Top female golfer is brand ambassador for Ricoh

Exciting. Ambitious. These are qualities of the world’s number three woman golfer, Paula Creamer, that Ricoh hopes to associate with by making her the company’s brand ambassador in association with its latest sponsorship of the Ricoh Women’s British Open (RWBO). We report

“Ricoh is proud to sponsor the Ricoh Women’s British Open and to work closely with Paula Creamer, and continues to be inspired by the professionalism and teamwork that makes the tournament possible,” says Javier Diez-Aguirre, director of corporate communications at the office and production printing market specialist.

Perhaps taking a page from Tiger Woods’ association with Accenture, Ricoh will be making full use of its title sponsorship of the RWBO to unveil its new slogan ‘Moving Ideas Forward’ to customers and partners. The new approach is part of the company’s strategy to raise overall brand awareness in the region and present a consistent brand identity to the market.

Key prospects are primarily Fortune 500 companies in all industries.

The new brand platform will be an ongoing campaign, but Ricoh’s activation of the RWBO ran from July to August.

360 degree approach

This year the sponsorship is particularly innovative as Ricoh is investing in a comprehensive media support programme – a first for the brand.

“It incorporates the full suite of marketing disciplines including online, offline, outdoor, PR and sponsorship activation. Secondly [we are considering] activities before, during and after the event,” he says.

Specific activity around the golfing event included a guerrilla-style media campaign that featured Creamer in a series of advertisements around London and in major train stations and airports. Preceding the event, posters also appeared on the side of ad trucks driving around the city.

People spotting these ads were able to enter a competition to win a Ricoh camera. These elements of the campaign were specifically targeted at high density business/corporate demographics in central areas such as Broadgate, and were intended to raise brand awareness as well as drive traffic to the website.

The campaign included a broad-reaching online element that featured tailored adverts created by JWT, as well as a refreshed Ricoh Europe website and a series of viral videos offering golfing solutions to some tricky business problems in an effort to drive traffic to both the main website and microsite, where a competition was featured to create engagement.

The new visual identity using the Moving Ideas Forward strapline was also shown in the Ricoh Pavilion at the RWBO where Ricoh hosted customers and partners. “Under the new brand platform, Ricoh is communicating its three key attributes; innovation, expertise and sustainability,” elaborates Diez-Aguirre. “By connecting all three, [the company] is helping its customers achieve their goals with innovative solutions that add true business value.”

Activity around Ricoh’s sponsorship is only the first leg in the brand’s strategy. Ricoh will follow this initiative with further sponsorships of sporting events, starting with the ATP Masters Series World Tour Finals taking place in London in November, and consequently the FIS Nordic World Cup in the winter.

Measuring success

Sponsorship has been a long-time agenda for Ricoh, which sponsors many European sporting events in addition to the Ricoh Women’s British Open. The brand has been title sponsor for the RWBO for the past three years, and has just renewed this contract for another three. The company has been sponsoring the FIS Nordic World Cup for the past 11 years.

Having ‘played the game’ for so long, Ricoh makes a fine art out of assessing sponsorship effectiveness and measuring results. The approach is threefold, explains Diez-Aguirre, listing performance measures such as online impressions and engagement metrics, impact measures such as brand awareness in key countries, and a balance score card giving an overview of each sponsorship platform by country. Different sponsorships are received differently in different countries, Diez-Aguirre explains.

With Creamer’s growing momentum, it remains to be seen if she’ll become to Ricoh what Woods is to Accenture. Tigers in the wood … pink panthers … what is it with golf sponsorship and big cats anyway?

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