Nottingham Forest recently announced a two-year sponsorship deal with TGP Europe-owned Kaiyun Sports. The East Midlands club has struggled to secure commercial sponsorship since its arrangement with BOXT expired at the end of the 21/22 season. It now joins Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Real Madrid, and Inter Milan in partnering with the obscure gambling website. In this article, we take a look at what these partnerships mean reputationally for existing sponsors.

Since arriving in the Premier League, Nottingham Forest has been holding out for a £10m sponsor deal. That lofty evaluation is over double The Sponsor’s Fair Market Value for the club at £3.9m. Quite reasonably, potential partners were hesitant to invest in the inflated prices that betting companies have fostered.

How does this fit with Forest’s existing approach?

Despite previously lacking a commercial front-of-shirt sponsor, the Nottingham club hosted the logo of UK for UNHCR, the UN’s Refugee Agency, on their matchday shirts midway through the 22/23 season. Club owner Evangelos Marinakis stated "I hope fans of Nottingham Forest will also be proud that we have chosen to highlight the work of UNHCR…in addition to the local causes our Community Trust supports.” The partnership showed a club using sponsorship, albeit temporarily, for a positive cause in conjunction with its own activities in the community. The shift in tone to a betting firm on the front of Forest shirts obscures the club’s values and means that its platform for other sponsors is a harder place from which to communicate.

New and existing sponsors need to take notice

Part of the attraction of sponsorship opportunities like this is the club’s historic presence in and importance to the community; each of the principal partners (Adidas, Ideagen, e.on, The Park Hospital) are operational in Nottingham. While it has relationships with top-flight clubs, Kaiyun Sports’ press release with Nottingham Forest was vague and uncommunicative. It did not mention the words “betting” or “gambling” despite being a betting website and gave no indication of specific brand activations.

That Kaiyun sports is generally irrelevant to the area will have an impact on related brands. It shows the club ignoring its fanbase and even its wellbeing by undoing their work to promote healthy gambling. For brands looking to promote family and community, this deal changes the perception of Nottingham Forest and by extension the values it can convey. The deal represents a missed opportunity for more relevant potential partners to tap into Forest’s core audience and reflects poorly on related brands. Then again, with their increased scrutiny, betting firms and gambling-related platforms are willing to pay more than others to compensate for their diminished position and the negative effects they have on their business surroundings.

Why fans and community matter in sponsorship

Sponsors should watch closely at the fan reaction to Forest’s gambling partnership. Chelsea’s proposed and aborted partnership with Stake.com in July shows that this issue really does matter to fans; when a brand disconnects from its audience, the sponsorship strength across the board atrophies. A striking 77% of 3,297 fans polled either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the decision to partner with Stake.com. If sponsorship is seen solely as a question of money, it becomes a superficial venture. While this deal with Kaiyun has gone through, Forest’s next sponsor will want to address the community and the shareholders if it wants an engaged audience.

In the immediate future, other brands sponsoring clubs alongside gambling firms should consider the strength of their position. Not only is their reputation harmed by association, but due to a damaged relationship with the community, the ability to leverage sponsorship is reduced.

Sponsors that fuel the fan-club relationship will always be able to mutually strengthen brand identity. Those that intercept or splice this relationship through non-alignment will produce a knock on effect towards other sponsors that starts with a loss of faith and/or interest.

The post What effect does a gambling partnership have on fellow sponsors? appeared first on The Sponsor.

Sunday’s Men’s Wimbledon Final saw the 20-year-old Spaniard seize the crown from Novak Djokovic. With youth, an all-round game with no visible weaknesses, trophies, and comfort in front of the camera, is Carlos Alcaraz now the most marketable athlete in the world?

PR guru Mark Borkowski stated after the Men’s final that 'we are witnessing the new hero for Gen Z'. The sheer optics of seeing one of the Big 3 bested by a 20-year-old newcomer was striking. For brands looking to connect to a Gen Z audience or play off an “out with the old, in with the new” campaign, Alcaraz presents an unparalleled opportunity. But there’s so much more to the new sports star. 

Here, we take a look at three of Alcaraz's current sponsorships and what they tell us about his enormous commercial appeal. 

