Big things are happening in the world of sports sponsorship.Whether it’s the Olympics, World Cup football, Grand Slam tennis or international rugby, the global marketing opportunity of large-scale live sports is immense.
These world-class events offer brands a chance to leverage fresh thinking and innovative techniques, to engage with consumers in relevant, compelling and immersive ways. It’s an opportunity to build relationships, build your reputation and build purpose around your brand.
How do you do this in practice? Well, finding the right partner in sports property and agency is crucial. If there is one thing I’ve learned from more than ten years of delivering successful experiential marketing campaigns, it’s that brands need to work with agencies that understand their messaging, audience and values.
Time to raise the bar on your sports sponsorships
Going for gold isn’t easy. You want to exceed the ‘norm’ to raise the conversational standard, to start occupying other channels and platforms, both on and offline. So we’ve created an eBook featuring the 10 best sports sponsorship campaigns – and I’ve provided a two of my favourite examples below.
Adidas FIFA World Cup Brazuca Sponsorship
Arguably, a social media activation won the day for Adidas’ sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup in 2014. The genius idea was to take the ‘Brazuca’, the official match ball supplied by Adidas, and give it both a human voice and a Twitter account. Brazuca then met a range of celebrities including David Beckham and the Pope, had an irreverent tone of voice and sparkling sporting insight. By the end of the tournament the Twitter account had attracted 3.4 million followers. Owning the conversation on social media in this way is a powerful move and a savvy use of humour is a great way to show the brand has personality.
AIG New Zealand Rugby’s Haka 360 experience
Insurance brand AIG, the sponsor of New Zealand Rugby, were quick to seize the opportunity of immersive virtual reality. During the Rugby World Cup in 2015, the ‘Haka 360 Experience’ brought fans just four metres away from the iconic Maori ritual, giving them the unique experience of seeming to be on the pitch with the team – a world first. Creative use of cutting-edge technology can be a powerful tool to connect fans with your sponsorship property in a novel way. It cuts through the clutter and aims for global scale and reach. For the lowdown on creating truly compelling experiential campaigns that leverage live tech, download our live creative technology cheat sheet.
Want more?
Inspired by these campaigns and want to see more? Download our sports sponsorship eBook now for our pick of the 10 best sports partnerships, why they succeeded and what brands can learn from them.
{{cta(‘b295696a-2866-40f6-9771-d654a5e60f9a’)}}