Former footballer Christoph Metzelder laid out his "five KOs" to avoid in sports marketing in his keynote address Monday at the 2015 SpoBiS SPONSORs Business Summit in Dusseldorf, Germany. Metzelder, co-managing director at Hamburg-based sports marketing agency Jung von Matt/sports, did not provide a roadmap to a successful sports sponsorship deal, but instead went over what to avoid in sports marketing. Metzelder said sports marketing as a communication tool has become more and more important to companies. He said that around 10% of budgets go toward sponsorships, with sports being one of the most important sectors. Sports marketing currently has two big problems, he said. “The majority of the budget is either spent on generic marketing or directly lands at the logo cemetery,” he said. To avoid this inefficient spending, Metzelder said sports marketing has to be more focused. He said that it has to be short and to the point. “Anyone who can’t say what they want in a short sentence doesn’t know what they're saying,” Metzelder said. In addition to focusing a campaign on one or only a few key attributes, sports marketing also needs to be edgy, consequent, steady and uncompromising. Metzelder said that applying these five attributes is no guarantee for success, but rather a set of guidelines to approach sports marketing.
LACKING CONFIDENCE? Looking toward the industry's future, Metzelder said that sports marketing is already very advanced in Germany. However, he believes there is still a lot of potential on the creative side and in activation. While big companies invest in sports, they fail to make the most out of it on the activation side, Metzelder said. “Using money to acquire sponsorship rights is important, but using money to activate those rights continues to lag behind.” Asked why this is the case, Metzelder said that companies simply have to be more adamant about it. “They have to show more confidence when dealing with clubs. They have to say, ‘I want those rights and I want to activate them together with the players.’”
