One thing that sponsorship professionals fear, mostly those at rights holders, is a crisis; a situation that may see sponsors walking away from the organisation.
Let’s be clear, when we say “crisis” we mean an athlete or staff member brings the organisation into disrepute.
For those that are high profile rights holders, it almost feels like it is only a matter of time before a crisis will impact their commercial portfolio. How long can a sponsor put up with, or how bad does, a crisis need to be before a sponsor seriously considers whether their values are still aligned?
In a commercial world, particularly one where a rights holder may still be providing great ROI on the sponsorship, it can be a cloudy question.
It almost feels like it is only a matter of time before today’s, or this week’s, bad news story directly affects you and your sponsorships.
That’s why, knowing how to communicate with sponsors during a crisis, and being prepared for the inevitable crisis, is where the focus should be in quiet times.
In sports, two of the industry leaders, when it comes to crisis communications, are Jim Rocco and Isaac Benjamin, from PRCG | Sports. PRCG | Sports provides strategic marketing, public relations, and crisis communications services to owners, managers, athletes, and brands.
Jim and Isaac join the show to take us inside crisis communications in sponsorship.
You can connect with our guests on LinkedIn, at Jim Rocco and Isaac Benjamin, learn more at PRCG | Sports, listen to their podcast,
Crisis Communications in Sports, and find out more about the book mentioned at Chief Crisis Officer: Structure and Leadership for Effective Communications Response.
We also hear from Daniel Collier-Hill, KORE’s Commercial Director – APAC, who has delivered part three, and his final part, of his part blog series which focuses on hacking sponsorship and he joins us to discuss the blog which looks at Perceived Value and Audience Segmentation.
You can read the rest of the series at Hacking Sponsorship: Part Two – After The Chaos and be sure to have read Hacking Sponsorship: Part One - Planning For The Return.
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