Great sponsorships don’t just happen – they’re created.

You need to set goals that are in line with your brand objectives, you need to develop and implement supporting programs, you need to put meaningful measurement tools in place.

When sponsorships fail to meet objectives, and they sometimes do, it’s often because marketers haven’t supported the initiative. A common mistake is to spend the bulk of the budget on the sponsorship itself, without allowing enough dollars to develop the link between the sponsored activity and the brand.

Even when you link to a game as powerful as hockey, marketers need to keep this in mind – and most do – but others seem to just slap an NHL logo on their product and call it a day.

Here’s a quick roundup of some of the stars and underachievers in the hockey sponsorship game. The ratings reflect value for amount spent, and the appropriateness of each effort for the given brand.

McDonald’s – two stars out of five

The fast-food giant leverages sponsorships of the NHL and the National Hockey League Player’s Association (NHLPA) with hockey player trading cards and collectibles available with purchase at McDonald’s restaurants.

Through a sponsorship of the Canadian Hockey Association (CHA), the chain supports McDonald’s Skills Development Camps, an opportunity for minor hockey league players to receive intensive skills coaching outside of regular hockey practice. However, considering that it’s presented as a national program, the number of camps seems light and shows a possible lack of commitment by McDonald’s.

McSports, a suite of Web pages linking to the McDonald’s Canada corporate Web site, is surprisingly rich and includes NHL player profiles, hockey trivia, online games, tips from NHL players, training drills for coaches – and a rather poorly used fan bulletin board.

But while some of the content is very good, the site is tucked in between figure skating and Happy Meals, making it unlikely that it will emerge as a credible destination on the Web for all things hockey.

Ford of Canada – four stars

The Canadian office of the North American car maker is sponsor of the Edmonton Oilers, the Calgary Flames and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Ford’s latest hockey promotion makes good use of its partnership with hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.

Gretzky has appeared in recent Ford television spots with a subtle hockey theme, and Ford Dealers in select regions of the country are acting as drop-off points for used hockey equipment to be distributed by the Wayne Gretzky Foundation (the Foundation distributes hockey equipment to kids who can’t afford to purchase it for themselves).

This shows well on Ford in that it mobilizes its dealer network in a factory-sponsored activity and gives the program good legs into markets of all sizes. Consumers tend to look favourably on brands that participate at the community level – it reaches them where they live.

Pizza Pizza – three stars

The Ontario-based pizza chain (with a few locations in Quebec) is sponsor of both the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators hockey clubs. A simple, yet effective promotion that Pizza Pizza runs leveraging its relationship with the Ottawa Senators drives traffic to its locations in the Ottawa-Hull area.

Ticket holders at any Senators winning home game can take their ticket stub to any Pizza Pizza location within 48 hours of the game and receive a free pizza slice. That could be a lot of pizza and a lot of retail traffic.

MasterCard – four stars

MasterCard is a good example of a brand that has taken true ownership of hockey in Canada. Hockey is a significant part of the lives of many Canadians and a way in which we express our identity. In aligning its brand with hockey at various levels, MasterCard takes advantage of that benefit by creating an affiliation effect.

MasterCard sponsors the NHL, the NHLPA and the NHL Alumni Association. It supports the activity with media buys around NHL television broadcasts adapting its strong ‘For everything else there’s MasterCard…’ advertising campaign with hockey-themed creative that plays on the cultural significance of the game.

Taking title to the MasterCard Memorial Cup, MasterCard also connects itself to hockey through a sponsorship of the CHA, valuable in reaching an audience in secondary markets.

Squarely playing on the passion of team boosters everywhere, MasterCard drives consumer credit card applications through its activity in hockey by offering cards bearing the team logos of Canadian Hockey League teams, cards with the NHL shield and cards with the logos of select NHL teams.

This delivers fans a connection to the sport and their favourite team, something that can be very meaningful – and something that Visa and American Express can’t offer.

Lacking sizzle – one star

There are still brands that invest in simply a presence strategy.

Colgate-Palmolive’s Mennen brand slaps a NHL shield on its packaging and goes home.

Duracell, another NHL partner, recently ran a promotion in conjunction with a media buy on TSN that definitely lacked sizzle.

Consumers were eligible to enter a contest through Duracell’s Web site using a special code obtained on product displays at participating retailers. Names were drawn only when an NHL game televised on TSN went into overtime. Grand Prize was a trip to a NHL Stanley Cup Finals game. Second prize was $1,000 worth of batteries.

An effective sponsorship strategy needs to deliver on broad brand communication objectives, it needs to be leveraged into other areas of the brand’s marketing mix and it needs to be actively managed. Expect to spend between two and four times the value of a sponsorship to get the word out and harness some of that power for your brand.

Simply showing up just isn’t enough.

Ian Malcolm is president of Desperado Marketing, a client-side sport and event marketing agency based in Toronto. He can be reached at: ian@desperadomarketing.com.