A Giant Awakens
Unilever will devote more money to sponsorships globally.
The packaged-goods giant plans to increase ties to high-profile sports, entertainment, and cultural events as part of an overall initiative to improve the effectiveness of the $4 billion it spends annually on consumer communications, according to Michael Brockbank, the Rotterdam, Netherlands-based company’s vp of brand communication.
Brockbank unveiled the plan in March during a keynote presentation at IEG’s Inc.’s annual LEAD Sponsorship conference in Chicago.
Unilever’s decision to find sponsorship opportunities for all key brands comes in response to both external and internal changes, according to Brockbank. As media becomes more fragmented, consumers have become harder to reach through advertising because they now lead “more interesting lives,” he said.
Internally, Unilever has been shifting from a volume-based to a quality-focused strategy: In the last two years, it has scaled down its massive marketing portfolio from 1,600 to 900 brands. “By 2004, we will be limiting investment to 400 brands [and] concentrating on 40 leading global and regional brands,” he said. “We will be able to take advantage of sponsorship opportunities that we wouldn’t have been able to consider before.”
Though past sponsorship activity has worked well, Unilever has devoted little money to the tactic. It devoted only 4.3 percent of all U.S. marketing expenditures to sponsorship in 2001, he said. (That’s about one-third the typical allocation among U.S. marketers, according to IEG, Chicago.)
Unilever has used the last three years to introduce a new communications platform to its 5,000 marketing employees and agency partners. With that effort nearly complete, the company’s plan for sponsorship implementation should be visible in the second half of 2002. “By the end of this year, you’ll find marketing communications at Unilever much more forward-looking,” he said.
