Sports sponsorship – a first for the UK Government
First it was Rugby League. Then, this year, both Rugby League and the Football League. There’s no doubt that the DfT’s move into sport sponsorship has been rapid and high profile.

But why should a Government Department charged with getting across a public information message turn to sponsorship? That’s the question we put to the DfT’s Dave Watson, the man who has brokered both deals on the Department’s behalf.

"Not all parts of our target audience respond in the same way to the road safety marketing they are exposed to," Dave explains. "Young men in particular can be resistant to both 'traditional' advertising and Government messages. The THINK! campaign has always endeavoured to have a broad media mix - TV, radio, posters, public relations etc, and the move into sponsorship helps broaden this media mix further and is designed to ensure that our communications reach even more road users."

Dave Watson is one of the DfT’s publicity managers working as part of the THINK! team. In addition to sports sponsorship he manages publicity relating to child and teenage road safety and speed reduction.

Dave has been in his current position for a year, having transferred from the Department for Trade and Industry, where he ran employment relations campaigns including promotion of the National Minimum Wage. Prior to joining central Government he ran press and marketing relations for a charity consortium in East Lancashire.

"I am keen sports fan, which is part of the reason I am co-ordinating the Department’s sports sponsorship work," he says. His love of sport extends beyond work and manifests itself in passionate support for Burnley FC and Lancashire County Cricket Club.

Although the DfT had identified sport sponsorship as a possible media, it was the Rugby Football League (RFL) that set the wheels in motion for a deal. "The RFL made the initial approach to us in 2002 as their counterparts in Australia had previously enjoyed success in promoting road safety in partnership with the Australian Government," Dave says. "We recognised the potential of the arrangement and took up the offer to become the headline sponsor of the Great Britain team."

Measuring the effectiveness of most advertising and publicity initiatives is notoriously difficult but surely gauging the success of sponsorship must be especially tough? Just how did the DfT set about assessing the value of the RFL deal?

"We analysed the media value of the exposure that last year’s campaign achieved and found it had performed very well, creating in excess of 25 million viewer impressions from TV coverage alone," Dave Watson says. "However, the 2002 deal was agreed at very short notice and because of this we did not have the chance to make as much use of the arrangements locally as we and road safety teams across the country would have liked. We are hoping to create more local activity this year and to make more use of the RFL deal to support the work of RSOs on the ground."

The success of the RFL deal encouraged the THINK! team to look for other sponsorship opportunities with wider geographical appeal. "We knew the RFL deal was very popular with RSOs in the North West and Yorkshire – where Rugby League is strong - and wanted to make this kind of opportunity available to their colleagues across the country.

"The Football League has an excellent geographical spread, and we are delighted to have signed up over 60 clubs to be part of the deal, thus providing an excellent resource upon which to build local publicity," Dave says.

So, with two successful arrangements already in place, does the DfT have plans to further extend its involvement in sponsorship in the future?

"The RFL deal is for one year and the Football League deal for two years, so we will be involved with sports sponsorship for at least the next two years," Dave says. "We will be continually evaluating the success of these deals, which are, as far as we are aware, unique for the UK Government. However it is still very early into our arrangements - especially with the Football League - and we have not made any decisions yet on future involvement in this area."

FOOTNOTE:
Full details of both the RFL and Football League sponsorship deals can be found in the members’ section of this website, under DfT Communications. The members’ section is password protected. LARSOA member organisations can obtain the password from the Association secretary, Brian Hogarth, bhogarth@bun.com