SA Tourism’s R1bn Spurs deal still in limbo

Minister of Tourism Patricia de Lille is still consulting and will make a comment or announcement in the next few weeks about the R1-billion SA Tourism-proposed Tottenham Hotspur deal, according to her spokesperson, Zara Nicholson.

Tottenham sponsorship deal up in the air

With the recent resignations of Cape Town Tourism chief executive Enver Duminy, former Tsogo Sun Hotels chief operating officer Ravi Nadasen and Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa chair Rosemary Anderson, the deal remains in limbo.

On Monday, Statistics SA reported a significant increase in tourism accommodation. “Income from accommodation increased by 55.8% year on year in January 2023, the result of a 16.2% increase in the number of stay unit nights sold and a 34.1% increase in the average income per stay unit night sold,” Stats SA reported.

De Lille said last Thursday, based on numbers from Stats SA, tourist arrival numbers from January to December 2022 had reached 5.7 million from 2.25 million in 2021. “There is so much untapped potential in our country and we will be working harder to see more travellers visit our shores,” De Lille said.

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The question she must answer is, would a three-year R1-billion deal for a SA Tourism logo on the men’s team’s training wear sleeves in the first year, with numerous exclusions including retail kit, and in years two and three, the logo on the men’s, women’s, academy and retail across home, away and third shirts bring those visitors?

Will SA Tourism deal pay off?

In a sports-crazy world, with smart goals any campaign could reach them if executed well through an advertising agency which knows the industry, said freelance marketing strategist Marisa Louw.

“When the SA Tourism deal with Tottenham Hotspur broke in the news, my first thought was that the sponsorship is a ‘cover’ for MPs to travel on the taxpayers’ money to watch the Premier League.

“As a marketing strategist, I cannot see the link between SA Tourism and a soccer team,” Louw said. “To increase international tourists, SA Tourism must first convince them it is safe and that the country has sustainable resources, like energy and water.”

Louw said when a marketing team brainstorms a campaign’s strategy, they consider all the data the researchers gathered. “The numbers never lie and tell a story that almost always shows a clear way forward.

“For your brand’s campaign to be successful, it is crucial to design a customer journey that immerses your target audience in an unforgettable user experience.

“If your brand cannot do that, the campaign is set for failure before it even began,” said Louw.

Hollywoodbets deal with Brentford

Hollywoodbets is a sports betting company which has its distinctive logo front-of-shirt of the English Premier League’s (EPL) Brentford Football Club.

The betting company came on board as an official betting partner in November 2020 when it had back-of-shirt exposure and donated £2 000 – or about R45 300 – in 2021 to Brentford’s Community Sports Trust before becoming a principal partner in July 2021, which saw it get prime advertising real estate in a two-year deal.

For Hollywoodbets’ brand manager Devin Heffer, investing in advertising allowed the company to plough money back into communities. Heffer said they were expanding into the UK and Irish markets and when Brentford saw this, they made contact.

“They had seen a lot of our community work, the sponsorships we had been involved in. We work very closely with cricket and rugby in South Africa with the Cell C Sharks and the Hollywoodbets Dolphins,” Heffer said.

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Heffer said the initial deal with Brentford was a “dipping a toe in the water” experience and with South Africans’ passion for football, the deal became a no-brainer.

Through its nonprofit Hollywood Foundation, 890 charitable organisations received donations in 2021, ranging across old age homes, children’s homes and schools, as well as 91 small, micro and medium enterprises, with financial contributions and investments in equipment.

“For us as a South African brand, it has put not only Hollywoodbets on the map, it has put South Africa on the map,” he said.

The deal with Brentford includes Hollywoodbets branding front-of-shirt, field-side boards, social media exposure, coverage on Brentford’s website, as well as fan engagement.

“We also give football a lot of coverage in South Africa, too,” Heffer said. “We sponsor the Hollywoodbets Super League – the women’s premier league – which was an incredibly shrewd decision as the women’s game has been growing a lot.

“The coverage on TV and the SABC – there are more viewers tuning in for the women’s football than for the PSL [South African Premier Division/DStv Premier ship] games and we cover the sponsorship of every club which plays in the premier league [EPL].

“It’s been amazing to see how league is slowly starting to grow from amateur and semiprofessional to almost professional and when you look at the success of Banyana Banyana winning the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, it makes us proud because it makes us part of that journey, too.”

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Louw said the most successful marketing campaigns were those selecting the right elements based on audience research.

“What does your brand’s target market need? How does your brand marry its business goals with what its target audience needs?

“Hollywoodbets’ customers already watch football and bet on the [English] Premier League, so it is a natural match and sponsorship makes sense,” Louw said. “Because a sports betting company managed to reach its business goals by sponsoring a sports team does not mean SA Tourism will do the same.

“I hope Tourism’s marketing agency will prove me wrong. Let’s see if the campaign makes it to the Loeries [marketing and advertising awards]. I doubt it, though.”

– amandaw@citizen.co.za