Sports bring us together. In a media landscape growing more fragmented, they remain the premier outlet for brands to guarantee a large audience — but a ticket to the dance doesn’t guarantee an impact.
Sports present endless analogies for brand messaging, diversity in audience groups, and a consistent stream of broadcast channels to utilize. More than all, they’re an avenue for human emotion. The highs of glorifying wins, the devastation of losses, and watching the growth of a player or team fight for a grander mission. Across every underdog story or dynasty is a legend worth remembering. We see pieces of ourselves in sport’s greatest moments, and feel a familial connection to our favorite leagues, teams, and players.
Brands and organizations that understand this invest in sports. Yet a ticket to the dance doesn’t guarantee an impact. There’s a tangible difference between good and great sports PR. Understanding that gap separates brands that show up from brands that belong.
Where good sports PR starts
For both good and great, the intangible is the first identification of a partnership that makes sense for your company’s narrative. Ask yourself: What sport does my target audience watch? Where can I find them? Once that question is answered, you can find a sports partner that exemplifies your company values.
Basic narrative alignment is the necessary prerequisite for good sports PR. A partnership that makes inherent sense does a lot of the leg work for you because consumers can process the foundational association. Your very presence in that space is powerful.
So, once you have that aligned partner that makes sense for you, how do you elevate from good to great? How can a sports partnership metamorphosize into an integrated communications strategy?
Ask yourself: is it obvious?
Before investing in a partnership, take a step back and question if the partnership makes obvious sense. When a fan sees your logo posted at their favorite venue or taking commercial space, does it trigger automatic acceptance (Of course [brand X] would be here) or confusion (How does [brand Y] have any relation?)
Brands often trip up here by convincing themselves their narrative alignment is strong. It sparks from a desire to be in a certain space and ignoring the natural fit. Major team sport leagues pride themselves on being easily consumed to become entrenched as the common man’s game. If you’re a luxury brand, you may have the money for an MLB sponsorship, but pasting a designer brand’s logo at an MLB stadium goes against the sport’s identity. Most baseball fans are satisfied with a taste of Americana in the form of a warm hot dog and cold soda.
Conversely, a fast food brand entering into Formula 1 racing is a fish out of water. When your core values are convenience and affordability, buying into spaces occupied by an otherwise high-end experience displays your brand as an imposter.
When the fit is right, the audience does the work for you. It’s the thinking behind our work introducing lululemon as Official Outfitter of the BNP Paribas Open — two brands known for reliable performance and unmatched comfort, an association fans could process instantly.
Have respect for the space and its fans
Buying your way into a sport’s ecosystem does not guarantee that you’re accepted into a larger, rabid community. Sports are unique in how personal a player, team or league can feel to a fan’s own being, to the extent that they’re referred to as “we,” not “they.” This dynamic combined with geographical tie-ins means that a sports partnership has the stakes of entering into the audience’s personal identity.
Great sports PR means that your company is taking the time to understand how a fan base ticks; what and who is popular, what isn’t, which figures and events are worth associating with, and what fans romanticize. A successful and respectful sports partnership requires the nuance to interact with the community physically and digitally, properly utilize athletes, and always be present at relevant moments.
Red Bull’s overall sports sponsorship strategy is arguably the strongest example of a brand taking ownership of a sport. Red Bull began by identifying extreme sports that embodied the “Give You Wings” mantra in the 1990s, and created full ingratiation hosting events, sponsoring athletes, and most importantly, understanding their partner as in-depth as the fans. Red Bull’s sporting empire grew to the F1 and soccer ownership we see today, but it started by identifying compatible partners and respecting what they represent.
Ingratiation through a consistent presence
A fan’s protectiveness over their favorite league, team or player means full commitment to your partnership can welcome you into the family. But parachuting in at the most profitable moments or with campaigns that aren’t personal to your partner makes you an afterthought.
Great sports PR means your campaign is not just there in the biggest moments, but becomes synonymous with your partner through a constant presence.
The season is a journey, and by riding the roller coaster, your brand establishes pride in your association. This gains respect with your partner’s fans.
Better yet, a presence that builds off of itself beyond a single event introduces a feeling of excitement for your presence. Companies with particularly clever ad campaigns gain the benefit of predictive anticipation, meaning around a partner’s key moments fans know your brand will be present, but anxiously await a new iteration of a previously recognizable campaign.
Every fall, fans await new iterations to Nissan’s “Heisman House” series during college football season that features comedic skits starring past Heisman Trophy winners communally living in what resembles a college house. These episodes are released all season and typically feature the newest “addition” to the house. By leveraging authentic access to the right spokespeople and wrapping it in a concept that is genuinely entertaining, Nissan’s campaign became a part of the college football experience.
Keeping your finger on the pulse
Timing is everything in PR, and the ability to understand cultural relevance’s place is the difference in a weak and strong campaign. Great sports PR is executed through staying agile to what is going on in your sponsor’s world. A league season runs the course of months, and daily news, momentum, and viral moments are opportunities for PR.
Some of the best PR campaigns are the ones executed in real time, as a response to an unpredictable moment of pure emotion that captures an audience. When Super Bowl XLVII experienced a blackout in 2013 and created a 34-minute delay on American sport’s biggest stage, Oreo took advantage. A simple message, “Power out? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark,” snowballed into a real-time viral moment that produced 32,000 likes and shares in the first hour and 525 million total impressions. With no paid media behind it, Oreo harnessed extraordinary earned media and, more importantly, felt like a genuine part of the moment.
In order to get the most from a partnership, your brand needs to feel part of the conversation. This concept takes ingratiation through consistency to the next level, where your brand elevates from a welcomed member to a foundational figure in the space.
So what does this all mean?
Making the puzzle pieces of brands and partners fit is an exciting challenge. If executed correctly, sports partnerships have the potential to transform your company’s communications strategy by building brand equity, deepening audience relationships, and creating cultural relevance that no traditional advertising campaign can manufacture. At MVT PR, we want to help your brand connect the beauty of sports to your ultimate mission. It’s what drives us every day, with philosophical pillars to guide us.
MVT PR will continue to publish insights as an ongoing series on our website. Based on our decades of experience in sports PR, we will answer industry questions and report on trends to better equip your brand with the tools to transform your communication strategy.