The Push Towards Data-Driven Sponsorship
The bar has risen in sports sponsorship, and we’re uncovering the new models driving a data-driven future. In the groundbreaking report entitled, “Data-Driven Sponsorship,” Sports Innovation Lab demonstrates that for sports sponsorship to evolve, the industry needs to embrace a data-driven platform sponsorship model to better understand Fluid Fans.
Experts in the sports sponsorship space know it’s true. Agencies and marketers who deliver some of the most innovative brand activations in sport know it’s true. The sports industry puts on a hell of show—thrilling live entertainment with expensive and mind blowing sponsorship activations, but the industry is still flying blind. Despite the fact that brands pour billions each year into sports sponsorship, the industry still lacks an efficient way to capture data about who Fluid Fans are and what they want.
It’s time sponsorship investments work harder and smarter to put properties and brands in a stronger position to personalize the sports experience and deliver breakthrough fan experiences. As sponsors are one of the best channel partners of every sports property, and through their sponsorship activation spend (equivalent to roughly 2-3X the cost of acquiring those rights), brands provide the best possible platform to reach Fluid Fans on behalf of the brand and rights holder. Data is the key to this opportunity, and sponsorship activations can help acquire this data.
This is a big shift for the industry. To get there, new endemics—the kind of technology partners that specialize in building cloud and mobile solutions, will take more active roles in sports sponsorship. These technology specialists will sign longer term deals and co-develop solutions optimized to capture and analyze the preferences and behaviors of sports fans.
On Wednesday October 21, 2020 Sports Innovation Lab President and Co-Founder, Josh Walker, and special guests Augusto Elias the Global Brand Sr. Director & Category lead for Hydration at the Coca-Cola Company and Kevin Hogan the Brand Marketing Partnerships Lead at Google provided an overview of the report, current trends in sponsorship and answered audience questions live. The panel discussed the effect of COVID-19 on the sponsorship market, brand identity and responsibility, and the three main forms of sponsorship: Association, Activation, and Platform.
You can view the entire conversation below: