Optimising social investment through sponsorships

Sponsorships are a powerful tool for marketers to reach targeted audiences and generate brand exposure.

Sponsorship could be a very powerful weapon for business as a strategy and the advantages are numerous and can combine to achieve a great Return on Investment for your brand.

Sponsorships offer a large number of advantages. Whether you opt for sponsorship in sports, sponsorship in football events, competitions or tournaments.

Here, we digest the main advantages that a brand can get by sponsoring a sports team or an event.

While professional sports have attracted sponsors to finance major aspects of the business including the cost of managing major stadiums through naming rights, brands can benefit from sports sponsorships across all levels of sports.

Sports provide a wide audience that can widen in many different ways. Brands have the opportunity to raise awareness and change their images to suit their changing marketing objectives.

In today’s digital age, brands have more opportunities to leverage sports and engage with their audiences in more impactful ways.

Importance of sport sponsorship

Sponsoring Live sports brings large groups of people together, the more attention the events get, the leverage on the brands. Sports have an interesting effect as they gather together groups of people who are united and in competition.

Wider demographic reach

Sponsorship opportunities are vast and can reach an interesting demographic. The audience chance to develop interesting ways to engage the audience allows sports teams to use sponsorship to enhance fans’ experience.

The funds gained from sponsorships can be spread around to provide the tools the teams need to keep the team successful.

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Campaigns

Sports sponsorships and visibility are closely tied together by the large mass of people who follow the teams, the tournaments, and the championships, including both attendees to stadiums or racing tracks and TV viewers or social media users.

Fan experience

The fan base, including ticket buyers and people, is easy for teams to reach and use for their marketing activities.

Brands involved in sponsorship activations have the opportunity to come into contact with their fan base and enjoy the resulting commercial benefits. The more the fan base of your ideal target is close to the fan base of the team sponsor, the greater the return on investments.

Notable fresh talents have been discovered since the inception of the Higher Institutions Football League (HiFL) and helped to deepen brand visibility through its rich audience.

HiFL is organised by Pace Sports and Entertainment Limited and the Nigerian University Games Association (NUGA) is supported by StanbicIBTC, Bold, Indomie, and the Lagos Internal Revenue Services and is in its fourth active season.

The 2022 Higher HiFL is getting to an exciting end as KSU Steelers from Kogi State University will battle FUOYE Dazzlers from Federal University, Oye Ekiti in the finals on Saturday, September 25.

Chief Operating Officer, Pace Sports, Goodness Onyejiaku noted that the organisers are committed to ensuring the league delivers more than just a game of football this season.

“HiFL 2022 has delivered its promise to unify lovers of collegiate sports across the country. We have witnessed some fantastic games across different centres of participating schools and the feedback has been good. Now we have our teams for the Super Four to be played in Lagos and we are all waiting to crown the new champion” Onyejiaku said.

According to a PwC report, global sports sponsorship reached $45billion in 2015, and Africa contributed less than $2 billion, with South African companies top of the African chart.

While professional sports can reach billions of viewers making it an attractive prospect for local and international brands, local sports coverage has its appeal, especially within the local business community.

In the UK, the English Premier League (EPL) stands alone at the top of the list as Europe’s most prominent sports league. The level of popularity this league has among European football fans is reflected in the astonishingly lucrative sponsorship deals that have been inked by the league as an entity and by its member clubs.

The popularity of the EPL is reflected in the league’s roster of corporate sponsors. Barclays Bank shelled out £31.5 million for a 3-year deal with the league, running through the 2022 season.

Ebenezer, a sports entrepreneur, writes from Lagos