Art v Science in Agency Land; Narrow stories; The Fuck UPs, A Bad Idea Hall of Fame; Accident or Design; Adi v Castore for Toon; Searching for the London 2012 database; 'You can't just not let them'
Overthinking the sports business, for money
Who would you buy?
We could run an UP poll asking who were the standout sports agencies of the last decade or more?
The answer would be a split between Two Circles and M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment.
Both were multiple Sport Industry Award winners in the much coveted Agency of the Year category.
Fwiw, I was on the shortlisting panel for that award throughout that period.
The two agencies became proxies for a bigger debate about the job of sports marketing.
This is often presented as a binary choice between creative and data.
Under Steve Martin and Jamie Wynn-Morgan, Saatchi was all about the creative idea.
Gareth Balch’s Two Circles were ‘the data guys’.
This art v science framing was, and remains, irritating to both sides.
But in marketing terms, it was invaluable, because it gave both agencies a clear point of difference.
Most agencies try to tell what I call ‘the everything story’.
We can do all the jobs. We’re global and local, we’ve got insight and creative departments, head and heart, magic and maths, a one stop shop for all your needs whether you’re a sponsor or a rights holder or a media platform, and we do a bit of rights sales for you too, if that’s of use.
Name it and we can do it.
Very soon you start to sound a bit Yosser Hughes: ‘Gissa Job, I can do that’…RIP Bernard Hill.
What I learnt from those SIA judging sessions is that narrow stories cut through the noise more effectively than the everything story.
Then you get to the Catch-22 of agency land.
How do you grow beyond the narrow story that got you here?
Fast forward to today.
Steve Martin just opened a new shop, MSQ Sport and Entertainment, backed by One Equity Partners.
Gareth Balch just got bought by Charterhouse private equity, valuing Two Circles at £250million.
In different ways the same question faces both agencies.
How do you grow? What bets will you take about how the agency market develops over the next decade?
Hear this week’s podcast with Steve Martin and Jamie Wynn-Morgan at their new agency office.
Did we just get a clue?
You can over read a story.
But given my analysis above, Martin Ross’s excellent scoop feels relevant.
This feels significant because it puts Two Circles in to the media rights sales business.
To my question above, what is the bet being taken by Charterhouse, who just valued Two Circles at £250m?
Remember that Bruin bought the agency at £40million from WPP.
The jump - £40m to £250m - was due in no small part to the acquisition of a sponsorship sales house, TRM.
So, is media sales the engine that gets Charterhouse from £250m to the next multiple?
Two Circles buying one of the incumbent sales shops who trade in media around the world.
As someone put it to me this week, that can be come with a buyer beware sticker, quoting the Chinese money that went south following the buyout of MP&Silva.
Whatever happens next, we’ll learn something.
Accident or Design?
Alt header: Photos That Help Pay Back The Rights Fee
Rolex and F1
The Bundle’s Murray Barnett, as he’s contractually obliged to refer to himself, offered this one:
More welcome.
The Big Idea - Kit Launch Special Issue
I like the Adidas Newcastle launch film. In fact, I put it as my pick of that particular genre (SS24 edition).
Then, next day, I talked to Tom Beahon, co-founder of Castore, the brand Adidas replaces as Newcastle’s kit partner. (Podcast with Tom coming soon).
Turns out the backstory to the above Adidas film is more interesting than the thing itself.
Castore paid £5m a year for the black and white shirt, from previous owner Mike Ashley.
That number was a surprise to the new Saudi owners, who set about agitating to get a higher paying partner in. Adidas tried to buy Castore out of the contract but Tom and his co-founder brother Phil refused to budge, seeing that a season of exposure in the UEFA Champions League was good value at £5m.
There was a scene referencing this in the Amazon documentary, which has been subsequently deleted.
Pissed off by this, the club and Adidas set about undermining the final season of Castore’s deal, plastering the city and social channels announcing the German brand would be in place for the following season, even announcing the deal in September of last year.
The price Adidas is paying is £40million, an 8x lift from the Castore deal, which also included running the club merch operation.
Business is business and all that.
But check this shit out…from the start of last season.
The Fuck UPs - The Unofficial Partner Award For Bad Ideas
Give PGA Tour players control of the Ryder Cup.
I’m reading Alan Shipnuck’s Phil Mickelson book currently, and then this popped up in my timeline.
Does pose a question though.
What’s the Ryder Cup worth?
Whatever happened to the London 2012 ticket database, pt2
Picking up on a thread that’s developed around our recent Jack Buckner podcast.
We were talking about the L Word, legacy.
Buckner asked the database question. It got some fascinating feedback.
This prompted Alex Balfour, Head of Digital at London 2012, via WhatsUP
Alex Balfour: Legacy was always in mind subject to natural constraints of what opt in permitted without getting in the way of the consumer journey. High ticket demand was not a given at the time. Ticketmaster intransigence and lack of flexibility/competence also at play.
Stuart’s comments ring true also. There was a mistaken over allocation of tickets to people at Water polo in the first ballot as I remember and they were offered other sports including athletics, which were gleefully snapped up
The proportion of people who are voluntarily in current major rights holder databases who regularly open emails sent to them is…very low. (there are other ways of targeting them of course)
See also, Ben Wells, CEO of PTI Digital:
Generally speaking we still haven't properly understood the role data could and should play in building more cost-efficient, revenue-generating businesses. There is lots of talk about the importance of data but I am convinced most organisations have little idea what that actually means for them.
Women’s football: My, how far we’ve come…Wait, what?
Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson put this on WhatsUP following the news about Thornaby FC scapping its women’s and girls teams.
Echoes of this piece by Suzy Wrack’s on the women banned from playing, in 1920.
“What drives me mad is the injustice of it,” says Newsham. “Imagine saying to Kelly Smith, or Megan Rapinoe, or any of the players today: ‘That’s it, you’re not playing any more, you’re banned. Nobody’s going to remember it, whatever you’ve done, it doesn’t matter, nobody is going to care or remember.’ Imagine that. You can’t imagine how they would feel, can you? But that’s what happened to them.”
Netflix are entering the live sport space…
Also Netflix
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