JEREMY SAMPSON: FNB buys a brand bomb squad

The headline “SA Rugby gets more bang for the Boks”, in the Sunday Times on March 30, was rather dramatic. What the story really said was that SA Rugby had discovered its flagship asset, the Springbok team, was a winning global brand — not only local — and was more valuable in financial and emotional terms than it realised. It can be argued that internationally South Africa’s best-known brand is the Springbok, whether you are a rugby fan or not.

Only a few decades ago accountants were arguing that the major assets of companies were their hard assets such as buildings and machinery, forgetting that buildings fall down, machines wear out and CEOs die, but brands live on. Yet asset value remains a mantra to many. 

In 1900 the chair of Quaker Oats, John Stuart, wrote: “If this business were to be split up, I would be glad to take the brands, trademarks and goodwill and you could have all the bricks and mortar and I would fare better than you.”

Intangibles comprise a significant portion of the value of the most prominent brands. Today, not just products but everything from countries to people are brandable. British marketing consultant John Murphy, to many the father of brand valuation, once said: “The major trend is to treat brands as ‘things’ which are buyable, sellable, memorable, mortgageable, licensable ... not as insubstantial puffs of Scotch mist which are somehow ‘there’ but can never be.”

On June 24 1995 Francois Pienaar led the Springboks to a famous World Cup win over the All Blacks at Ellis Park. Despite this, many argued that the Springbok was a symbol of the apartheid era. Nelson Mandela’s soothing words that the Springbok emblem be retained lowered the temperature.

The then president of SA Rugby, Louis Luyt, had the foresight to say the Springbok had to be rescued. It was thought a logo change would be sufficient. But we soon realised we had to track the history and heritage of what now was a brand and develop a brand story.

Tucked away in Stellenbosch, Danie Craven had kept a scrapbook that traced the evolution of the Springbok badge. The redesign of the emblem had to be done quickly due to the political pressure, but could not be so radical as to erode brand equity and create global trademark challenges.

The solution was some minor tweaks. The direction of the antelope’s leap was reversed and a protea, the symbol of national unity, was added. In the launch brochure I wrote: “Few people realise that the emblem of South African rugby, the Springbok, dates back to 1906. In fact few know that to many the Springbok emblem has been the badge of being a South African, including all armed forces in World War 2.”

All South African brands are cheap in global financial terms due to risk factors, a weak currency and being invariably local or confined to Africa. The latest global ranking of rugby nation brands had the All Blacks as No 1, valued at $282m, followed by England, France, Ireland, Wales and at No 6 the Springboks, well under half the value of the All Blacks. (Manchester City is the most valuable English football brand at £1.4bn.) Brand Finance recently estimated a conservative value of the Springbok brand of R2.2bn, placing it at No 50 of South Africa’s Top 100, the only sport brand to make the rankings.

All sports brands rely heavily on sponsors to add to the income generated by merchandise, gate attendances, TV broadcast revenues and so on. The Springboks have about 30 sponsors, the principal one gaining pride of place on the front of the jersey, a position MTN had occupied since 2017 for a consideration of R80m a year. Last month FNB rose to that position for a reported R150m. Attempts to confirm this figure have met no response.

The payment buys only the rights to the brand, so sponsorship at this level is out of reach for most companies. Presumably FNB will aim to gain a financial return through harvesting customers, providing exclusive financial services, and so on. Then there will be the meet-and-greets and community engagements, all building goodwill. Then we have the total brand experience of attending games locally and internationally.

Sport today is big business and increasingly global. All those involved with the Springboks — players, officials and sponsors — are ambassadors for South Africa, a national unifying asset to be treasured.

*Sampson is chair of Brand Finance Africa