Sponsorship should not be a random act
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Somewhere inside the Istanbul headquarters of Turkish Airlines there must be a very large wall. And on that wall are plastered random images of people and organisations that all have two things in common. First, they have absolutely no association with Turkey or its national airline.
Second, they are extremely expensive. I have not seen the wall, but one would imagine an arbitrary assortment of movie stars, supermodels and famous sporting clubs. Written across the top of this wall a large banner probably reads “Turkish Airlines Potential Sponsorship Partners”.
Then, it seems, once a year Turkish Airlines embarks on “marketing planning” by inviting its chairman, Hamdi Topcu, to put on the ceremonial blindfold, stand 20 feet from the wall and throw the all-important Turkish Airlines “Dart of Truth”. The airlines marketing team then rush to the wall to discover who or what they will recruit for the coming year’s sponsorship strategy.
In 2009, the dart landed on movie star Kevin Costner. Despite the fact that Costner had never been to Turkey, ever flown Turkish Airlines, or had ever expressed even the most passing interest in Turkish Airlines - the “Dart of Truth” was infallible. Costner was contacted out of the blue, and paid a small fortune to fly to Istanbul and make a series of TV and print ads in which he was made to “feel like a star” on Turkish Airlines business class service.
In the behind the scenes “making of” documentary, a clearly disoriented Costner smiles amicably throughout the intensive and highly lucrative filming and then hops back onto a plane (one would hope Turkish Airlines but don’t be too sure) back to the US none the wiser, but several million dollars the richer.
In 2010, the planning process for the upcoming year began. We cannot be sure what happened behind closed doors in Istanbul this year, but it seems that when the “Dart of Truth” was thrown it landed between two distinct, ultra-expensive and entirely non-Turkish-related organisations.
First, we learned that Turkish Airlines had become the official airline of Barcelona Football Club. Once again, the airline demonstrated an ability to go for the expensive and arbitrary over the authentic and organic by paying £6.4m for a two-and-a-half-year deal to become the official airline of the Catalonian giants. Cue a super-expensive TV ad in which a Barca training session is suddenly interrupted by a Turkish Airlines jet landing nearby.
Barcelona stars Lionel Messi and Carlos Puyol - currently demonstrating their skills for Argentina and Spain, respectively, at the World Cup in South Africa - are shown gazing at the approaching cabin crew with the same benevolent confusion that Costner exhibited a year earlier. The jingle repeats “We are Turkish Airlines” over and over, presumably to remind the audience as well as the players which arbitrary airline has just turned up.
The airline demonstrated an ability to go for the expensive and arbitrary over the authentic and organic
But the dart of truth had not just landed on FC Barcelona. It had also touched down at Old Trafford when the carrier signed a three-year, £7.5m deal to become Manchester United’s official airline in 2010 - again underlining the airline’s love for cost and confusion.
Whatever the process by which Turkish Airlines chooses these sponsorship targets, these decisions are symptomatic of an industry that no longer understands or even respects brand equity. Costner, Barcelona or Manchester United certainly confer global brand awareness, but beyond this simple goal, what of the more complex challenge of building brand associations? Is there even a sliver of brand heritage or genuine patronage in any of this?
See Mark Ritson appear at The Annual, Marketing Week’s new conference on 29 September 2010 www.theannual.co.uk
Man Utd is about as English as fish and chips, just as FC Barcelona is the most Catalonian thing on the planet. Neither club has any link whatsoever to Turkey. You can only fly to Barcelona or Manchester once a day with Turkish Airlines - hardly an extensive connection. And until the deals were struck none of the players of either team, like Costner before them, had ever even sat in a Turkish Airlines plane. Gone are the days when a sponsorship deal was a more authentic and enduring relationship between brand and patron. Today, it is about big money, multiple logos and short-term contracts.
Turkish Airlines joins a Man Utd stable of more than a dozen global brands including a US sports brand, a Korean city, a German car marque and an Indian telecoms provider all claiming to be “exclusive partners” of the great British club.
The game of global sponsorship is an expensive one. The only way it can be justified is if both brand awareness and brand associations are served by the commercial relationship. Unfortunately for Turkish Airlines, its current raft of high profile, zero authenticity deals means it risks becoming one of the best known most anonymous airlines in the world.
Mark Ritson is an associate professor of marketing
Readers' comments (6)
Janet | Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:04 am
Kevin Costner and his band, Modern West, gave a concert on October 30, 2007 at the WOW Convention Center. Kevin visited the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, and then to Ankara to visit the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Republic of Turkey, as part of his official visit.
