What is a sponsorship in kind, or a barter sponsorship?

We have stressed several times that sponsorship can be very flexible. In fact, there exist a lot of different types of sponsorship. There is not a sponsorship project like the other, and there is no standard sponsorship package.

On the contrary, a good sponsorship molds itself perfectly on the company’s objectives, mission, strategy, and budget, and a sponsorship in kind is proof of this.

Let’s examine the sponsorship in kind, or barter.

A sponsorship in kind is just a sponsorship with the same marketing rights as any other sponsorship, but in which the price is not paid in money but partially or totally in kind. Is it very common? Yes, it is.

Sometimes sports teams and organizations running large operations need products or services and can offer to a potential partner (capable of supplying those products or services) another way to pay for their sponsorship. Anybody with a commercial background knows well the concept of barter: it’s a practice through which companies exchange goods or services instead of money, offsetting them. How can this practice be linked to the sponsorship world? And with which specific advantages?

A good example of sponsorship in Kind: building a new sport facility

Let’s say that you are a football team that is building a new stadium, a tennis club that needs a new central court, or a F1 team whose new headquarters is finally planned and approved.

Indeed, you face a big challenge, because building new structures without affecting the current and following sport seasons is very difficult (you have a certain amount of time, and you have to make sure to be on time; the championship is not going to wait for you). Moreover, you have to make sure to have the right resources, but you also have the big chance to run a marketing and commercial operation linked to your new facility.

Because you can approach the construction and building materials sector that could be interested in using your new stadium as a showcase for their capabilities.

Products need to be described and recounted, and what is better than placing your goods in interesting buildings or structures in which sports activities are held or sports-related matters happened? Structures in which people would like to go (even your potential clients) to watch passion-fueled events?

Just think about bringing a potential client to see how a F1 car is built, meeting the team in the process, while walking on your floors, or showing them your window frames, or lights, or any other fixture… And then compare it with bringing the same clients to see just a block of offices…

The opportunities are endless

The same concept applies to football, tennis, basketball, and any other discipline you can think about… Yeah, even golf. Sure, it is played outside, but you could take care of the clubhouse.

Any and each of these structures have hospitality facilities that can be used for your potential and existing partner, so within a single meeting it would be possible to show (just to give you an example) how the famous architect XY used your products to reach the new standard in stadiums while leveraging the passion of the guest for the sport you are linked with in order to create a better relationship that will lead to a more constructive commercial relationship in the future.

The industries related to the construction sector can look at you with different eyes, not only as a potential supplier (fighting among others to win the pitch). They can look at you with the eyes of a potential partner with whom to create a win-win cooperation.

Both parties can have a huge benefit if you think that the aim of the owner of the building is to have the best-finished product at the cheapest price and that the objective of the material’s producer is to have its finest products placed in the building and to use it in its marketing and communication effort… A common objective that can be reached by both if they partner and exchange products for marketing services, totally or partially.

Discover What is a Sponsorship Activation or If you would like to know more about barter in sport, contact us using infotrsports.com , and in the meantime visit

• https://rtrsports.co.uk/portfolio-posts/sponsorship-moreschi-is-official-supplier-for-scuderia-toro-rosso/
• https://rtrsports.co.uk/portfolio-posts/10000/
• https://rtrsports.co.uk/portfolio-posts/sponsorship-psp-global-service-and-honda-hrc-motogp-2017/