{"id":249074,"date":"2023-02-03T14:22:41","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T12:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/south-african-tourism-wants-to-sponsor-football-club-tottenham-hotspur-is-it-a-good-idea\/"},"modified":"2023-02-03T14:22:41","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T12:22:41","slug":"south-african-tourism-wants-to-sponsor-football-club-tottenham-hotspur-is-it-a-good-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/south-african-tourism-wants-to-sponsor-football-club-tottenham-hotspur-is-it-a-good-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"South African Tourism wants to sponsor football club Tottenham Hotspur – is it a good idea?"},"content":{"rendered":"

South African Tourism<\/a> (SA Tourism) is reported<\/a> to be planning to spend US$52 million (about R900 million) to sponsor UK football team Tottenham Hotspur<\/a> over three years. The proposal gives the country branding on the club\u2019s kit, backdrop branding in interviews, advertising on match days, partnership status, local training camps and access to tickets and stadium hospitality. Football has a massive TV viewership and can attract big spending and big eyeballs. But is it an effective way to market a country? And is it money well spent? Brendon Knott researches nation branding and football. We asked him 4 questions.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Is this a good idea for nation branding?<\/h2>\n

Sponsorship of a sport team, event, or of individuals is an accepted and proven marketing communication tool. As countries, regions and cities are increasingly competing in the global marketplace for the attention of potential customers \u2013 in this case tourists \u2013 some destinations have also embraced sport as a marketing medium. <\/p>\n

Typically, destinations promote themselves through associating with a sport event or team within their geographic location. In Spain, for example, Visit Catalunya sponsors Spanish club FC Barcelona. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s less common for a destination to use a more strategic approach to connect with a desired audience in another location. <\/p>\n

Can it help tourism?<\/h2>\n

We need to understand that tourism destinations are \u201cbrands\u201d, which compete against other brands for attention. SA Tourism therefore has a mandate and a budget to attract global tourism. There are a number of ways to promote a brand or engage with a target audience. Sport sponsorship has grown in favour as a marketing tool as it has shown an ability to break through the advertising clutter and get customers\u2019 attention. It reaches them in a place where they are generally relaxed and can be engaged through a common passion for sport. <\/p>\n

A sponsorship can achieve various objectives for a brand. Most commonly, the organisation seeks greater awareness of the brand, by making it visible on the players\u2019 jerseys and signage around the stadium. This is most helpful for new or relatively unknown brands in a market, or to keep a brand top-of-mind among consumers in that market. <\/p>\n

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Read more: When the poor sponsor the rich: Rwanda and Arsenal FC<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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The second major objective is to enhance or change the brand image among a target audience through the association with a sport team. Brands typically benefit from a more favourable perception by fans of the team being sponsored. This is why the global sport sponsorship industry was estimated<\/a> at US$77.69 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow at a rate of 8% over the next few years.<\/p>\n

From what has been shared<\/a> by SA Tourism, it appears that their objective is to reach the global audience that follows the football Premier League<\/a>, and particularly reach the key UK tourism market. However, it is debatable whether this high profile, high cost approach is the best way to spend their marketing budget to boost international tourism.<\/p>\n

Are there any precedents for this approach?<\/h2>\n

Two other high profile examples of destinations sponsoring football clubs in the past decade are Malaysia sponsoring<\/a> UK team Cardiff City in a US$3.6 million deal in 2013; and Rwanda\u2019s US$12 million a year sponsorship of UK team Arsenal FC, where \u201cVisit Rwanda\u201d is emblazoned on the sleeve of the team kit. Signed in 2018, the Rwanda agreement has been particularly slammed<\/a> as an attempt at \u201csportswashing\u201d. This refers to the covering up of human rights abuses within the African nation by trying to garner goodwill through the sponsorship. <\/p>\n

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<\/a>

Rwanda sponsored Arsenal FC in 2018.<\/span> Twitter\/@Arsenal<\/span><\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In this case, the Rwandan president Paul Kagame is known to be a fervent supporter<\/a> of Arsenal. Sports marketers would cite this as an example of a \u201cchairman\u2019s folly\u201d approach to sponsorship. In the SA Tourism case, the strategic reasoning governing their decision has not been fully disclosed. <\/p>\n

With the recent men\u2019s football Fifa World Cup still fresh in our memory, the example of Qatar and sport sponsorship is also relevant. Besides multiple sport event sponsorships, the Qatar Foundation sponsors FC Barcelona, while Qatar Airways sponsors another European football giant, PSG. These sponsorships have often been questioned as attempts by the nation to deflect attention from criticism relating to workers\u2019 rights and other human rights and freedoms. It is too early to assess whether the hosting of the World Cup aided the Qatar image or development of its tourism economy. <\/p>\n

What are the potential downsides?<\/h2>\n

The media<\/a> and public<\/a> backlash<\/a> at the SA Tourism sponsorship agreement indicates the lack of local public support for this initiative. Instead of viewing this as a good marketing opportunity that could bring in tourism revenue, there is the view that the government money could be spent better \u2013 either on sponsorship of local sports or on other projects altogether. Destinations should not aim to boost their \u201cexternal\u201d brand at the expense of the valuable \u201cinternal\u201d brand strength. <\/p>\n

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Read more: Hosting the World Cup: what Qatar can learn from South Africa about nation branding<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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The examples of Rwanda and Qatar, in particular, indicate that the negative media associated with perceived sportswashing diminishes the anticipated benefits. In the case of South Africa, it may appear as an attempt to counter the damaging global media coverage relating to the power crisis<\/a> and other high profile challenges experienced in the nation. SA Tourism has given conditional approval<\/a> to the plan, which is expected to go ahead in the next few months despite a growing backlash.<\/p>\n

Source: The Conversation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African Tourism (SA Tourism) is reported to be planning to spend US$52 million (about R900 million) to sponsor UK football team Tottenham Hotspur over three years. The proposal gives the country branding on the club\u2019s kit, backdrop branding in interviews, advertising on match days, partnership status, local training camps and access to tickets and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249075,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-249074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-mypr","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/south-african-tourism-wants-to-sponsor-football-club-tottenham-hotspur-is-it-a-good-idea.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}