Corporate sponsorship programmes have made their mark in the UK this year, with several partnerships hitting the headlines. Jade Gamlin investigates the secrets behind good corporate engagement.

Cast your mind back to the early 1990s. The Winter Olympics were rapidly approaching and companies were keen to put their stamp on the shirts of the athletes. In a bid to raise company profile and build corporate social responsibility initiatives, Visa paid out a colossal $20 million to become the official sponsor of the Games. The global payments company developed marketing programmes and promoted its positioning worldwide, however its endeavours cannot prevent the 30% of consumers who were convinced American Express was the key sponsor of the event.

Companies have been diligent since then to establish partnerships with events and organizations that establish clear, logical connections between their own aims and values and those of the recipients.

While modes of corporate sponsorship are constantly evolving, what has become increasingly popular today is businesses driving their corporate social responsibility initiatives through dramatic, high-profile stunts.

One exceptional example comes from the courier service FedEx Express which generated a staggering 3,016 articles across the globe for their original campaign to transport two giant pandas from China to Scotland. The story made front-page news in every UK national paper following the safe arrival of Tian Tian (Sweetie) and Yang Guang (Sunshine) at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), Edinburgh, in December 2011.

The project, which was part of a global, giant panda conservation programme, marked the first time pandas had resided in the UK for 17 years. The pandas’ meticulously planned journey formed the focal point of the story – meaning that FedEx formed the focal point of the story.

The crucial link between FedEx Express and RZSS was the delivery service’s long history of connecting China to the UK and providing safe travel for some of the worlds’ most delicate and precious cargo. This includes animals such as white tigers, elephants and even a 13-foot tiger shark used in filming the movie “Jaws.”

“We were honored that we were chosen as the trusted carrier of these rare animals,” said Nira Gale, communications advisor at FedEx Express. “There was a great amount of pride from our team members and the feedback from the public was amazing. After the pandas had safely arrived at the zoo, I had a student come up to me to thank the team for all their help in transporting the pandas. He was going to be studying animal conversation and couldn’t wait until he could see the pandas.”

The initiative was widely communicated across a variety of platforms including a global online newsroom, company blog, Facebook page, Twitter handles and a multimedia centre. All FedEx vehicles, including the Boeing 777F plane the pandas were transported in, were specially branded with giant pandas and bamboo and images of them were released to the media in anticipation of the journey.

FedEx regards corporate philanthropy as a key tool in actively engaging the local community and leading experts in the appropriate industry. “Our support of these special deliveries highlights our commitment to the communities where we do business, animal conservation and educational initiatives,” said Gale.

“For example, through Conservation International, FedEx is investing in the restoration of key panda habitats in the Sichuan Province of China, impacted in 2008 by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. We are also focusing on community-led conservation projects will create local job opportunities in wildlife protection, sequester carbon, rebuild the community, and protect valuable watersheds and wild panda habitats in the region.”

Closer to home, Procter & Gamble (P&G), the company behind Ariel, Febreze and Flash, launched the Capital Clean Up campaign this summer, working with the Greater London Authority (GLA) to help make London a fresher, greener place in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic Games. From March to June 2012, a series of clean up events saw Londoners unite in a bid to improve their city.

The project sprung out of P&G’s decade-long global partnership with the International Olympic Committee and has remodeled Boris Johnson’s annual Capital Clean Up campaign in an attempt to maximize audience engagement and participation.

P&G is fairly new to corporate branded campaigns. However since launching its first UK drive last year, the P&G Proud Sponsors of Mums campaign, it claims to have seen a 20% increase in familiarity and a 10% lift in favourability.

This year the consumer product giant is putting its dedication to ethical corporate citizenship at the forefront of its sponsorship. “We’re committed to helping London look its best ahead of London 2012 when the world’s attention will be on our Capital,” said Irwin Lee, P&G UK & Ireland vice-president & general manager.

With the support of a number of GB athletes and P&G Capital Clean Up ambassador and actress, Keeley Hawes, the programme ran over 20 events and engaged around 1,700 volunteers who dedicated their time in a bid to improve a number of run-down streets and parks in London.

The programme took form following research by Febreze that revealed 43% of Londoners wanted to see an improvement to the capital’s green spaces and would like to see more trees and flowers planted in their community.

As a result, Febreze facilitated the creation of a number of “Fresh Havens” throughout the city, with areas in Archway and Dollis Hill benefiting from a complete transformation. Flash’s project saw a gallery of ‘clean art’ set up along the Southbank, a process that creates temporary artwork while removing dust and dirt from a surface.

Focusing more on digital implementation, Ariel’s association involved the creation of the ‘Love Clean London’ app, which encouraged Londoners to report rundown areas across the capital. P&G was able to utilise its roster of brands to target different communications audiences through multiple channels, extending the reach of its sponsorship programme.

P&G are not the only ones utilising location as a tangible link for its corporate sponsorship drive. It is arguably even more ingrained in HSBC’s partnership with the Cutty Sark Trust, as while the ship resides just a few hundred meters away from the HSBC head office in Canary Wharf, their collaboration also brings together the historical and cultural content of the ship’s past with HSBC’s expertise as a leading authority on global trade.

HSBC became principal sponsor of the Cutty Sark shortly after the completion of the six-year restoration of the ship, and, during the four-year sponsorship period, HSBC is offering the trust the sustainability and maintenance it needs to continue to prosper, as well as supporting its marketing strategy.

The two organisations share a very close bond. As well as being similar in age, with the Cutty Sark first setting sale in 1870 and HSBC being founded five years previously, both traditionally operated within very similar markets.

Richard Doughty, director of Cutty Sark Trust said: “There was that indelible link between our business, which was trade with China and the origins of the HSBC bank, so it very much epitomised what the trust was looking for in a principle partner. We were looking to bring together a small group of partners and HSBC filled that role for us. That very tight association is a very close fit with what we were looking for.”

The multi-faceted programme also acted as a viable employee engagement tool, with all staff nationwide being granted free access to the ship. Access, including discounted tickets and venue usage, was cited by Nicole McGuinness, senior manager at HSBC, as a great part of the programme.

One event which drove lots publicity around the partnership was the Descendants event, which brought together many of the 170 descendants of the ship’s original crew. The celebration brought together a group of people aged between two weeks old to 80 to mark the ship’s history and celebrate the partnership.

Doughty said: “It was absolutely phenomenal to be able to reach out to a number of descendants who we were not in touch with and each brought their own stories and pictures to the ship which has opened up a whole new avenue of research for us.”

While the partnership is still in its early days, feedback has been extremely positive. In the future, the partnership will address a number of projects, which will make the Cutty Sark sail again, and reach out to many of the port cities that HSBC where will be holding exhibitions.

McGuinness said: “The link has definitely been the easiest sponsorship to explain because of the links and heritage of both HSBC and the Cutty. They are so intertwined - it’s been a dream to communicate.”

In these three cases, the link between company values, aspirations and even traditions of both parties forms a strong part of the association. Evidently corporate reputation calls for an intrinsic bond between the supporter and the recipient to make the partnership work and to communicate to the public that there is more to their sponsorship stunts than scoring reputation points. While it is difficult to measure the correlation between the size of the stunt and the results achieved, it seems there is no sign of corporate sponsorship activities slowing down just yet. The developments in strategy over the last 20 years have proved businesses need to work hard to reach their target audience and to communicate their dedication to both the environment and the wider community.