Sander Rodenburg – Triple Double

Sander Rodenburg is Sports Marketer at Triple Double sports marketing, a marketing and advertising agency specialised in developing sports-related marketing concepts for the business sector. The agency has worked for several big brands like Albert Heijn, UEFA, Opel, and Energiedirect.nl.

Main ingredients for growth

According to Sander, brand growth starts with having a clear vision and strategy: “Sport can make an important contribution, but it is not always given that role because it used to be seen primarily as interest from the boss. Having a clear vision and strategy around brand growth is very important. Next to that, we find brand stories very valuable. Knowing what your brand stands for and carrying that throughout the organisation. Having entrepreneurship, guts and creativity are also important drivers of growth. That is what distinguishes you from other brands in the industry and are fishing in the same pond of consumers. Lastly, you need the right people. At Triple Double, we refer to the three E’s: Excellence, Energy, and the Extra Mile. A great plan is nothing without the right people to carry it. Energy refers to spirit and passion, the extra mile is taking those extra steps, and excellence is not settling for an 8,5, but striving for a 10. You need a plan, but you also need the tactical means to implement it. Your event or campaign can be amazing up and until the 85th minute, but if those last 5 minutes lack operational excellence, you will end up losing the game.”

Data in sports

Sander shares how data in sports has been around for quite some time: “Around 25 years ago, our owner used to sit on the sidelines of a sports game with a stopwatch. Every time the logo of a brand came into shot, he started the stopwatch, and then stopped it when the image had left the frame. When the game finished, he could see that the stopwatch read 1 minute and 13 seconds, and he knew the logo had been on the national broadcast for a substantial amount of time. Of course, exposure has now become an integrated part of the marketing mix, and data and measurements are more and more common. Whereas sponsoring in big organisations was often still the boss’ toy, the value and data are now carried throughout the entire organisation. It is almost impossible to sell internally if you don’t know exactly what you have achieved with each invested euro. Nowadays, there are all sorts of measuring instruments to measure the true impact of your investments. Think of the value of visibility when your logo on a shirt is shown on TV, to the more ‘softer’ measures such as the impact it has on people. Triple Double was founded from a love of sports. Sport matters, and as Nelson Mandela said, ‘sport has the power to change the world’. We believe that sports can make a true impact on society. Of course, sales and targets are important aspects, and it would only be valuable if you can measure the return on investment. Targets can be very commercial in terms of sales and leads, but it can also be an activation focused on a societal goal.”
“You can be on a shirt, but you still need to influence knowledge, attitude, and behaviour. If you rent out a venue, you still need someone on stage.”
Sander shares how today’s impact goes beyond having a logo on a shirt: “You can be on a shirt, but you still need to influence knowledge, attitude, and behaviour. You can compare it to renting a theatre, you have a venue, but you still need someone on stage. If you don’t do anything outside of being that shirt, you won’t reach people in the heart. We look at those ‘softer’ measures and turn them into value. Energiedirect.nl used to be the main sponsor of PSV but moved to the back of the shirt in 2019. We know exactly how many people become customers of Energiedirect.nl because of PSV, and we know how many people remain customers of Energiedirect.nl because of PSV. Those are examples of clients that can press a button at any time to see if their sponsoring pays off. We try to implement that level of measurement and accuracy for other clients, but unfortunately, not everyone budgets for measuring sponsorship.”

From interpretation to value

Sander shares how research allows Triple Double to share the true impact: “Research provides interpretation to the quantitative numbers. Giving interpretation to those absolute numbers and percentages is what makes research truly valuable. Suppose you ran a big campaign and got very positive results on reach and media value. In the past, the CEO might have said: ‘Great, let’s keep going’. But now, the CEO might say: ‘Good, but what does that mean for my brand and my objectives?’ With research, you can offer that interpretation. Saying to the marketing manager: ‘Instead of 1 million media value we have realised 6 million media value, but I don’t know how many extra customers will stay with us’, or saying: ‘This is our media value and as a result, 10% more customers have stayed with us than without sponsorship’, makes quite a difference. That interpretation is so important, but you notice that not everyone has the focus here in for instance budget.”

Leaving the world a better place

Triple Double was founded from the belief that sports can make a true impact on society. An example of a campaign focused on this topic was the partnership between Opel, Feyenoord and the Hartstichting (heart foundation) in 2017: “As the main sponsor of Feyenoord, Opel and wanted to find a theme to drive their goals. They always say that Feyenoord is in your heart, so we created a partnership between Opel, Feyenoord and the Hartstichting. They created all kinds of activities through Opel’s website to find 170,000 civilian aid workers. With such initiatives, you really leave the world a better place and realise brand growth. And sponsoring can really contribute to that.”