Today, the sports industry is one of the most profitable industries in the world. In fact, the sports industry in North America is expected to reach $73.5 billion by 2019. Still, in sports, as in pretty much every other industry, there’s no significant profit without proper marketing.
In sports marketing, there’s a vicious circle that involves fans, brands, and athletes.
Fans are willing to spend money on sports events and merchandise. Companies and brands are willing to spend money to advertise via sporting events, sports teams, and athletes. Teams and athletes are willing to spend money to grow their fan base and sell more tickets and merch.
When talking about sports marketing, there are two aspects I would like to examine here – (1) brands and companies using sports events and athletes to market their products and services, and (2) sports teams and events marketing themselves.
Marketing Through Sports: Sports Marketing for Brands and Companies
This aspect of sports marketing deals with the promotion of various products, services or causes by taking advantage of the popularity of different sports, competitions, teams, or individual athletes.
Some of the most common ways brands and companies market through sports is by having athletes or teams endorse their products or by sponsoring sporting events so as to advertise their products or services to wider audiences. Other than that, brands and companies utilize sports marketing to sell licensed merchandise, organize special events for fans to hang out with their favorite athletes, and so on.
Sponsorships and partnerships
Sponsorships and partnerships between brands and sports teams/athletes are one of the most effective ways of building brand awareness and gaining a wider audience. This type of promotion is usually very prominent – you must’ve seen those brand logos on jerseys, race cars, venue banners, and so on.
As most major sporting events are being broadcast globally, brands do not just benefit from the visitors present at the venue – their marketing message is seen by millions of people worldwide. Some sponsors go as far as to have the entire stadiums or leagues named after their brand.
The sponsorships channel of sports marketing has been on the rise in the past 15 years. Generally, sponsorships include revenues generated from payments companies and brands make to have their products endorsed by or associated with a sports event, team, league, or athlete. In 2016, around $16.3 billion were generated from sports sponsorships in North America, with those figures projected to grow up to $19.88 billion by 2021.
Tell sports-inspired stories (like Nike does)
No conversation about sports marketing would make much sense if we didn’t mention one of the greatest sportswear brands in the world (and one of the greatest examples of quality marketing through sports).
Nike is a global brand known for high-quality shoes and other sports equipment, technical innovations, and collaboration with the world’s top sports teams and athletes (Roger Federer, LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo, Tiger Woods, Usain Bolt – to name a few).
Still, the heart of Nike’s marketing efforts, in fact, lies in storytelling.
Nike’s storytelling even inspired Steve Jobs to start Apple’s “Think Different” campaign. In one of the interviews, Jobs described the Nike marketing strategy as one of the “greatest jobs of marketing the universe has ever seen”. He explained:
“Remember, Nike sells a commodity. They sell shoes. And yet when you think of Nike, you feel something different than a shoe company. In their ads, they don’t ever talk about their products. They don’t ever tell you about their air soles and why they’re better than Reebok’s air soles. What does Nike do? They honor great athletes and they honor great athletics. That’s who they are, that’s what they are about.”
Take a regular sporting event and turn it into a spectacle
Sometimes regular sporting events just aren’t exciting enough for fans. In that case, brands with the capacity to do so take part in high-end publicity stunts that take sports to the next level. Red Bull is probably the best example of this.
On the surface, Red Bull is a company that produces and sells pricey energy drinks. In practice, it’s a lifestyle brand with its own audience of extreme sports lovers and adrenaline junkies. They produce their own content, have their own media, organize and sponsor sports events, teams and athletes.
Learn more about the Red Bull marketing strategy.
Don’t forget about the growing e-sports industry
In recent years, e-sports has been one of the fastest growing industries out there. In 2018, e-sports revenue was predicted to hit $905 million, a significant 38% increase compared to $655 million in 2017. By the end of 2019, experts predict the e-sports industry to cross the one-billion dollars revenue mark, while by 2021, this revenue could reach a staggering $1.65 billion.
