Are Chelsea counting their chickens?

Player shirt sales are an incredibly important source of revenue for football clubs - so much so that it has been argued Real Madrid only bought David Beckham for his commercial value. The England footballer accounted for around half of the club's shirt sales during his time there.

http://www.chelseamegastore.com/stores/chelsea/products/product_search.aspx?search 

Let's just hope they're right...

Keep it going...

When Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins was asked if he was surprised at what the cycling team had achieved in Beijing he replied that he was not because they had achieved a similar feat at the World Championships months earlier.

He curtly added that it was just nobody had noticed because  at the time they were more interested in Manchester City loon Joey Barton being thrown in prison for assault.

Football will never be knocked from its perch as the national game - even during Team GB gold rush, the tabloids managed to dedicate the back pages to England's dismal draw with the Czech Republic - but lets hope with the backing of the media and sponsors our Olympians won't now be popped back on the shelf only to be dusted off again in four years time.

In 2003, rugby had its moment in the sun and two years later it was the cricketers turn. But with the Games coming to London the opportunity is there to promote these athletes , and more importantly their sports which often struggle for funding, over a sustained period. Dare I say it but perhaps Sky Sport's lucrative sponsorship deal struck with British Cycling before the Games could be a catalyst for even greater success next time around?

The ‘heroes' parade, on Thursday October 16, will be the first real opportunity for brands to celebrate their association with the Olympic stars. Let's hope its just the start.

Marketers, the pride of Britain

Many congratulations to Chartered Institute of Marketing member Mark Hunter, who won Gold in the Double Scull rowing last week and to Rebecca Romero, who won Gold in the women’s individual pursuit cycling and is a graduate of the CAM Foundation, a subsidiary of The Chartered Institute of Marketing. Romero holds a diploma in marketing communications from The Institute.

With that in mind, I’m pretty sure that at some point in the near future each of us will be sat in the pub with some mates, drunk and utterly convinced that with some serious dedication we could be among the medallists in London in four years time.

Personally, I think the 10m pistol shooting looks a bit of doddle or the dressage seems pretty easy if the horse is any good - does the horse have to be the same nationality as the rider?

Anyway, let me know what you’ll be winning in 2012…

Mercedes: ‘No Rooney deal’

It’s not uncommon to read a news story and wonder if you're reading the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But although The Mail on Sunday scoop last weekend that luxury car brand Mercedes had agreed a deal with Wayne Rooney sounded rather bizarre, the story seemed solid enough.

According to The Mail on Sunday a spokesperson for Rooney said ‘I can confirm Wayne has just completed an initial two-year deal with Mercedes’.

And according to the paper – a ‘source at Mercedes’ also confirmed the deal, ‘We very much wanted Wayne to be the face of the brand. Mercedes will set Wayne up as an icon with their cars. There is an option in the contract for him to feature in some adverts’.

But today, on further investigation we find that Mercedes is denying any association with the Manchester United and England star. He won’t, they say, appear in any ads, be paid a penny or have any official association the brand. He is simply a satisfied customer.

So, what’s going on? An elaborate PR stunt by Mercedes? Disigenous reporting by The Mail on Sunday?

If Michael Phelps were a country, its state broadcaster would be the BBC...

Surely I'm not the only one who’s a bit bored of the BBC droning on about Michael Phelps – he’s half man, half dolphin apparently.

Phelps is a wonderful athlete but just a little word to the BBC – he’s not British. Even before the Games began the Beeb was hanging its hopes, quite literally, on the tacky looking cut out of the swimmer which is calls the Phelps-o-meter.

The Beeb has also pointed out that if Phelps were a country he’d be fourth (at the time) in the medal table. Chuckle. Well, I’ve worked out that if Marketing magazine were a country we’d have as many medals as Belgium. Hurrah!

The BBC website even has a section where fans can design their own ‘United State of Michael Phelps’ flags. The only reason I can think of that it would be a good idea for Phelps to compete as his own country is that Team GB would now lie second in the medal table ahead of the USA.

Phelps’ achievements although remarkable cannot be compared to those of Olympians in sports where winning multiple medals simply is not possible. He should be applauded but perhaps they should just have fewer swimming races?

