Is Sports Sponsorship Right for Your Business?
By: Mike Murphy
Tags: Sports, Blockchain, Sponsorship, Marketing, Cryptocurrency

Who wouldn’t want their brand featured court-side of an NBA Finals game or placed on the shoulder of a golfer who is about to win The Masters? Professional sports are driven by two things: advertisements and the fans who absorb said advertisements.

We often hear athletes utter the phrase “it’s a business” when talking about contract negotiations. Truth be told, sports is a business in all aspects. And the advertising space in arenas, stadiums, and the players themselves is one of the biggest businesses within the professional sports ecosystem.

If you own a business or are part of a company's advertising team, you’re probably wondering if it is time to take that leap and align your brand with a certain team, league, or athlete. This can be a lengthy and costly decision.

If you execute this correctly, the return on investment (ROI) is abundantly valuable for business.

But if you do not hit your key performance indicators (KPIs) or do not reach your target audience, then you are in for a world of trouble. Finically the cost of the sponsorship, time traveling to venues, and negotiating contracts with teams or leagues could leave your pockets empty and hurting.

Today we will look at some of the key ways to avoid a painful experience when shopping for sports sponsorships.

Always Know Your Target Audience

This is advertising 101. It is imperative that you are familiar with who your customer is before trying to sell to them. But it goes beyond knowing the age, gender, and income of your target audience.

You must take it a step further and put yourself in their shoes. What are their interests, and how do those interests align with your product or service? Would the target audience be reached through sponsorship of a sporting event or professional athlete?

There is a good chance your target audience is a part of a fan base for a particular sport. Sometimes even multiple sports, or multiple sports within one city.

If your target audience is linked to sports then it would be wise to explore the opportunities a sports sponsorship has to offer. Sponsorship of professional teams and athletes forces your audience to subliminally take in your brand’s name and even some content associated with the brand.

Fans — especially millennials and Gen Z — disengage from sporting events during commercial breaks by looking at their phones. So having your brand front-and-center of the in-game action will force your audience to see your brand and absorb it.

Is Your Brand Ready for the Traffic?

If your brand is featured during a professional sporting event, you better believe there will be some form of traffic being filtered your business’ website. Fans — if intrigued by your brand — can find your company on their phones as soon as the commercial break hits.

A piece of advice: remember to connect your brand with social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Social media has become a search engine in some capacity and a way for people to verify if a brand is legitimate.

Being connected to your brand’s audience and producing content for them is so pivotal if you are looking to expand into sports sponsorships. No one wants their customer to land on an empty Instagram page or a poorly updated Facebook page. That alone has the potential to immediately zap your credibility and makes it seem like you are not in tune with the consumer.

Can You Afford a Sports Sponsorship Package?

This is always a deciding factor for any brand looking to break into the sports sponsorship ecosystem. Can you afford to dump money into the sponsorship, the research, travel, and legal fees for contract negotiations?

The traditional sponsorship acquisition process can take months upon months just to secure a long-term deal with one team or athlete. What if the team flops? What if the athlete gets injured or retires early? What are you left with at the end of the day?

A bad deal…

Instant Sponsor, could be the solution to brands who are on the fence about committing their marketing budgets to sponsorships. Instant Sponsor’s Campaign Consultant feature takes your target audience and matches your brand with that with sponsorship opportunities that will reach your target demographic.

The Instant Sponsor platform allows brands to customize campaigns that may be comprised of short or long-term sponsorship opportunities. Saving a company from over-spending on a sponsorship opportunity, while also cutting down the time of acquisition.

Brands and rights holders can create a digital smart contract on Instant Sponsor’s blockchain-powered platform and transfer the appropriate assets (currency, information, logos, etc) nearly instantaneously.

Where Does this Leave Your Brand?

After assessing these key aspects of sports sponsorships, you can accurately tell if your brand will benefit from a sports sponsorship. The process can certainly be grueling but if the ROI is substantial enough then the decision should be a no-brainer.

If you can see sports sponsorships benefiting your brand in 2019, then you should allow Instant Sponsor’s platform to be your guide through the process, as it will open numerous doors in the world of professional sports.