Sponsoring events

Swatch & Sports

Swatch is sponsoring many events about sports, the other events are part of the Swatch club actions.

Surf is one of the sports that Swatch is sponsoring, two major events take place every year: the Swatch Girl Pro France and the Swatch Girl Pro China.

Last august was the 4th edition of the SWATCH GIRLS PRO FRANCE hosted in the coastline of Hossegor-Seignosse. There is only 6 worldwide events of surf and this 6-stars competition is one of the two major surf events in France. More than 130 of the world's top female surfers will compete for 4 days on the French coast. Swatch is a major sponsor of The SWATCH GIRLS PRO FRANCE and Pro Junior and the winner of this year is Courtney Conlogue, one of the Swatch ambassadors.

Three watches were designed in summer 2013 for the event: the Playero, the Cuttlefish and the Chlorofish, all water-resistance (20 Bar).The event is one the most attractive and exiting event for all the surfers' enthusiasts.

The SWATCH GIRLS PRO CHINA was held for the first time in 2011, in Hainan in the south of China. The annonce of this event was an amazing news, surf was not an very popular sport in China and this location was completely new to the surf competition. As one of the fundamentals of surf is the quest of new exciting spot, this beach was a wonderful idea. This year the will run from November 20 – 24, so we will know in a few days who will be The 2013 ASP Women's World Longboard Champion!

A watch has been designed for the event : the Sundowner.

What are the positive outcome for Swatch ?

Since its beginning, Swatch wanted to be seen as an innovative and exciting brand. The three cornerstone of the brand philosophy are fashion, sports and art. As Arlette-Elsa Emch explained in an interview, “Our biggest inspiration comes from the latest fashion trends, contemporary art, as well as lifestyle sports such as surfing or snowboarding, which are both very close to fashion and art.”

That is why sport sponsoring is such an huge part of its marketing strategy. These events aimed to create positive outcome such as profit increase or positive advertising effect.

A profit increase is an important effect of Sport Sponsoring but it is first of all a form of brand communication. These events bring to Swatch brand awareness and popularity thanks to all the advertising in the media and press release. By being associating with different challenges, Swatch is perceived as an exciting brand. Swatch benefits also from being associating with the sport, for example, surf is associated with cool attitude, beach, sun and sea... Swatch go even further by creating the Swatch Sport Collection. It is helping Swatch creating its brand image.

The cognitive and affective response of these sponsorship is also one of the positive outcomes that the brand is looking for along with a stronger social identification.

Moreover the brand gained dynamic and young ambassadors for each sport it sponsored. These famous athlets who support and represent the brand are called the Proteam. Each of its ambassadors is presented on Swatch official website: his life, his specialty, his personnality, links to his social networks, pictures and videos of the athlete (some on a Swatch events) and of course his 3 or 4 favourite Swacth watches.
In the surf category, the ambassadors are Courtney Conlogue, Coco “Cokes” Ho and a French young surfer Pauline Ado. Her favorites watches are : Wonder drift, Blue Resolution, Boat Trip and Denim Girl for Courtney, Wonder Tube (her first personal signature swatch watch), Resolution, In Motorino, Gilt Ghost and Biko Bloo for Coco and Blue Softness, Lady Green, Swatch-love Song, Wild Orange, Pink Frame and Acid Drop for Pauline.
In the Surfing longboarding category, the ambassadors are Darci Liu, Kassia Meador. Hner favorite watches are Mustardy, Still Alive, White Silk and Full-Blooded Marvellous Yellow for the Chinese Pro surfer Darci and Biko Green, Mexican Mask and White Washed Out for Kassia.

Sport events are now a strategic tools which aim is the commitment and engagement of its consumers.

What about the other events ?
 

The positive outcomes are the same for the Swatch Free4Style a FMX, jet-ski and wakeboard competitions, the Swatch Freeride World Tour, the Red Bull Crashed Ice, the Swatch Skiers Cup or the Swatch Rocket Air or the North Face Backstyler by Swatch.

 

Ice Watch's Events

Ice Watch is also have events, during which the brand is the center of it. While Swatch is sponsoring events about sports with big communities and brand ambassadors, Ice Watch's events are more promotional activities.

For example the brand held a event for the press in February 2011. Nothing spectacular was made: a ice box was created to put products inside, cookies with the images of the Ice Watch watches and there was the music of the Black Eyes Peace. Guest were given a gift bag with an Ice Watch watch.

For the sports side, Ice Watch is still doing a Ice Watch Winter Tour, which consists of organizing activities in restaurants, bars and night club in nine ski stations in France. The brand is also the watch brand of the World Padel Tour of 2013 in Spain.

On their website we only learn about nine events, basically Ice Watch events are exposition of their watches like the International exhibition Moscow Watch Expo they attended in November or Flagship Opening in Amsterdam. There are also events with no links with their clients or business like the Airline Retail Conference that they sponsored or the official partner of Brussels Airlines for a music event in Belgium or a movie launching party. So Ice Watch is sponsoring music events, business events, and some sports events, but their strategy is not very clear, we do not know why it choose this specific events and what is the added value.

Gemeilia Movie Lauching Party

Ice watch is participating in some more interesting events like humanitarian action in China according to the magazine Marie Claire but surprinzingly there is no record of it on the web. 

The outcomes of these events are not really measurable because there are not numerous, with no link between them and do not reach the customers.

Sources :

http://www.swatch.com/

www.swatchgirlspro.com.

www.aspeurope.com

http://www.aspworldtour.com

http://www.todaysoutlook.com/featuresdetails.php?id=32&idsub=6

http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/09382.pdf

http://www.e-adrenaline.fr/eau/actualites/dans-les-coulisses-du-swatch-girls-pro-2013/2703pure.au.dk/portal/files/.../Bachelor_Thesis.pdf

http://ice-watch.com/events.php?lg=fr

http://www.marieclaire.fr/,ice-watch,200115,33532.asp

By Elodie Soudan