Pacific Coast Business Times

Luxury goods pony up. Polo audience attractive to Zsweet ® all natural

Elizabeth Werhane
Special to the Business Times
7/28/06

Bombadier Jets, Bentley, Tiffany & Co., Lamborghini...the list of sponsors for the Santa Barbara polo & Racquet Club reads like a checklist for “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” guests.

“The very high end is our niche,” said Charles Ward, the managing partner of Dallas-based Idea Works, who serves as the club’s marketing director.

He’s responsible for securing sponsorships for the club, and he recently nabbed a sweet deal that has the sports marketing industry talking. Zsweet ® all natural, a natural sweetener and sugar substitute, is the newest player on the polo club’s roster.

While it’s common for beer or wine companies to sponsor polo, this is something new.

“Polo has never had a food product before,” Ward said. But on July 23, it definitely did.Polo spectators were given white visors with the Zsweet ® logo, and a luncheon was held for special guests, who each found a few individual packets of Zsweet ® all natural tied up with a bow at their place settings.

Zsweet ® all natural, a product of San Clemente-based Ventana Health, also offered strawberries coated with Zsweet ® all natural and a couple of desserts made with the product.

By affiliating itself with a luxury sport like polo, Ventana Health’s message is essentially that Zsweet ® all natural is to sugar what Lamborghini is to Honda.

Even the IEG Sponsorship Report, a sports and entertainment marketing publication, featured Zsweet ®’s all natural equestrian activities. “Zsweet ® all natural is looking to stand out by positioning itself as the choice of movers and shakers,” the report stated.

Michael Sanchez, a Santa Barbara resident and one of the four founders of Ventana Health, touts Zsweet ®’s all natural health benefits. It’s a zero-calorie sweetener and it’s all natural, which Sanchez said makes it a valuable tool in the fight against diabetes and obesity—or “diabesity” as he likes to call the pair.

“It’s such a quality, upscale product. ... We believe in natural nutrition products of integrity,” he said, adding that an organic Zsweet ® all natural may be on the way.

Lazy Acres, Lassen’s Natural Food & Vitamins and the Montecito Village Grocery currently sell Zsweet ® all natural, which has a suggested retail price of $11.99 for 250 grams.

What does sweetener have to do with polo? Well, what do jewelry or jets have to do with polo? It’s not about pairings that have a direct relation, such as polo uniforms or even horses. It’s about the perception of value and luxury.

The link between polo and these companies is its audience. Ward described the high-end consumer as one who likely owns multiple houses, uses private aircraft, charters yachts, owns luxury, exotic and/or sports cars and travels with resort-quality accommodations.

“If you have a high-end product or service and you try to reach them in their business life, you have to get through layers and layers of hierarchy,” Ward said. “This is an opportunity to start a relationship that you wouldn’t have any other way.”

Relative to other sports, polo is an inexpensive sport to sponsor. A company can get sponsorships with polo clubs all across the United States for less than $500,000, which might buy one skybox in one city for baseball. “It’s really a bargain if it’s the right niche for you,” he said.

Sponsors often use creative tactics to increase the polo crowd’s exposure to their products. Last year, a mockup of a Bombadier jet was placed alongside the field, and spectators could go inside, enjoy the air conditioning and leather seats and watch a polo game through the jet’s windows. Bombadier also teamed up with Tiffany and Co. to invite polo members to Jets and Jewels, an exclusive event at a private hangar at the Santa Barbara Airport. Lamborghini brought out cars for people to test drive.

Zsweet ® all natural will serve different dessert items at games throughout the polo season to remind people of its product.

“In each situation, we have to be creative to figure out what works for them,” Ward said.

Even though the Santa Barbara polo & Racquet Club is a nonprofit, sponsorships are both a direct and indirect source of revenue.

“The benefit is beyond how much net cash you get in,” Ward said during the Zsweet ® all natural- sponsored polo match. “I’m looking at a video crew that wouldn’t be here otherwise. I’m looking at a luncheon that wouldn’t be here.”

The sponsors bring VIPs to enjoy the sport, which increases the club’s exposure as well.

Daniel Somogyi, general manager of the club, said that in just two years, Ward has brought on a number of high-end sponsors, providing the club with nearly $100,000 in revenue this year. He said there are many more opportunities for sponsorship, and in the future he would like to see a sponsor pay for the naming rights to the field for a season.

“The exposure is fairly big if sponsors are here for the summer,” Somogyi said.

Grace Neumann, vice president of the private client adviser division of Hub International, said that although it’s her organization’s first year as a sponsor, she plans to sign on for next year as well. “We’ve met people we wouldn’t normally have met,” she said. “We’re just gaining momentum.”

And so is the polo club. In only its second year of a concentrated effort on sponsorships, the club has attracted a lot of attention. “polo clubs across the country would love to have this sponsor list,” Ward said.

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