
On the other hand, event sponsorship and, more particularly, sports sponsorship have a
number of disadvantages and pose a number of threats. Spending large amounts of money on
sponsorship can cause trouble with employees, especially if they are not properly informed
about the relevance and economic justifi cation of the sponsorship strategy. A company spon-
soring a sportsman or woman or a team can alienate fans of the opponent.
Furthermore, unlike TV sets and newspapers, sportsmen and women lead their own lives,
and sometimes attract media attention that is not always favourable to the sponsor. Th e drugs
scandal revealed in the Tour de France of 1998 was not particularly welcomed by the teams’
sponsors, although Festina, the Spanish brand of timepieces and main sponsor of one of the
off ending teams, did not seem to suff er too much from the negative publicity. But even without
such incidents, if the team or the sportsperson does badly, this can refl ect negatively on the
sponsor’s image. Not surprisingly, a clean image is one of the main criteria on the basis of
which sports or sports teams are selected for sponsorship.^38 Finally, although sports sponsorship
can be used to transcend cultural, linguistic and geographic boundaries, some sports, like
bull fi ghting, camel wrestling and dwarf throwing, are unfi t for global brand sponsorship
because they are culturally unacceptable in a number of countries.Georges Leekens is one of the most famous soccer coaches in Belgium. He has been a player for several top Belgian
teams and, in 2012, the 62 year old coach had a track record of 20 years of coaching first division teams. From 2009
onwards, he had been coaching the national soccer team. In mid-May 2012, to everyone’s surprise, he announced
that he had decided to stop coaching the national team immediately because he had signed a contract with one of
Belgium’s top teams, Club Brugge. The Belgian Soccer Association was outraged that its national coach had ‘abandoned’
the national team just a few months before the qualifying campaign for the Brazil 2014 World Soccer Championships.
It called his decision unethical and distrustful. The sports media eagerly reminded the public of Leekens’ ‘jobhopping’
and ‘unreliable’ record.
For some time, the coach had been the endorser of PWC’s recruitment campaign ‘Move Forward’. In this campaign,
aimed at attracting those with potential, PWC emphasises key elements such as ‘trust’ and ‘responsibility’ and ‘a
career is not a false promise’. Only a few days after Leekens’ announcement, PWC decided to end its co-operation
with him and stated: ‘Following the news that Leekens resigned as the coach of the national soccer team, PWC
announces that our cooperation has ended. We regret his decision to abandon the national team, but we wish to
thank him for the productive cooperation and wish all the best for his further career.’ Apparently, PWC judged that
the behaviour of the coach was incompatible with the key message and positioning of the recruitment campaign,
and therefore decided that he was no longer a suitable endorser.
Famous people can be a powerful support for a campaign, not only because they are well-known and liked, but
also because of their characteristics and behaviour. However, sometimes they behave in ways that may be deemed
incompatible with the companies’ values, in which case they become a liability rather than an asset.^39BUSINESS INSIGHT
PWC ends contract with ‘unreliable’ soccer coachM11_PELS3221_05_SE_C11.indd 355M11_PELS3221_05_SE_C11.indd 355 3/6/13 4:07 PM3/6/13 4:07 PM