PHAR works with Sydney Airport to develop long-term brand partnerships

PHAR Partnerships has been appointed by Sydney International Airport (SYD) to develop long term brand marketing partnerships and explore additional solutions to enhance the passenger experience at the airport.

During the initial 6-month consultancy engagement, PHAR will review the airport estate and identify marketing assets which will help brands tell an engaging story to their customers who pass through SYD. PHAR will use their proprietary, market-leading sponsorship analysis tools to calculate asset values and create a partnership framework for the partnership programme.

Andrew Fraser, Head of Partnerships Asia commented, “Being appointed by Sydney Airport is very exciting for PHAR. In this fast-changing media environment, we truly believe that global blue-chip brands will benefit hugely from these long-term brand partnerships as there is often a very close synergy between what brands and airports are looking to achieve. This can, crucially, have a positive impact on the experience of passengers and customers at the airport. Sydney Airport is very forward thinking in their approach to the continual improvements they can offer their customers and so brands will naturally see Sydney Airport as a great platform to leverage their expertise.”

PHAR brings extensive global experience in creating long term brand partnerships, having worked on some global, high-profile projects such as Jewel Changi Singapore, Transport for London and the Santander Cycle Hire Scheme, and the first ever naming rights programme of a mass transport system in South East Asia with Prasarana in Kuala Lumpur.

PHAR Partnerships appointed by West Midlands Combined Authority to secure sponsor for Cycle Hire Scheme

Following a competitive tender process West Midlands Combined Authority has appointed PHAR Partnerships as its exclusive sponsorship agency, with a brief to secure a sponsor for the region’s new cycle hire scheme: West Midlands Cycle Hire.

Initially launched as a limited trial in February work is now under way to roll out the 1500 bikes out to 170 fixed docking stations across all seven authorities in the West Midlands region – Birmingham (including The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield), Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Wolverhampton and Walsall. Over 1000 pedal bikes have been rolled out between February- June 2021. There will also be opportunities to use virtual geo-fenced docking areas to meet demand or for large scale events such as the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Once the initial roll-out is complete the scheme will be the largest in the UK outside London with 1,500 bikes of which 10 per cent will be e-bikes. Future growth is then planned to increase the number of pedal and e-bikes and potentially to include e-scooters as well.

PHAR has become the industry leader in sponsorships for cycle hire schemes, appointed to consult on the sponsorship opportunity for schemes for Transport for London and Transport for Greater Manchester as well as Transport for West Midlands, and recently securing a major seven-figure deal for sponsorship of the Glasgow and Cardiff schemes.

Sandeep Shingadia, Director of Development and Delivery, Transport for West Midlands commented: “Sponsorship is an extremely important thing to get right to ensure the success of West Midlands Cycle Hire, not just in terms of the funding but also in teaming up with the right commercial partner who shares the vision that the scheme has been created to deliver. Cycle hire was rolled out across the region between March and early June and is proving popular having nearing its 100,000th journey. We are very pleased to be working with PHAR, who have impressed us with their knowledge, expertise and guidance in helping us find the right sponsorship scheme for our cycle hire.”

Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands, added: “We have already rolled out our cycle hire scheme across eight town and city centres, and it is proving very popular with people using our bikes both for their commute and just for fun. Now we are looking to find a sponsorship partner to help us grow the scheme further and reach even more communities and more locations - and we have appointed PHAR to help us do just that. We are putting unprecedented investment in our cycling and walking infrastructure because it is a great alternative to the car for shorter journeys, good for the environment, good for people’s health, and great fun.”

“We are absolutely delighted to be working with WMCA on this fantastic sponsorship opportunity,” said Marcus Wight CEO of PHAR Partnerships. “Sustainability, community and social value have become increasingly important to all major brands, and there are few better examples around of on-the-ground initiatives which enable people to make an active difference than are provided by cycle hire schemes. The West Midlands scheme is the most important new scheme in the UK since London’s launched back in 2010, and has the potential to deliver massive value to a sponsor through multiple touchpoints and associations.”

PHAR Secures Deal with OVO Energy for Glasgow and Cardiff Cycle Hire Schemes

OVO Energy has been unveiled as the new title sponsor of nextbike’s bike share schemes in Glasgow, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan, in a deal put together by PHAR Partnerships.

The three-year deal will see the cities’ fleets turned green for the duration, with OVO Energy’s branding displayed on the bikes – which will now be known as OVO Bikes.  And, as part of the deals, new OVO Bikes Green Routes have been created, highlighting some of the cities’ most sustainable spots and supporting the local economies. 