Louis Vuitton 

In late June, Alcaraz joined LV’s stacked roster of ambassadors that includes actor Zendaya, and fellow tennis player Naomi Osaka. Alcaraz explained that he has spent time over the past few years educating himself on the current state of fashion. “I think it’s a very interesting world and it excites me.” Together with his expressed admiration for the late Virgil Abloh’s playful approach to ‘blurring the lines between sportswear and high fashion,’ Alcaraz opened himself up to high fashion marketing. With the partnership announced just under three weeks before the Wimbledon final, Louis Vuitton will be looking to leverage the No. 1 ranking of its ambassador. 

Rolex

In January 2022, Rolex and Alcaraz announced the signing of a multi-year partnership deal. Fast-forward 18 months and Alcaraz has sported a pair of Rolex wristwatches during two finals speeches and trophy ceremonies. This sponsorship has allowed Rolex to be a part of these celebrations in an enduring way—through the photographs. The marketing team will no doubt have enjoyed the proximity of Alcaraz’s watch to the golden Wimbledon trophy, with Djokovic’s Hublot seen next to the silver plate. 

BMW 

The globetrotting nature of tennis’ calendar makes this partnership, penned in January 2022, a smart deal. As mobility provider to Carlos Alcaraz, BMW will have high and wide-ranging visibility.

The partnership was announced via Instagram with a photo of Alcaraz next to the flagship of the car brand’s electric range. As Alcaraz’s Gen Z and millennial audience inevitably increases, the chance to advertise with sustainable models will be crucial to the manufacturer’s plans for the future. A recent survey from the Wharton School assessed that Gen Z (those born 1995-2010) shows the most concern for the planet’s well-being and believes others should make buying decisions based on sustainability models, not brands. Going back to the Mark Borkowski quote at the start, this partnership shows a brand understanding and leveraging Alcaraz’s unique appeal. 

To learn more about how sports sponsorships can be used for global visibility and networking, click here.

Conclusion

After a thrilling contest on Sunday, Alcaraz charmed crowds with a charismatic and gracious speech. The 2023 Wimbledon Trophy will not be the only one Alcaraz picks up over the next decade. In practically sponsoring a portion of his wrist for all post-match trophy celebrations, Rolex have gone even further in their quest to leverage and support the player’s success.

Alcaraz’s keen personal interest in fashion has already yielded a result for Louis Vuitton—the company’s ‘V is for Victory’ tweets congratulating Carlos show the marketing benefits of sponsoring the best.

The chance to connect with an engaged Gen Z audience is of extremely high importance to brands, and righty so. As one of Gen Z’s breakout sporting stars, Alcaraz will attract attention in a very specific way; BMW have recognised that and are emphasising sustainability in their activations. 

Much like the star’s all-round game, the commercial viability of Carlos Alcaraz is without any apparent shortcomings. 

The post Is Carlos Alcaraz now the most marketable athlete in the world? appeared first on The Sponsor.

On April 1, Bud Light sponsored an Instagram and TikTok post from the accounts of trans-activist Dylan Mulvaney. Soon, public figures including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Kid Rock, and Caitlyn Jenner were publicly criticising the company. Following months of aggressive boycotting, America’s best-selling beer for more than two decades fell second-place to Modelo Especial. Its sales volume dropped a staggering 29% in the four-week period ending in mid-June from a year earlier. In this article, we assess 3 lessons from a grossly mismanaged sponsorship campaign. 

Do your research 

First, it’s important to note that Bud Light's relationship with Dylan Mulvaney was not extensive. It went as far as two Bud Light sponsored posts featuring a personalised beer can to celebrate 365 days since her transition. Despite the campaign’s relatively small scale, the company took into account neither the breadth nor the qualities of its audience. Further, it’s no secret that powerful companies in the United States, including Apple, Citigroup, CVS, Bank of America and many others have faced immense pressure when dipping into political campaigns. The backlash has been enormous and ought to have been considered with a clear plan of action.  

With one in five Gen Z adults (those born between 1997-2003) identifying as LGBTQ, the partnership with Mulvaney would ostensibly connect to an online audience at the dawn of the legal drinking age. As economist Lee Badgett notes of the community, “it’s not a tiny fraction anymore…it’s a game changer.” The problem is not so much in wanting to support progressive movements, it was in not comprehending its own position in the market and in not preparing for pushback. 

