Is Singapore Red-y for Sports Sponsorship? Lessons from the Singapore 2015 SEA Games

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1 CASE STUDY 15 th February 2017 Is Singapore Red-y for Sports Sponsorship? Lessons from the Singapore 2015 SEA Games Leng Ho Keat, Assistant Professor, Physical Education & Sports Science (PESS), Nanyang Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University and ACI Fellow Sponsorship and the 28 th SEA Games The sports sponsorship industry has been growing over the last few years, particularly in the Asia Pacific market. According to a report published by Digital Market Asia in 2014, sponsorship revenue in the Asia Pacific region is likely to grow from US$9.8 billion in 2010 to US$12.2 billion in In part, this has been driven by the increasing number of international sporting events held in the region. These include the Beijing 2008 Olympics and the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games. The region will continue to host many international sporting events in future including the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup. As such, sports sponsorship revenue is likely to continue to grow in the region. Singapore has hosted many international sporting events. Perhaps the most ambitious to date was the inaugural Singapore 2010 Youth Olympics. Other sporting events that have put Singapore on the world map for sporting events include the Singapore F1 Grand Prix and BNP Paribas WTA Finals. As such, many local companies have started to look at sports sponsorship as a possible new tool in communicating with their customers. Recently, the 28 th South East Asian Games or SEA Games was held in Singapore from 5 th to 16 th June in This biennial regional multi-sports event was first started in Thailand in 1959 with athletes from seven countries participating in 12 sports. By 2015, the event drew athletes from eleven Southeast Asian countries with athletes competing in 402 events in 36 sports at 31 venues. The growth of the event has attracted the attention of sponsors. In the 2015 SEA Games, the event attracted more than 100 sponsors, providing more than S$75 million in sponsorship. The organisers encouraged Singaporeans to support the event by wearing red and getting red-y to host the games. The larger question remains whether Singapore is red-y for sports sponsorship. To that end, Sport Singapore has awarded the National Institute of Education (Singapore) with a research grant to examine the potential for sports sponsorship in the country. This paper reproduces some of the findings from the research.

2 Watching the Games Respondents were solicited from MRT stations in July 2015 and January There were 515 respondents from the July 2015 phase and 582 respondents from the January 2016 phase. The total number of respondents was thus 1097 responses. The profile of the respondents is detailed in Table 1 below. The respondents were relatively well-distributed across gender. However, the proportion of respondents who were older than 45 years of age was slightly smaller than the other age groups. Table 1 Profile of Respondents Gender Age Group Respondents Female < 25 years of age 269 (25%) 25 to 45 years of age 163 (15%) > 45 years of age 96 (9%) Male < 25 years of age 207 (19%) 25 to 45 years of age 253 (23%) > 45 years of age 109 (10%) Total 1097 Of the 1097 respondents, 774 respondents (71%) watched the SEA Games. Of these respondents, 154 respondents (20%) watched the Games at the various sports venues. A larger number of respondents watched the Games either on television or the internet. The number of respondents who watched the SEA Games on television was 306 respondents (40%) while the number of respondents who watched it on the internet was 584 respondents (75%). This is shown in Figure 1 below. Figure 1 Venn Diagram of Viewing Patterns of Respondents