Whilst the nextbike Glasgow scheme has been in place since 2014, Cardiff’s since 2018, and Vale of Glamorgan since 2020, this will be the first time that any of these cities’ entire schemes has been sponsored – and is the first time in the UK that a deal has been secured for a single sponsor across multiple cities’ schemes.

“Since launch, the Glasgow, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan bike share schemes have been phenomenally successful, with an incredible 1.2 million rentals already clocked up both in Glasgow and in Cardiff,” said Krysia Solheim, nextbike UK’s Managing Director.  “We’ve known for some time that these represented a major sponsorship opportunity and PHAR have done an exceptional job in securing such a valuable and long-term partnership with such a strong brand, who are so genuinely and strongly committed to enabling people to live more sustainable lives.  PHAR’s understanding of how to present the bike share schemes as a valuable marketing opportunity to brands was highly impressive and key to bringing us such a great sponsor in what was an impressively short space of time.”

 “At OVO, we’re on a mission to zero carbon,” said Adrian Letts, CEO at OVO. “Our OVO Bikes arriving in Glasgow, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan are part of our Plan Zero strategy to create a carbon-free world, whether that’s the transport we use or the way we power our homes. Opting to travel around via bicycle couldn’t be an easier and healthier way of discovering a city.”

Councillor Anna Richardson, city convener for sustainability and carbon reduction at Glasgow City Council, said: “Glasgow’s aim to become carbon neutral by 2030 must be supported by a growth in active travel and by building a more sustainable economy.  Our bike hire scheme has played a vital role in encouraging cycling in the city and there is growing awareness of the need for a more circular city economy. OVO’s sponsorship has brought together these two themes in one package and I look forward to seeing the refreshed bikes in use all across the city in the weeks and months ahead.”

“As brands increasingly look to engage meaningfully with audiences and to add value to society, cycle hire schemes deliver a range of powerful and attractive attributes,” commented Alastair Macdonald, Managing Director of PHAR Partnerships.  “A growing presence on the streets of more and more cities, cycle hire schemes provide a highly visible and year-round demonstration of a brand’s commitment to supporting local communities, improving public health and fitness, and enabling people to make a difference to tackling climate change.  COVID has, if anything, emphasised the importance of schemes such as these and we received exceptional levels of interest in each of these schemes from brands across a wide range of sectors.  We are delighted to have brought a brand of OVO’s stature and real commitment to nextbike, and look forward to seeing this sponsorship form a key part of OVO’s commitment to help people live easier, greener lives.”

Record Olympic Medal Haul for British Swimmers Backed by Lebara and UP&GO

Team GB’s swimmers created history in Tokyo with the best-ever Olympic medal haul by a Great Britain swim team.

In the lead up to the games, PHAR brokered two partnerships with British Swimming - Lebara and UP&GO becoming official partners.

Jack Buckner, the CEO of British Swimming, told Sky Sports News focus would soon turn towards the next Olympics in Paris in 2024.

"We have got a philosophy which has come across this week which is 'one team: winning well in water'," Buckner said.

"So, we will absolutely be moving forward. We feel we have great foundations with what we are doing."

British Swimming head coach Bill Furniss praised the Team GB squad for rising to the challenge in the pool.

"We have raised the bar," he said. "We have made qualification standards a lot higher, a lot tougher but at the same time, the athletes have risen to the challenge, so it is a combination of a lot of factors. But I think the main thing is belief."

Chris Spice, British Swimming performance director, said he was "absolutely chuffed" with how the swimmers had delivered under increased expectations.

"In our programme we have worked really hard to make sure that athletes are supported because we tell them right up front you are going to be challenged," Price added.

PHAR creates Official Hand Sanitiser Partnership between Carex & Manchester Airport

The UK’s number one handwash brand Carex has become the official sanitising partner of Manchester Airport. The new partnership will initially involve 116 Carex hand sanitiser units being installed across the airport’s Terminal Two extension in support of a safe return to air travel.

PZ Cussons-owned brand Carex is responsible for the UK’s best-selling aloe vera gel, which is available for passengers to dispense free of charge as part of an initial three-year agreement.

The partnership which was devised and implemented by PHAR, is supported by an airport advertising campaign coinciding with the removal of restrictions for fully-vaccinated travellers returning from amber listed countries and Manchester Airport gearing up for a busier late summer, as many holidaymakers jet off for the first time in more than a year.