To read why market research is so crucial for your business, click here.

Stick to your guns 

In April, brewing company Anheuser-Busch put out a statement via CEO Brendan Whitworth that sought to settle the dust: “we never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.” To the LGBT community this said, ‘We didn’t realise why this was important to you.’ To its conservative audience this said, ‘We didn’t realise why this was important to you.’  

Speaking to her 1.8million followers last Thursday, Mulvaney stated: “I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did…For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse than not hiring a trans person at all.” In withholding support, Bud Light went down a sponsorship route, tried to turn back, and now find themselves in commercial no man’s land. All the while, prominent conservative figures continue to celebrate the plummeting of Bud Light stocks and bottling plant closures. “This is what winning looks like,” stated Mark Slapinski on Twitter.  

Be clear in your communication 

Sponsorships build an identity when the campaigns and activations are well thought out. They cannot, however, be substitutes for brand identity, or else they’ll always operate at a superficial level. A lack of understanding over core values will leave brands with misaligned sponsors and therefore open to vulnerability.  

When controversy hits, a robust response stemming from an understanding of your brand can help rebuild trust. When Disney came under fire in 1995 for introducing domestic-partner benefits, CEO Michael Eisner defended his company's inclusive stance: "I think it would be a travesty in this country to exclude anybody." The response was straightforward and neutralised calls for a boycott by laying out company policy.  

While that wasn’t a sponsorship-related issue, Bud Light could have done with Eisner’s clear communication. The answer is not to abandon progressively minded sponsorships. It’s to do them right. Speaking to CBS Mornings, Brendan Whitworth was asked if he would send Mulvaney another personalised can. Instead of a concise answer, Whitworth stated unclear aims to understand the social conversation around the campaign. When pressed, he again avoided the question.  

To learn more about planning around controversy, click here.

Conclusion 

 America’s best-selling beer lost their spot over insufficient market research; the unclear communication is a testament to their lack of both preparation and conviction. Bud Light sponsored a campaign that they weren't prepared to see through. Further, a lack of understanding of its own core identity made the response feel cobbled together and transparent. The result: a non-committal campaign that has failed to win over either side. 

The post 3 lessons from Bud Light’s mismanaged sponsorship campaign appeared first on The Sponsor.

Following news that Lionel Messi will be joining Inter Miami in the MLS, we take a look at how this latest move will supercharge the US Soccer market's wider commercial expansion. We discuss what the unique US audience, the current sponsorship activity in the MLS, and a growing appetite for the women’s game has done to help the beautiful game reach North America culturally and commercially.   

How did the MLS pull this off what does it mean?

At the dawn of a 10-year global media rights deal with Apple, an updated MLS Cup Playoffs model, and the proliferation of grassroots activity in the women’s game,  US soccer is cementing itself as one of the most promising markets for sponsorship in the sporting world.

To this hotbed, Messi brings an army of 469 million Instagram followers and the potential engagement for a South American fanbase to Inter Miami and their 18,000-capacity stadium. Put simply: the Miami outfit need to expand to accomodate the best player of all time. That itself presents innumerable opportunities. Already, Forbes is reporting that the cheapest tickets on resale websites for Messi’s possible home debut in August are exchanging hands for more than $500.

The potential is there for this to be commercially monumental - it's exactly what the league needs to go to the next level. Below, we'll be discussing the wider movements that are helping shape the MLS for decades to come. The key: smart sponsorship activity and heavy investment.

Who are the audience? 

Understanding the US soccer market audience is crucial to understanding the various ways in which the game and the business activity around it is swelling. 

According to a report from Sports Innovation Lab and Jung von Matt Sports, “there are five critical fan personas in the US market: The National Team Fan, The Player, The Pop Culture Fan, The Parent, The Gamer.” 

