James Green
Feb 28, 20214 min
Updated: Apr 11, 2021
What can ANY sports rights owner learn from the ads Man City, AC Milan, Chicago Bulls, Norwich City, NFL and Faze Clan running on social media?
Watch this video to learn how to grow your commercial revenue by selling more tickets, club merchandise and partnerships! 📈
Both Ash & I worked for a leading sport sponsorship agency for quite a few years.
Ash was locating and selling to fast-growing brands every day on behalf of Premier League clubs and I was Head of Operations helping make sure our pitches to these brands was more attractive than other marketing opportunities out there for them.
However, I wish I knew then what I know now about the power of leveraging social media advertising... would have made my job a lot easier!
We've included an analysis of some examples of sports clubs who are actually using social media advertising to sell merchandise, engage their current fanbase and growing their global fanbases.
But there are very few good examples of sports clubs smartly using the potential of social media ads to deliver tangible results to their current partners.
Brands want real results, not bulls***t media value numbers or views.
It's cheaper for them to buy views on other media channels.
Sports clubs have the power to help brands tell stories and by blending that with well-targeted social media advertising to measurably deliver actual sales and REAL ROI for those partners.
Making it much easier to have that tricky renewal conversation during tricky economic times.
Another tactic we love that AC Milan are a great example of is identifying potential high-growth markets and creating tailored content to that market to grow their fanbase.
And if you are pitching fast-growing brands and industry titans in South East Asia or Central & South America (we know you are Premier League clubs) why not invest your marketing budget to GUARANTEE to be the most highly engaged club in those key markets.
It makes your pitching process really, really easy.
It wouldn't take a huge amount of ad spend to do either.
Actively grow your fanbase by showing relevant content, with relevant players to specific markets.
Like AC Milan do with Hakan Calanhoglu to their Turkish audience.
(PSG also promote a lot of content with Neymar, Icardi and Cavani to South American audiences)
Imagine how easy you can make it for your sales team if you can show the biggest brands in South Korea or Qatar you are the most followed club in their country from your league!
Then once you've got that partner and your thinking about how to activate effectively.
Follow Chicago Bulls example and run a proper split-testing campaign and bake that into ALL of your agreements.
If you want to sell sponsorship packages in 2021
relying on flaky numbers IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
Brands are expecting accurate metrics from their precious marketing budgets and comparing their tangible, accurate data to 'oh we think this many people watch this game world-wide' is not good enough.
Trust me, I used to work for a WPP-backed marketing research agency that delivered media value reports for the IOC, FIFA, Premier League clubs and more.
From the belly of the beast I can tell you media value is at best an estimate of an estimate of an estimate of a number...
It isn't a return on investment, it's saying they could have spent a similar amount on TV advertising.
You will stand out to the brands you are pitching by even demonstrating that you understand how to run Facebook Ads properly to their target audience.
There are SO many leading sports clubs not taking this seriously yet and missing out on this opportunity that isn't complicated, won't break the bank and can be pretty quick to produce results.
Think about the staggering amount of quite boring, bland companies that manage to make it work with social media advertising (trust me we work with IT companies and packaging machinery corporations!).
You've got a product that people really care and give a shit about.
This is a no-brainer...
An open goal.
See what I did there...😉
If you don't know your ads manager from your elbow and want some help setting up any of the campaigns we mentioned CLICK HERE TO BOOK IN A CALL
And this is all without even mentioning the potential of ticket sales and corporate hospitality campaigns that you can run when you are allowed to!
Did anyone say LinkedIn ads targeted at company directors with more than 50 staff based 20km from your stadium????
If you are still reading this you probably are interested in getting going with this ASAP.
We've been in your shoes...
Ash & I have both worked at a leading UK sport sponsorship agency (I was head of Operations, he was in the sales team).
We know what the fastest-growing global brands demand, and we know that you are under pressure from all angles to deliver on your commercial goals.
We've developed sport sponsorship packages and rights deals for Champions League & Premier League teams.
Sport is rapidly chaning commercially, using the power of social media advertising we can make sure you don't get left behind!
And below is again that link to book in a call and we'll just do all the hard work for you