Using Sports Teams and Sponsorships to Boost Brand Awareness Online and Offline

For a brand looking to connect locally or in a provided region, there’s arguably nothing more effective than reaching out to local sports organizations and seeing how you can put in a sponsorship. Although some may disagree, by getting involved with a sports franchise, you’re getting involved in the local community and you’re showing you care. A wide variety of corporations have tapped into sponsoring local sports as a means of facilitating goodwill, from eCommerce giants to legal firms and everyone in between.

So then the question becomes, how can a sports team sponsorship boost your own brand awareness? Well, let’s look at who’s naturally present around sports teams – predominantly families, community members, and sports fans. They are from the local market or with a connection to the local market. In addition, let’s look at why sports games are so attractive. They’re live and happening in real-time, they’re family-friendly, and they’re a type of community gathering that does not rely on a person’s religion, politics, gender, or any sort of identity. Individuals and families from all walks of life are present at these games.

Now, there are many different ways to sponsor a sports franchise. They range from a logo patch to buying equipment, to even implementing it into your social media marketing strategy. This brings it back to the digital market. This is about creating awareness. If more comes from it, excellent! If not, at least you’ve created awareness. For new businesses or start-ups, this gets you noticed. You’re partnering with a brand that is already drawing customers and paying for a relationship that you can exploit to hopefully claim some of their customers as your own. This is similar to influencer marketing in the sense that you’re tapping into someone else’s fan base.

The next thing we want to talk about the point of sports team sponsorships is what sport to sponsor. Take a look at your local market and see what’s most popular. For example, Toronto’s most prized sports franchise right now is unquestionably the Raptors who just won the NBA Championships. That said, the city also hosts and supports hockey, football, soccer, baseball, rugby, and more. Each of these sports brings with them their own demographics and opportunities. Not every city is the size of Toronto nor does every city have equal interest in a variety of teams. Choose from what you have and really get to know who is attending the games.

In addition, you need to know what you’re supporting. For example, a brand sponsoring MMA isn’t going to take the same tone in their marketing sponsoring tennis. They’re two completely separate worlds.

As you work in the offline world to help present your brand alongside a sports team, you can transfer this work online with a digital marketing campaign supporting and promoting the team. Even if it’s high school sports, posting a game score or congratulating a game’s MVP on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram is a big step. You’re building goodwill and people are getting to know your brand. As a brand promotional tool, sports marketing online and off has many advantages, well worth looking into for any company who wants to connect with a general, multi-cultural audience. Join us for more info!