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How to sponsor a sports team
By Silvia Schweiger| Posted March 19, 2019 | In MotoGP, Sport Sponsorship, Sports Marketing
By Silvia Schweiger| Posted March 19, 2019 | In MotoGP, Sport Sponsorship, Sports Marketing
How to sponsor a sports team
So, you’ve decided that you want to sponsor a sports team – congratulations! You’re about to embark on a journey that will put your brand at the forefront of the sport, engaging with a highly passionate, dedicated fanbase, and lead to greater brand awareness and ROI for a long time to come.
It’s likely that you’re still unsure, though, actually how to sponsor a sports team – what are the first steps? How should you choose a team, and how should you approach them? What activation should you concentrate on first?
Luckily, RTR Sports Marketing is here to help you with the first steps of how to sponsor a sports team…
How to sponsor a sports team: choosing the right team
All sports teams are different, with individual personalities, budgets, challenges, successes, and circumstances – so knowing the circumstances of each team you’re considering is essential. Here are some questions you should ask of your potential teams…
- Who is their audience, and does it match that of your brand?
- Are they likely to feature prominently in competitions, or crash out early?
- Will they be able to provide the assets and operational support necessary?
- Will they stand out on the pitch, track or court?
Once you’ve answered these questions, you’re well on your way to establishing which team will work best for your sponsorship campaign.
What steps do I need to consider?
They might not all be relevant, but in general, these are the steps that you’ll need to take as you begin your sports sponsorship campaign:
- Contact a sports sponsorship company (such as RTR Sports Marketing) to discuss the options open to you
- Create, discuss and tweak a proposal, taking the current market into consideration
- Finalize proposal
- Signing of proposal by both parties
- Creation of media and communications plans
- PR campaign to publicize the sponsorship beginning
- Aspects of the campaign begin to go live
What are the main things that need to be agreed on?
Once your team is identified and is on board, you’ll need to get a lot of things organized. Here are just a few of the things you’ll need confirmation on to start with:
- What level of access will you get to the team, riders or athletes?
- What space will you be given? billboards, banners, jerseys or vehicles?
- How will you be included in digital assets, for example, newsletters or websites?
- What formats do you they need your assets in, and when do they need them?
- What are the key dates for the competitions?
When should your sports sponsorship campaign begin?
If you’re sponsoring a sports team during a tournament or beginning in a specific season, you’ll want to make sure all the aspects of your campaign are ready at least a few weeks before it begins – which means planning should begin months ahead of this. This will give you the time to iron out any issues or make any changes that might be needed before the launch begins – you don’t want to be rushing in the days before the competition begins! You’ll also need time to ensure any media coverage is in place ahead of the tournament, competition or season.
Of course, different sports sponsorship campaigns will need to be ready at different times – MotoGP and F1 in March, for example; football in August, and skiing in the autumn.
If you want to learn more about how to sponsor a sports team get in contact with RTR Sports Marketing today.
Silvia Schweiger
Associate Director, Executive Marketing and Commercial at RTR Sports Marketing, a London-based sports marketing company specializing in motorsport for over 25 years. Without sports, life is boring
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Read MoreWhy choose RTR Sports Marketing
In an era where it is possible to get anywhere with a click, there is a strong temptation to approach teams and properties directly for sponsorship projects.
By doing so, we are convinced that we are shortening the value chain, saving time and money. However, these DYI methods are anything but risk-free and what initially appears to be a competitive advantage soon turns into a problem that is difficult to resolve. That’s why there are agencies. And this is why you should rely on us for your sponsorships.
Save time and money
When first approaching a sponsorship or sports marketing project, it is difficult to know immediately which stakeholders are correct, what the decision flow is, and what the right timelines are for each process. Sports is a very specialized field of action, and fitting effectively into its paths can take a lot of time and therefore money. We, on the other hand, know referents and spheres of action and know who to talk to, when and how. So you are also more effective.
The right information, the right choice
Sports is an immense passion, and for our heart colors we would be willing to do anything. But business is a different business, and it is important to make the best possible strategic decisions based on independent research, statistics and reliable data. A sports marketing and sports sponsorship agency like RTR has an objective, 360-degree picture of the scenario and can tell you what is really best for you: which sport, which athlete, which team. This is because we possess a great deal of data and information on ratings, segmentation and attitudes. Because the numbers don’t lie. Never.
Activations are the beating heart
Activations are the real heart of sports sponsorship. Without them, there remains only a blank sticker on a motorcycle, car or uniform and no contact with the public, no emotional connection, no impact on the bottom line. Then how do you do it? It certainly won’t be the teams or the athletes who will help you leverage sponsorship and enjoy the many marketing rights you have paid for. To bring out the best in a sports marketing project you need an agency that knows how to use sponsorship to engage the fanbase on the Web, to reach out to Shopping Centers, to organize hospitality, to develop B2B and B2C opportunities, and to get “your” athletes in front of millions of potential consumers.
Objective measurements for a certain return
Would you ever go to the dealer who sold you the car and ask if the competitor’s car is better? No, of course. So, how do you expect to get firm measurements of the effectiveness of your sponsorship if you do not rely on someone super partes? At RTR, we have always worked with independent third-party agencies that allow us to know the return on any exposure of your brand on TV and in the media. In addition, we believe in calculating ROI as the ultimate measure of your success-so we can tell you for every penny you spend how much you are making.
Sit back, relax, we’ll take care of it
We have been involved in sports sponsorship and sports marketing for more than 15 years. We are consultants in the sense that our goal is to maximize your investment, but we are also an agency that manages the project from start to finish. We have been doing this since 1995 with passion and professionalism, following three principles that have become cornerstones of our business: independence, verticality and transparency.
I would like to highlight the fact that one of the qualities of RTR is its great ability to approach the sponsorship scenario strategically, together with its passionate attitude, its amazing enthusiasm for solving problems, and its high level of professionalism.
Gianluca Degliesposti
Executive Director Server&Storage EMEA
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