3 Sponsor Recall Sponsorship of the SEA Games were categorised into four tiers. These were the Main Sponsors, Official Sponsors, Official Partners and Official Supporters. The survey found that all the Main Sponsors were recalled by at least one respondent, with the proportion of respondents recalling the Main Sponsors ranging from 4% to 7%. Similarly, in the next tier, all sponsors were also recalled by at least 1 respondent. FBT, a sponsor in this tier, had the highest recall rate with 10% of respondents recalling the brand. Samsung was next on the list with 5% of respondents recalling the brand. Other than these exceptions, sponsors in this tier were generally recalled by a lower number of respondents than sponsors in the first tier. Although there were 28 sponsors in the third tier, respondents were only able to recall eight of these sponsors. Interestingly, 100 Plus (F&N Interflavine Pte Ltd) and Milo (Nestle Singapore Pte Ltd) were recalled by a large number of respondents. The proportion of respondents who recalled these brands was 23% and 12% respectively. Sponsors in the last tier were not recalled by any respondent. Brand / Sponsor Tier 1 Main Sponsors Table 1 Sponsor/Brand Recall Rate Remarks Deloitte & Touche LLP NTUC Fairprice Co-operative Mediacorp Pte Ltd Singtel Recalled by 49 to 72 respondents (4% to 7%) Tier 2 Official Sponsors Anderco Pte Ltd ATOS Daikin Airconditioning Pte Ltd DBS Bank FBT (Football Thai Factory Sporting Goods Co) Kingsmen Kubota Corporation Samsung Asia Pte Ltd Union Pay International Volvo (Wearnes Automotive Pte Ltd) Tier 3 Official Partners 100 Plus (F&N Interflavine Pte Ltd) McDonalds Recalled by 4 to 110 respondents (<1% to 10%) Recalled by 9 to 251 respondents (<1% to 23%)

4 Milo (Nestle Singapore Pte Ltd) OCBC Bank Pilot Pen Pte Ltd Singapore Airlines Limited Singapore Press Holdings Yonex The Potential of Athletes as Endorsers A total of 749 athletes from Singapore participated in the SEA Games. Of these athletes, 174 athletes were recalled by respondents. The athlete that was recalled by the largest number of respondents was Joseph Isaac Schooling (Swimming) with 254 respondents. This was followed by Feng Tian Wei (Table Tennis), Amanda Lim Xiang Qi (Swimming), Tao Li (Swimming) and Quah Zheng Wen (Swimming). Table 2 Recall of Athletes Participating in SEA Games Athlete Sport Frequency Joseph Isaac Schooling Swimming 254 Feng Tian Wei Table Tennis 148 Amanda Lim Xiang Qi Swimming 39 Tao Li Swimming 31 Quah Zheng Wen Swimming 30 Kang Li Loong Calvin Athletics 25 Pereira Veronica Shanti Athletics 24 Quah Ting Wen Swimming 24 Charmaine Soh Shi Hui Netball 24 Crystal Yap Yu Hui Synchronised 22 Lin Qing Yi Swimming Netball 20 Pang Sheng Jun Swimming 19 Dipna Lim Prasad Athletics 17 Tan Si Lie Archery 12 Wong Zi Liang Derek Badminton 10 Wong Wei Long Basketball 10 Irhan Fandi Ahmad Football 10 Four of the top five athletes with the highest recall rate were from the sport, Swimming. This suggests that some sports may be watched by more respondents. The top five sports with the highest number of respondents who recalled their athletes were Swimming, Table Tennis, Athletics, Netball and Basketball. Further analysis showed that the top five sports with the largest number of athletes recalled were Athletics, Floorball, Basketball, Rugby and Volleyball.

