How Brands Can Get More ROI From Their Sports Sponsorship Deals.

Brad Vettese, CEO of Tally Technology (www.playtally.com) examines a range of strategies that can help get more value out of sports sponsorships budgets.

On a global basis, brand marketers spent well in excess of $60 billion last year on sports sponsorships and plan to invest $108 billion annually by 2030. What are they getting in return?

Brands see the enormous visceral appeal of leading sporting competitions and seek close association with the best teams, athletes and leagues. At great expense comes huge exposure, but many sponsors freely admit they have little comprehension whether their sponsorships are ultimately delivering.?

According to Kantar, “only 19% of sponsorship professionals are confident that they can actually measure the business value return on the sponsorship they undertake and only a third of businesses have a standardized process of measuring sponsorship initiatives.”

While determining ROI has traditionally been a difficult task, another study from Nielsen states that 81% of global respondents trust brand sponsorships at sporting events. Combine that factor with the strong correlation between visible sponsorship messaging and purchasing behavior, and brands clearly have plenty of upside to gain.?

Nielsen also found that the sponsorships drove an average 10% lift in purchase intent among the exposed fanbase.

The key, then, is for brands to successfully bridge the knowledge gap to find out who exactly these highly valuable fans are and to put compelling propositions in front of them.

Don’t let sponsorship dollars be dumb dollars

Chief concerns among brand sponsors in today’s sports market are that there is:

• Little direct fan engagement with the brand
• Poor use of sponsorship assets
• Little to no measurement or understanding of the return on sponsorship dollar
• No lead generation
• No consumer insights?
• No measurable conversion??

This is understandable: what can you really expect from a static logo on a sign on the side of a building?

The key to achieving a successful sponsorship is activation and according to industry experts, this is a process that demands committing additional resourcing.?

“I would tell our clients that they are buying a lot of fast cars, but not putting any gas in the tank,” said Dan Belmont,? former CEO of The Marketing Arm, a multiple Sports Marketer of the Year winner. “A sponsorship needs to dedicate a minimum of 50% of the sponsorship fee to activate the program.”?

Key Takeaway: Creating the perfect sponsorship link with your brand is the beginning of the journey, not the end. Brand marketers need to build a digital bridge outside of the social networks to directly engage the fans they are paying for and provide value above and beyond the sports relationship.?

Enacting a brand sports sponsorship strategy

In a recent marketing report, Nielsen outlined six recommendations for brands undertaking sports sponsorships.

1. Identify and maintain a dedicated first-party data strategy.

With a defined and robust first-party data strategy, brands, sports properties and media owners can make authentic fan connections—delivering timely and nuanced messaging outside of social networks. Interactivity while consuming media will only continue to grow and produce new datasets crucial to fan strategy.

2. Tap into broadening sponsorship opportunities

As traditional and digital worlds merge, the sponsorship lifecycle is broadening, creating

additional and more well-rounded monetization opportunities. Leveraging new technology, brands should start to utilize digital platforms to develop fan engagement strategies that can feed their customer data strategy.

For example, brands can streamline the purchase journey by simply adding a QR code to their sponsorship signage or product promotion in the digital sports content that fans are already watching. This trackable digital engagement will be paramount in measuring sponsor effectiveness.

3. Engagement needs to be more interactive and hands-on

Digital native fans are used to having a more active way of experiencing and interacting with all of their core interests. The more organizations can make the experience of sports more closely resemble and be informed by online gaming, the stronger and deeper the engagement will be.

4. Smart devices are all about data by their very nature

It becomes easier to offer individualized experiences, completely personalized to the wishes and tastes of each user, because this is what we do as a matter of course with computerized systems.

5. Data analytics is a natural part of smart device usage

We need to understand how using this part of any digital platform can add value to users by meeting their own specific interests.

6. Smart platforms enables brands to gather data, get to know their fans better and analyze their needs with more granularity?

Sports fans are among the most passionate, devoted audiences in the world. Brands will always seek to access this audience, but a strategic approach to sponsorship is vital given the technology-based tools that are now available, delivering real, actionable insights. It pays for brands to engage with fans in new ways, bringing them closer to the action while producing next-level ROI opportunities.

This is the key to building deep and satisfying connections, while monetizing relationships with fans more effectively.?

About Tally Technology Group- www.playtally.com

As a trusted partner of major sports teams, leagues, associations, broadcasters, and brands. Tally has successfully managed commercial relationships with the most recognized and respected names in sports across the NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLB in North America, as well as Brazil's Serie A football league, the premier basketball league NBB, and Stock Car Pro Series. Tally is a fan activation and consumer data platform company that collects and segments consumer data using white-label mobile gamification and clean room technology. Its partners utilize this data to increase sponsorship value and revenue by providing compelling engagement, access, insights, offers and conversion.