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When I was a kid in Maryland, my dad used to take me to Baltimore Orioles games. I loved free hat night the most. I couldn’t comprehend why someone was handing me a free baseball cap, but I wore it everywhere. It never crossed my mind I was a walking billboard for Esskay Hot Dogs, who sponsored Free Hat Night at Memorial Stadium. But eventually, the power of sports sponsorships dawned on me.
A Kid, a Hot Dog and a Hat
That free bobblehead day or free shirt day at your local AAA baseball game can create massive ROI for the companies that sponsor them, and they build goodwill with the community. Regional connections are essential to sports’ popularity. Watching your favorite team in person, just down the road from your house, can be powerful.
My son loves Red Bull Formula One Racing, even though he’s never had an energy drink. It may be that bull logo, but he constantly wears their shirts and hats. Kids are especially prone to building relationships with sponsors when exposed early. Think about how your kids react when they see fast food signs on the highway. The connections created between brand and experience can be long-lasting, following people well into adulthood. Sports provide another avenue to establish those connections and make them exponentially more effective.
Emotional Ties Without Knowing Why
The money an advertiser spends on a commercial spot during the last few minutes of a sports game might be the best marketing dollars it spends all year. People are typically emotional during these last moments, especially when it’s close. Imagine your favorite college football team is down by two points with six seconds left on the clock. They’re in field goal range. You’re sitting through a commercial for a particular truck, impatiently waiting for the break to be over. The next day, you’re online building your dream vehicle, and you’ve got no idea why.
This is how powerful sports sponsorships can be. Studies show that 66% of “forever” fans take action after seeing a brand’s sponsorship. People are emotionally tied to their favorite sports teams and personalities in a way unseen in most industries.
Good advertisements tap into emotion, which can be a decisive factor in consumer-buying habits. The impact is amplified when a highly charged sports event is combined with a well-timed sponsorship. “When” is as important as “what” for commercials on the screen or a sign in a stadium. There’s a reason race cars are plastered with corporate logos, NHL teams wear a brand on their jerseys and companies place billboards in baseball stadiums. Fans buy more from companies associated with their favorite teams.
The most passionate sports fans rooting for their local teams are three times more likelyto emotionally connect with sponsors, visit that sponsor’s app or website and purchase products from that advertised brand.
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It’s All About the Experience
There are few experiences like watching a great sporting event. The most engaged, loyal fans are 6.5x more likely to agree with the statement, “I use every possible medium to stay connected to sports.”So many emotions can be tied to them: fear, anger, excitement, sadness. An invitation to enjoy the “Blue Moon Beer Garden before the game” taps into that emotion as fans prepare to enjoy the next matchup. That quick beer is a cleverly camouflaged ad that can continue to impact your purchasing decisions long after the pint is dry. During my childhood, I didn’t wear that hat just because it had my favorite team on it. I wore it because of how great I thought going to a game was with my dad. Esskay got a lot of mileage out of that one hat.
Brands not using sports sponsorships miss out on these powerful and lasting emotional connections with potential customers. The emotion, timing and subconscious recall advertisers spend millions trying to evoke is especially effective when paired with the high-stakes outcomes of sporting events, particularly live ones.
A fan’s experience is powerful and long-lasting. It was my own fandom that led me to start Playfly Sports. Over time, my interest in sports grew into a passion for helping brands and sports build and strengthen their connection.
How To Get Started
Brands wanting to enter the lucrative world of sports sponsorships should look at their marketing spend to evaluate the impact and ROI of their current initiatives. The amount of money it takes to buy an ad during a huge event like the Super Bowl can be intimidating, but there are plenty of places smaller businesses can start.
Believing that sports ads are too expensive is a myth. If you’re thinking locally — which is part of what makes sports so popular — there are plenty of opportunities for small companies. The important thing is to look at sports sponsorships as an outlet for advertising dollars.
Some of the best first steps to take in planning a sports-minded campaign are:
1. Nail down your target markets and designated market areas (DMAs). Local sports are everywhere. Place your campaign directly in front of audiences in hyper-local areas. This is beneficial to growing a business or increasing brand awareness.
2. Alter your messaging for a sports audience. Think job search engines have no correlation with baseball fans in Atlanta, D.C. or NYC? Think again. Taking the extra step to tailor your local sports campaign to a sports audience can increase your ROI and boost engagement, especially when beloved players get involved.
3. Plan for scale. While “local” campaigns feel inherently small, there’s power in taking a local approach nationally. Select five major DMAs where you are trying to grow and suddenly you’re activating what feels like a national ad campaign in front of sports’ most passionate and loyal eyes.
In the end, brands of all sizes can get involved with this powerful and valuable marketing strategy. Those that look locally for good options just might win over a 7-year-old who is bound to don their brand on his or her head for years to come.