Importantly, “the most avid and engaged fan persona is the Pop Culture Fan.” It is unsurprising that TikTok have signed a multi-year deal with the MLS which includes the launching of ‘Club Creator Network’ and many more activations to engage this burgeoning demographic. The relative freshness of the group’s interest promotes engagement through social media channels and partnerships that promote digestible and exciting content. Since joining TikTok in 2020, MLS has amassed over 1.2 million followers, more than 256 million video views and 2.7 billion views featuring the MLS hashtag. 

Within each of the fan personas in the US, there was substantial support for US-based leagues, quashing the presumption that Europe’s top five leagues dominate universally.  

What is the current sponsorship activity? 

When it comes to the men’s league sponsors, MLS signed several deals ahead of the new season, which started in February. They included a six-year extension with Adidas - official kit supplier of the league - for a staggering $830 million. The league has also furthered its relationship with German carmaker Audi and clinched a new agreement with RBC Wealth Management.  

There has also been substantial activity within the individual teams, with health care and consumer product brands sharing the highest percentage of kit sponsors (24.1% each.) Interestingly, we see an emphasis on locally-relevant partnerships, with 19 of 29 kit sponsorships considered a direct part of the club’s local community. Each of the 2023 season’s five new MLS kit sponsors are part of those 19 whose company headquarters are a short drive from the club’s city.  

When it comes to stadium crowds, the MLS audience is still well below the European average. That said, last year, Atlanta United had an average attendance of 47,116 at the Mercedes Benz Stadium. The remarkable 27-year stadium naming rights contract, signed in 2017 and worth $324 million, has proven its worth with an attendance that betters the likes of Chelsea across the Atlantic. While other MLS teams generally operate below their attendance capacity, Atlanta United have shown the potential of deep investment through sponsorship. 

The growing women’s game in the US and why it matters 

The women’s game in the US provides significant sponsorship opportunities because of its engaged and growing audience. According to Robert Zitzmann, Managing Director at Jung von Matt Sports, “Unlike anywhere else in the world, the investment and appetite for women’s soccer are profoundly validated by the United States market.” 

At a more grassroots level, the women’s game is growing - suggesting a future of captivated audiences. The NCAA claims that women‘s soccer is the most expanded women‘s sport program in US higher education, having expanded 1,409% between 1982 (when the NCAA held its first women‘s soccer championship) and 2020-21. 

True, the women’s game is also growing in Europe, as evidenced by a recent report from DAZN, which showed that 77% of clubs experienced an increase in sponsor interest following its free coverage of the Women's Champions League on YouTube. Nevertheless, there is more fan interest in women’s soccer in the United States than anywhere else in the world, derived from a diverse pool of fans across all genders and generations. In terms of population identity, 51% female fans, 49% male fans, compared to the global figure of 63% male fans.  To read more about why you should be looking at sponsoring women's sport, click here.

If DAZN can prove a significant engagement for the less concentrated European market, time itself will prove why companies like Deloitte continue their partnerships within the dense US market. Google recently became head sponsor of the Women’s German National Football Team to increase visibility of women’s sport. Fellow giants Amazon, within the same week, penned a Multi-year deal with UEFA that covers Women’s Euro 2025, the Women’s Champions League and Women’s Finalissima. The trend is clear. It’s time to invest in the women’s game, so why not invest where the audience is at its most receptive? 

The post How Messi’s MLS transfer will supercharge an already booming US soccer market appeared first on The Sponsor.

Broadening access for fans to the sports they love is a cornerstone of sports sponsorship. It follows that removing barriers such as paywalls from events emerges as a highly effective approach to fostering favourable brand association and expanding your reach to a broader audience of fans. 

Last month, Fortuna Düsseldorf announced plans to offer free tickets to all fans for at least three home games next season. The German second division club explained that it hopes to anchor the club to its city and fans as it seeks to return to the top division. Leveraging their innate connection to their fanbase, the club found local sponsors, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Provinzial, TARGOBANK, and Common Goal to compensate for the loss in matchday revenue. So why are these sponsors, who will spend around £40 million pounds over five years, doing this? 

Expanding an audience through a raised paywall positions sponsors themselves as architects and enablers of growth. A recent report from DAZN showed that 77% of clubs experienced an increase in sponsor interest following its free coverage of the Women’s Champions League on YouTube. While DAZN will be moving to a mostly subscription-based model next season, its 2022/23 sponsors reached unprecedented viewers in the sport because they backed a model that put fans first. To read more about why now is the right time to invest in women's sports, click here.

At a much lower level, sponsors can operate for the benefit of fans with more straight forward activations. In 2015, sponsors of the EFL SkyBet paid for Carlisle United fans’ travel to Plymouth, dubbed ‘the longest away day in the football league.’ The public reaction from the club itself was fantastic: “To sell 79 tickets for such a long trip on a Tuesday night is phenomenal from our fans and we’re pleased their loyalty to the club has been rewarded.” The resultant brand exposure through social media was immediate and positive, and showed a brand in touch with the event it sponsors and leveraging their sponsorship for the clear benefit of supporters.  

 As Thomas Preiss, co-founder of Common Goal, notes, "The future viability and relevance of clubs is increasingly determined by their social engagement, as well as their sporting success." If sponsors can support these ambitions operationally, those shared convictions around fan-engagement will return to bolster their brand. To give some idea of the desirability of fan-centred models, Isabelle Chevelard, CEO of Targobank, expressed that without Fortuna’s ticket project, the bank would not have partnered with Fortuna.  

For all its pioneering risk-taking, the plan is shrewdly simple.  

That said, the coverage on social media of Dusseldorf’s bold plan has been met with confusion as users en masse continue to question its commercial viability. From a sponsorship perspective, that suggests that the sponsors themselves have not yet cut through. To fulfill a community-conscious sponsorship plan, communicating its feasible finances will greatly increase both trust and belief in the project, and therefore garner more positive exposure for any sponsors. The challenge going forward will be to elucidate the sponsorship as both operational and mutually beneficial. It is unsurprising therefore that each of the sponsors have agreed to invest into women’s and children’s football to further support the club. 

🚨 German second-division club Fortuna Düsseldorf want to abolish ticket prices and make home games free of charge for their supporters from next season. 🇩🇪

Is this the future? 🎟️

(Source: BILD) pic.twitter.com/QFWAJXewUm

— Transfer News Live (@DeadlineDayLive) April 26, 2023

What do we learn from these ‘beyond the paywall' campaigns?

• Leveraging innate connections to the fanbase through sponsorship increases positive exposure.  
• Fan-centred models will meaningfully reach the widest audience and secure long-term relevance. 
• Commercial viability is an accusation levelled at sponsors helping to raise a paywall - communicating the practicality of these partnerships is therefore essential.  
• Fortuna Düsseldorf’s plan shows a great deal of ambition, but it needs to secure a perception of long-term attainability.  
• Investments in the community are one of the best ways to express sponsorship confidence. Fortuna’s sponsorships will be groundbreaking if they engage beyond the free tickets. 

The post Beyond the paywall: why fan-centred models are ripe for football sponsorship appeared first on The Sponsor.

One of the greatest benefits of sponsorship is the ability to enhance or alter stakeholder brand perception. In most cases, this is achieved by piggybacking off audiences’ positive associations with the team, event or individual you choose to sponsor. Some brands use this tactic to highlight existing brand attributes, while others use it to mask negative ones. Both can work effectively, but one tends to backfire more than the other.

Greenwashing, for those unfamiliar with the term, is the use of marketing to present an environmentally friendly image for a company that is anything but. BP is no stranger to these accusations. The company’s various partnerships with the National Portrait Gallery and TATE Britain have been the subject of countless protests from across the art world.

The difficulty with the BP approach is that harmful effects brought about by oil and gas are not linked to art. The rationale would appear to be that I will do some bad in the world, but I will cover it by doing some good. This is quite close to the textbook definition of greenwashing.

The case of Coca-Cola and COP27 could be quite different. The objection environmentalists have is not that selling fizzy cola is particularly bad for the environment but that the 100 billion plastic bottles you sell it in are.

Whether Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of COP27 is greenwashing or not could be determined by its commitment to the cause.

Coca-Cola said, “We share the goal of eliminating waste from the ocean and appreciate efforts to raise awareness about this challenge. We are prepared to do our part and have set ambitious goals for our business, starting with helping to collect and recycle a bottle or can for every one we sell – regardless of where it comes from – by 2030.

In 2020 we signed a joint statement urging United Nations member states to adopt a global treaty to tackle the plastic waste issue through a holistic, circular economy approach … Our support for Cop27 is in line with our science-based target to reduce absolute carbon emissions 25% by 2030, and our ambition for net zero carbon emissions by 2050.”

If the above is to be believed, this would seem the perfect event to highlight this commitment. However, promises like this carry a lot more weight when they come from a company that is, at the very least, making good progress towards its goals. At the time of writing, the drinks giant remains the biggest contributor to plastic waste globally. For this reason, Coca-Cola’s greenwashing sponsorship of COP27 will have to remain guilty until proven innocent.

There has been a significant need for brands to make sustainable initiatives, read our article on Sustainability voted the top priority amongst sponsors.

The post Is Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of COP27 greenwashing? appeared first on The Sponsor.

You are standing at the bar with your friends deciding what beer to enjoy after a tough week. Of all the choices on tap, that bright green logo with the red star stands out. You’re not sure why, but you point to it for the bartender. Little do you know, all the UEFA Women’s Euro tournament coverage has subtly but surely inundated you with imagery and messaging for all of UEFA’s Official Global Sponsors, including Heineken.

The ultimate goal of every sponsorship is to get more people to buy your brand’s product or service, and the best way to increase these sales numbers is to ensure your brand is top of mind when making a purchase decision. This can be accomplished through several avenues, including traditional activations such as perimeter board ads and TV spots and less traditional activations like community-based programming and charitable works.

While attributing increased sales directly to sponsorship investment is not an exact science, understanding how fans respond to sponsorship activations becomes critical to unlocking an effective sponsorship strategy. Recent studies have delved into memory in marketing and, specifically, what type of memory is needed to achieve your brand’s sponsorship goals.

To this end, there are three types of memory: sensory, short-term, and long-term.

Sensory memory

This memory form includes elements of taste, smell, and most prominently found in marketing, sound. Think catchy jingles for TV adverts or rousing anthems like “Sweet Caroline”. Sensory memory has also come to encompass the tone or voice of the brand. A strong enough brand tone can even go so far as to replace the brand name, as in the case of Coca-Cola’s Christmas campaign, with their polar bears, Santa Claus, and glass bottles. Anyone would see that imagery and know the brand without seeing the name.

Short-term memory

This form of memory in marketing is concerned with the ability of a fan to retain information long enough to complete a task or, ideally, to transfer the information to long-term memory. For example, the fan remembering a code long enough to enter it in their phone to get a product discount or a free giveaway. But the most sought-after memory type in sponsorship is long-term memory.

Long-term explicit memory

Explicit long-term memory is a fan remembering part of the event experience, like a pre-match activity in the fan zone or remembering specifically that your brand sponsored that pre-match activity. This is measured through recall and recognition. Recall asks, “Do you remember which brand sponsored this event?” While recognition asks, “Which of the brands on this list sponsored the event?”. While easier to measure, explicit memories are challenging to create sustainably, which is why implicit long-term memory is just as viable of a goal as explicit.

Long-term implicit memory

Implicit long-term memory is a fan remembering the event’s sponsor without having a reference to the event. It is brand awareness without the context of the sponsor relationship. It is that fan standing at the bar with a plethora of choices in front of them. They likely don’t even consciously link Heineken with the England Women’s momentous victory, but they point to that bright green logo on tap because somewhere in their mind, that link is there.

There are merits to building brand awareness through explicit memory, but this does not need to be the primary goal of a sponsorship. Heineken doesn’t need fans to remember that they are a sponsor of UEFA; they just want to be the beer in your pint glass. The sponsorship contributes to the fan’s awareness of the brand and therefore builds implicit memory, which puts Heineken at the top of mind even when there is no reference to UEFA.

In the end, the goal for most sponsorships is ultimately to drive sales. But the most effective sponsorship strategy should focus on creating a strong enough impact on fans to the point where they don’t need the context of the sponsor relationship to make their purchase decision. In this way, tapping into fans’ implicit long-term memory is critical to achieving a successful sponsorship.

A few ways to create a memorable campaign is by fan engagement and engaging local communities on a national scale.

The post Have you forgotten about memory? appeared first on The Sponsor.

Social media breathes life into your sponsorships. So why is it so often an afterthought for brands engaging in partnerships? This article highlights six techniques to supercharge your social media sponsorship strategy and get those creative juices flowing.

1 Behind-the-scenes content

To make the most of a partnership, sponsors must contribute to the fan’s enjoyment of the event. Fly-on-the-wall documentaries like Amazon Prime’s All or Nothing or Netflix’s Drive to Survive have shown a massive demand for behind-the-scenes content. Sponsors are uniquely positioned to share similar content on their channels.

This doesn’t have to be a full-scale production. It could be a video clip of the artist preparing to walk on stage at your sponsored concert. This is unique content fans would not otherwise see, so it engages a passionate audience.

2 Ride the rollercoaster of emotion

Social media offers brands the chance to show a human side. Sponsorship allows brands to supercharge this relatable characteristic.

What were your thoughts on the game? What was your favourite song of the night? How did you feel when she missed that shot in the last minute? These conversations occur amongst the fans, and your social post should be of that.

For the brand to be relatable and engaging amongst the fan base, it’s essential to speak from the heart. Share the good times, and don’t hide when the chips are down.

3 Competitions, prizes and more

Running competitions and giving prizes have long been an effective way to engage fans and spectators. Many brands, however, continue only to offer these benefits to existing customers through their websites.

Social media opens these competitions to an ocean of highly engaged audiences, many of whom may be interacting with your brand for the first time.

4 Get the fans involved

Another common mistake is asking fans to enter a competition by filling in a form of some sort. This may help increase visits to the sponsor’s website and create new business leads. However, to enter a competition, why not ask fans to upload and share their own images directly to social media while tagging your brand in the process?

This technique results in higher levels of engagement and creates more brand impressions amongst a fan’s personal following.

5 Reach out to new audiences

One of the most common reasons for engaging in sponsorship is to reach new audiences. Certain audience demographics, such as Gen Z, are more challenging to reach than others. Sponsorship gives brands a genuine reason to connect with hard-to-reach audiences. Social media provides a powerful platform to do so.

Another way to reach elusive audiences is with a brand ambassador; if this is a route you are considering, check out our Brand ambassador checklist.

6 Create a direct link to sales

Traditional sponsorships utilising perimeter boards are great for increasing brand awareness. They also can significantly impact the various forms of memory amongst fans. See our article here: Have you forgotten about memory?

However, the likelihood of attending an event, seeing a perimeter board, and visiting the sponsor’s website is slim. Social media sponsorship posts provide an easier journey taking fans directly from a post to the point of purchase via a link.

The most impactful campaigns involve new content shared exclusively by your brand to a highly targeted audience. Taking the time to create and plan such a campaign can be a low-cost method to supercharge your sponsorship.

The post Social media strategy to supercharge your sponsorship appeared first on The Sponsor.

Looking to target the top 1% of wealth owners? If you have a spare five or ten million in your marketing budget, then perhaps Wimbledon or the British F1 may be of interest. For those targeting high-net-worth individuals on a more modest budget, we have compiled a list of five events to consider.

Glyndebourne and Holland Park Opera

Attended by culturally active ABC1 individuals residing in the Sussex countryside and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. These intimate opera performances offer a unique opportunity to the right sponsor. The season runs from May to August, hosting between 50 and 80 performances. Unlike the larger Covent Garden-based Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne and Holland Park attract a higher consistency of HNW individuals.

The Boodles Tennis

The Boodles is not only the perfect English Garden party but the hidden gem of sporting events. This five-day tennis exhibition is situated in the beautiful grounds of Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire. Held in the week before Wimbledon, the event allows guests to watch some of the world’s top tennis players. as they warm up for the iconic British championship. Attendance is strictly limited to 1,900 people per day. The seating is designed so that no spectator is further than 10 metres from the grass court.

Masterpiece London Art Fair

Hosted at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, Masterpiece London is an unmissable art fair where visitors can view and buy the finest works of art, design, furniture and jewellery - from antiquity to the present day. The fair offers an unparalleled opportunity for new and established collectors to discover exceptional works for sale from international exhibitors spanning every major market discipline.

