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KIRSTY HUTTON

BUYING DIRECTOR TOTAL MEDIA

Media strategy

Great sports coverage has always been a successful way to attract men (sorry ladies).

The media landscape is littered with examples – from BBC2’s coverage of Snooker to Sky Sports – or indeed just look at your local pub when it is showing a big match on TV.

For commercial media, lucrative ad revenue and associated deals follow men as sure as night follows day.

The Times has won many awards for its sports coverage.

This is an indication of the strength of the product and allows the opportunity to reinforce its power with existing and potential readers TalkSport, having established itself as a “must tune in to” medium for two million sports enthusiasts, is now a “must be associated with” medium for products aimed at them.

Is it small wonder a deal has been struck between these noncompetitive media? But what of the deal? It appears to comprise a 12-month partnership with key features being the rebranding of the drivetime show as The Game to coincide with the name of the Times’ sports supplement; and on-air usage of the newspaper’s specialist reporters during the programme (Tony Cascarino, one of the two presenters, already writes for The Times with the insider’s view of football).

So what’s in it for both parties? For TalkSport:

• Money: great reason for a deal.
• Quality editorial resource at low/no cost.
• Link with prestigious, upmarket brand to help dispel the myth that TalkSport is downmarket.
• Partnership with a fellow market leader for sports coverage.
• Opportunity to reach new potential listeners by building on the relationship and perhaps on the Times’ association with Cascarino.
• Ups the ante for other advertisers/ partners and demonstrates TalkSport is open for innovative business partnerships.
• And for The Times, as part of the editorial format, the paper is assured of:
• Being top of mind in a sports context throughout the week and across the day. Drivetime contact complements the morning contact made either via the Times’ Sky Sports sponsorship or through normal reading habits.
• Extending brand perception further – in the areas of “lively, personable, modern, up to date etc” by being part of the broadcast format.
• The message of sports expertise being reinforced with existing readers and extended to new potential readers.
• Increased topicality for its brand in a core market.
• Precise targeting with no wastage of exposure. And for humans who don’t like sport – their perceptions of the paper are not interfered with.
• Dominating a key show (which is the market leader in radio drive time) – at the expense of its competitors.

I expect further tie-ups such as events and competitions will forge an even closer bond.

Great strategic alliance – glad, however, I don’t have to see its execution.