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Marketing and Sponsorship

How will sponsors still get exposure?

A few days after the Super Bowl, Professional Bull Riders President Sean Gleason summoned Josh Baker, senior vice president of corporate partnerships, and CFO Chris Gallina, telling them to prepare for what could be the apocalypse — the coronavirus, then mainly a concern in Asia.

“We thought he was crazy, but he told us we were probably going to hold events in a closed environment,” Baker said.

Accordingly, planning for the PBR started early. On the weekend of March 13 — days after the NBA and nearly every other sports property suspended play — the PBR staged one of the last pro sports events, the Gwinnett Invitational in Duluth, Ga., and did so without fans. On the weekend of April 25-26, at the Lazy E Arena and Ranch near Guthrie, Okla., it held the first major sports event since the COVID-19 shutdown — another fanless event that had to pass approvals from the governor’s office, along with local health, tourism and agricultural authorities (see story, Page 11).

During the event, which included on-site COVID-19 and antibody testing, about 140 staffers — including the participating bull riders — slept in the more than 100 RVs on site for the event. Those few people who sat in the stands practiced social distancing, and partisan cheering was absent. “The only thing you heard was the competitors cheering each other,” Baker said.

Two more audience-free PBR events are planned for May at the Lazy E, the harbinger of a summer of sports without fans in the stands. NASCAR is planning fanless races later this month, and the PGA Tour is set to tee off in June without spectators.

Still to be determined is what a fanless environment means for sponsors.

Viewers could see more camera-visible signage at arenas and stadiums as leagues and teams test out new sponsorship assets.getty images

Gillette is one of sports’ oldest sponsors, but “outside of Gillette Stadium, we’re not big on signage or in-stadium activation,” said Greg Via, Gillette’s head of sports. “We’ll buy media and look for viewership, which will increase as sports comes back. They’ll have to replace all those crowd shots with more access and find a way to make it interactive. That should produce more broadcast integration opportunities.”

The return of pro sports, even without fans, will bring some odd dynamics. There will be pent-up demand from consumers, and the many sponsors who have been on the sidelines, while at the same time it will be a buyer’s market for assets from properties desperate to make up lost revenue.

While there are brands like Gillette that focus on media, local sponsors place a high premium on venue signage, activation and hospitality.

“We can run TV ads any time,” said a marketer for a hospitality brand which sponsors NBA and NFL teams. “The experiential component is what makes it different. The challenge all marketers will have is finding a way to make fans feel like they’re part of the event.”

Octagon’s client roster includes big sports spenders like Bank of America, Delta and Mastercard. Chairman and CEO Rick Dudley is among those trying to make sense of fanless games.

“There’s unique value being associated with any sport that’s returning,” he said, “but they’ll be missing painted faces, fans going crazy, and crowd shots. Sponsors will have to be really creative — what can you do with those empty seats? Brands will need to take advantage of the space created by fans not being there.”

The decreased value of signage at venues will certainly mean more branding in, on and around the field of play. Excel Sports Management Chief Business Officer Emilio Collins said properties will adjust for attendance that will start out as nonexistent and morph into “socially distant” crowds. “Broadcast integration is nothing new, but it will increase,” Collins said. “Events that never had presenting or title sponsors before will get them. Leagues that haven’t will accelerate their thinking around jersey branding and integration on and around the field of play.’’

Having worked as a marketer at three of the four big stick-and-ball leagues, Dudley knows “that’s going to be a temptation too great to resist. No one’s going to want to show empty seats. You’ll see camera-visible signage in new places.”

Added Premier Partnerships CEO Randy Bernstein, “It’s going be about creating more assets, so the leagues can test logos on uniforms, helmets and fields of play. If they play a lot of games at neutral sites, I’d look for temporary naming rights.”

Already looking to fill this void is G3 Marketing President Eric Liebler. He is just beyond the concept stage in building 20-foot-high video walls to fit into arenas, which would show crowds via an internet connection during play and ads during breaks. Liebler is hoping to use the system for a college basketball game this fall, but acknowledges he hasn’t developed a working model yet. “Sports and events will need new models,” he said.

PBR riders can sometimes look like stock cars with all of their ad patches. Baker, a former Cleveland Cavaliers sponsorship executive, now sees those big properties being pulled in that direction.

“We’ll all have to create more value,” he said. “If that value is unexpected, it will alleviate some of those difficult conversations with your corporate partners.”

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