What it takes to drive successful sports sponsorship

Singapore recently wrapped up the Formula 1 Night Race at Marina Bay to much fanfare, making it an opportune time to examine the huge increase in sports sponsorships. According to PwC, the global sports sponsorship industry is tipped to reach over US$100 billion dollars by 2030.

2024 has been a huge year for sport. The Olympics, Paralympics’ and UEFA Euro 2024 all amassed unprecedented global viewership, offering sponsors time in the limelight. With sport being a passion point for many, how do you tap into that audience to carry the emotional attachment over to your brand and move further through the funnel?

The success of a sports sponsorship boils down to the analysis, strategy and planning up front. A clear strategy needs to align with the business objectives; we need to be asking what is the role of the sponsorship—awareness, engagement, or lead generation? For brands eager to get in on the sporting action, here are some key areas to help you get started.

First step to building a successful sponsorship

Start by creating a compelling business case grounded in data and analytics that can diagnose your brand and business challenges. This allows you to showcase how a sponsorship can help solve these. Work with your media agency to understand your audience and demonstrate the audience fit via a mix of behavioural and claimed data sources. This will enable you to highlight the ‘primed’ consumer audience.

A great example is the campaign by New Zealand telco 2degrees. Their ‘Fighting for Fair’ mantra was brought to life through its sponsorship of Aupuki, the woman’s Super Rugby final. They undertook a world-first by streaming the final live on TikTok, building up the momentum for women’s sport and bridging the gap through coverage with men’s rugby. This marked a clear understanding of their audience challenges and brand alignment.

What is the business impact then? Marketers have to show clear business outcomes to secure investment and continue key sponsorships; metrics to measure effectiveness and success could cover lower and upper funnel depending on brand objectives.

The sponsorship has been signed, what next?

Brands can leverage the sponsorship to connect with audiences on mass and an individual level. Opportunities exist before, during and after the events. The Fifa Women’s World Cup in 2023 did an amazing job of this—introducing the players in the lead up and talking through the plays—they injected real storytelling creating a great consumer journey.  

The possibilities are also endless for real-life activations and the ever-evolving KOL and influencer landscape. Never underestimate the power of the athletes you work with, have a clear agreement on the access you are allowed and understand how you can use them. Many teams have strict guidelines on using their stars. You may also enter into separate agreements with the athletes to further leverage the sponsorship.

How do we understand the audiences and know what channels to play in? By overlaying media data into our sponsorship ecosystem for clear results. An opportunity could be missed if we merely focus on typical audiences—sport can appeal to a variety of audiences, we just need to find the right way in.

F1 certainly had a clear strategy in place with the ‘Drive to Survive’ Netflix series, which saw its US fanbase grow from 44.9 million in 2019 to 49.2 million in 2022, according to Nielsen. Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines has also seen success with its title sponsorship of the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix, extending the sponsorship four times until 2025 as a sign of support for tourism and sports.

The F1 is no stranger to brand partnerships. Photo: Getty Images.

Another way for to capture the general audience is by amplifying brand partnerships with racing teams and drivers leading up to F1 weekend. Ray-Ban has a Scuderia Ferrari pop-up store at Singapore’s Suntec City this year. Meanwhile, Tag Heuer, the official partner and timekeeper of the Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 team, unveiled a two-storey pop-up store at ION Orchard last year. We look forward to seeing how HP leverages their Ferrari sponsorship by bringing their shared values of performance, innovation, excellence, and trust to life next season.

How can rights holders ascertain a good fit with potential partners?

As important as it is for brands to find the right partner, the same goes for rights holders which include entities such as the International Olympic Committee, Formula One, and Fifa. A huge digital gap in sponsorship exists today as digital inventory makes up a low proportion of rights packages relative to media spend. Rights holders need a strategy to assess the relevance, sophistication and modernity of their digital sponsorship rights.

From a planning perspective, build relevant digital packages for your partners based on business objectives, category insights and audience behaviours – thinking more like a publisher, less like a rights holder. It is key for rights holders to better understand and monetise their digital inventory driven by our expertise in digital valuation. On the measurement front, build relevant frameworks that successfully connects media performance to business outcomes.

What can be done to measure success

When all is done and dusted, how do brands know if the sponsorship was successful? We can’t rely on Kevin in the office saying it was the best event he had ever been too. We need the right measurement tools in place for effective monitoring. Build a measurement framework that connects media delivery to brand metrics to ROI to holistically assess the partnership's impact.

Be clear about what you want when venturing into a sports sponsorship, the opportunities are endless if you have a robust strategy. Understand your audiences and ensure you have enough investment to leverage the partnership.

Gina McKinnon is the CEO for content at OMG Asia Pacific.