SPORTS FACILITY -Sponsorship

“The importance of sponsorship in producing successful events and providing revenue for a facility cannot be ignored,” according to the book, Sport facility and event management, by Aicher, Paule-Koba & Newland (2016). Sponsorship is referred to as contractual negotiation between two entities, a corporation and another event, organization, or property, whereby the sponsor pays cash or provides in-kind services for the rights to the commercial and marketable benefits associated with that property. 

Some unique ideas for sponsorship activation that fits the criteria of maximizing success, are as follows,

(1) The communication between the organizations and education is the blueprint to the success of a sponsorship plan.

For example, there should be improved coordination between the property and sponsor who are both responsible for the execution, to better understand the importance of their product and how to use it.

(2) All parties should know their own objectives and what they want from the property, and sport managers should understand their responsibility to educate and steer corporate sponsor.

For example, the sport property which is organizations such as leagues, teams, individual athlete, facilities, or events, careful attention should be given to the types of activities offered to ensure success of the activation.

(3) In sports, fans consider themselves part of property they support, and feel a sense of belong with the expectation that the entity recognized them as such by interacting with them,

For example, a fun social experience with sponsored employees in engaging activities that involves interaction with fans directly is a good fit for on-site activation. This social interaction with fans can have the sponsors setup different games booths, face painting stations, etc. at a college or league event to host fans where they interact.

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Sport organization, the fans and sponsors benefiting from these ideas

Activation as stated by the authors, is the element of sponsorship that drives the greatest gain, engages with fans in close interaction and as a result, enhances their experience, based on how a sponsor position themselves at a sport event or facility. Sport organizations constantly explore ways or avenues to reach sports fans with the aim of transferring them from low identification fans to high identifications. Sponsorship opportunities has become more popular to sport entities overs the last two decades or even more, where billions of dollars being pumped into industry, to individual athletes, teams, leagues, event or facility, as the property. Sponsorship program is effective and is an intelligent decision for many reasons, and as a whole, it can benefit all stakeholders involved including sport organization, the fans and sponsors.

(a) How fans benefit

The creative and unique idea of fun social experience with sponsored employees in engaging activities that involves interaction with fans directly, can be win for all. Fans see themselves as a fixture within the team, athlete, league etc. they support, and direct interaction, especially socially, gives the notion of inclusion. The sponsor employees are considered “the face or ambassador of the organization,” and fans connects to the organization through them where they foster relationship with the brand. People’s behaviour towards those they have fun with, will display positive reaction because of the positive way in which they help to create the superior experience sport fans desire. 

(b) How sponsor and sport organization benefit

Many times, because of the lack of knowledge, sponsors are unaware of their responsibility and objectives. Communication between organization is very critical for the success of sponsorship activation. This helps to educate the sponsor, and also allow both entities to be clear on their contractual agreement for mutual success of the plan. Another benefit is, knowing how to utilize employees can increase purchase intention among sport fans. 

A brand manager is more than a person telling potential customers about a sport product, he or she is the human component of the organization that is classified as the brand ambassador. Their responsibility is to know about both the organization and the product. As a result of this, fans are more likely to purchase the product from an organization because of their association with a person that contributed to their experience in a positive way, than a “faceless company.” With this, both entities would have achieved their goals and objectives because they created an effective win-win relationship through a creative plan to increase purchase intention and ultimately increase brand loyalty among fans.

It is very important to identify a market that will have an interest in the sport product being promoted. Segmenting is necessary in sport marketing to break down consumers with favorable characteristics, rather than trying to sell to everyone in the market. Sport marketers identify a target market of high interest consumers through strategic evaluation to be the primary buyers of sport products, and should be rigorously proactive to ensure continued relationships with an ever-vital partner with the mutual aim to meet their goals or objectives successfully. 

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References

Aicher, T. J., Paule -Koba, A. L., & Newland, B. (2016). Sport facility and event management. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.