SPONSORSHIP
HOW LEICESTER TIGERS PROVIDE ADDED-VALUE FOR COMMERCAL PARTNERS Adam Sandham, Partnerships Business Development Manager at Leicester Tigers, shares an insight into the club’s innovative approach and added value for commercial partners. The historic Leicester Tigers have become a stalwart of English rugby union, with a number of impressive records and achievements that hold them up as one of the best teams in operation throughout the Premiership Rugby era.
Their success on the pitch has led to effective commercial growth and with their forward-thinking ideas around positive relationships between themselves and their commercial partners, it can only be seen that this continues to flourish long into the future. What association do you seek to make between Leicester Tigers and the sponsor? As a club, we are all about our proud history and exciting future so when we are working with a partner we really want to transfer that over to them. At the moment, 26 | OTFF ISSUE 15 ★ APRIL 2021
we are all about the journey; obviously we have been going through a bit of a difficult time during Covid and beforehand on and off the pitch, we have now brought in Steven Borthwick as Head Coach and Aled Walters as Head of Physical Performance. We’ve brought these people in because we are going through a new journey led by Andrea Pinchen, who became CEO in May 2020.” What makes Rugby and Leicester Tigers attractive to a sponsor? We don’t really call them sponsors as such because it is a partnership, we work together to deliver specific objectives relevant to the specific brand and their challenges. Every partner we work with
has a goal and has to benefit from this relationship and we strive to do that effectively, which is testament to why our average partnership last 5 to 6 years as proof we continually deliver, season after season. We are a very commercially (forward) thinking club. When working with partners we sit down with them and drill down why is it you want to achieve these goals and how we can work together, acting as that natural extension of their marketing department. We try to work with our partners as close as possible to monitor what they are doing, what is working and what isn’t. It’s a difficult time for everybody and you’ve got to get that messaging across. An example of how we have done this is through one of their longest partnerships with Leicester based national brand, Mattioli Woods. One of their biggest objectives is to meet people to build connections, which in the world of coronavirus is very difficult. So, what we did is sat down with them and formulated a virtual plan to enable introductions.
We found there was still an appetite across the Midlands for business professionals to connect with one and other, however, everyone seemed Zoomed out. What we decided was to utalise a virtual platform that enabled virtual networking tables and couple this with the Leicester Tigers Business Club. After reviewing the events so far, we found it to be a great success! Through using Leicester tigers and this business networking opportunity to draw fans in for Mattioli Woods, they were able to build report and network because as soon as this all finishes, when people are allowed to meet again, they are on the front foot already and are able to get out there and connect. What role do you think sponsors can play in rebuilding the live sports experience both at home and in stadiums? They’ll be key, acknowledging that the supporter experience and sponsorship world is going to be very different. There is going to be a lot more emphasis on human touchpoints and
