When speaking with the marketing manager of a Spanish club, the following question came up:
How do you convince a company that doesn’t want to sponsor a club for fear of losing rival fans?
Passion, which makes sport a different product, is inseparable from the sponsorship equation.
But we can minimise the risk.
Polarisation among fans is an argument that helped me sell sponsorship for the Brazilian National Team, but how could clubs address it?
First, the intensity of the rivalry, the positioning, and the brand’s property portfolio influence the perception of risk.
In the talk with the executive, we talked about ideas such as:
01 Present a plan with projected results (ROI) that are difficult to reject.
02 Design activations that reinforce the positioning of the “city brand”.
03 Demonstrate with data how the fans represent the territory and are not a minority.
04 Create a collective sponsorship proposal, including several clubs in the city.
Sponsorship is another marketing tool for the company’s objectives (business, brand, engagement, etc.).
The ratio between result and risk is decisive for decision-making.