The Netball Show
S7 Ep77: Claire Williams (17th Oct 2024)
(upbeat music) - Hi, this is Nat Metcalf. Flyhawk have developed a unique 3D kit designer that's fully customizable. So if you're looking for a new kit for your team for the new season, visit flyhawk.com or email info@flyhawk.com with your ideas now. - Nation Player is the easy to use, one-stop radio and audio app. Download Nation Player now on the Apple App Store or Google Play. Nation Player, where on are you? The Netball Show with Flyhawk. Raising the bar for Netball and winning sports. - It's a Netball Show with Flyhawk. Delighted as always to cover the work that London Pulse do. Joining me now is Claire Williams. You're the London Pulse sponsorship manager and Richard Triman. Edwin Duran sports to us. Bit of a special announcement today. Claire, first of all, since launch, Pulse have really excelled in some ways of signing new sponsors and you've got that strong commercial support, as well, haven't you? - Yeah, we've been really, really pleased how we've engaged with sponsors and partners over the last few seasons. It's really, really important for us to make sure we're maintaining some really strong relationships. So we've got a really high acquisition rate of bringing new sponsors and partners in. But also, for me, I'm very proud of our retention rate and how we develop our relationships and how we make sure we return on levels of investment that our sponsors and partners are kindly delivering to us. - And especially heading into new season, new setup as well. That retention is gonna be key. - Yeah, retention is absolutely key, Andy. We're approaching a new era. We've got a great ambition to become the world's most competitive and commercially attractive Netball League. And it's really important for our sponsors and partners to buy into what we're doing at Pulse but also centrally within the league and really helping to elevate our sport into new heights. - We've got that new partnership extension with Flyhawk as well. They've been really key to the franchise over the years, haven't they? - It's fantastic, Andy. I mean, Flyhawk have been with us right from the beginning. And again, that relationship has really grown. It's been very, very successful. And we've got a fantastic relationship with Steph and the team. And we're delighted to be working so closely together and into another season. - Are you still finding things overall that are supposed to be a bit of a challenge trying to attract new investors and new companies into that Pulse family as such? Are things got easier over the years? - I think we're all so passionate about female sport. We're in London. We're very passionate about being in London and making sure that we're delivering not only on the performance side, Andy, but also giving so much back to the community. We're very proud in terms of being a very inclusive club, a very diverse club. We've been delivering the corporate cup, which is a fantastic CSR initiative. So I've got 20 teams that Sam and I have been working very closely with. So 20 teams across the city, and they range from accountants, management, consultancies, recruitment, law firms, and they enter teams to enter the corporate cup played at the copper box arena. But the most important part of that event is that a proportion of those fees that the companies have invested in go back into supporting our community projects, Andy. So really give back to community initiatives, supporting those athletes that need it. We've now got over 40 hubs. We're running two performance pathways. We've got over 1,000 athletes. It's really important to make sure that we are providing great access to opportunity, and Richard will come onto that. But it's making sure that girls are really benefiting from team sport and being part of polls and understanding what that provides for them on and off the court. So making sure that we can develop their skills and their development to the highest levels, but also getting them to experience life skills in terms of winning, losing, being resilient, making lifelong friends, understanding about discipline, healthy eating, managing studies, all of those really important life skills. And to have 20 corporate teams again, planning our corporate cup and investing in London polls and really giving back to our community projects is really another huge passion of ours. - Yeah. London polls, obviously continuing to improve the profile of female sport across London and the Southeast. You partnership with Edwin Duran, Sports Stewards has been announced. Richard Twyman from the company joins us now. So Richard, I suppose the first question is, why did you feel London polls were a good partnership for you? - Oh, I think everything Claire's just said Andy. She summed it up perfectly. I think the timing of this was just fantastic for us. We're celebrating our 50th year this year. And we are known historically as having a heritage for boys rugby tours to South Africa. And in our next 50 years, we want to be as famous for girls sports and working with partners in girls sports as we've been for rugby tours to South Africa over the last 50 years. And when we started to look at the landscape, it was very clear to us that we already had a good footprint in netball, but the super league presented just an incredibly attractive opportunity. And we went and met Sam and Claire and the team at Pulse and the vision that they talked about and that focus on community inclusivity and diversity plays exactly into where we're trying to take our business. And, you know, there aren't enough businesses in the education travel sector holding themselves up to the highest possible purpose. And we want to pay it forward in the best way that we can by supporting female sport. And our audiences are very similar. And, you know, one of the things that was attractive for Pulse, I think, was the fact that we engage with all the schools around the country. So we've got a ready fit audience, ready to come and watch London Pulse, which we're very excited about. It was really, it really wasn't a hard decision to make. And it was topped off by the fact that playing the most iconic venue of any team in the super league at the couple of months. Yeah, equality in sport, really, isn't it? And building that solid foundation. Yeah, that's absolutely right. I mean, we already have good foundations. We do netball venue called Conde overhaul, which is part of what we do at Edwin Duran. But we just felt that by partnering with Pulse, all of the things that you experience when you go on a sports tour, learning about resilience, learning about teamwork, having discipline, eating the right stuff, all the things that Claire alluded to, mirrors exactly what playing netball is all about and what being part of a team is all about. So we just felt that this was absolutely great timing. And we can't wait to get started. We're excited about the season ahead. And I think we're gonna go great places with this. We wanna try and fill the copper box with lots of enthusiastic members of our community who are passionate netball fans. It's that engagement, supporting grassroots netball. Having Pulse as well as part of this is a real advantages for yourselves as well. Well, look, I think the brand Halo here, both ways is very, very clear to see. We work with communities on the ground in all the places that we go around the world. And the impact that sport has in those communities is really powerful. One of the things that was really attractive about Pulse was the fact that they've got all the various hubs, they've got the pathway, it covers all the South East, which is where a lot of our netball has come from. So the geographic match was really strong as well. - Clara Pulse, you're continuing to improve the profile of female sport as we've previously said. What's the best way to contact you if someone's got an idea ahead of next season? - We're always welcome to attracting new sponsors. And I think the great thing that Richard said, it's about having that chemistry. It's working with like-minded brands. You know, and you mentioned our successful relationship Andy with Flyhall. It's making sure that, you know, I'm working hand in hand with our partners to really make sure that we're leveraging the opportunities from our brand and from our sponsors brands as well. So, you know, if any sponsors or partners are interested in finding out more opportunities, they can email me and I'm on all the social media channels on LinkedIn as well. So, you know, it would be very welcome to have any new conversations. But we are so grateful to Richard and his team for this partnership. We are really looking forward to the next season. We're off to a great start. We're very excited about the activations that we've got planned. As you know, Andy, we have launched all of our fixtures for next season, really looking forward. We're playing all of our home games at the copper box arena. You know, it's about really getting our sponsors and fans engaged, fan activations and filling up that arena. You know, we want fans to show up, watch our amazing sport, look at our incredible role models, female athletes and really be part of our family. And, you know, the culture that Sam has, you know, just worked so hard on over the last few years, he's really making sure people come in and be part of our family and working with us as we continue to grow our brand across London and the Southeast. You know, it's a really great piece of news. You can find our more on London Pulse, as always, load up us netball.com. Clare and Richard, thank you for your time. Thank you very much, Andy. Thanks, Andy. The netball show is now also available via Skyq and Skyglass. Select sport and we're on the podcast's rail. (upbeat music)
London Pulse have announce a new partnership with Edwin Doran Sports Tours ahead of 2025