Picking up Ashley's poisoned chalice

Nov 11 2009 By Andrew Hebden, The Journal

GOOD luck to Ampersand, the Merseyside-based PR and marketing company that has landed the job of selling Newcastle United sponsorship to a global audience. They'll need it.

What would until fairly recently have been seen as a fantastic commercial opportunity is now regarded by many as a poisoned chalice such is the animosity towards Mike Ashley’s regime.

Perhaps it was the extent of local anger which prompted the club to look so far afield for help in finding a new sponsor for its iconic shirt and famous stadium. After all, Ampersand has hardly impressed so far with the firm refusing to talk to our reporters about the precise nature of its involvement at St James’ and given the fact its own website is not functioning yet. (Apparently the new-look site launches in November 2009 – which is an interesting promise for a PR and marketing business to be making on November 10, 2009).

While Ampersand scours the globe for potential backers, the club has now infamously taken the decision to rename its ground in honour of Mr Ashley’s own sportswear company. Apparently, this is an effort to showcase the potential of this marketing opportunity – or in other words to highlight just how hated your brand can become by aligning itself with the current Newcastle United regime.

Many commentators have questioned just why Mr Ashley’s running of the club as a business has been so pitiful given his impressive record as a major high street retailer. The answer, as with so many other businesspeople who indulge themselves by buying a football club, probably lies in the fact that running a sports club is a quite different proposition to any typical business.

Yet the club’s recent efforts to market itself to potential sponsors is even more difficult to explain. Mr Ashley is, if nothing else, a successful salesman, so it does make you wonder why he should embark an a strategy which apparently involves upsetting as many of your most loyal customers as possible.

Winning back their goodwill is a size that is surely beyond him now. And transforming the image of his regime is surely beyond the finest PR brains that Merseyside can offer.

Andrew Hebden is Head of Business at The Journal