The invited guest comes visiting

The book covers all aspects of this important marketing discipline, described in the publication as the "invited guest" of marketing, as opposed to advertising, which is described as the uninvited guest. The title derives from the fact that sponsorship has become a legitimate business activity that, if correctly targeted and managed, contributes directly to the bottom-line of a company.

Speakers at the launch include Mervyn King SC, chairman of the King Report on Corporate Governance, ambush marketing expert Owen Dean, and the head of KPMG's Competition and Regulatory Strategy segment, Ahmore Burger.

Its publication follows an intensive process of consultation that began in 2001 under the auspices of the Association of Marketers (one of the constituent bodies of the MFSA), and which involved some of the leading marketers and other professionals in South Africa. Their input was collected and distilled into the publication by Theo and Ruth Coggin of Quo Vadis Communications.

The first edition of the book was published in 1996, shortly after South Africa's emergence from global isolation, when sponsorship in this country was poised on the edge of huge opportunities. The publication met a substantial need in the market for a clear, well-reasoned and definitive outline of sponsorship, ranging from setting objectives to the choice of sponsorship, the legal contract, and the sponsorship's effective leveraging. There can be little doubt that the relative health of the sponsorship industry in South Africa today can be ascribed in no small measure to the advice and assistance contained in this first edition.

The guidelines proved so popular that by the turn of the century, they had completely sold out. It was time for a second edition, revised to reflect the knowledge and experience of a country that had been exposed to a global marketplace for a number of years. During the course of 2001, once again under the auspices of ASOM, a new generation of marketing doyens set about doing so. The result is the "Investors' Guide to Sponsorship", launched at the JSE Securities Exchange in Sandton.

Two interesting and useful additions to the publication are chapters on ambush marketing ("Beware the sucker punch") and corporate governance ("Transparent sponsorship"). The former gives some of the most up-to-date guidance available on what ambush marketing is, and how to avoid it. In the chapter on corporate governance, the principles of the second King Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa are, for the first time ever, applied to the discipline of sponsorship.

Other sections cover a wealth of sponsorship activity, including: