Sport sponsorship can position your brand

In today’s marketing noisy and fragmented world, traditional advertising and branding has become blunt and ineffective.

Up to fifteen years ago, the name of the game was whoever spent the most got heard or seen the most and therefore won. Simple.

Fast forward to the present day: The landscape and behavior of people has radically changed. People tend to enjoy their free time in so many different ways that it is almost impossible to hit your target audience with the traditional marketing arsenal. Take the Maltese, for instance: when it comes to TV we don’t just have cable TV but we also have satellite TV and even YouTube, which offers almost infinite programmes which local advertisers cannot reach; when it comes to social media we have multiple platforms (in order of popularity: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr, Instagram, VK, Ello, etc); when it comes to the radio we again have digital radio or online apps like Spotify which draw us away from traditional radio stations and reduce the reach of traditional advertising. I could go on. My point is that no local business can afford to target everything in order to connect with their audience since it is all so fragmented.

As a result of this, leading marketers and brand savvy businesses, are starting to believe that the best way to stand out (enjoy an element of exclusivity), to be effective in your branding and marketing, not to mention the best way to connect with customers in a meaningful way, is through sports sponsorship since the marketing & branding opportunity is rich and unique.

The concept is simple: you choose a sport and/or team and/or player whose individual brand positioning and values compliment your own and you link (almost integrate) the two brands. This way you engage with fans who are already passionate about and loyal to, their sport / team / player plus you know that this audience will listen and engage with their friends unlike any other activity.   

The research supports this assertion too. According to ‘The Economic Value of Celebrity Endorsements’ by Anita Elberse & Jeroen Verleun, sports related endorsements, on average and across the board, generate a 4% increase in sales. Whilst, a 2014 McKinsey study reveals how those companies that engage in sports sponsorship and have a system in place to measure sponsorship ROI comprehensively, can increase returns by as much as 30%.

Some more interesting facts and figures: P&G reported that the last two Olympic games contributed significantly to their revenue, with the Olympics in Vancouver 2010 adding about $100m and London 2012 adding a projected $500m in increased sales. GE attributes $1b in extra revenue over the last seven years to its decision to become a top-level Olympic sponsor in 2005. Finally, E.ON’s FA Cup sponsorship generated 138,000 new customers between 2008-2010 due to its association with the world’s oldest football competition. Granted, the local scene commands smaller returns but the principle is the same and the marketing investments are proportionately smaller too.

The trick is to do your homework well. This means that you must first articulate a clear sponsorship strategy; who do you want to hit; which stages of the Consumer Decision Journey (CDJ) do you want to target (the ‘awareness’ stage, ‘consideration’ stage, ‘purchase’ stage, ‘loyalty’ stage); what medium / channel(s) are you going to use; etc. You also need to know what you are going to measure and how you are going to do it.

What is also important is to invest nearly as much money to acquire the sponsorship rights as you do to 'activate' the sports sponsorship. When for example, Frank Salt Real Estate, decided two years ago to replace McDonalds as the main sponsors of the most successful water polo club in Malta - Sliema ASC - it invested in marketing collateral such as flags, t-shirts, polo shirts, posters, merchandising, joint activities, events, etc. My point is that the naming rights ‘Sliema Frank Salt Real Estate’ wasn’t enough; to maximise on their ROI they needed to invest in 'activating' the sport sponsorship too. Research points to the need to invest in the activating process, anything as much as €0.50-€1.50 for every €1 you invest in acquiring the sports sponsorship.

The point I am trying to make is that whereas sport sponsorship used to be seen as a side thing or delicacy of the chairman/owner of the business with little tangible ROI, it is now seen as one of the most effective ways to engage with customers and positioning a brand.

So when next deciding on how best to invest your marketing budget consider sport sponsorship since this gives you the almost unique chance to have a different conversation with your target audience which is far more effective than traditional, fragmented, marketing.