Sponsorship News

Sponsorship analysis of the IJBAAN cable car in Amsterdam

IJBAAN is an urban cable car system planned for Amsterdam, as part of an integrated public transport plan, to link the upcoming north of the city to the to the newly built Harbour City.

Amsterdam is a major port for container and cruise line ships, which poses a challenge for building bridges across the IJ river. The solution to the problem is the giant, 100 metres tall, cable car system. The IJBAAN cable car is scheduled to be opened in 2025 when the city celebrates its 750th birthday.

BDS Sponsorship were tasked with analysing the potential sponsorship value of the Cable Car. The in-depth, multi-faceted process involved working with a range of primary and secondary resources. Data (including local maps), projected passenger numbers, and architects’ drawings (among other sponsorship assets), were taken into consideration. This analysis included the visibility of the sponsors’ name on the cable car and on local transport maps. BDS could then place a financial value on the potential sponsorship income for the first ten years that the IJBAAN will operate.

Bas Dekker, IJBAAN Founder and Director said,

“After talking to other agencies, we appointed BDS Sponsorship because of their extensive experience in this area. With a very quick turnaround time, the BDS team provided us with a detailed and robust evaluation with strong recommendations in the accompanying report which will significantly support us in the development phase of IJBAAN and beyond.”

Image from UNStudio.

This is not the first time BDS has worked with a Cable Car sponsorship project. We previously worked with Transport for London (TFL) to secure sponsorship income of £ 36.5 million for their Cable Car. During that project, we significantly increased the sponsorship value of the TfL cable car by identifying the opportunity to include the sponsor of the cable car (Emirates Air Line) on transport maps and on directional road signage.

BDS appointed by National Forest Company to develop Strategic Partnership Strategy

We are pleased to announce that we have been appointed by the National Forest Company (NFC) to develop a Strategic Partnership Strategy.

The NFC has created the biggest English broadleaf forest the country has seen for over a thousand years. This ambitious project is one of the biggest environmental regeneration projects in the world. The forest has been in intensive development for the last forty years and the NFC has overseen the planting of nearly nine million trees. The NFC is also responsible for managing this huge forest, which covers around 200 square miles in the Midlands.

The National Forest Company launched the ‘Greenprint Strategy’ in 2019. This new strategy is focused on the developments that will take place over the next twenty-five years of the forest. This vision is an exciting shift from transforming a landscape, and deals with crucial environmental issues, including mitigation and adaption relating to climate change.

The Greenprint Strategy is about creating real change, in a real place; it is a tangible example of a new blueprint for sustainable living, where trees are the key to transformation.

The Strategic Partnerships Strategy, managed by BDS Sponsorship Ltd, will include an audit of the current partnerships and will identify new company sponsorship opportunities based on the assets, ambitions and objectives of the NFC.

The strategic partnership strategy will also include commercial recommendations for the two major NFC events, the Timber Festival and The National Trek.

The Timber Festival is an international 3-day event that celebrates woodland culture and the transformative impact of the forests through music, art and debate.

The National Trek takes place every September and encourages people to get outdoors and use the Forest for exercise. A highlight of the National Trek event is a 75-mile hike through the Forest.

The potential benefits of a partnership with NFC include an association with one of the major regeneration projects in the world, significant CSR opportunities and the potential to engage with over 9 million people who visit the Forest each year.

The initial phase of the strategy development is now complete, and BDS have been appointed by the National Forest Company to undertake the strategic corporate partnership sales process.

ShowStar Boxing packs a sports sponsorship punch with BDS Sponsorship Ltd

BDS Sponsorship has been appointed by ShowStar Boxing to create and deliver the sports sponsorship sales strategy for a new series of ‘white-collar’ boxing matches. These exciting matches will feature some of the world’s biggest social media influencers, making the events prime for sports sponsorship stakeholders.

ShowStar boxing merges the world of celebrity social media influencers with the drama, passion and entertainment of sport. ShowStar Boxing will host the first in this new series of celebrity boxing matches in March 2021.

The new series focuses on a carefully curated roster of social media influencers from high-profile platforms including YouTube and Instagram. The influencers entering the boxing ring in March 2021 command a combined following of over 20 million predominantly 18-34 year-olds.

Primed for sports sponsorship

ShowStar Boxing is a made-for-TV property, perfect for sports sponsorship. Content will be distributed digitally, delivering a highly engaged distribution ecosystem of digital channels, including Pay-Per-View. This new sports brand combines powerful advance visibility through social media mentions with high-performing longtail lifespan on-demand via YouTube. Demand for space from sponsors is expected to be high.

