For the past three years the Sport and Social Responsibility Summit has been the leading voice on this rapidly developing area and has tracked the changes and growth of the relationship between sport, brands and CSR programmes.
Keep checking back for details of Sport and Social Responsibilty 2012.
About the 2011 event
Now in our third year, we once again aim to deliver leading edge thinking in this fast-changing area. The past year has seen CSR move into the mainstream with many brands falling over themselves to pledge better practice and a social focus. From Pepsi to Persil, large manufacturers have recognised that reducing environmental impact is good for society and good for business.
The break through to the boardroom and resulting corporate commitment and resulting burst of creativity and professionalism has marked out the sector in the past 12 months. Large companies are finding causes engage consumers and this engagement can be perfectly harnessed in the realm of social media. The potential of social media will be a major topic at this year’s Sport and Social Responsibility Summit.
The past year has also seen the growth of a new term: ROE (Return on Engagement). It will be particularly important to sport to show that engagement delivers benefits at a far deeper level than simple branding. We are starting to see some methodologies applied to measuring ROE and we present these too.
Finally, we have seen sports brands further grow their activities in this space and we discovers what short or long term benefits this has created.
Society’s understanding of environmental, ethical and social issues is becoming increasingly sophisticated and values are changing to match. These beliefs are no longer in the margins. With the rise of social media and citizen journalism there are further opportunities for messages good and bad to reach the market. The majority of people now expect businesses to maintain high ethical values and make significant contributions to a sustainable future.
Businesses and brands that fail to engage with this growing agenda risk falling out of favour with the public and being seen as out of step with current business practices. Similarly those who act purely as a public relations exercise or “greenwash” are likely to have their images tarnished.
And the business of sport is no different.
Following on from our two success previous events, the Sport and Social Responsibility Summit returns for a day of insight, best practice and debate held at Charles Russell LLP, London on Friday March 18th 2011.
Keep checking back to this website for all the latest information and news on the day.
