Stop Selling, Start Creating Sponsorship Value
Why you need to create, not just sell women’s sport sponsorship and 4 ways how
I’ve had conversations where women’s sport right’s holders say they don’t have a big enough audience to attract sponsors or have any sponsor assets of value to offer. This is only the case when people are relying too heavily on traditional sponsor assets and are ‘selling’ rather than ‘creating’ sponsorships. While elements like logos on media backdrops, websites and signage are part of your sponsor toolkit, gone are the days of offering a set menu of sponsor assets or predetermined packages.
“I don’t have anything of value to offer sponsors”
You must create your own bespoke sponsor value and assets that align with both your own sport organization and a sponsor’s goals. This is particularly true when it comes to women's sport sponsors. Here’s why:
1. Limited existing assets of value
Women’s sport right’s holders may not have loads of traditionally valued assets like mass reaching TV sponsor exposure via perimetre board signage - many women’s sports don’t have this broadcast audience scale yet or aren’t even broadcast at all. On the other hand assets like tickets may not be as hard to secure so the perceived value of offering tickets or VIP access to potential women’s sport sponsors may not be as highly valued as men's sport events. This means women’s right’s holders can’t rely solely on existing assets to provide value so need to create this value in other ways.
2. Lack of control
Women’s rights holders may not have full control over what assets are available or have to rely on others to ensure their value i.e media pick-up is not guaranteed unlike near assurances that media will cover even the smallest detail of their male counterparts. Broadcasters may not commit to showing a women’s sport event until the last minute, unlike men’s schedules that they plan years in advance. Some codes may not even have their own international schedule locked in for the coming year until funding comes through or the team may not qualify for a world championship making it hard to predict how many events a sponsor can leverage. By creating unique assets that you can control it means you can ensure value for all.
Football Fern, Ali Riley in front of a sponsor media board including the logo of misaligned FIFA Women’s World Cup sponsor; Qatar Airways
3. Women’s sport is a powerful platform not a media buy
Women’s sport provides a powerful platform that can be leveraged with a wider audience and be used to tell a brand’s story across all channels rather than just being a media buy or about accessing a tangible asset like a logo to get exposure with a set audience.
This means it’s even more important to have a cohesive strategy and plan with bespoke assets to tell that brand’s unique story across relevant channels rather than just force-fitting it around existing assets.
4. The need for aligned values and objectives to add to the ecosystem
Women’s sport is on an exciting path. However there is nothing worse than seeing a misaligned brand partnership like Qatar Airways and FIFA Women’s World Cup who have opposing brand values. It does nothing for the sponsor, property or fans. By creating unique assets or propositions that deliver on joint goals and values it ensures all parties including fans, sponsors and sport properties receive mutual benefit rather than just being a short-term partnership to take whatever is on offer.
Stop selling. Start creating sponsorship value
The good news is that creating valuable and bespoke propositions based on a right’s holder or sponsors individual objectives and brand story rather than selling what you have is the best way to ensure successful and aligned long-term partnerships for your sponsors and fans which in turn will help everyone win.
When you create, you have more control and can affect when and where these are activated to fit sponsor calendars or campaign gaps. Plus you end up with a family of sponsors each owning differing territories and elements that best relate specifically to them rather than a set of sponsors all having the same assets and getting lost in the minds of fans. In most cases too you can scale bespoke ideas and assets to be as small or as big as a sponsors budget.
How to create valuable propositions and new sponsor assets
Step 1:
Be clear about the values and pillars of your women’s sport property so you can carve out areas that naturally align and can direct your brainstorming.
Step 2:
Understanding your current sponsor’s brand and objectives or in the case of proactively pitching, how you can help solve the problems of potential sponsors or their categories.
If looking for leads, step one will help give you direction on who you should be targeting to ensure an authentic fit.
Step 3:
Whether working with existing sponsors or possible leads, explore and validate possible territories and ideas in partnership and work out what channels and potential assets can be shaped to bring this to life best and ensure maximum value for all parties involved.
