POV Insights: 10 Myths about Sports Marketing for Brands

In our 30+ years experience designing and optimizing sports sponsorships, here are 10 of the most common myths about sports marketing that we hear from our brand clients. You’re welcome!

1. Sports marketing is only for national brands.

While big, national brands invest millions of dollars in sports sponsorships each year, the reality is that there are far more local and regional brands taking advantage of sports marketing partnerships. Many times, customers in a market are familiar with a regional brand before they sponsor their city’s team, and sports deals make their brand awareness and affinity stickier. 

Sports marketing will work for the majority of brands, but selecting the sport with the right brand fit is critical. There are many variables to consider. We like to take an objective approach to identifying the right property that will align with your budget and goals.

It’s important to understand that sports is not the starting point in a marketing strategy; it’s a complement. Sports marketing can amplify all the elements a brand has in the marketplace. It empowers brands to break through the media clutter in an authentic way and showcase their shared passion for the hometown team. 

2. The cost of a sports marketing partnership is fixed.

Brands should be budgeting for not just the cost of the deal itself, but also the cost to activate the deal. Whether you are a B2C or B2B brand, your property investment will require incremental funding to truly bring the deal to life via campaign creative, social content creation, endorsements, VIP events, gifting, and more. 

Many brands hire us before they ink the deal for this exact reason. We ensure they buy the right assets and outline a comprehensive activation plan with associated costs. We want to safeguard the investment so that it performs and meets the brand’s objectives. Creativity costs money, and it needs to be a line item in your activation plan. It is just not realistic to think that this will happen organically.

3. A sports marketing deal is done when the contract is signed.

Many brands don’t realize that sports marketing partnerships are not set-it-and-forget-it investments. They are high-touch, living and breathing partnerships that require constant attention. The real work actually begins after the contract is signed – when it is time to activate the deal. Brands who lean-in on activation have a stronger ROI outcomes at the completion of the season.

Remember that sports teams are not there to act like agencies. The team is there to fulfill the elements which a brand has purchased. Having an agency team dedicated to managing your partnership and truly bringing it to life is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. An agency helps get ahead of the calendar and proactively begin to build out executional elements so that the brand can activate the deal and maximize ROI. 

4. Sports marketing is all about signage.

Years ago, sports marketing was all about in-venue signage and brick-and-mortar promotions with tear-pads and entry boxes at retail. Digital and social platforms were not available to marketers. Now, with the surge of digital technology and emerging media, signage is still important for some brands, but it is only one aspect of a sports marketing deal. 

Comprehensive marketing partnerships include trademark rights, social content, digital assets, media, database marketing, onsite activation, hospitality… and sometimes signage. We have far more tools in the toolbox that serve brands across their marketing mix. Plus, the valuation approach of these assets allows brands to compare the effectiveness of their sports deal against their traditional media investments. It’s much more of an apples-to-apples comparison these days.

5. All sponsors get to use the team logo in their promotions.

In order for a brand to be able to use team marks (or intellectual property – IP) in any of their marketing materials, they must meet the team’s minimum spend. This minimum is set by the team and can depend on your product category. The idea is to build a partnership with the right mix of assets that will allow you to reach this minimum and unlock the power of IP, while leaving incremental money outside of the deal to activate.

An affiliation with team IP empowers you to differentiate your brand in the marketplace. You are aligning your brand values with the fan’s shared passion. It becomes personal. This can be a powerful tool to attract new customers and further engage with existing customers. A sports marketing agency can assist in pulling this all together to work in the most effective way.

6. It is more cost effective to manage your sports marketing deals in-house.

One of the biggest mistakes brands make is trying to handle all of their sports marketing in-house. Many marketers think they can lean on their internal teams or their existing agency relationships to make sense of the sports marketing landscape. This is just not true.

Negotiating, managing and activating sports deals can be complicated and quite costly if you don’t have the right people at your side. To ensure the right asset mix, strong valuation, healthy ROI, and a successful activation strategy, we recommend engaging a sports marketing agency. These niche experts are worth their weight in gold – they have knowledge of the landscape and what a deal costs. Having an expert at your side is of paramount importance when you are doing sports deals. 

7. The sports team manages your brand activation strategy.

Brands are responsible for activating their sports marketing deals – not the teams. While the team is there to support you in the fulfillment of what you’ve purchased, marketing activation is the responsibility of the brand. When a brand’s right to activate goes ignored, they could be leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars in value on the table. 

The conversation around brand activation should begin before you approach the team for a deal, and it should continue through the duration of the partnership. It requires a great deal of planning – from sweeps execution, to gameday logistics, to staffing, to event details, to reporting and valuation. 

8. Sports marketing stops in the off-season.

There is no off-season in sports marketing. To really, truly reach sports fans, marketers have to be consistent and deliberate in their approach, all year long. To optimize their spend and maximize their reach, brands need to have a 12-month plan for each of their team investments. 

The minute the season ends, planning for the next season begins. Managing the activation strategy timeline well in advance of deadlines gives you better creative liberties and breathing room. As an example, contracting a professional athlete for an endorsement or appearance often needs to happen three to six months in advance. Most athlete production shoots take place well before spring training and training camp. Planning ahead is our standard operating procedure.

9. Sports are the most cost-effective way to market your brand.

While sports marketing can be an outstanding option for brands, it should be a complement to your foundational marketing strategy. Sports deals cannot be the only thing you do. If your foundational marketing strategy is a cake, sports marketing is the icing. Most everyone loves icing…. but you can’t have the icing without the cake.

Sports marketing deals come at a premium, and brands need to have a comprehensive plan in place that will drive ROI around each element in the deal: trademark rights, media, digital, social, database marketing, signage, hospitality, promotions, employee engagement, etc. In the end, these partnership investments need to be hard working dollars that empower brands to achieve their objectives and drive the business. 

10. Any marketing agency can manage a sports marketing partnership.

Many marketing agencies will tell you they can manage your sports portfolio, but this approach may not serve you well in the long run. Sports marketing requires a very specific set of skills. A truly effective sports marketing deal goes way beyond the nuts and bolts of the assets and deal points. A brand benefits from the knowledge and experience a sports marketing agency brings to the table via industry knowledge, network, and valuation insights.

That’s our POV. 

With 30+ years experience, a talented team of knowledgable sports marketers, and a deep network of industry relationships, we are in the business of optimizing sports sponsorships for brands of all sizes.

Reach out to us if you’d like to talk about how we can help your brand leverage the power of sports.