For example, League of Legends, one of the most popular games in the world right now, has turned video games into mega-arena spectacles, which are then utilized by various brands and companies to promote their products and services.
Marketing of Sports: Sports Marketing for Teams, Athletes, and Events
In addition to promoting different brands and companies through sports, sports marketing can also be in the service of promotion of sporting events, associations, teams, and athletes.
The purpose of this is to exhibit or advertise events, teams, and associations. Events like the Olympics or the Superbowl are examples of the idea. The NFL, which organizes the Superbowl, seeks to promote the Superbowl itself, as well as American football in general and the different competing teams. So this sector deals with advertising sports to the viewing public.
How “big players” acquire fans
Let’s take some of the most popular football (soccer) clubs as an example. One of the most popular football clubs in the world, Manchester United, has become a global brand.
They have their own TV channel (which broadcasts the matches and sells the right to broadcast), official merch and memorabilia, hundreds of endorsers (mostly former players and staff members or celebrity fans),
In 2017, the club generated £581 million (around $719 million) in revenue from three main sources – broadcasting, matchday, and commercial (sponsorship, retail, merchandising, apparel & product licensing).
In 2018, the numbers increased to £590 million even though the club wasn’t performing so well on the field. Their secret – a strong base of loyal fans worldwide. How did they achieve it?
Among other things, by leading the way when it comes to digital innovation in sports marketing. They were among the first to launch a global application (including MUTV), partnered with Chinese Sina Sports and Marriott to increase their global presence, have a loyal base estimated at 659 million followers they carefully nurture and cherish, and so on.
Another European football giant, Spanish FC Barcelona recently did a great job of using Twitter to advertise their merch after the El Clásico victory against Real Madrid. Here’s a post from their official Twitter account:
This type of promotion inspired delight among their own fans and rage among the away fans, but most importantly it led to increased visibility and (probably as we don’t have any official data) increased sales as the post became viral.
Another sign that large clubs such as FC Barcelona pay a lot of attention to sports marketing is the fact that their own university (yes, they have one) Barça Universitas offers a Certificate in Sports Marketing and Sponsorship.
How “small players” acquire clients
By “small players” here I mean those sportspeople who don’t have the capacity (or need) for larger-scale global marketing. Let’s take two people from the fitness industry as an example.
Anthony Balduzzi, the founder of Fit Father Project, has been on a mission to help fathers and husbands live life to the fullest by helping them increase their energy, lose weight, build muscle, and create lifelong permanent health.
In an attempt to get the most out of his sports marketing efforts, he created an online quiz titled “Are You A Fit Father?” Depending on their answers, the quiz would take the takers to the appropriate results page and then to a sales page with a training plan specific to their result.
The results? Fit Father Project managed to generate over 15,000 leads and create a profitable and scalable sales funnel.
Jon Benson has been in the fitness space for more than 25 years. During that time, he has learned, through his own personal experience, how to help others get in shape and improve their thyroid health.
To attract new clients, he created a simple thyroid weight loss quiz, advertised it on Facebook and achieved an average acquisition cost of $0.39/lead, while profitably generating over 110,192 leads.
As can be seen in the examples above, if you’re trying to get the most out of your sports marketing efforts, while working on a tight budget, our quiz maker could be one of the best and most cost-effective solutions.
Conclusion
As could be seen from some of the examples above, sports marketing can bring multiple benefits to all the sides involved in the process.
From sportspeople’s perspective, athletes, teams, and sports associations get direct revenue from increased sales of merchandise, tickets, TV rights, and endorsement deals. Plus, it can lead to greater exposure of a team or athlete, resulting in more fans.
From sponsors’ (companies and brands that advertise through sports) perspective, sports marketing also brings direct revenue as they are likely to see an increase in the number of sales of their products and services, as a result of sponsorship or partnership with a sports team or an athlete.
From the fans’ perspective, sports marketing can raise their awareness of different sports, sportspeople, and brands/companies. In addition, it gives them the opportunity to interact with their favorite athletes through different promotional events.
