We have previously looked over experiential marketing and branding, and the way these to interact benefit your event and purpose. To quickly summarize: branding is the impression and symbolic associations created consumers. Experiential marketing is a marketing method which focuses on the experiences created for the people involved. Such tools work extremely well with events such as sports events where interactions are usually a necessity.
Check out this article to gain a better understanding of branding and marketing methods specifically for sports events. This is what you will need to get you prepared for branding and marketing your sports event.
Once you’re familiar with the basic how-to on branding and marketing your event, then how do you push this further? What more can you do to make your event reach all corners of your market? There’s something extremely useful that will not only benefit you but other parties too – partnerships and sponsorship!
Partnering up for an event reaps benefits for everyone involved. More effort, expertise, diverse experiences, and resources will be pooled into the event. Partnerships will also open to new opportunities and methods such as interactive marketing. There will definitely be more promotions and possibly higher chances of your event being opened up to larger audiences. Through working together and sharing similar values and missions, you can achieve a loyal following. The consumers can begin to build the same associations with you that they hold with your partners. Sponsorship also works similarly as a tool to work your brand’s awareness and exposure.
Quickly off the top of our heads, we can think of numerous partnerships and sponsorships in the sports arena. Think of brands such as Pepsi and Coca Cola to brands like Nike and Adidas – it’s easy to know what sports, teams or events they are associated with. They find a common thread and tie a partnership to achieve benefits for both the brand and the sports event.
Partnerships and marketing for your sports events
The first thing you need to figure out is who is your audience. Which brand has a similar consumer base with similar motives? This is essential in ensuring your efforts are as effective as they can be. A lot of sports apparel brands sponsor specific infamous athletes or sports teams because both audiences and fans aspire to share something with their idol. Be it their sports or physical abilities, or their style.
What you get back is truly rewarding: brand visibility, brand awareness and brand engagement. More people get to know of your brand and your event, they learn more, and you get more interactions at the event and post event. The attitudes towards your brand and events are influenced through the perceptions and experiences you create with your shared partnership. You learn more about your audience too through sharing with your partners or sponsors. Post-event data is useful to all parties, you never know what new information you could find out from new connections.
Moreover, this is not just beneficial for consumers. By interacting more with other parties or brands for your sports events, you open yourself up to even more opportunities for partnerships or sponsorships. This will definitely allow you to tap into further consumer bases, achieve more through your events and learn more too.
Partners and sponsors are an extension of you for your sports events. Taking what you know already about marketing and branding and applying that to this area will unlock new achievements.
Let us know of any partnerships you’ve engaged with. How did you engage them? What were the lessons?
