Sports marketing: brands at the heart of events

Sport is an opportunity for some companies to communicate to the general public, employees and customers their willingness to adhere to the values of adventure, humility, pugnacity and innovation that sporting events bring. Sports marketing now appears as a real strategy for companies. The benefits of such a strategy are huge, both in terms of image and economic impact.

Redbull, a brand known for its sponsorship

Sport needs companies to respond to the growing media coverage and requirements of "sport business". But the reverse is also true: for some companies, "sport has become a relevant tool to create a brand strategy", according to Michel Desbordes. Still today the most widespread sports marketing remains the "classic" sponsorship which consists for a company in a financial contribution - in return for a media exposure - to an individual sportsman, a team, an activity or during an event. However, this practice does not necessarily appear to be the most cost-effective. The visibility of a brand may be restricted if it is drowned in the mass; it may also be associated with others with whom it does not necessarily share the same values. In addition, the risks of injury, scandals, poor weather or an unfavourable atmosphere make this strategy uncertain or even risky. Also, more and more brands that have the possibility and the will, are choosing other approaches in sports marketing, even if it means getting involved (financially or materially) much more.

The partnership

When Lacoste decided over 40 years ago to become one of Roland Garros' official partners, the brand chose a true long-term strategy. The reasons for this commitment are simple to find, because the founder, René Lacoste, was a tennis champion. There is therefore an obvious coherence between the event and the brand. Then, by choosing to dress players, referees, line judges or tournament seats, the brand offered itself a formidable media showcase: the competition has continued to grow in notoriety and is now broadcast in hundreds of countries around the world, bringing together tens of millions of viewers. In commercial terms, the company has been able to adapt its offer and products to take advantage of this exhibition: the urban fashion sportswear line, which alone accounts for 15% of the business, specifically targets the Roland-Garros public.

However, this kind of partnership is not without drawbacks for a brand as well. Indeed, there is a certain overload of the market, and sporting events are limited in time and space. In addition, it is increasingly common for a brand to fall victim to a new communication technique: ambush marketing. This strategy allows a brand to create confusion in people's minds about the identity of the sponsor. Like  Usain Bolt who waved his Puma sneakers in front of the cameras during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, even though the official equipment supplier for the competition was Adidas. The Puma brand was thus able to take advantage of the considerable media exposure of Olympic athletics, which was massively sponsored by a competitor brand, at a lower cost. Also, in the same logic of long-term vision, and to avoid this type of disadvantages, some companies can push the logic of partnership further: it's called naming.

Naming

Naming is an original form of sponsorship, more and more widespread, by which an organization acquires the right to give its name or that of one of its brands to an emblematic equipment or an event in its entirety, which ensures the brand additional visibility, based not only on the image (which viewers will see on the screen) but also on the written or radio reports of competitions. Many companies have thus directly attached their name to a place or a sporting event: the Open GDF Suez, the Heineken Cup, the Louis Vuitton Cup, or the AccorHotelArena, are as many examples which perfectly illustrate this new practice.

                                                           

The creators of events

With nearly 500 events organized each year worldwide, the most active in this field is undoubtedly the Austrian company Red Bull. This strategy is the logical continuation of its marketing strategy, with sportsmen and young people as its main targets, and of the suitability of its product, energy drinks. Red Bull has deliberately combined the image of extreme sports and improbable competitions, such as soapbox descents, to extend the logic far enough that the brand is now almost better known than the product on which it has built its reputation. Red Bull has thus succeeded in marketing moves that will remain in the annals, such as Felix Baumgartner's jump, but the brand has also opened up to the artistic world with the Red Bull Music Academy.

From the simple marketing move to the full  investment of a company and its employees in events, sport thus offers multiple opportunities for companies wishing to invest outside the strictly economic field. Commercial strategy, communication, marketing... companies certainly always benefit from these practices, but it wouldn't be a question of reducing the profit that society as a whole also derives from them: never has sport been so present in society and the media. And this, thanks to the companies