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“A proper sports marketing program allows a company or brand to tap into the emotions and passions of sports fans,” says Rod Nenner, Vice President, Marketing, Washington Redskins. “A brand can leverage the built-up equity of the team that may have taken years, decades and in some case even centuries to build,” he elaborates.

Nenner is a speaker at the marcus evans Marketing Leadership Forum 2017, in Malibu, California, October 
5-6.

How can a sports partnership help a company drive sales? Can you outline the steps CMOs can take to make a partnership a success?

First and foremost, the CMO needs to clearly define the goals and objectives of the sports marketing program. To make it simple, they will need to ask some very basic questions. Why are we doing this? How will it allow our brand to engage with our target audience in a deeper, more relevant and effective way? What segment of our target market are we focusing on? Is there a proper fit?

Second, how they will connect the sponsorship to their target audience is sometimes an afterthought, but it is just as important as considering who or what they are sponsoring. It is where the rubber meets the road.

And lastly, how will they justify or grade the sponsorship? A well-built sponsorship is based on the company’s goals and objectives, and what can be measured. Is it about awareness and lifting the brand? Is it about brand positioning? Modifying consumer perception, driving a trial and ultimately repeat purchases? It is not difficult to build a business case for a sponsorship if you know what you are looking to achieve and/or measure.

What obstacles or challenges might CMOs face when putting a program together? How can they overcome them?

The first, most obvious, step in establishing a successful partnership is identifying your brand’s target audience and then choosing a partner that delivers that audience. Next, marketers need to understand the brand equity of potential partners, how they activate the sponsorship to leverage that equity to drive their goals; brand awareness, purchase consideration, trial, etc.

Can you provide an example of a recent successful sports partnership and what results it achieved?

To give you one example, Hyundai has been an official NFL partner for two seasons, entering its third. According to a recent interview with their CMO, Dean Evans, Hyundai achieved substantial awareness of their sponsorship among NFL fans and those fans now have a much higher opinion, consideration and purchase intent for Hyundai. One of their campaigns had 74 million video views, generated over 2,000 media stories and the company directly engaged with more than three million people.

As the car-buying landscape evolved with the digital revolution, Hyundai felt the need for a new approach to marketing, he said. Consumers today have 24 touch points before buying a car, 19 of those being digital or mobile. Momentum takes time to influence, he added, so the long-term strategy and partnership offered them a powerful platform with the reach and frequency required to make a real change.