Lets talk about this sponsorship deal that SA Tourism is busy with at the moment. The idea is to pay close to R1 billion to the English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur as part of a three-year deal that will see South Africa advertised on their jerseys and merchandise.
I’ve really had to dig deep in my reserve of impartiality to understand this one, especially given that I am not the biggest sports fan. That being said, one of my many entrepreneurial hats involves marketing and branding, so I fully understand the impact of incidental and subtle product placement, and well-placed logos.
I also get that these types of campaigns have long-term pay-offs that can’t always be quantified. All of that makes sense to me and I also understand that football has a diverse and fanatical fan-base, which responds to advertising. In other words, there’s a very good chance that a Tottenham fan who sees our logo, will book a holiday to our shores in the future. Multiply that by thousands, and we could earn that money back many times over.
It’s also a logical follow-on from us having hosted the World Cup in 2010. Assuming they have done all the due diligence and crunched the numbers, then it does all add up from a strategic marketing point of view.
But, as the well-worn adage goes … “timing is everything.” In fact, so poor was SA Tourism’s timing that even the president expressed his dissatisfaction to the plan. I think most people are smart enough to understand that this is a different budget from Eskom, or crime-fighting, or education.
But we also know that it’s not all that hard to move budgets around to fill new holes that have developed since the time when the budget was allocated. Speaking on a slightly different matter, even the ANC’s Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula highlighted the fact that “reprioritised funding should go towards ensuring Eskom’s debt is further serviced, protection of infrastructure, maintenance and upgrading…”
And that is really the crux of the objection. R1bn can go a long way towards alleviating some of our most pressing problems at the moment. Most business people will tell you that in a time of crisis, marketing takes a backseat and the budget gets reallocated. And that’s because we can’t advertise a product that isn’t working 100%.
If those tourists do decide to come, they will be faced with load shedding, possible water shortages and the sort of crime that could see them being kidnapped for ransom – because that’s a crime we are just completely ignoring as a government. And that means we may be shooting ourselves in the foot, because those tourists will end up giving us terrible reviews, which in turn will stop others from coming. Because no marketing is as effective as word-of-mouth. Tottenham will be smiling, while we would’ve poured R1bn down the drain.