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‍‍Rob Mason has focused on the agency world during his 25-year career, firstly with leading UK sports agency SBI as co-owner and Managing Director, and then heading IMG Consulting, the global division of IMG that provides advisory, activation and communications services to brands and rights owners.

What does the Chinese market mean for IMG?

“China is the next great frontier for many sports brands and rights owners, you only have to see what’s happening in terms of increasing investment in sport around the world from Chinese companies, and inward investment from companies trying to reach the Chinese market to know China is going to get more and more important. Clearly the Chinese Super League, which IMG has involvement in, is making major investments of its own, in order to grow. IMG, and as WME-IMG, have been in China for some time, with joint ventures and businesses. We’ve known about the situation for a while, but it’s fair to say, right now, things are starting to explode, so clearly it’s a priority for all of us.”

How to best exploit the commercial value of sports stars, and how do you see the future of sports agency work in China?

“For any sports star now, their brand is increasingly on social media, whether they are a tennis or basketball player or footballer. Someone such as Lionel Messi, has the biggest social media audience of any sports star in the world for example, and the brands associated with him want a piece of it. Clearly for us, as we manage sports stars, how you build and encourage them, to be on social media, is key. If someone is keen on being active on it, that will help themselves. Then, through the official channels, it’s about how much access you give to brands who want to associate, and increasingly they want that association with the athlete’s social media channels, with visibility and mentions in the social media activities. The days of just wanting a badge on a cap or jersey are still there, but the value you get from sponsorship now, although it’s not yet measured, is through association with, mentions in and visibility in the social media channels of stars. That’s where you get huge, very engaged demographics and audiences. Therefore it’s important we respond to that. We have digital teams within WME-IMG who do that. They create platforms, build websites, create content, or in some cases just advise stars on how they can exploit their media presence.”

You acquired exclusive global rights to the Chinese Super League for two years. How do you see the cost of media rights for the CSL growing, and will it be profitable for rights holders?     

“It’s hard to know from here, whether it is a risk. We know football is a priority in China. It’s a mandate from the President. The Chinese Super League has been going for a while, and IMG has helped it get up and running, find sponsors. And clearly clubs are now starting to assert themselves, with significant investment behind some of those clubs. The business model for a club, we all know ultimately, there has to be revenues at some point in time. But you have to start somewhere. Just as many big clubs in the Premier League invested before they actually got the revenues in, but over time you build the brand. City Football Group invested hugely in Manchester City, and now they are at the top-table of football. They are winning titles, in the last four of the Champions League, getting huge sponsorship deals. It’s at a level now where the revenue and expenditure model is starting to make sense. The initial investment and little revenue to start with will address itself, because China is a massive market, and they are attracting top class players, in their prime, and that will increase. Standards will get higher, media interest will follow, public and fan interest will follow, and hopefully revenues will follow too.”

How do you view cultural barriers for business co-operation around the world?

“Most intelligent business expanding around the world will have local people,  who know that market, combined with knowledge the country needs to move on. That’s our model too. There are certain skills that don’t exist in China, but they will in due course. There has to be a blend, we believe that’s the way business works. You need the local connections.”

Credit: the Telegraph. Rob Mason (first on the left) with other speakers on The Telegraph Business of Sport Conference in London.

Can you give advice on the sports sponsorship market in China? Do you have any advice for properties, or sponsors?

“We’d be delighted if more Chinese companies paid us to do this. There is an appetite from Chinese companies to seek this advice. There is recognition now, that to make sponsorship work, the techniques required, to make the most of the rights you have bought, you need advice from people who have done this before. There is the activation of sponsorship, how you exploit rights, best practices, how you buy sponsorship, what constitutes value for money, how do you evaluate what you are being sold. Then, there is Return On Investment (ROI), how you measure how it’s working. It’s not key right now, as it’s early days, but it is the next natural point; to ask: what value am I getting? What does it deliver for me? In all those areas we can clearly help, it’s what we do.”                

How do you see the use of data to assess ROI?

“Measuring return is a combination of data, and measure of qualitative and softer measures. Some people say it all about data. I don’t think it is about data all the time, but no doubt data is critical, absolutely. It’s more than instinct. There is hard data, and then there is opinion and qualitative surveys. The research companies will be able measure growth in favorability towards a brand, as result of the sponsorship. It’s a mix of both. It’s more qualitative than a quantitative approach. Some companies will ask their senior people ‘ what do you think – what’s your instinct?’ And sometimes decisions are made on instincts, but less nowadays. Most companies now, will use a combination of instinct and data.” 

How important are the relationships between the individual people in a sponsorship deal?

“Sponsorship is a partnership between people. You won’t buy a sponsorship from people you don’t trust, unless you are absolutely desperate for a particular set of rights. Then it may matter less who is on the other side of the table. But most sponsors want to be reassured they can work together with the rights holder. It’s a relationship by definition, as you are working together to make it happen.”

This article was assisted by Jonathan Powell, contributing writer of Yutang Sports at The Telegraph Business of Sport Conference in London.