Engage Ends Super League Sponsorship

Those of you that know me well enough will think it odd that I'm blogging about the "wrong code", being a Union man, but bear with me.

Due to the extensive coverage on the BBC, I am fully aware that the national (sic) RFL competition is branded as the Engage Super League. But what do Engage do?

Until the press release hit my inbox this morning I had no idea and there lies the rub.

Perhaps it's because I'm not in their target sector, (over 50), or may be it's to do with the fact that, as previously stated, I'm a Union man or even that my nearest RFL team, Harlequins, play 85 miles away at The Stoop in Twickenham. Yet their marketing team surely would have hoped that over the 7 years that they'd sponsored a national competition with widespread coverage on BBC 1, 2 & 5Live virtually everyone in the country would know exactly what they do.

Interestingly, when I Googled Engage, organically they appeared below engage.org - the national association for gallery education and engageonline.org.uk - an antisemitic charity, surely not the best return on a sponsorship investment of circa £1m per season.

Hopefully they received a better return on their investment north of the Watford Gap, but remember, sponsorship is no different to any other form of marketing - if you don't measure it, you can't manage it.

By the way, if you're interested they're a mutual insurance company specialising in the over 50's.