5 The ASEAN Para Games A Comparison with the SEA Games The ASEAN Para Games was held in December As such, this provided an opportunity to compare the potential for sponsorship in the ASEAN Para Games with the SEA Games. In the January 2016 phase, respondents were also asked about their involvement in the ASEAN Para Games. Of the 582 respondents, 292 respondents (50%) watched the ASEAN Para Games. Of the 292 respondents, 35 respondents (12%) watched the Games at the various sports venues and 59 respondents (20%) watched it on the television. The majority of respondents watched the event on the internet with 225 respondents (77%). Sponsors in the ASEAN Para Games were categorised into three tiers. These were the Main Sponsors with four sponsors, Official Sponsors with 10 sponsors and Official Partners with 15 sponsors. The sponsors with the highest rate of recall among respondents were FBT, 100 Plus and Mediacorp. These brands were recalled by 6%, 2% and 1% of respondents respectively. In addition, it was found that similar to the SEA Games, all four main sponsors were recalled by at least one respondent. Respondents were also able to name the athletes participating in the ASEAN Para Games. The athletes with the highest recall rates were Chee Weng Fai Jason (Table Tennis) with 44 respondents, Goh Rui Si Theresa (Swimming) with 26 respondents and Yip Pin Xiu (Swimming) with 17 respondents. Is Singapore Red-Y for Sports Sponsorship? The study showed that sponsorship in the event has been generally effective for sponsors. The SEA Games and ASEAN Para Games attracted a large number of spectators. 71% of the respondents watched the SEA Games while 50% of the respondents watched the ASEAN Para Games. As such, the ability of sporting events to reach consumers is clearly evident. Interestingly, most of the spectators (75% or more) watched the Games on the internet. This indicated that the internet has become an important sport broadcasting medium. Sport event organisers should therefore consider putting available content on the internet. The number of viewers on the internet is not constrained by the number of seats at a sports venue. More importantly, content on the internet can be viewed by spectators at a place and time of their choosing. As such, this can potentially increase the number of spectators for a sports event. To sponsors, this suggests that it is an important consideration whether a sports event is broadcast or made available on the internet. A sports event that is available on the internet is likely to be able to increase its reach. Sponsorship in the SEA Games is generally effective. Sponsors in the top sponsorship tiers are all recalled by respondents. While sponsors in the top tier are spending more on the sponsorships, the returns from this investment are also justified. Although sponsors in the lower tiers are recalled

6 by fewer respondents, it is noted that some sponsors like FBT, 100 Plus and Milo are recalled by a large number of respondents. It is also noted that these brands are closely associated with sports; FBT is a manufacturer of sports apparels while 100 Plus and Milo are sports beverages. As such, it suggests that when there is a close association with the sporting event, sponsors who are unable to sponsor at the top tier should also consider sponsoring the event at lower tiers as the returns from investment can be high. By comparison, the ASEAN Para Games showed similar findings. All four sponsors in the top tier were recalled by respondents and sponsors in the lower tiers were recalled by fewer respondents. As the interest in the ASEAN Para Games seems to be lower than the SEA Games, it is expected that there will correspondingly be a lower number of respondents who can recall the sponsors. Still, the findings show that sponsoring the ASEAN Para Games at the top tier of sponsorship makes sense. There is also an awareness of local athletes which suggests that there exists an opportunity for commercial organisations to employ local athlete endorsement as a strategy. The athletes with the highest recall rate were Joseph Isaac Schooling from the SEA Games and Chee Weng Fai Jason from the ASEAN Para Games. Clearly, with Schooling winning Singapore s first Olympic Gold Medal and becoming a sports celebrity, this potential is even more evident. Several companies have already identified this as a possible strategy by engaging local athletes to endorse their products. However, there are still many more athletes who are available. In particular, the findings suggest that athletes from the sports Athletics, Basketball, Floorball, Netball, Rugby, Swimming, Table-Tennis and Volleyball are recalled more frequently by the public. The opportunity exists for commercial companies to explore a suitable athlete that can fit their endorsement strategy. Related to this, sponsors should also consider approaching the national sports associations for the various sports to build a long term partnership in terms of sponsorship activities. Is Singapore Red-Y for sports sponsorship? The answer is clearly a yes. About the Author Dr Leng Ho Keat is an Assistant Professor with the Physical Education and Sports Science Academic Group in the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. He is also a Fellow with the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight. Acknowledgments The author will like to acknowledge the funding support of S$5,570 from SportSG for this study. In addition, the author will like to thank his research assistants, Christopher Huang, Chua Woon Yang, Vivian Goh, Calvin Kang, Seah Yu Hong, Syed Abdullah Noor, Tan Zi Jian and Yeo Zhi Hui, for their help in data collection.