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Jackie Fast | Thu, 17 Jun 2010 2:21 pm
I see the point Mark is trying to make, but the article completely misses the point whichTurkish Airlines is most likely trying to achieve with their sponsorship. They have chosen to sponsor football at a time where the world is completely focussed on this sport and anything World Cup related. If Turkish Airlines was ever planning on sponsoring football, this is the prime time to really leverage their sponsorship and brand awareness. I'd argue that Turkish Airlines are using these sponsorships to build an association with the fish and chipper and Cantalonian audience by supporting what is most valued to them at the most opportune time.
And I'd bet money that Turkish Airlines plans to launch more flights next year and this sponsorship is building an awareness so that the increase in additional flights next year are more successful when launched.
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Anonymous | Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:23 am
Has anyone seen this campaign and then decided to fly with Turkish Airlines? No? - Point made.
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Paul Youlten | Sun, 20 Jun 2010 6:44 pm
Mark, Jackie, Anonymous,
These adverts are not trying to persuade Mr and Mrs Anonymous or their Catalan cousins to choose Turkish Airlines when they go to Bodrum or Antalya for their summer holiday. Nor do I think that they are random.
To understand the Turkish Airlines sponsorships and their associated adverts you need to look deeper into the geographical, political and economic context.
The oil and natural gas business is booming in cities like Tashkent, Baku, Tiblisi, Almaty and Teheran. Western Europeans doing business in these cities don't have a lot of choice when they fly in and out of these places. I don't think British Airways flies to any of these cities. BMI and Lufthansa offer a very limited service to just some of these destinations. You could, of course, fly with an airline local to the destination (such as Uzbekistan Airways or IranAir) or choose go via Istambul with Turkish Airlines.
The use of (albeit) bemused celebrities/sports stars in the adverts actually lends a certain hokey and (if I remember correctly) a slightly flirtatious charm to the Turkish Airlines brand. Most of the people influenced by these ads are likely to be male business people stuck in some boring hotel in a god-forsaken former soviet republic; who will, at some point, be sent an email by their PA asking if they want to fly home with Turkish Airlines, Air Astana or Turkmenistan Airlines (via Birmingham International Airport). Don't be too surprised that F.C.Barcelona, Kevin Coster and even the charmless Wayne Rooney (with the help of attractive and very attentive flight attendants) win these hugely profitable customers for Turkish Airlines from such poorly differentiated competition.
It is also worth remembering that these sponsorships started at around the same time as the tragic crash of Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 at Schipol in Feb 2009 in which nine people died. The fact that we are reading and writing about bemused faces and expensive, random looking sponsorships rather than the safety record of Turkish Airlines should be counted a big success for their marketing department and agencies.
Like most sponsorships I am sure we could all think of ways that they could have achieved better results at a lower cost - but my guess is that Turkish Airlines aren't doing too badly from these associations and that even if they have paid over-the-odds they are actually following quite a low risk strategy.
Much more bemusing (to me anyway) is the Kazakhstan government's sponsorship of the Astana cycle team - but I guess even that is not totally random and must make some sort of sense to the people behind it.
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bulent | Mon, 26 Jul 2010 8:06 am
Anonymous! how many people do you think bought an Omega watch only because George Clooney appeared in its ads. Or how many people do you think switched to Nespresso again only because George Clooney appeared in their TVC?
There's no point made neither in your comment nor in this article. There are ads aimed at selling and there are the ones aimed at brand/image/awareness/etc. building.
According to SkyTrax; Turkish Airlines was selected best airline in Southern Europe and has best onboard catering in Economy Class in the World.
And according to reports on TA's website they've grown in destinations, flyers and most importantly in revenue and net profits. This clearly shows that TA is running a tangible strategy which gives them the right and power to use whatever celebrity or sponsor whichever team they wish.
Besides anyone would know the power of soccer in awareness building which is exactly what Turkish Airlines is trying to do with sponsorships. And if one thinks Barcelona is only a Catalan brand, boy you need to enlighten.
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johnny_mcc | Thu, 12 Aug 2010 2:32 pm
While the article was funny and humorous, it was also quite naive. Paul's reply was far more sensible and closer to the reasons for the sponsorship.
Airlines, are interested in three things;
1. Promoting new routes (hence increasing sales.)
2. Increasing brand exposure
3. Differentiation from their competitors.
Emirates sponsorship of Team NZ (in sailing) is another good example. They are doing that purely to connect and engage potential consumers in NZ. They are also doing that because of the opportunity to leverage high quality b2b contacts in a strong b2b environment.
If Turkish Airlines, has an objective to increase their new customers, then perhaps spending the fee and activation money is still cheaper for acquisition than their previous ATL efforts?
Again, a funny article but seemingly naive and in-keeping with my perception on 'professors.'
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