Maybe someone has finally had a word with the BBC to put an end to this nonsense because in a run down of the greatest Olympians of all time broadcast last night, it quite rightly chose our very own Sir Steve Redgrave as number one.

One team, One flag

Scotland’s Sports Minister has complained that Scottish fans have been barred from waving Saltire flags at the Olympics.

The reason for the ban on the flags of non-member countries is to prevent demonstrations or propaganda. Now, while I’m sure most people would agree that the IOC has been far too draconian in its decision to ban the flag – after all, what harm does it do? – it saddens me that some fans feel the need to bring them in the first place.

The rivalry between the home nations is wonderful and each year makes the RBS 6 Nations the tournament it is. But at the Olympics we are Team GB. Equally, I would hate to see any George crosses flying in the stands.

As a cycling fan, watching Welsh cyclist Nicole Cook win an outstanding gold was the highlight of the Games so far for me and news this morning that Scot David Florence had picked up a silver in the canoeing was another high.

In 2001, some friends and I went to Australia to follow the British & Irish Lions Tour. I was equally disappointed that some Lions fans chose to wear national team shirts and drape national flags over advertising hoardings, with one moron even dangling an enormous banner which read ‘Jonny Wilkinson’s grandmother is Scottish’. I have no idea if that is true, but I would suggest if you cannot bury your differences when the home nations come together take on the world you should simply stay at home.

Statement of the bleedin' obvious

Every now and then you stumble across research so mind-bogglingly obvious you wonder why they bothered.

Research like, ‘Sword-swallowers are more prone to suffering from sore throats’, according to consultant radiologist Brian Witcombe. Not to mention perforated intestines and internal bleeding. Stuff like that.

Today, courtesy of MindShare, we learn that the Opening Ceremony for the world’s highest profile sporting event, being hosted by far the world’s most populous nation will, probably, have attracted the largest TV viewing figures ever for a live event – around 2.3bn. We also learn that viewing figures in the UK and Europe were probably not as impressive because we are at work. Groan.

To your marks...

This lunchtime, workers around the country will down tools for what promises to be the most spectacular Olympic opening ceremony of all time promises to be the if footage from rehearsals leaked onto the internet last week are any indication.

But I think many of us will tune-in secretly hoping somebody will make a wally of themselves before the entire planet. Dianna Ross missing an open goal during the Opening Ceremony of the 1994 FIFA World Cup is the only thing I can recall from that spectacle. And you’ll never convince me the flaming arrow intended to light the torch at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics didn’t soar straight past its intended target and end up in the car park outside. It clearly did!

Sometimes gaffs aren’t required and the ceremony itself is enough of a laughing stock. Eight years ago in Sydney we were treated to Aussies running around with washing lines on their heads because apparently it was invented by an Australian. I cannot believe organisers couldn’t have found something a little more suitable.

But sometimes the organisers get it right. In 1996, Muhammad Ali, visibly shaking from Parkinson’s, lit the Olympic Torch which was a perfect start to a Games that had been roundly criticised for over-commercialisation.

So, today marks the start of the most-talked about sporting event in history – even if inexplicably (and extremely irritatingly) the football tournament began two days ago. Let the Games begin…

McDonald's playing down Olympic link in UK

McDonald’s, although they’d never admit it, seem wary of promoting their association with the Beijing Olympic Games in the UK.

I’ve been told that as a rule of thumb you need to spend a dollar leveraging your sponsorship for every dollar you spent acquiring it... But in promoting its ‘Oriental Menu’ there is not even the smallest hint of a Beijing logo or use the rings – even though McDonald’s has already bought the global rights to them. If we didn’t know better this would appear to be a classic piece of ambush marketing.

McDonald’s has been a sponsor of the Games for donkeys years and has a history of leveraging its sponsorship in this country. So why not now?

BBC wastes Olympic opportunity

The Olympic Games, regarded by many as the greatest sporting event on earth, are less than a week away. But how many of members of Team GB can you name? Five? Maybe ten tops? I blame the BBC, which has failed to adequately promote the potential stars of the Games.
 
The efforts of disgraced sprinter Dwain Chambers and those of South African double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius to reach the Games would have been two obviously compelling tales (Pistorius’ progress was followed by Five, while Nike features the athlete in its timely global ad campaign).