NEWS BASKET BEAFRIKA

NEWS BASKET BEAFRIKA

Le portail basket de référence à l'international


Innovation in Sports Business Summit

Publié par News Basket Bêafrika sur 10 Mai 2013, 07:46am

Catégories : #NBB ENGLISH VERSION

innovation-in-sport-summit-presented-by-repucom.jpg

In keeping with a major theme of this weekend's 2013 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four, and in particular its first-time arrival to the United Kingdom, a new market for basketball, an audience of business, media and corporate social responsibility leaders were treated Thursday to an expert discussion of present and future trends in the business of sport. 

 

The Innovation in Sports Business Summit, presented by REPUCOM, was held at London City Hall and brought together experts on sport from the fields of television, social responsibility, gaming, digital content, media, marketing, sponsorship, data and other fields. 

 

The first panel discussion, entitled “Innovation as a Revenue Driver in Sport”, featured Norbert Teufelberger, CEO of bwin; Ulrich Lacher, Global Director of Enterprise Services at Repucom; Simon Denyer, CEO of Perform and Antony Marcou, Group Managing Director of Sports Revolution. 

 

Their fascinating discussion covered a wide range of issues facing sport leagues in terms of the ever-changing ways of managing product rights to engage fans and sponsors now and in the future. 

 

"It's social, social, social that's driving everything at the moment, said Mr. Marcou of Sports Revolution. "Technology is the market force and brands need to get their heads around that first." 

 

Mr. Tuefelberger of bwin agreed. 

 

"It's all technology-driven, but the challenge is not only social, but how to get on mobile devices, going from big screens to small screens," he said. For Mr. Denyer of Perform, the issue of whether individual sports must change to meet the new habits of audiences is also key. 

 

"The main thing is, whether playing around with different formats of you sport, or delivering it in different formats to consumers, is don't be afraid to experiment," he said. "Doing things the way things were always done could make you dust quickly." 

 

Mr. Lacher of Repucom said embracing technology to engage fans will give sports a valuable insights of how to change and where to take their businesses. "In a way, social media is like a big focus group," he said. "You get instant feedback on what is interesting or not about your product, about what's working, what's not working. If you mine that data, it will have all sorts of clues." 

 

The second panel, “The Power of Sport. How can sport create a legacy?”, featured a second group of rights holders and sports personalities to discuss building and development ties that bind between a sport and the many communities it touches. The guests included UEFA legend Graeme Le Saux; Jason Morgan, Chief Executive of Charlton Athletic Community Trust; Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sport Business Strategy and Marketing, Coventry University; Simon Cooper, Head of Sport at Mayor’s London Office; One Team Architect David Butler; and Mary Davis, Regional President of Special Olympics Europe Eurasia. 

 

Professor Chadwick gave credit to people that there is a discussion on this matter. “It is very easy to say it is there and it is important, but not talk about it,” he said. “Corporate Social Responsibility, it is not going to go away. We are talking about, and we are in the midst of a cultural change. It is not just a short-term phenomenon.” 

 

Mr. Butler, explained the philosophy behind the creation of One Team and was able to draw up on some of the best examples from the world of sport and CSR. “I was approached by Euroleague Basketball CEO Jordi Bertomeu, who really wanted to take this space, and innovate because Euroleague innovates, it is part of its culture. But also because it was good business on both sides of the fence – good business to do something positive on the court, and good business because it fitted within the framework of what leagues, organizations and companies should be doing”, Butler said, stressing the importance of Euroleague re-writing the vision and the mission of the organization, in order to devote to the project. 

 

After two years, Butler says that the program is evolving well. With the help of Turkish Airlines, which invested and took this program to heart, One Team is developing positive impact and positive change. And that is how CSR programs should actually be measured. “When asked ‘how is it going’, organizations tend to talk about increasing numbers, more children, more projects, more people, more scale, more geography. But that does not answer question properly. The question should be asked: ‘how much impact are you having?. And how much positive change is happening?’ ” 

 

“We actually see the impact of partnership and involvement with grassroots sport every day,” stressed Ms. Davis of Special Olympics Europe Euroasia. She explained how important the partnerships Special Olympics has with UEFA, Euroleague and Tottenham Hotspur, among others, and how important is for them to use the sports people as ambassadors to get their message out. “Every time we tweet, Kyle Hines from Olympiacos Piraues retweets our message. You can imagine the reach that has for an organization like Special Olympics.” 

 

The message from Mr. Cooper, Head of Sports at London Mayor’s Office, was how important leadership is. “You can have the best concept, the best monitoring, the best idea, if you don’t have the right people the right person driving it, it ain’t going to be successful.” 

 

Mr. Morgan, Chief Executive of Charlton Athletic Community Trust and One London Member, took that concept further in discussing the best role models for the community. “Some of the people in our programs are very difficult to engage, and you need a certain front line member of staff, and the best ones are the ones that recognize that if you go down that route, you will end up where I was. They can turn them away, they can help them, mentor, give support and advice.” 

Mr. Le Saux, a retired footballer and Chelsea FC and UEFA Ambassador brought the discussion full circle by explaining what athletes get from their contributions. “If you form a connection with somebody, you are working within the community, you get the benefits as well. It resets your state of mind. It makes you realize how fortunate you are to be in your position.” 

 

Ultimately, the consensus is that sport has huge power to change the world, and ideas like One Team are here to stay.

 

 

 

 

Pour être informé des derniers articles, inscrivez vous :

Articles récents