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The Allied Domecq/Royal Shakespeare Arts sponsorship program
Aug 28, 1995; Canadian FundRaiser

For those charities and companies willing to work hard together, exercise creativity and make an effort to understand each other's business and develop joint strategies, high-end arts sponsorships can be immensely stimulating, rewarding and successful. Speaking at the Financial Post Conference Beyond Sponsorship: Innovative Partnerships That Really Pay Off , Jim O'Toole, Director, Scope Sponsorship Ltd. (UK) and Jonathan Pope, Development Director, Royal Shakespeare Company (UK) illustrated how Britain's world famous Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company and global beverage giant Allied Domecq created synergy from support through direct funding, employee involvement, brand tie-ins, media coverage and sponsorship evaluation.
Allied Domecq (AD), a multi-national drink and retailing company that specializes in world class brands such as Canadian Club, Beefeater Gin, Courvoisier Cognac and restaurants that include Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins, decided on a corporate sponsorship that has since translated into an $8 million partnership with the RSC.
In 1993 Allied Domecq acknowledged that it was suffering from an identity problem. Perceived as a conglomeration of individual trading companies rather than a single entity, it lacked an identifiable personality and was lagging behind its competitors. "Corporate sponsorship was the route AD chose to enhance its group image and to communicate with its multi-faceted target audiences. The company wanted to position its people as hard nosed but fair; innovative and creative; committed and supportive; energetic and enterprising; well trained and open minded; and most of all ... fun to work with," said O'Toole.
RSC saw sponsorship as a business partnership.
AD had identified its Education Program as a project that would fit its sponsorship objectives as its predecessor's successful sponsorship was nearing the end of a predetermined term. The RSC also seemed to be an ideal fit with AD's local and international objectives. "Specifically, the Royal Shakespeare Company is all about world-class classical theatre and AD is about world-class classic brands. Both are globally renowned and respected, and both operate internationally. However, most important was the clear message that the RSC treated sponsorship not as patronage, charity, or a corporate feel-good opportunity, but as a business partnership," O'Toole said.
Early on, the partners' joint objectives established and publicized the relationship as a marketing-based partnership reaching beyond chequebook sponsorship, chairman's whim and occasional corporate hospitality events. After three months of negotiations, the final package gave AD principal sponsor status as well as sponsorship exclusivity within all the group's business operating sectors. The core benefits of that status also delivered a significant daily impact in the form of promotional credits on print materials, venue branding, joint media relations activity, exclusivity across group businesses, access to cast and tickets and hospitality opportunities. In addition to the external communications benefits, AD also negotiated a one-year free membership to the RSC for all its UK employees, and a special newsletter dedicated to the sponsorship, containing performance updates and articles by staff and RSC actors. AD had managed to share the sponsorship and its benefits with its 70,000 staff world-wide and instil pride in the company.
A shared desire to build each other's activity and reputation
Pope strongly believes that sponsorship relationships are about genuine partnership: about designing programs of activity which produce benefits of real value to both partners. "The Allied Domecq/Royal Shakespeare partnership," he says, "was characterized as having strong mutual respect for the quality of each company." A creative and innovative approach to their joint effort, and being open about any difficulties, made the difference, along with a shared desire to add value to each other's activity and reputation. Calling it more a question of filtering suitable priorities from a long list of possibilities, Pope cautioned that partnerships need to be defined by precise contractual terms and subjected to regular updates and reviews as well as planning. He concluded by calling the RSC/AD sponsorship "enabling ... bringing benefits to both partners which were new, which added value, and which were measurable."