Lloyds TSB hires agency boss to leverage 2012 tie

Sally Hancock has been appointed to the new position of head of sponsorship to leverage the bank's £80m Olympic deal.

Lloyds TSB signed up as the first sponsor of the London 2012 Olympic Games earlier this year, as exclusively revealed in Marketing (3 January 2007), giving Hancock five years to work on the partnership.

Olympic domestic tie-ups do not include rights to traditional sponsorship opportunities such as in-stadia ads or shirt sponsorship, so Lloyds TSB plans to use its association for customer loyalty programmes, staff motivation initiatives and value-in-kind deals, such as providing ATMs at sports venues.

Lloyds TSB has already incorporated the Olympic rings into some of its ads and ran a press ad in support of the London 2012 logo.

Hancock, who will report to group marketing director Nigel Gilbert, was a found-ing partner of RedMandarin, which she set up in 1999. While at the agency, she oversaw the creation of a global sponsorship strategy for Philips for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and led a project to help Unilever develop its sponsorship strategy. She was previously senior vice-president of strategic planning at Octagon Marketing.

Hancock's appointment follows last month's exit of Lloyds TSB's group marketing and communications director, Andrew Gillespie, who left to become marketing director of property firm CB Richard Ellis.

It is thought that Hancock's hiring completes the bank's senior marketing team under Gilbert, who was drafted in from Lowe Asia Pacific last year.

Lloyds TSB would not confirm the appointment.

This article was first published on Marketing