Sponsorship activation: 7 ways to go beyond the logo
A sponsorship buys the right to be there. Activation is what fans remember. Seven ways brands have turned a deal into something people take part in, with real examples.
Signing a sponsorship buys a brand the right to be there. It does not buy attention. Fans see hundreds of logos every match day and remember almost none of them. What they remember is what a brand let them see, do or feel.
That is sponsorship activation: everything a brand does with the rights it has bought. Here are seven ways to go beyond the logo, each with an example of a brand that did it.
1. Own a moment of the game
Every sport has moments that fans live more intensely than the rest. A brand that attaches itself to one of them gets remembered every time it happens.
Duracell did this with LaLiga. Its deal is built around added time, the minutes where energy and the will to keep going decide matches, which is exactly what the brand sells. The first activation came at the LaLiga Hypermotion playoffs, with on-screen graphics during broadcasts and content revisiting last-minute goals and comebacks. (LaLiga)
2. Become part of the format
Some properties let partners change the experience itself. When the brand is part of how the game is played, fans cannot skip it.
In its new partnership with Baller League, the creator-led six-a-side league, Heineken owns the two "Gamechanger" moments in every match, when a random rule change kicks in. It also turned KSI, Chloe Kelly, Micah Richards, Alex Iwobi and Mark Goldbridge into foosball figures for a custom table that travels to pubs. (Inside World Football)
When the brand is part of the game, fans cannot skip it.
3. Give fans access money cannot buy
Tickets, changing rooms, a kickabout on the final's pitch. Access is the one thing fans want and cannot get on their own.
Around the 2015 Champions League final in Berlin, Mastercard ran a contest whose winners played a match at the Olympiastadion the day after the final, with access to the changing rooms. Michael Ballack posed as a taxi driver and handed out final tickets. The campaign reached more than 32 million contacts and won a PRO Award. (Chief Marketer)
4. Create a moment of your own
A brand does not have to wait for the calendar. It can make the event.
The best-known example is still Red Bull Stratos. On 14 October 2012 Felix Baumgartner jumped from the edge of space, and the live stream passed eight million concurrent viewers on YouTube, a record at the time. (Tubefilter) Not every brand can go to space, but the lesson scales: an idea that is worth watching on its own does not need a media plan to find an audience.
5. Back the athletes, not only the event
Events last a few weeks. Athletes carry a story all year. Sponsoring the people inside the competition gives a brand faces, voices and content long before and after it.
For the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, Visa added 18 players from 16 countries to its Team Visa roster, including Megan Rapinoe and Lucy Bronze, and became the first brand to sponsor the Player of the Match award in the women's competition. (SportBusiness)
6. Take the colours where fans already are
The stadium is a few hours a week. Fans live with their club the rest of the time: at work, on the street, travelling. A partner that shows up there becomes part of the club's everyday life.
Vueling has flown a plane in Athletic Club colours since the partnership began in 2018. It has made around 1,300 flights to more than 70 European destinations and carried over 197,000 passengers. (2Playbook)
7. Let your athletes act, not pose
A pro holding a product is a product shot. A pro playing a role is a scene people want to share.
For StarVie's Mission 27 we put four of the brand's padel players behind a press-conference table to announce, with total seriousness, that mysterious elements had been found in space, timed with the solar eclipse. It launched a racket collection without a single slow-motion smash and passed 1.3 million views. Read how it came together.
Before you start
Start from the fan, not the rights. Ask what fans of that sport already love, and what they cannot get. That is where the brand can be useful.
Find the link to your product. The best activations, like Duracell and added time, make the sponsorship feel inevitable.
Budget for activation from day one. The rights fee buys the space. The idea is what fills it.
Plan for the whole season. One launch video is not an activation. Fans notice who stays.
If you have signed a deal and want fans to take part in it, see how we activate sponsorships.
You’ve signed the deal. Now make it real.