1. Chapter 15 Sport Sponsorship

2. Introduction What is sponsorship?
Cash and/or in-kind fee paid to a property in return for access to the exploitable commercial potential associated with that property
One of most prolific forms of sport marketing
Sponsorship fees often exceed $10,000,000 per year and are structured as multiyear deals
Provides a company with association, value, exposure, and opportunities to leverage their affiliation to achieve marketing objectives

3. History
Increasing commercialization of sports has led to tremendous growth in sport sponsorship.
$11.3 billion spent on sport sponsorships in 2009
1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games
Watershed year in the evolution of sport sponsorship (President Peter Ueberroth)
Ueberroth became commissioner of MLB
Raised sponsorship bar for major professional sport leagues
Less-is-more philosophy
2-2-1 Plan

4. History: Reasons for Sponsorship Growth
Increased media interest in sports.
Companies can “break through the clutter” of traditional advertising.
Sponsorship can reach its target consumer through consumers’ lifestyles.
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5. History: Reasons for Sponsorship Growth (cont.)
Enable corporate marketers to reach specific segments, such as the following:
Heavy users, shareholders, and investors; or specific groups that have similar demographics, psychographics, or geographic commonalities
Today sport sponsorship has become a discipline involving serious research, large investments, and strategic planning

6. Sales Promotion: In-Venue Promotion
Increase the amount of “value-added” benefits that teams provide their paying customers
Traditional giveaways: Sponsor underwrites the cost of a “premium” item in exchange for its logo on the item and advertising support that prepromotes the event
Continuity promotions: Require fans to attend multiple games to obtain giveaways
Success of promotion varies widely based on time of season, teams’ win–loss record, day of promotion, opponent, and perceived quality of the item
Incremental increase in fans

7. Sales Promotion: In-Store Promotion
Companies often leverage sponsorships at retail level
Premiums
Merchandise offered free or at a reduced price as an inducement to buy a different item or items
Contests/sweepstakes
Sampling
One of the most effective sales promotion tools to induce consumers to try a product
Point-of-sale or point-of-purchase materials
Used by marketers to attract consumers’ attention to their product/service and their promotional campaign at the retail level
Coupons

8. Cross-Promotion
Joining together of two or more companies to capitalize on a sponsorship is becoming increasingly popular and effective
Creates more “bang for their buck” under the premise that two sponsors working together can generate more interest and awareness among targeted sport consumers
Used to gain exposure in nontraditional and unexpected retail settings
It has become increasingly important to think outside the box as to how sponsors can be joined to increase the overall effectiveness of sponsorship investments

9. Sponsorship Packages: Sponsor Benefits
Exclusivity in one’s product or service category
Official designations
Leagues and teams offer multiple designations tied to the sport and to the sponsor’s product or service category
Rights to utilize the sport organization’s intellectual property in advertising and promotion campaigns
Advertising support
In-stadium signage and promotional announcements
Access to tickets
Potential new business through access and opportunity

10. Sponsorship Packages: League/Team Benefits
Rights fee
Multiyear commitment
Advertising commitment
Commitment to team-oriented promotions

11. Sponsorship Platforms
Governing body sponsorship
Entails securing “official sponsor” status
Team sponsorship
Appropriate platform for local/regional companies or companies with smaller marketing budgets
Athlete sponsorship
Involves some type of endorsement of the sponsor’s product or service F

12. Sponsorship Platforms
Media channel sponsorship
Companies that purchase advertising or programming during sport-related broadcasts
Facility sponsorship
Enables companies to tie directly to the event atmosphere
Event sponsorship
Tie directly to event atmosphere
Sport-specific sponsorship
Enables company to direct its sponsorship efforts to a specific sport F

13. Evaluating Sport Sponsorship
Vital due to growing financial commitments necessary to effectively activate sport sponsorship programs
No one exact formula for measuring ROI
For ROI, companies use the following:
Internal feedback, sales/promotion bounceback measures, print media exposure, television media exposure, primary consumer research, dealer/trade response, and syndicated consumer research

14. Evaluating Sport Sponsorship
Difficult to determine precisely how much incremental sales are directly attributable to a specific sponsorship program.
Many companies conduct periodic consumer surveys to determine ROI.
Companies often hire professional sport research firms to perform media evaluation research that examines corporate sponsorship and brand exposure through television and print media coverage of sports events.

15. Sponsorship Agencies
Many companies engaged in sport sponsorship outsource the negotiation and/or implementation of their sponsorship programs
Rely on agencies because they do not possess the expertise, the experience, or the resources to negotiate and implement sponsorship programs

16. Current Issues Ethnic marketing
Sport organizations have begun to adopt strategies to target ethnic groups more effectively.
Overcommercialization
Do consumers have an emotional threshold for accepting a constant bombardment of corporate names, logos, and messages?
Gambling
Sport organizations have embraced gambling as a growing source of sponsorship revenue.
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