• by David Kaplan , January 17, 2005

In the past week, with Major League Baseball discussing ways of policing steroid use among its professional players, advertisers couldn't help being reminded of the dilemma of product placement and the Kobe trial, hockey strike, and basketball brawl in Detroit. The question lingering over their heads: Could sports-consumer branded partnerships be in danger?

The answer is of course not--but not without a few caveats, says Richard Yaffa, cofounder and CEO of The Leverage Group, a New York-based partnership-marketing firm that specializes in building strategic alliances between sports properties and brand marketers. The company is associated with WPP Group's Mediaedge:cia.

Over the last five years, The Leverage Group has produced integrated marketing partnerships for a number of clients and organizations such as Avon, which forged a partnership with the Indy Racing League, and the New York Road Runners, among others.

"I think that whenever you have a shock to the system, everybody takes a step back and says 'Let's analyze this,'" Yaffa said. "We really look to deliver a quantifiable return on investment for our clients for any strategic partnership that they do. So when you're looking at an advertiser that wants to partner with an entertainment group or sports franchise, we look at the element of risk against it and what the downside elements are."

Essentially, co-branding depends on a delicate symbiosis: the sport must offer something (or someone) consumers want, or want to emulate--and feel they can be a part of by buying the right clothing, drinks, footwear, and so on, Yaffa said. "Bad boy" images may sell certain kinds of music, but they might not translate into other consumer arenas--sometimes too much street cred can bite back, as when Pepsi was put into a tight spot when it signed on the marijuana-touting rapper Ludicris, only to drop him when Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly sparked a boycott directed at the association between the soft drink and the rap artist.

Co-branded teams need to stick together, Yaffa noted, but if public opinion starts to sway against certain athletes or sports, companies need to be ready to expect the unexpected.

"We now expressly try to ensure that a risk guarantee is in the contract," Yaffa said. "Currently, I do think sponsors are looking into their arrangements, and not just the positive aspects, but the challenges that can [arise] with these sorts of associations. That's a key element that our clients are asking us to analyze for them. One of the solutions is that the leagues--or record companies or whomever--and the advertising partners must work together to iron out any perception challenges."

As for whether all this worry has slowed the growth of such deals, Yaffa offered a definitive "no way."

"I don't think there's been a change in enthusiasm on the part of advertisers for these types of deals," he said. "There's been a general trend, even prior to recent negative events, where sponsors truly are looking for greater returns and at all the elements and implications. But the challenge they face is that TV is costing more, while viewers become fewer and fewer--although TV remains the most impactful medium--so the nature of marketing is making it so that advertisers must seek out these opportunities. The difference is, they're doing much more due diligence. It's not about just slapping a logo on something anymore, however. There's a much deeper association that the brand and the spokesmen have to have."

Women's sports are continuing to increase in popularity--and therefore, the appeal to marketers is increasing in tandem, Yaffa said. That fact hasn't changed the basic equation of a successful deal, however.

"The client is looking to target women 18-24--we need to ask the same crucial questions," Yaffa said. "What are the other touchpoints for that advertiser? We need to know what sort of programs is this woman watching? Figure skating or volleyball? How is she likely to use the product? And what are the clients' objectives?

"If you build it from the clients' perspective, you're able to deliver on the who the brand is, what the brand [is], and why the consumer should have it in order to build an effective relationship."