Carex’s UK headquarters is close to the airport on Aviator Way in Manchester.

The extensive advertising campaign for Carex at Manchester highlights the importance of using hand sanitiser to help protect others throughout the airport and in post-flight destinations.

The three branding sites feature billboard advertisements that encourage passengers to use the hand sanitiser stations to help ‘get Manchester moving again’; to ‘keep the nation’s hands safe at home and on the go’; and to wish passengers safe travels as they get out and about, travelling for pleasure and business and to reconnect with friends, family and colleagues overseas.

Manchester Airport Managing Director Karen Smart said: “The airport has been committed throughout the pandemic to ensuring passengers and staff feel safe at all times.

“It’s great to partner with such a well-known brand as Carex to offer our passengers this product as they fly through Manchester Airport.”

PZ Cussons UK Managing Director Kieran Hemsworth said: “Carex has played an important role in helping to protect us all over the last 18 months. In fact, in the course of 2020, we have cleaned and sanitised over one billion hands in the UK.

“We’re delighted to be able to help holidaymakers do what they love and travel safely again.”

Sentosa Development Corporation Appoints PHAR for Sponsorship Consultancy and Evaluation

Following a competitive tender process PHAR has been appointed by Sentosa Development Corporation as its consultant, to provide sponsorship insight services for the destination, including the assessment of the naming rights potential of certain attractions, including Sentosa Sensoryscape, Light Installations at Magical shores, Sentosa Golf Club, and Sentosa Cable cars.

Prem Bhatia, MD of PHAR commented, “Having worked with various public entities in Singapore over the last few years, we are looking forward to working with SDC to help build the world’s next leisure and lifestyle resort destination, and help SDC leverage partnerships that create better brand and visitor experiences.”

Artist’s impression featuring a bird’s eye view (day) of Sentosa Sensoryscape.
(Image: Sentosa Development Corporation)

Artist’s impression of one of the vessel-like structures, which features fragrant plants, as part of the rejuvenated Sentosa Sensoryscape. (Image: Sentosa Development Corporation)

Iceland And The Food Warehouse Partner With The Big Lunch

Iceland and The Food Warehouse have announced a partnership with The Big Lunch 2021 – the UK’s annual big date to celebrate and give thanks to neighbours and communities.

The supermarkets will support the nationwide event that will start the weekend of 5-6 June and continue throughout the month.

Launched in 2009 by the Eden Project, The Big Lunch connects people and encourages friendlier, safer neighbourhoods where people start to share more. Across the UK, more than six million people take part each year.

Iceland and The Food Warehouse have almost 1,000 stores across the UK and have been serving communities on the doorstep of their stores for over 50 years.

Communities from up and down the country are being encouraged to get back together and find moments to connect through The Big Lunch’s events and networks and can sign up for their free Big Lunch pack full of tips and ideas on hosting their own event.

Richard Walker, Managing Director of Iceland Foods, said: “This is a brilliant annual event that has been bringing neighbours together across the UK for more than ten years. Iceland and The Food Warehouse stores sit in the heart of communities throughout the country, and I’m delighted that we’ve been able to partner with The Big Lunch for 2021.

“The past year has been challenging for everyone and The Big Lunch will be the ideal opportunity to reconnect with neighbours, friends and family.”

Find out more about The Big Lunch here.

PHAR creates marketing campaign for AEB

Many businesses moving goods between the UK and Europe were facing increased demands on time and resource as well as significant additional financial costs once the UK left the EU on January 1st 2021.

AEB provides an efficient solution to mitigate this additional burden on businesses trading with the Europe, and wanted to promote their easy customs declaration software in the run up to Brexit.

PHAR was appointed by AEB to plan a media campaign aimed at decision makers within these business in Q4 2020.

With Brexit fast approaching, and AEB being relatively unknown in the UK, increasing brand awareness small-medium sized business owners was key. This is a summary of the campaign, and results:

The Role of Media

We decided that a campaign of TV, radio and digital advertising would give AEB the exposure they needed. The creative directing potential customers the AEB.com/easy site.

TV:

Teaming up with ITV’s initiative “Backing Business” to help keep British business moving, ITV offered a matched budget funding initiative which delivered phenomenal reach to AEB.

We also negotiated to align 40% of our adverts next to the UK Government’s Brexit advertising campaign spots.

Radio:

LBC is Britain’s biggest commercial news talk brand. Broadcasting nationally, LBC tackles major stories, providing a platform for debate and thought leadership.

