One Team takes spotlight as Future Sponsorship 2012 opens in Istanbul

The seventh annual Future Sponsorship conference opened in Istanbul, Turkey on Wednesday with Euroleague Basketball and Turkish Airlines serving as co-hosts for 150 industry leaders from around the world meeting for two days to focus on the theme of "Driving revenue growth through creative & innovative partnerships."
 
Following a Tuesday workshop series about sponsorship industry resources for professionals, Future Sponsorship 2012 officially opened Wednesday at Fenerbahce Ulker Sports Arena with introductory remarks from Turkish Airlines CMO Faruk Cizmecioglu, and Euroleague Basketball's President and CEO, Jordi Bertomeu, that summarized the partnership between the two companies, started in 2010, and highlighted how the year-old corporate social responsibility programme One Team has given the relationship an exciting new dimension.
 
"The Euroleague is today our Premium sponsored property, covering our objectives in many different ways," Mr. Cizmecioglu said. "This partnership provides a deep-seated connection to sports fans in cities that we fly to across the continent. A fan connection goes beyond the devotion on court. The connection is in the heart of the people and the realities they face in their communities on a daily basis.
 
"That is why One Team is important for us as an industry leader. With the Euroleague, the One Team program opened a new dimension to what we've been doing in sport in recent years. This new dimension is what has completed the circle to the fullest in terms of our sponsorship of the Euroleague: from awareness, to product portrayal, to customer noticeability, to community involvement. In our view, that’s a perfect sponsorship partnership."
 
For Mr. Bertomeu, the impetus for One Team was a realization that Euroleague Basketball should not merely build a wide fan base, but also invest in the communities where its clubs play by using the sport's popularity as a medium for social progress.
 
"One Team actually changed our mission and put 'giving back' and 'community' at the center of our business," Mr. Bertomeu said. "Through the involvement of our all of our stakeholders – clubs, players, fans and partners like Turkish Airlines, we believe that we can change lives and create positive social impact in our communities.
 
"We believe that social responsibility programmes open a big window of opportunity for sports organizations and sponsors to create a different kind of relationship, a relationship that if it is properly developed and it is successful, will benefit those people who are suffering and who we have a responsibility to help."
 
At the same time, Mr. Bertomeu said, this new kind of partnership extends to the beneficiaries of the social responsibility programme, as well:
 
"One Team has allowed us to pass from being the one supporting different non-governmental organizations, NGOs, like we did the last four years with Special Olympics, the leading one in supporting people with intellectual disabilities, to signing a strategic partnership in which Special Olympics has become a partner of One Team."
 
Future Sponsorship 2012 continued on Wednesday with a more detailed discussion of One Team's goals and strategies, including the methodology of giving the programme's 15 partner clubs and commercial partners a toolset with which to work in many different ways with needy segments of their local communities. Euroleague Basketball’s Chief Business Development Officer emphasized that One Team teaches life and social skills, not basketball, but empowers the social coaches to teach those skills through basketball.
 
"Our research was always based on the following: how many people see us on TV, how many people use our web pages, how many people are in our arenas," explained Roser Queralto, Euroleague Basketball’s Chief Business Development Officer. "But we wanted to know how many people in our communities do we actually reach? And with what message?
 
"One team gives all of our stakeholders a toolset to reach their objectives but through great deeds and life-changing stories. The other day, in Barcelona, at our bi-annual One Team workshop, we truly understood in a very tangible way how we are changing lives. One Team is helping people in Malaga with a substance abuse problem, but it’s also helping kids here in Istanbul with a community cohesion problem. We ask our teams to commit with their time and effort every week the whole year because that is the commitment which is necessary."
 
The panel discussion on One Team included one of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague's veteran stars, Mr. Mike Batiste, who is participating in the programme as a One Team Ambassador for Fenerbahce Ulker. The One Team Ambassador for each partner club will take a special role as spokesperson to increase the impact of the programme locally and internationally.
 
Mr. Batiste said: "We compete against each other on-court, but outside the court we work together as players. This is special and of course I want to be part of that. When I was younger, I was always looking for a role model in sports. So if I can do the same for young kids now, I will be the first to be a part of this. I personally learn from being with these kids, so anytime I can be present and interact with them, it is personally fulfilling for me."