42 Simply slapping our name on the event wouldn’t be very effective ERNST BOEKHORST jump on the hockey bandwagon. In 2005 the bank went face to face in a duel with its competitor Rabobank, who at that time had already been very active in hockey. Amongst other involvements, Rabobank had been the main sponsor of the Dutch Hockey Federation KNHB. ABN AMRO had been able to win over seven Rabo Hockey League teams and was also sponsoring the International Hockey Federation. It was therefore only logical that the bank was interested in the plans to establish a new European hockey competition. T Pyramid Negotiations related to becoming the main sponsor of the new European hockey competition for club teams, the Euro Hockey League, started at the beginning of 2006 with sports marketing agency PRO SPORT. This new concept was a good fi t with the bank’s hockey ambitions. “This he international banking crisis was still a long way off when ABN AMRO made the decision to was an opportunity for us to create a pyramid”, explains Piet-Hein Geeris (194 caps) a former hockey international and Sponsoring Manager with ABN AMRO. “With the Rabo Hockey League teams serving as the base, the European Hockey competition as the next level and the international federation on the top, the EHL offered us the possibility to establish a synergy between the national clubs which we sponsor and the event itself.” “Furthermore,” says Ernst Boekhorst, Head of Sponsoring for ABN AMRO, “we were looking for an international platform to invite our customers to. The EHL was an innovative concept. It was quite ambitious and it received a lot of coverage in the media. Our slogan was: ‘The best way hockey has ever been presented’, and it remains our slogan for a very good reason. ABN AMRO was very interested in becoming part of it all.” Struggle So, there was an interesting concept and the bank was very enthusiastic about getting involved in the project. Still, fi nalising the deal was quite a struggle, says Boekhost: “By the time that the EHL had fi nally taken shape, of the gloomy economic forecasts had made many companies much more cautious with regard to investing in sponsoring. There weren’t very many interested parties. Then, we also had to choose between getting involved in a title sponsorship or in a presenting sponsorship. We made a conscious choice for the latter option instead of going for the main prize. After all, it was a new concept and the target group is rather specifi c. The ATP travel company, Cadillac, and BDO Accountancy Firm were the other sponsors. There were no other takers. That’s why an ‘ordinary’ presenting sponsorship fi t the bill nicely for us: we were already very visible in the public domain. Also, we had no illusions that simply slapping our name on the event would be very effective for spreading the ABN AMRO brand name. The hockey market was, and still is, just too small for that. Ultimately the price tag was Pagina 41
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