Sports teams should be proactive and not reactive in showcasing digital opportunities available from sponsorship tie-ups while monetizing global fan bases is a key challenge facing digital executives, according to a digital panel at the Leaders Sports Business Summit in London. The panel was made up of Craig Howe, consulting head of digital and social media, San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bulls; David Gorges, head of new media and CRM at Borussia Dortmund; and Michael Leavey, media, marketing and CRM director at Arsenal. The panel discussed a range of subjects, including how to optimize digital revenues from sponsorship tie-ups; the value of int'l fans, and the benefit of hosting "upfronts" which show potential sponsors digital opportunities on offer.
MAINTAIN CONTROL: Howe said one danger to be avoided was allowing sponsors to dictate the terms of the sponsorship. Howe, who worked on the 49ers naming rights deal in its move to Levi’s Stadium this season, said, “That approach is really frightening because then you sort of lose control. What we are advocating is being proactive about going out to sponsors and saying, ‘This is what we would like to do for you.’” Howe pointed to the partnership with Levi's, a $220M, 20-year naming-rights deal that also offers fans novel incentives like picking up drinks tabs for attendees wearing Levi's. However, the panelists agreed they faced a number of tough challenges, such as monetizing int'l fan bases. Gorges said that Borussia Dortmund's stadium was restricted to 80,000 fans, but the club had 1 million Facebook fans, which it wants to monetize. Gorges said, “We are a developing brand. There is a philosophy behind it, what we want to have is the main reach from everything we do.”
SOCIAL CLIMBERS: Howe said the Chicago Bulls boast around 17 million Facebook Likes, though only around 800,000 were in Chicago. Howe: “The goal is how to get a Bulls fan in Spain to like the brand enough, to follow the brand more frequently so that they will buy some kit. And then the next thing is how we get them to fly to Chicago to buy a ticket?” Leavey said sponsorship is viewed as a “high margin area,” but for sponsors to reap maximum value out of these partnerships it needed all divisions of a sports team -- marketing, commercial, IT -- to be singing from the same digital hymn sheet. The issue of player access was also raised and Leavey said that sponsors sometimes needed to be educated that such access was limited. A further challenge is distributing digital content for int'l fans in foreign languages. Leavey said there were examples when digital content in the native language of the sports team was preferred to the foreign-language translations, as it was seen as more trusted.
John Reynolds is a writer in London.
