Thursday 13 May 2010

Sport Connect Supporting Talent Programme

by Jodie Bakewell-White

Olympic Gold Medal winner Hamish Carter is the creator of Sport Connect Supporting Talent Programme, a uique way of connecting sport with business through a partnership with SKY television.

Sport Connect provides athletes with financial support and management, introduces them to a corporate relationship with the potential to develop into a long-term sustainable sponsorship relationship.

Sailors Sara Winther [Laser Radial], Geoff Woolley and Dan Wilcox [Men’s 470], Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie [Women’s 470] and Sam Meech [Laser] are on board with Sport Connect.

“Sportconnect is exciting to be involved with as having the opportunity to be paired with Sky TV and one of their advertisers will hugely boost my campaign. Knowing that the relationship can continue throughout my entire sailing carer is also exciting,” says Sara Winther.

The programme works by combining the financial support of an athlete and the corresponding sponsorship relationship, with a SKY Television advertising sales media pack purchased by the client.

The programme managed by Hamish and Marisa Carter, allows the sponsor to support a promising high performance athlete, with minimal risk and no direct financial outlay.

To join the Sport Connect programme, the client commits to advertise on SKY with sKY providing funding to support the athlete for an initial period of two years. Both the client and the company employees can become part of the athlete’s journey to international success, with the potential of continuing throughout the athlete’s sporting career.

Sport Connect
Yachting New Zealand