How to choose a sports sponsorship campaign

There is no doubt that Asia is a major focus of multinational companies and brands. Those seeking to grow or maintain their market share will find sports sponsorship a powerful and cost-effective marketing platform that reaches consumers across the region in ways that traditional advertising and promotional activities cannot achieve.

Sports sponsorship can deliver above-the-line awareness with below-the-line activation; it can touch hearts as well as minds through a myriad of consumer touch points.  The beauty of sponsorship is that the brand is at the centre of the action rather than in a commercial break that is likely to be skipped.  Further, sport helps marketers to strengthen their relationship capital with their consumers - customer loyalty that is built through an emotional bond that can last a lifetime.

For example, this year’s AFF Suzuki Cup achieved its highest ever ratings, attracting nearly 200 million viewers across the region - a 22 per cent increase from the previous edition, and live attendances of more than 765,000. In Indonesia alone, the two final leg matches reached 24.3 million viewers, four times the number of viewers who watched the highest rated FIFA World Cup match between Argentina and Germany, and nearly eight times higher than the average prime time audience in the country.

This biennial football competition which is hosted by the Asean Football Federation (AFF), and contested by the national teams of Southeast Asia enjoys a wide and passionate following throughout the region. Aside from the record ratings and sell-out crowds, the event also had 193,172 fans on Facebook, 1.9 million visitors on its official website and 1.8 millions views on YouTube.

The active attention of millions of fans allowed title sponsor Suzuki and event partners Emirates, Samsung and Nike to engage with consumers at a personal and emotional level.   Sponsorship of the AFF Suzuki Cup also helped to reinforce their brand values and provided an effective marketing platform which generated tremendous visibility and exposure for their brands and products across key markets in this region.  

So how do you identify a suitable sports marketing opportunity? Brands that are keen to reach out to target consumers through sports should consider the following questions before they can embark on a sports sponsorship campaign.

1. What do you want to achieve from the sponsorship?
What is your desired outcome? It may be brand awareness, brand preference, product launch, product sampling, a sales drive, sales incentives, customer entertainment. A good sponsorship can hit all of these hot buttons but only with the right planning and activation strategies.

2. What is your target audience? What markets do you want to cover?
Your target audience is crucial in helping you choose the right kind of sport for your brand. Sports typically reach a wide range of consumers, but audience clusters can also be identified. Do you seek to engage young men or women, perhaps households or specific regional groups? The affiliated nature of sport - through connections to a geographical area, high-profile personalities or set of values typical to a sport - makes it possible to reach target audiences in many different ways. 

3. What do you want to tell your target audience?
Knowing what you want to communicate to your target audience will allow you to align your brand values with your chosen sport. Sporting brands and competitions present a unique platform to communicate your message. Remember, simply aligning your brand is one thing, but telling a story through that connection is a far richer and more effective form of marketing.

4. How much do I want to spend?
This will help you decide which level of a sports sponsorship campaign is suitable to the needs of your company and the amount that you can spend. But just make sure that you set aside a budget for activating the sponsorship.

5. How will I leverage my sponsorship to maximise its impact?
Complementary tickets and hospitality opportunities are a start point, but there is so much more you should do to maximise the return on your sponsorship investment. What promotional or advertising opportunities exist? What can you do with social media? Is there an opportunity to engage employees? How can you integrate your sports sponsorship with your existing marketing efforts? Identifying and securing an outstanding sponsorship property is important but you must also be clear about how it can be leveraged to deliver maximum reach and optimal value. 

6. How will I measure its effectiveness?
Measurement is a critical element of sports sponsorship. Deciding what you want to achieve and establishing the various success metrics before you embark on the sports sponsorship campaign will help you justify and evaluate the success of the campaign. Few companies allocate sufficient budget on research to evaluate the benefits of a sports sponsorship. In fact, only 20 per cent of sponsors spend more than one per cent of their total sponsorship budget on evaluation.