Sponsorship

A winning attitude. Bruntwood and the Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games were enormously important for Manchester - for 10 days the world would be watching us intently. An enormous responsibility, but one which Manchester embraced with enthusiasm.

Events of this scale demand significant levels of funding, partially through commercial sponsorship. Prior to the Games Bruntwood had no sponsorship experience of this scale but it was clear that with so much money invested in the city, we had a duty to do all we could to ensure its success.

Applying all our sponsorship principles we agreed a contract that was built around our stakeholders, and that marked the first time a property company had sponsored an international multi sport event. Being true to our bold approach we didn't wait for the other sponsors to fall into line, but became the first commercial sponsor to pledge our commitment.

This was almost three years prior to the event. For more traditional sponsors this would be unthinkable but we aren't a traditional sponsor and one of our goals was to help raise the profile and build excitement around the event.

Quick out of the blocks

With 750 days to go until the opening ceremony we launched one of the most ambitious promotion campaigns ever seen in Manchester. It was called painting Manchester yellow and it involved hanging bright yellow Commonwealth Games banners on 25 of our city centre buildings and painting the 260ft tall Portland Tower yellow. With a countdown clock providing a daily reminder of the number of days until the opening ceremony, our flagship promotional piece quickly became a Manchester icon.

This level of profile building was invaluable not only to Bruntwood but critically to the event which didn't have a significant promotion budget to spend so far out from the event.

We even built our own hospitality venue and named it Bruntworld Sports Café, which provided a meeting place for all our guests and most importantly and most importantly gave us the opportunity to demonstrate just how creative we could be with an office building. From running track, starting blocks and hurdles to walls of plasma screens broadcasting live coverage from all the games venues our hospitality venue was testimony to our creative approach and our rejection of the easy option.

The Commonwealth Games was a phenomenal success for Manchester and Bruntwood. We played our part in ensuring the event helped put Manchester firmly on the international map.

For more information please contact sally.hill@bruntwood.co.uk