Our area of focus in the sports business world might be pretty specific to most, and that's how we like it. We were poking around some broader trends in the sponsorship world and what we found was pretty remarkable. 70% of sponsorship spending is directed at sports.

The next primary bucket of sponsorship investment? 10% on entertainment properties such as the Academy Awards and Grammys. These figures point to the idea that an investment in sponsorship is rich with opportunities for brands to showcase their story authentically.

What was also remarkable in our desktop research was all the news about brands investing in sponsorship properties but hardly any mentions of the most critical aspect of the sponsorship equation - activation. With that, we are here to send a little memo to the world about why we do what we do and why you should focus on it as well.

What is sponsorship activation?

Sponsorship activation is what you do with what you own. Simple as that.

This can take many forms, but it brings your brand to life from things as simple as booth spaces at an event to more sophisticated programs like employee engagement initiatives, sales contests, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and customer celebrations. The what you have portion is defined by the rights you acquired when you became the "official brand of the best team ever."

When your brand sponsors something, you buy access to assets on a particular platform, but that's it. Whoever sold you that sponsorship more than likely isn't going to continue knocking on your door making sure you use what you bought. It will be up to you to maximize the value of the platform you gained access to and ensure the assets are continually developed over time.

Let’s have a small story illustrating the difference between sponsorship rights and activation.

Consider buying yourself a new Rolex (what's your style, GMT Master II or Daytona?). For now, you can equate this new Rolex to sponsorship rights. If you buy that Rolex and just let it sit on your desk, not wound and not keeping time, it doesn't do anything for you. It is nice to have in your possession, but it won't generate future value for you. It won't even start new conversations like it could be doing if you were to wind it up and wear it.

Letting a new Rolex sit on your desk unworn is like buying sponsorship rights and not activating them. New rights to access certain things don't do much for you without proper programs strategically designed to take advantage of what you have bought. The activation bucket is what you want to prioritize for the highest ROI possible if you have a set budget you are looking to use most effectively.

Dialing in your size and scope

You don’t need to enter a sponsorship position in a way that uses all of your budget on elaborate announcements in the first three months.

In fact, please don’t do that.

We have seen far too many wonderful brands focus too much on the property and not look at the activation strategy. We promise that if you reverse those and focus on the activation first, you will extract far more value from any given property. We aren’t saying to avoid growing into a large position. When that happens naturally, you have many unique opportunities that can be just as valuable. By starting small and growing through your activation, you can follow the results you see in real-time.

ROI can be gained at any scale but only with the right strategy. 

Your brand can start small by sponsoring up-and-coming talent through grassroots programs or personal deals with established drivers. This approach gives you access to a platform at the most efficient cost. Your support can start in grassroots programs, costing you as little as $5,000/year and go up to personal service agreements with professional drivers beginning at around $100,000/year, depending on your needs.

Brand-building starts with creative content and storytelling that showcases what you have invested in. Capturing content with your driver that resonates with your audience can be woven across different campaigns and mediums. You can focus on understanding the right dynamics of extracting value with a relatively low spend on the property.

Sponsorship is the best platform for marketing to make a difference in your business

Marketing your product or service through sports is a full alternative to traditional media marketing and a platform where consumers are receptive to hearing your message. When looking more specifically, the data points to how motorsports score much higher than the average messaging engagement figures captured by SportsBusiness Journal in their annual online survey.

Much of traditional media (think TV ads, print, social media ads) is “interruptive” by nature. It is unnatural, forcing you to view their pitch while you’d rather be watching/listening to something else. In sports, especially motorsports, sponsorship is enthusiastically accepted and intrinsically linked to a team/driver’s ability to compete.

According to Nielsen Sponsorship, NASCAR fans were 56% more likely to engage with a sponsor brand. 

With an integrated sponsorship program focusing on activation, you can engage the most important business stakeholders. You will leverage the right mix of assets to do this differently across audiences. First up is one of the most popular KPIs marketers need to show and that is how to connect sponsorship to sales growth. In this case, your employees, partners, and customers all have some level of impact on growing your business. Instead of isolating each one, challenge your team to engage all three parties through your sponsorship platform.

Who buys your stuff? Your customers. Within that subset, you have different kinds of customers. Your highly engaged group could experience the full VIP package, with behind-the-scenes access, celebrity meet and greets, unique opportunities to engage with your sponsorship and other treats that only your best customers deserve. This is some of the most effective marketing you can do because of the way it makes your customers feel.

For those customers who are not very engaged, or maybe have been slipping away as of late, you can still leverage your sponsorship assets to reach out to them. Going to the very basic levels of inviting them to an event you are a primary supporter of can showcase your commitment to them. Hook these customers up with a pair of good tickets to the race, some lunch and maybe a little memento of their time. Then, leverage the event as a follow-up opportunity and a discussion starter for future business opportunities.

Who sells your stuff? Your employees. Right in line of importance with your customers are of course your employees. The people on the front lines. The people who bring your brand to life. This second group of stakeholders is ripe to activate your sponsorship. You can leverage your sponsorship to show you love your employees and are looking out for them. Your employees are the stakeholders that can most directly lead to increased sales. Build a sales contest if you want to set up something super straightforward to track this. Set an ambitious goal for your team to hit and when they do, reward them with a once-in-a-lifetime experience that ties into your sports property. The satisfaction they will feel will be euphoric.

Because not every company can offer such amazing experiences, employee loyalty will undoubtedly increase. This approach can be attributed to lower turnover, a more productive working culture, happier employees and ultimately…higher sales figures.

Sponsorship activation opportunities in action

Here are some thoughtful activation examples you may find relevant to your business.

• Does your brand have physical locations like retail sites or events? Use a driver appearance to surprise and delight staff and customers.

• Are there passionate people coming together to celebrate as a convention, club or other community? Leverage your partner’s sporting venue rather than a rented convention space.

• Do you have property rights in more than one series, location or market? Connect those opportunities and enhance your audience engagement many times over.