Community sports sponsorship is a mutual agreement between the sponsor (company) and the sponsored (sports team). This agreement gives exclusive rights to the sponsor at a fee while guaranteeing the sports team financial support. It’s a win-win for both parties and it’s one of the ways businesses are driving success.
Sports sponsorship has the potential to boost the brand’s visibility, foster community engagement, boost employee morale, and contribute to corporate social responsibility. In this article, we take a look at how community sports sponsorship is a winning together strategy that helps drive business success.
The Problem
Every business owner will tell you how they struggled or are still struggling with community engagement, visibility, and corporate social responsibility. There’s nothing as frustrating as having a great product that customers aren’t aware of and haven’t come into contact with. It’s even worse when customers can’t connect with your brand.
How then do businesses get their name out there?
The Solution: Community Sports Sponsorship
To deal with these challenges, community sponsorship has thrown businesses and the sporting community a new lifeline. Both parties get to win and succeed at what they do. It’s a unique and effective solution that helps businesses solve their challenges and keep the sporting world running.
Brand visibility plays a big role in creating brand awareness. By using sports sponsorship, companies get the opportunity to allow their customers to familiarise themselves and connect with their brand. While doing so, they get to involve their customers in the sports they love and in the community they care about.
Benefits of Community Sports Sponsorship
Community sports sponsorship has advantages for businesses, including:
Brand visibility
Sports sponsorship will get your brand name out there. Big companies like Nike, and Adidas have made a name for themselves through sports sponsorship. Today, they are global household brands.
Community engagement
Once you have identified the specific sport you want to sponsor and your target audience, sports sponsorship will give you a unique opportunity to create personalised relationships and experiences.
Corporate social responsibility
Sport is important to people and by sponsoring it, you’ll be contributing to the community and making a difference.
Employee morale and retention
Community sports sponsorship builds company pride and helps boost morale and retain employees.
How to Get Started with Community Sports Sponsorship
The following factors will help you and your team win together and drive business success:
Practical tips for businesses to start sponsoring community sports
- Identify the team, sport, and their needs that you want to sponsor and align it to your business goals. The mutual agreement must be designed in a way that fulfills your business goal
- Your sponsorship must be designed to attract your target audience
- The sponsorship must influence your audience’s perception of your brand. They should be able to connect with your brand in a way that will influence them to take action
Considerations for a sponsorship deal
Sports sponsorship isn’t something you should engage in without taking serious considerations into account. It’s a calculated marketing strategy that involves the whole team. Before signing that deal, consider the following:
- Determine the ideal event to sponsor where you’ll leverage your target audience. Investing in numerous sports activities without the right strategies will be an exercise in futility
- Identify the most efficient way to reach your targeted audience. You can segment your audiences and design effective ways to reach them
Tips for Maximising Benefits
- Use social media to get to fans who can’t make it to the event. The digital online advertising space has great opportunities you can maximise for your business.
- Go beyond what your competitors are doing while impacting your community. Sports sponsorship is more than just sponsoring sports and creating brand awareness. Personalise your deal and make it stand out.
Community sports sponsorship is an effective solution to dealing with the business challenges of brand visibility and community engagement. By using it as a marketing strategy, businesses and their teams stand a chance of winning together.