Many say that banners and TV ads were the first forms of marketing, but is that true? We can’t give a definitive answer. One thing that is clear instead, is that consumer purchasing habits have changed and positive sentiment towards brands is what is driving consumer preference. That's why there is a growing relevance of sports sponsorship.
As a consumer, is a TV ad in the middle of a tense football match going to generate a positive sentiment? Not really.
Is a banner at the airport going to capture your attention and make you understand what that brand stands for? Not really.
And conversely, as a brand, are these actions bringing your customers into a journey towards buying your products and building loyalty? Can you track who they are? Do you know how engaged they are? Not really.
That’s why, as a brand, you need a tool that speaks to the customers in different ways and at a deeper level. And when engagement becomes much more relevant than plan viewership, sports sponsorship is the tool you need to use.
Nowadays, assuming that sports sponsorship is just about branding is like thinking that the internet is just something that was used during the Cold War to send secret messages.
Sports sponsorship is much more than that.
Of course, some sports like Formula 1 or the Olympics offer billions in media value to their partners but this is just a part of it. The opportunity to produce behind-the-scenes content is very powerful considering that we are a society hungrier for content than for pizza.
Differently, you could use privileged access to the sports events to reward your best-performing employees or to strengthen relationships with key clients. Interesting, right?
Moreover, let’s say you are a technology brand and you want to find an engaging way to talk about the complexities of your solutions and how they bring competitive advantage to organisations, what do you do? Well, you could perhaps integrate your products into a Formula 1 team and have their top engineers and drivers talking about how you make their cars faster via a geo-targeted digital campaign reaching your target audience.
As you can see, there is a growing relevance of sports sponsorship and motorsport is probably where you can find the most diverse and compelling opportunities.
This is original editorial content from Drive Sports Marketing, an agency specialising in Formula 1 sponsorship, Formula E sponsorship, MotoGP sponsorship, and WEC sponsorship.
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