Cowdray Park Polo

As equally synonymous with royalty and wealth as opera, polo provides a more informal sponsorship opportunity. Arguably the pinnacle social event of the polo calendar is the Gold Cup at Cowdray Park in West Sussex. The event counts royalty amongst its exclusive spectators and participants. Approximately 450 matches are played during the season from April to September, with many followed by music and dancing lasting into the night.

Goodwood Members Meeting

The Goodwood House has become a world leader in modern and historic motor racing through its large-scale Goodwood Revival and Festival of Speed events. The events attract a large demographic of wealthy individuals making it a fantastic event for targeting high-net-worth individuals. However, sponsors wishing for an even more tailored and intimate affair should look to April’s Members' Meeting. The event provides a thrilling weekend of epic motor racing, high-speed track demonstrations and festivities. Uncrowded, with access to all areas, it is exclusively open to members of the Goodwood Road Racing Club community.

For more information on selecting the right sponsorship partner, consider our article Why you should always say no to the proposal that lands on your desk.

The post Five events to consider when targeting high-net-worth individuals appeared first on The Sponsor.

What is the goal of sponsorship? To increase brand awareness? Promote products and services to your target audience? Enhance brand perception? All true but very rarely do you see a sponsorship match that ticks every box quite as comprehensively as Crypto.com’s partnership with Formula 1.

Crypto.com is one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrency exchanges globally, with an ambitious strategy that includes a large-scale brand awareness campaign. A finite number of teams and events can deliver the awareness boost Crypto.com hopes to achieve. So, what is it that Formula 1 offers that the Olympics or the World Cup cannot?

Audience

Sponsorship proposals tend to focus on that big cumulative audience number as the be-all and end-all. With a TV audience of 1.5bn watching from every developed economy globally and a growing social following of 49 million, Formula 1 holds its own with the largest events going. However, similar-sized events such as the Olympics or the World Cup deliver this awareness in one lump sum. Formula 1, on the other hand, provides a steady drumbeat of exposure. Race weekends throughout the year keep Crypto.com top of mind regardless of the ups and downs of digital currency markets.

Everyone is a customer of Coca-Cola, old and young, male and female, rich and poor. The sponsorship goal of the American soft drinks giant is awareness above all else. The same cannot be said for cryptocurrency traders. A client base consisting predominantly of males between 30 and 50, educated, wealthy, and with a risk appetite. In 2021 Nielsen Sports conducted the largest Formula 1 fan survey ever. The results showed the average fan is 32 years old, male and from the ABC1 socio-economic group. Tick, tick, tick.

Reputation

Audience alignment between brand and sponsor is an essential first step in ensuring the success of any sponsorship. What turns a good partnership into a great one is when brand attributes are enhanced by the inherent characteristic of the team or event being sponsored.

Digital asset currency traders are looking for exchanges that offer speed, high performance, cutting-edge technology and the latest data and innovation to gain a competitive advantage. Racing at 200mph with a world of engineering and data-driven innovations under the bonnet, there is no better example of these attributes than a Formula 1 car.

However, the reputational alignment for Crypto.com goes deeper than the specific attributes of the individual car. It includes the very culture of the sport itself. Wealth is inherent within Formula 1. Whether it comes from the Ferrari and McLaren in the pits or the billionaires on the back of the yachts in Monaco. Sponsorship enhances the perception of Crypto.com as a route to wealth and fortune for its users. The partnership is, in fact, so well aligned that both parties even share the same negative risk attributes. A crash in the crypto markets can be just as devastating as a crash on the track.

Performance

We often talk of sponsorship as a journey. To achieve a perfect sponsorship match, it’s essential you and your partner are not only aligned audience and reputation-wise but that you are both heading in the same direction. Crypto.com is the fastest growing digital currency exchange in the world. Formula 1 audience numbers are increasing in nearly every market, especially in China and the US.

The challenge now for Crypto.com’s marketing activation team is how to keep the campaign fresh year after year.

To help achieve the perfect sponsorship match for your brand, you may wish to consider our articles, Measuring sponsorship impact on brand value and business value and Why you should always say no to the proposal that lands on your desk.

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