5 Sports Marketing Strategies to Elevate your B2B Brand
Danilo Borges/copa2014.gov.br Licença Creative Commons Atribuição 3.0 Brasil, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Even though 2020 was a game changer in every sense of the word, sports are destined to make a huge comeback as COVID-19 restrictions ease. In fact, despite the 15.4% decline within the sports market to $388.3 billion during the pandemic, a Two Circles study forecasts the industry to reach $599.9 billion by 2025. With fans eager to get back to spectating, market spending on sponsorship is booming; global brand investment in sports sponsorship is predicted to reach $62 billion by 2024. Contact Alpha Tango Media today to learn more during a free consultation.
What is the Difference Between Sports Marketing and Sports Sponsorship?
Sports marketing can be broken down into two categories: the promotion of sporting events and teams themselves, or the promotion of one’s products or services through sports. An example of sports marketing would be the widely-anticipated Super Bowl ads – brands are using the event as an opportunity to promote at scale. Sponsorship, on the other hand, is a marketing technique where brands will associate with a team, player, or event by placing brand names and logos on athletes' uniforms, equipment and on structural elements at sports venues. Recently, a Singapore-based firm paid $700 million dollars to sponsor the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and have it renamed to the ‘Crypto.com Arena’ during this partnership. Typically, sponsorships aim to generate brand awareness and customer loyalty from fans. Mega-money sporting sponsorships and marketing campaigns have long dominated the realm of B2C brands, and given the global dominance of sports, it’s no surprise that more and more B2B brands are starting to see the value of these investments as well.
The realm of sports marketing and sponsorships allows your brand to connect directly with target audiences, offers huge potential for sales growth, and gives your brand an authentic story to tell; and when done properly, can offer broad opportunities for elevating your B2B brand. Here are five strategies B2B marketers can use to gain leverage through a sports marketing campaign or sponsorship:
Define your objectives
Agree on success criteria
Keep in-touch with your target audience
Assess up-and-coming opportunities
Achieve buy-in from stakeholders
Define Your Objectives
Sports marketing cannot be approached by just using a single tactic or strategy. Instead, it is more about using the substance of sports to assist in marketing objectives. Marketing objectives are measurable goals that outline what the end results of your strategy should be. You should focus on selecting measurable milestones that align with your business plans and complement your sports marketing strategies. Some examples of marketing objectives would be to generate sales and leads, improve brand awareness, and increase customer loyalty/retention. Having clearly defined goals will help you determine how sports marketing and sponsorships can be utilized as strategic growth initiatives.
Agree on Success Criteria
Success criteria are the standards by which to judge whether an objective, goal, or outcome has been successful. Success criteria are linked to intended outcomes and targets of strategic marketing plans. It is important to make sure that your success criteria are accurately measuring what they intend to address, are easy to understand and are directly connected to goals/targets. The fewer the better, as too many success criteria may add stress to the development of your strategy. You should also determine how often you will measure this ‘success’, how it will be measured, and who is responsible for measuring it.
Keep In-Touch With Your Target Audience
Relevance and alignment are very important when it comes to sports marketing and sponsorships Since loyalty is superior with sports fans, inauthentic partnerships run the risk of working against your initiatives by irritating fans. The interests of your audiences should be a fundamental factor when deciding whether to pursue sports marketing and sponsorships. Audiences connect with brands that they feel connect and identify with them, as well as value their favorite teams and this relationship between the two.
Assess Up-and-Coming Opportunities
We are all aware of the big money deals within the sports marketing realm; think Nike and Michael Jordan, or Emirates and soccer. Not all sponsorship strategies need to be expensive in order to be successful, as there are lots of developing opportunities within the sports realm that B2B brands can jump on. Last year, the up and coming Esports industry had an estimated audience of 453 million; that number is predicted to reach 557 million by the end of 2021. Viewership rates are at an all-time high for Major League Soccer within the US, with the 2020 MLS Cup final watched by 1.071 million viewers on Fox; a 30 percent rise compared to the previous final. B2B brands are jumping on these emerging opportunities as they offer access to previously hard-to-reach audiences. The untapped potential means there are unthinkable opportunities to successfully market and promote your brand.
Achieve Buy-In from Stakeholders
Stakeholders are the individuals, groups, or parties that have an interest in an organization and the outcomes of its actions; examples of stakeholders would be the employees, investors, customers, and suppliers involved with your brand. Stakeholder buy-in is the support or opposition on decisions from these key members that help make the project management and strategizing processes smoother and more collaborative. This engagement offers open communication between all levels of stakeholders within and outside of an organization, which is critical to a B2B brand as it allows for feedback on proposed plans and suggestions for improvement from those who are important to the organization. This is the perfect opportunity to discover new opinions and ideas that typically would not be apparent in the organization's natural structure. It can help align the business with the wants and needs of its customers, driving long-term growth and profitability.
Discuss Sports Marketing Strategies with Alpha Tango Media Today
With major sporting events making a full comeback following the pandemic, properly utilizing sports marketing and sponsorships can offer your B2B unlimited opportunities for growth. Making sure that you have defined marketing objectives is an important step when deciding if sports marking and sponsorships are for you. Having a set, measurable outline detailing what the end results of your strategy should be can help guide your campaign in the right direction. Knowing how you will define and measure success enables you to understand whether or not your goals are being reached. Remaining in touch with your target audience will help you understand successful partnerships that will align your values with your consumers. Jumping on up-and-coming opportunities in the sports realm can set your brand apart from the rest at a more affordable cost, and stakeholders offers unique perspectives and feedback to help the brand align more with its consumers.
If you need help incorporating sports marketing into your advertising strategy, the media experts at Alpha Tango Media are here to help. Contact us today to set up a free consultation.