In particular the Nick Ferrari breakfast show provided a great springboard for AEB. We kicked off with some live reads by the presenter about AEB and the part they played helping businesses through Brexit.

We then integrated an interview with an AEB executive and Nick Ferrari which touched on the challenges that businesses face with customs declarations. Following this was 6 weeks of branded trail advertorials and advertising spots in the breakfast show.

Digital:

We ran a targeted combination of search and display adverts utilising Google, Bing, LinkedIn and YouTube which helped to amplify the campaign and push the message key messages.

The Results

Campaign Highlights

• Unique visits to the target page on the AEB website increased 148x in October versus to the previous month (campaign launched on October 1st)

• The campaign led directly to over 230 new clients

• This generated over £1,000,000 of new revenue

• Website traffic has continued to significantly outperform pre-campaign levels

• An overall ROI in excess of 5:1

Fulham FC appoints PHAR Partnerships to consult on sponsorship of new Fulham Pier development

PHAR Partnerships has been appointed by Premier League side Fulham Football Club to provide evaluation and consultancy services for the sponsorship opportunity at the new Fulham Pier development.

Due to open in summer 2021, Fulham Pier is a new, state-of-the-art leisure and entertainment development at the club’s Craven Cottage stadium, combining a new increased capacity spectator stand on one side, with a multi-facility visitor destination overlooking the River Thames on the other.

Currently under construction, Fulham Pier will be an iconic, 365-day-a-year destination serving the West London community and beyond. Facilities will include fine dining restaurants, an entertainment and events venue, boutique hotel, exclusive gym and spa, an expansive food hall, multiple conference and meeting spaces, a private members club and an iconic rooftop terrace and bar.

In addition, a brand new boardwalk is being built over part of the River Thames to link the riverside walk between Putney Bridge and Hammersmith Bridge for the first time.

There are numerous opportunities for sponsorship and brand partnerships, including full naming rights to the development. PHAR has been appointed to undertake an in-depth analysis and evaluation of the sponsorship potential at Fulham Pier, in order to support the sales process.

Jon Don-Carolis, Sales Director of Fulham Football Club said:

“Fulham Pier will be a new iconic destination for West London, and it’s important therefore that we understand the true value of the sponsorship opportunity of this new development. We were impressed with PHAR’s broad range of experience, not just in football sponsorship, but their considerable expertise in real estate and visitor attraction commercial partnerships. This made PHAR the obvious choice for this project”.

Ian Hawkins, Head of Insight at PHAR Partnerships said:

“We’re delighted to be working with Jon and his team at Fulham FC on this unique and exciting development. Our dedicated Insight division takes our extensive experience in evaluating sport sponsorship properties, and applies these methods to real estate, transport, infrastructure and visitor destinations. Fulham Pier is exactly the type of development where PHAR specialises, in assessing and advising on the sponsorship potential”.

Surf’s up! PHAR appointed to sponsorship assignment at Manchester’s new surfing lagoon

PHAR’s Insight team has been appointed to undertake an assessment of the sponsorship opportunity at the new surfing lagoon planned for TraffordCity, Manchester.

Plans for the new £60m scheme were revealed in December, involving a central surfing lagoon powered by Wavegarden, the world leader in man-made, wave-generating technologies. The first inland surfing facility in the North West, early plans also feature a pump track and fitness zone, a halfpipe/boarding area and exercise areas including bouldering and balancing zones. Due to open to the public in 2023, the project – to be known as Modern Surf Manchester – is estimated to create around 100 equivalent jobs and will seek to capitalise on surfing’s growing worldwide popularity and recognition as a new Olympic Sport for the Tokyo Games.

Billy McKinney, Managing Director at the project’s developer McKinney Group said: “On the back of becoming an Olympic sport, surfing is growing in popularity and our plans will deliver perfect and consistent waves to TraffordCity and build on the region’s excellent and world leading sporting assets. We have recognised that this has the potential to be an attractive sponsorship opportunity for a wide range of brands and PHAR’s expertise in this area is highly important to us as we develop our plans, ensuring our financial projections and also project design considerations are informed by firm evidence and intelligent marketplace insights.”

Alastair Macdonald, PHAR Managing Director, added: “This is an extremely exciting development – both as a world-class leisure facility for people of all ages and also as an opportunity for a wide range of brands to benefit from association from one of the UK’s fastest-growing, most exciting sports. We are delighted to be working with McKinney Group on developing the sponsorship opportunity, not only identifying what the scale of the opportunity may be, but analysing how this potential can best be achieved.”