ShowStar Boxing is at the intersection of Sport and Lifestyle marketing, building on the phenomenal success of the KSI v Logan Paul fights which attracted one of the biggest online audiences ever (receiving 115m YouTube views).

Fighters will include Love Island’s Sam Gowland (1.3m Instagram followers), Aneson Gib (2.18m YouTube subscribers), JMX Joel Morris (2.5M YouTube subscribers) and Georgia Harrison (1m Instagram followers). Many more social media and YouTube influencers are scheduled to appear as a part of the ShowStar Boxing events, each bringing with them an engaged audience of followers.

ShowStar Boxing taps into the world of youth culture and harnesses the immense power and growth of the influencer generation through the latest in live-streaming technology.

City Cruises – Advertising opportunities on the Thames

With over 4 million passengers and 17 boats, City Cruises offered a unique opportunity for a brand to become an iconic part of London. We evaluated naming rights as well as the potential to build a global network of branded boats.

Evaluating Naming Rights

City Cruises runs sightseeing passenger boats along the River Thames in London. With 4 million passengers a year and 17 boats, they are a familiar sight to both Londoners and tourists alike. The River Thames is generally an advertising-free waterway, but the Naming Rights of City Cruises boats would enable a brand to be displayed on the boats. This would give a brand a unique opportunity to become an iconic part of London.

BDS surveyed the boats and drew together all the potential exposure points, both on the ship’s exterior and onboard. The number of passengers and the audience along the Thames, on bridges and the surrounding hotels and offices, were estimated using various surveys and published figures to evaluate the value of the naming rights.

Unique Brand Exposure

BDS then took into consideration the additional brand exposure from everything from advertising, staff uniform, printed material, ticket booths and even social media shares to come to a valuation of the opportunity.

Global Potential

BDS then explored the potential to replicate the opportunity in New York and Chicago, where the owners have similar operations, with a view to building a global network of branded boats across the world’s most vibrant cities.

Did you know?

City Cruises can trace its roots back to the 1970s, when Gary and Rita Beckwith OBE, Chairman and CEO respectively, acquired a fuel barge with which to supply the various boat operators on the River Thames.

London Luton Airport Ltd and the Direct Air Rail Transit

London Luton Airport Ltd has recently appointed BDS to develop a Sponsorship Strategy and Business Plan for the Direct Air Rail Transit (DART), which is due to open in 2021. The DART is a £225m investment, which will provide passengers with a more environmentally friendly and efficient transport link between the Airport and Luton Airport Parkway Station. It will replace the existing bus system.

The project is part of a broader £1.5bn, 10-year Luton Investment Framework plan, which includes building new offices, hotels and business parks near Luton Airport Parkway Station, including in Bartlett Square.

Luton Airport currently attracts 18 million passengers per annum, and it is estimated that by 2029, there will be 25 million passengers each year. The DART forms a major part of this development and growth strategy.

The Brand Sponsorship Strategy and Business Plan will provide recommendations on the commercial programme for DART, including how potential partners can engage with the high volume of annual passengers at Luton Airport, but also to significantly increase the sponsorship value by building other assets, such as signage on major nearby roads and brand presence at mainline stations, into the sponsorship opportunity.

Young Driver

BDS has been appointed by Young Driver, the world’s largest provider of driving lessons for under 17s as the sponsorship agency responsible for undertaking a Sponsorship Strategy and Business Plan.

Since launching in 2009, Young Driver has delivered 600,000 lessons throughout 60 sites in the UK. The number of locations is increasingly rapidly, with a further 12 centres opening in the UK this month and a constantly expanding number of sites launching across Europe, including in France and very soon Germany, Holland and Belgium.

The centres in the UK are located at very major and substantial footfall destinations, such as the NEC, Bluewater Shopping Centre, Brent Cross Shopping Centre, Etihad Stadium, Royal Highland Centre and the Three Counties Showground.

Sponsorship will provide an opportunity for brands to directly engage with all Young Driver participants and the family members who accompany them to the centres each year – totalling over 350,000 people. There is also the potential for sponsors to be provided with extensive presence at the high footfall Young Driver destinations and therefore have the potential to reach millions of their annual visitors, such as visitors to The NEC and Bluewater etc.
Furthermore, not only is there the association with developing safe drivers of the future (Young Driver is proven to lower the accident rate for newly qualified drivers by 50%), but there is also an additional and significant media/PR value associated with the Young Driver programme.