Are values and emotions enough to sign a sponsor?
The true is they’re not, most of the times.
I had the opportunity to attend a speech about Movistar communications and sponsorship strategies. A traditional sports brand that looks for specific assets, both tangible and intangible:
Intangible assets
- Values. Does your brand or sports property help to promote sponsors’ core values? Is there an authentic match among both?
- Purpose. What is the main reason why of your sports organisation? Do both brands pursue the same vision?
Tangible assets
- Economic ROI. Do you offer a detailed plan of the revenue impact your partner will achieve through your assets? It should help to create regular revenue sources, at a B2B or B2C level, or both.
- Brand awareness ratio. How many people know your brand exist?
- Differentiation. How unique is your value in comparison to the rest?
- Relevance. Why should anyone buy from you? Leaders tend to have it easier.
However, one of the common challenges of leader brands is they might look distant and struggle to communicate a friendly image. Banco Santander, for instance.
Differentiation, values and purpose are some of the most powerful assets women’s sports and women’s football can offer to brands. Luckily, women’s football represent a very popular sport in many countries, particularly in Spain, opening a big potential to increase brand awareness.
TV is not dead
Actually, brand awareness is what most of women’s sports need to grow, letting more and more people know they exist before asking them to give them a try. The FIFA Women’s World Cup reached a record-breaking audience of more than 1 billion viewers across all platforms, being TV a huge window for awareness and presenting the tournament to many first-timers.
It seems TV fits well with the digital environment, boosting the brand awareness by 70%, according to ReasonWhy. Top players worldwide as Amazon, Google, Netflix, Facebook and Apple have increased their total TV investment from $38.9M in 2014 to $71.5M in 2018, an 84% growth. TV is one of the channels with more effective results in brand awareness. So, is TV only for old people?
But, how do we measure TV commercials?
First, let me ask what is your goal. If it’s awareness, you measure reach. If you want interaction, set a call-to-action in its content. If you pursue sales, make an special offer to see how many customers buy.
In Spain, Amazon’s TV investment grew more than 100 times from 2015 to 2017, from 106,990€ to 11,006,360€, according to TheGlobalTVGroup.
Teaming up with Digital
If, top brands as Movistar seek for brand awareness as well as brand relevance and differentiation through engagement, TV and digital are a very interesting match to coexist in unique experiences for fans.
Digital allow sports properties to create separated products, pieces of content surrounding great sports events. Tailor-made experiences to provide entertaining content where, when and how the user decides. Fans tend to pay for 3-4 membership platforms, no more. It becomes more vital than ever to have valuable exposure besides engaging content. In other words, to be seen and to be trusted.
As you may imagine, collecting endless data is important, but more important is to know which type is relevant to transform it in useful information and game-changing decisions.
For women’s football
Last February, Mediapro announced they were going to dedicate an additional amount of 1.1M€ in order to make the Spanish collective agreement for female players happen. An extra investment for this season and for the next two, 3.3M€ extra in total, acquiring the league and Spanish Cup rights.
TV has proved to be a powerful tool for visibility and helping to grow participation in women’s sports. If, as online giants perceive, TV is a great complement for digital marketing and broadcasters as Mediapro are making an extra effort, let’s seize its enormous potential.
Not only top international tournaments as the World Cup or the Euro, but domestic products that leverage major events’ impact as the FIFA Women’s World Cup. A unique opportunity to craft an omnichannel and 360º experience blending stadium, digital and TV.