INVESTEC'S FIVE-YEAR deal with English women’s hockey will not be used to piggy-back brand association with the London 2012 Olympic Games, Raymond van Niekerk, the head of global marketing at Investec, has told Frontiers.
“For us, we hope the Olympics is good for the growth of women’s hockey and we that the team does well and lifts its profile,” van Niekerk explains. “But the deal does not include the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games and we don’t do guerilla marketing. To do so would be inconsiderate… and irresponsible on an ethical and legal level.”
The specialist bank and asset manager signed the six-figure, multiple agreement with the England Hockey Board, the England Hockey League Women’s Premier Division and Conferences, and The London Cup, as well as the Great Britain and England women’s teams.
The deal will see England’s women wearing the Investec logo on their kits at the forthcoming EuroHockey Nations Championships and give the brand title rights to the above competitions. Investec’s support will also be extended to Quicksticks, a version of hockey for primary school children.
Having exited sponsorship of English rugby’s autumn internationals, saving around £1m per year, van Niekerk said that the women’s hockey deal made sense because “more than 50 per cent of clients for our products in the UK are women in specific categories like cash deposits, structured equity and savings.”
The deal was put together with the help of Essentially Group, specifically managing director Matthew Vandrau and commercial director Kevin Vandrau.
As for activation, van Niekerk concluded: “In this economic climate, activation ratios go down – if people don’t have cash, you have to be clever.”