With big brand deals often being worth tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, there’s always a lot of pressure to push the boat out and try something new and inspirational to achieve marketing goals – this has certainly become more so the case with newer sponsors which have started to include increasing numbers of betting companies, non uk licensed casinos, crypto sites, and many more. Post pandemic advertising has also led to the rapid change for how sports branding is taking place – so how are these brands making the big change?
New tech has become an important tool – Whilst options like augmented reality may seem like a bit of a gimmick, usage was found throughout the past couple of years to inspire fans to take part as well as a discussion point too – the Carolina Panthers did this in 2021 with the augmented reality panther taking over the field, and NASCAR did it too by allowing users to drive their own augmented reality stock car around the house. Still rooted in the novelty space, there are growing opportunities to use things like augmented reality in impressive ways that show the value of new branding and the attention it can generate.
(Image from theverge.com)
Social media has been shown as a powerful tool – Many big brands have realized how important it is to develop an online personality, with the growth of betting companies as sponsors this has been the major change with a sense of humor and personality emerging as Paddy Power were amongst the first to do so but others have follow, it generates a huge amount of fan interaction and much like the use of newer technologies creates a talking point too as Twitter quotes are shared and fun TikTok videos spread like wildfire too.
An expansion away from the traditional – It isn’t just the traditional sporting space that’s generating the buzz with these sorts of brands either, the growth of esports was in part fueled by the big sponsorships not only from tech companies but from these same betting and casino sites, in some ways it had even been the stepping stone to expand into traditional sporting – with traditional sporting organizations getting further involved in these new virtual options, it has helped to signal a changing of the times as sports encompasses more than just the big traditional names, and into even more niche options as all are growing.
It’s a big time for change in advertising and sporting is becoming one of the footholds for this change – and sports brands will be amongst the first to initiate some of the change being seen in the advertising space as a whole.
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