Local soccer has good reason to envy rugby’s sponsorship model

No doubt a lot of South Africans, soccer lovers and Jacob Zuma included, watched the outstanding show put on by the Vodacom Blue Bulls rugby franchise in the Super 14 final. As a football fanatic I couldn’t help feeling a little envy at the big gap in sponsorship between rugby and soccer in this country.

In soccer, Vodacom sponsors Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs to the tune of approximately R30 million each a season. Granted this is a fairly substantial amount of money by any standard but watching the Super 14 made me realize that Vodacom puts way much more money into the Rugby franchises. First of all Vodacom is the Bulls title sponsor as is evident from the company’s very visible branding on the team’s jersey.

I shudder to think how much the company is paying for this very expensive privilege. I’m prepared to bet that whatever the figure is, the R30 million per season given to Pirates and Chiefs pales in comparison. Vodacom is also the title sponsor for the actual Super Rugby tournament itself – it is officially known as the Vodacom Super 14.

Then Vodacom sponsors the ‘Player 23′ initiative that is ongoing throughout the rugby season and that is advertised prominently during all the major SA Rugby broadcasts. “Player 23″ is a marketing device that Vodacom is using to execute all its rugby supporter promotions, give-aways, etc.

Then we know that Vodacom also has the naming rights for the Blue Bulls stadium – Vodacom Loftus. For this, they get to dominate the advertising both inside and outside the precinct. Again how much do they pay for this privilege. I could write a thesis on the level of sponsorship that the Blue Bulls enjoy from Vodacom.

I didn’t watch the trophy presentation ceremony but I would bet my life that the company under discussion also has title sponsorship for the trophy and man-of-the-match awards. Being, a person from a marketing background I understand  the strategic importance of ‘owning’ a medium so as to shut out competitors from that medium – which Vodacom has done magnificently when it comes to rugby.

However I do wonder why our corporate don’t go all out to ‘own’ soccer in the way Vodacom has done with Rugby. ABSA have put quite a lot of money into the Premier Soccer League but they have not really dominated the sport in the way that they could. There should ABSA branding holistically dominating the sport.

Instead the big brands have instead cut up the pie and divided it with MTN taking the pan-African section via their sponsorship of all the major CAF tournaments and broadcasts. Vodacom has gone for the big 3 in South Africa – Pirates, Chiefs and Bloemfontein Celtics with ABSA taking the league.

This in itself is not a bad but the consolidation of sponsorship into one sporting code, as Vodacom has done with the Bulls leaves me thinking that both the sponsor and the sponsored come up so much richer in this type of relationship both literally and figuratively.