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n an exclusive interview, Fed Square senior manager of programs and partnerships, Mark Sinclair, spoke to Ministry of Sport about the value sporting organisations and rights holders could see from year-round activations and engagement.
In part two of the two-part interview series, Sinclair said sports have an opportunity to use Fed Square to create an even larger impact on uniting communities across Australia and in Melbourne in particular.
“When you think about it from a sports perspective, the lack of sport and especially live attendance left a void for a lot of people during the deep dark depths of COVID, especially here in Melbourne,” Sinclair told Ministry of Sport.
“Sport plays a vital role in the community, and in uncertain times like the pandemic, sport can unite communities, create smiles and special moments and also plays a role in education.
“One of the things Fed Square can do and has done, is provide large outdoor spaces and the digital assets to go with them, providing great opportunities for sports to connect with communities in a different way, such as being the starting point for The Long Walk and the Big Freeze, celebrating Cadel Evans Tour de France win and showing World Cup Socceroos games.
“One of the things we are doing is talking to a few codes and teams about how they can use Fed Square in a non-traditional way, such as B2B events for their corporates, accessing our digital facade for fan engagement, and even looking at incorporating them into our anchor calendar.
“We recently launched a partnership with Bicycle Network where we created a new City CX event, a cyclocross event around Fed Square, that will help replace some cycling events that were lost last year and hopefully be a new addition to their Annual Calendar.
“This allows teams and rights-holders to be innovative with non-core inventory.
“By working in a partnership with us, they can package it up, and that allows them to increase offerings for their own commercial partners and increase revenues in a revenue shared model,” he said.
Discussing how COVID-19 has forced sporting organisations and rights holders to change their approaches to commercial activations, Sinclair said Fed Square can help sports and rightsholders create a real connection and value for their brands and the communities as a whole.
“We see our future as not just being an activation space but more a year-round asset to can be used by brands that want really well-rounded engagement with audiences they can’t reach normally,” Sinclair said.
“Many sports and rightsholders’ challenges are only being able to offer their product when that particular sport is on.
“So many partners in sport invest heavily in on-site activations that are limited to just the game day.
“Sponsors don’t just want a couple of months of rights and reach, before then having to wait for the next season.
“Partners and sponsors that come to Fed Square can have activations almost 365 days a year if they want to, and that’s a real key selling point for us.
“When we’re out there talking to partners, we don’t just want them to activate, we want to curate and create with programs and events that add value, not just to their brands, but also the community as a whole,” he said.
When asked what Fed Square can provide for sporting organisations and rightsholders as an activation space in the COVID-19 world, Sinclair said: “We’ve been very well known for some of the major public events Melbourne has seen over the last 18-odd years, and we’re very keen for events and experiences to come back to Melbourne and Victoria.”
“We see Fed Square as that visible symbol to the community that Melbourne is recovering.
“What we can offer is certainty for their spend.
“We aren’t beholden to schedules and fixturing of other venues and other variables such as weather.
“When partners invest in activations, they like the flexibility we can offer.
“For example should a density quotient change, we can easily adjust the space to ensure COVID requirements are met, we could open up another space to meet requirements or weather wise move the activation to one of our covered options like the Atrium.
“Or even on occasion should the weather not be conducive, we can extend the activation to ensure no days are lost due to the weather.
“Many of our Anchors go for a month or more, so when partners activate there’s a level of comfort in knowing that they aren’t so reliant on one or two days and then bumping out, they can be set up and get a greater ROI per day of activation due to the longevity we provide,” he told Ministry of Sport.
To read part one of the two-part interview series with Fed Square senior manager of programs and partnerships, Mark Sinclair, click here, or to view more of the work Fed Square does in the commercial partnership space in sport, click here.
