Challenge
Starting with a blank sheet of paper and the directive to elevate awareness of their brand and provide actionable sales content, Putnam Investments provided the opportunity to develop a textbook blueprint for any company seeking to optimize its affinity marketing spending.
Solution
Working in tandem with senior marketing and sales leadership, we identified critical high potential audience segments and positioned them against sporting properties that not only aligned perfectly with their demographic profiles, but also delivered activation opportunities in eight pre-determined geographic growth markets. Starting with small scale partnerships with up and coming athletes in skiing and golf, we tested scalable strategies that were heavily weighted to drive earned media and direct sales activity. Early successes enabled more budget to be applied and the program has extended subsequently to include ownership opportunities in professional sports and additional partnerships in the golf and skiing segments. The award winning US Ski Team Sochi-themed marketing and advertising campaign and the Gold Medal efforts of Putnam sponsored skier Ted Ligety represented a uniquely successful representation of this strategy- earning a significantly higher ROI on budget spent than more traditional marketing efforts.