By Claire Reilly
After announcing the signing of a three year sponsorship agreement in November 2009, Panasonic Australia has made the move to stop its sponsorship arrangement with Tennis Australia in order to “re-evaluate” its promotional strategy.
Daniel Preiss, sponsorship manager at Panasonic Australia, confirmed the move to Current.com.au, saying that the brand would soon be launching a new range of products in the home appliance category, and that this necessitated a new sponsorship direction.
“We were given the opportunity to renew, but we are taking some time to re-evaluate the business,” said Preiss. “We’re looking to bring a new range of products to the market at the moment, and whilst we’re doing that we’re looking to reset our strategy from the sponsorship side of things. It’s just a bit of a holding strategy for us, to take some time out to look what’s in the market.
According to Preiss the “successful” partnership saw the launch of a number of campaigns across various categories, focused mostly through social media channels, including an air conditioning promotion that ran during the Australian open.
“The partnership was nationally focused, and allowed us to leverage across all our states and territories where our products are being sold. It had a summer focus, so it allowed us to be active during a key buying time as well. From our side it was a partnership that brought benefit both ways.”
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However, Preiss insisted that the decision not to renew the sponsorship agreement was not a sign that Panasonic was struggling.
“I think it’s just the natural cycle of partnerships that they last for a certain amount of time, and then business conditions change or new product line-ups come up and obviously organisations take time to look back and see where the consumer set is and re-evaluate their business from that.
“It’s an ever-changing environment. When business conditions are strong you tend to see a lot more activity within the industry.”
Aside from its sponsorship of ANZ Stadium in Sydney Olympic Park and a global partnership with the Olympic Games, Panasonic Australia has no immediate plans for new sponsorship activity. The brand is set to launch new household products next year, and Preiss said Pana will “make a decision from there”.
However, he noted that in the changing media landscape and the rising dominance of social media, brands could no longer rely on traditional promotional models alone.
“I think everyone’s aware that the marketing industry and the consumer set is continually fragmenting, so I think traditional channels are finding it difficult to retain interest and engagement levels,” he said. “Social channels give you another opportunity to reach a smaller, more engaging and vocal group. I think most companies’ focus would be on, at some stage, engaging with social channels and social media.”