4 territories to consider in the process of creating and shaping relevant, valuable and effective sponsor assets:
1. Bespoke events
Tailored events can create completely new sponsor value and can engage and inspire those physically there but also be amplified to a wider audience as well as taking on a longer life-span on other channels i.e pre-promotion, live stream, quotes and tips turned into content and published across the year.
These can be shaped to a sponsor’s target audience to engage either clients, staff or consumers and sponsor attribution can be done via branding, naming rights, exclusive invitations, promotion or content packages.
There are so many powerful themes that align with women’s sport that can be tapped into; female empowerment, diversity & inclusion, leadership, resilience, determination, well-being or teamwork to name a few.
Example;
An International Women's Day luncheon featuring female players and coach who are paving the way for women and used to inspire a sponsor’s clients or a well-being talk with a player or the team’s sports psychologist at the sponsor’s office to support staff in areas like mental health.
2. Content
Entertain, inspire or educate fans with content where sponsors take part.
Budget adaptable - from low cost iPhone shoots on owned channels to high production video across paid channels.
Works across any target or pillar and can be optimised to a format and channel that maximises engagement with a particular audience.
A one-off piece or a series to run through a season.
Minimal brand attribution or more obvious branding including naming rights, voice-over, branded graphics or even product integration.
Example;
Curated content - The 10 best basketball plays of the week packaged up and sponsored by Powerade or photos of the best Hong Kong Sevens costumes thanks to Carlsberg.
Behind-the-scenes - Rexona Room Raiders where a personality investigates each team-mate’s room on tour giving fans an insight into the player’s style and habits.
Athlete-focused - Burger King Squad Battles where two players compete against each other in various sport and non-sport tasks like drone racing or burger eating.
Branded Content - BUPA Health Insurance video and podcast series of fitness drills with the Lionesses’ captain to aid customers well-being and fitness goals.
Content Marketing - Providing your sponsor; Hays Recruitment with data and images around the average income of female tennis player salaries or the pro-circuit.
3. Communities
Goalkeeper, Erin Nayler meeting fans for a unique experience at FIFA Women’s World Cup
Clubs, leagues and organisations have existing communities like referees, coaches and amateur players or more unofficial relationships with the likes of fans and volunteers.
There is an opportunity to have sponsors add to these communities. Many sponsors are focused on grass-roots support and this can be a great way to help deliver value around this pillar for them. Just be careful not to ‘own’ communities as the people themselves are behind these but brands can be the supporter to them having a better experience
Example;
DHL Volunteer Programme celebrating the people who help make events and leagues happen with an ‘Unsung Hero of the Week’ that is published online and in local media each week or the Matildas fan club supported by Telstra who enable the fans to have a better experience by creating customized Matilda GIFS, emojis, filters, prizes and a Fan HQ.
4. Experiences
Don’t just roll out the same VIP hosting or generic game-day experiences to everyone or be limited by what you have available i.e game-day stadium tour or court side seats but instead create new experiences depending on who a sponsor’s target is and what they are trying to achieve and even include sponsor product integration.
It can be leveraged into something bigger than just the experience itself; promoting prior, captured during and amplified after to extend reach and value.
Example;
Instead of just a VIP ticket to watch, it could be the opportunity for 2 of the USA women’s soccer team to pick you up in a Volkswagon and drive you to the stadium on match day, all shared on the player’s Instagram of course of if you don’t have access to talent it may be giving a sponsor’s staff and families access to an open-day where they can test their own skills at the New Zealand Triathlon high performance centre with the latest technology, gear and evaluation from the team sport’s scientist.
These are just several territories to explore when looking to create sponsor value through bespoke assets and ideas but the options are endless. It’s important to understand your sport property and a brand’s values and objectives, collaborate with your sponsors and get creative on to produce value that actually delivers, makes sense and you can influence rather than being stuck selling and retrofitting existing assets.
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