Sports Revolution Enjoys its State of Independence

Last month, following 18 months of restructure and negotiation, we completed a management buyout, making Sports Revolution officially the leaner, more focused and fully independent agency that had been trading the year before. This means we can concentrate on what we do best; sports marketing, sponsorship, digital fan engagement and media insight.

Like many people, I have had enough of all the talk in the media about ‘taking back control’ – the battle cry from the Brexit vote – but on a business level, this MBO really has allowed Sports Revolution to take control of its destiny. And it’s a good feeling.

Working with the investment community brings both rewards and pitfalls. As non executives they add value through prompting debate and challenging operational business practices. This has to be balanced by management who have a detailed view of reality on the ground. Even referring to the ‘investment community’ is misleading in itself as there are different genres of investors. The two genres I have worked with are ‘industry guru’ and private equity. In the case of the former this can lead to a preconceived view on how things should be done based on a rose tinted lens of reality of an age long gone. So much time is taken up explaining how the world has changed as opposed to growing the business. At the private equity end of things I was expecting the darker side of capitalism but was pleasantly surprised. I discovered that private equity can be force for good and has filled a valuable void left in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. There is too much emphasis on business modelling for my liking and while I do appreciate this will drive the multiple on an exit, too much of this can be looked at through a prism of the latest fad. In our case this was big data, not wrong in itself but this ended up manifesting itself with the expensive and uneconomic case for connected sports arena. It is important to learn from past mistakes but I still kick myself at not pushing back on something I felt uncomfortable about. Put another way, without the pressure for the big idea from an investor we would have been much more focussed on core competencies.

The sports marketing world is well known for being ferociously competitive, with small and large agencies and networks competing for the business of international federations, rights holders, brands and sponsors. It’s a deal-driven business, but also one where being creative and nimble can give you the edge. Being a small, agile, hungry – and above all, independent – company can be real advantage.

Today’s media landscape is dominated by the large marcomms networks, with media interwoven into a holistic marketing strategy. This has benefits for integrated marketing campaigns, but in practice it often means that the resulting solutions are rarely media neutral. Inevitably, networked agencies are under pressure to cross-sell their various services. In years gone by this would have been an econometric modelling tool or a brand awareness study for the groups research arm. Today it is digital and the rush to sell in ‘programmatic’. In this environment, the client sometimes risks being given a solution that suits the network, not necessarily its sports marketing strategy.

This is where the independent approach of a true sports specialist like Sports Revolution can add real value, and a point of difference in the market.

As well as being small, flexibility helps in this business. The clients we deal with are often the opposite – sometimes multinational sponsors, or sports federations like UEFA. They appreciate working with specialists, who offer a senior-level team, hungry for the business. We don’t have any other agenda but to do the best by our clients and deliver a targeted sports-centric service.

There’s nowhere to hide – each and every team member in a small indie agency, from the most senior to the most junior, must contribute and be accountable. We can’t carry people, so we tend to find more strength and depth, including the juniors who gain experience fast with more responsibility. The team that pitches for the business will be the team working on it – that always makes a big difference to the client.

The point about being sports specialists counts for a lot too. Just think about that for a second A SPORTS SPECIALIST.  As sport has been identified as a more mainstream marketing opportunity, the bigger networks have moved into it. This, combined with the rise of programmatic media buying, has resulted in a commodity approach to sports communications planning. The whole points of sports marketing is that brands can tap into a consumer passion. Often, the campaigns you see running around a sports media are also run around generic non-sports related content in more mainstream media – they don’t tap into the special passion and unique emotions of the sports audience. This is why clients, who have chosen sport to move the needle, need to be wary of electricians doing the job of plumbers. If you want great ads, go to a creative agency. If you want great sports marketing, go to a specialist.

The brands that find this connection will reap huge benefits – it doesn’t pay to be grey. In this respect, working with a specialist independent can really add a point of difference.

Over the years, since Sports Revolution has been trading, we have been on a journey. We grew rapidly, diversified and invested widely. Now, we are seeing the value of focus, going back to our roots and the skills that deliver the best results for our clients.