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Faculty Spotlight:
John A. Fortunato, Ph.D., Sports Sponsorship
Hearing phrases such as the AT&T At-the-Half or the Prudential Center have become commonplace to any sports fan. With the audiences of traditional routes of advertising (i.e., print, television, and radio) declining sponsorship with sports leagues, teams, athletes, or events continues to be an advertising communication strategy used by many corporations to receive exposure for their brands. Marketing Week estimates that sponsorship is an over $35 billion per year industry with 85 percent of that business involving sports properties.
Sponsorship can take on any possibility -- it is merely a matter of what the sponsor and the property agree to. While the ultimate goal of the sponsorship might be the same as traditional forms of advertising -- influencing consumer behavior -- there are several distinct advantages that a corporation obtains through a sponsorship communication strategy. Sports sponsorship allows for exposure during the actual game by putting the brand name in a position where it is virtually impossible to be ignored. Having its brand in the title of the sports event so that announcers repeatedly give the name of the corporation (i.e., the Fed Ex Orange Bowl or the Pepsi 400 NASCAR race), having a prominent location on the field (such as the rotating signs behind home plate for a baseball game or at mid-court for a basketball game), sponsoring a team (i.e., the Nike swoosh logo appearing on the jersey of several collegiate athletic teams), or an individual athlete (i.e., Nike sponsoring Tiger Woods) all become very desirable for sponsors. This brand exposure is particularly attractive because sports properties attract the hard-to-reach male demographic between 18 and 49.
In addition to brand exposure, one of the objectives of a sponsorship is to create and an association between the brand and the property. The sponsorship goal for the corporation is that fans will transfer their loyalty from the sponsored property to the sponsor itself, thus influencing consumer purchase of the sponsoring brand products. To help achieve this transfer sponsors can communicate their association to the property by being able to place their logo on product packaging and in their advertisements. For example, because Pepsi and its brand of bottled-water, Aquafina, are official sponsors of the New York Mets, a Pepsi or Aquafina case or even an individual bottle can have the image of the New York Mets logo.
Another aspect that makes sponsorship a particularly attractive strategy for many corporations is that it often includes exclusivity within the particular product category. Exclusivity simply eliminates any competition that one corporation might receive from a rival within that product category at the sponsored event or location. For some industries, such as beer, soda, and credit cards, the characteristic of exclusivity provides them not only with brand exposure, but the additional advantage of selling their brand products to fans at a stadium or arena without competition. Through an exclusive sponsorship agreement with the team, a trip to the stadium often provides the consumer with only one brand option. It is either Budweiser or Coors, Pepsi or Coca-Cola, or the ability to sign up for a Visa or MasterCard.
While the advantages of sponsorship are clear, the premier sports sponsorships do come at a very hefty price. For example, Molson Coors pays the National Football League $500 million over five years to be the official beer sponsor for the league, Adidas pays the NBA $400 million over eleven years to be the official uniform supplier for the league, and Prudential pays over $105 million over twenty years for the naming rights to the arena in Newark.
Sponsorship can also be a complicated strategy. A sports league, its teams and broadcast partners might all be selling sponsorships in a particular product category, but to different corporations creating a communication conflict. Sometimes there is symmetry between the league and one of its teams having the same sponsor. In other instances, there is conflict. While Coors is the official beer sponsor of the NFL and the Super Bowl, Anheuser-Busch has sponsorships with several teams and has been the exclusive sponsor of the television broadcast of the Super Bowl, meaning only Budweiser can have commercials during the broadcast of the Super Bowl. Despite its official sponsorship with the NFL and the Super Bowl, Coors is unable to advertise during the broadcast of the most watched television program of the year. Anheuser-Busch will continue with this sponsorship strategy of being the official, exclusive sponsor for the broadcast of the Super Bowl having reached agreements with all of the networks televising the game through 2011. In Major League Baseball, Pepsi is the exclusive soft-drink, but several teams have Coca-Cola as their official sponsor, granting Coca-Cola pouring rights at their stadiums.
The same complexity can exist between the team and its players. While Pepsi and its Aquafina bottled water brand sponsor the New York Mets, David Wright, Mets all-star third baseman, has a sponsorship deal with Vitamin Water. In the advertisements for Vitamin Water, Wright cannot be seen wearing a Mets hat or uniform. In another example, Wise Foods is the official potato chip and cheese doodle sponsor for the Mets. Wise Foods also has a sponsorship agreement with Mets all-star shortstop Jose Reyes. This allows Wise to use Reyes in his Mets uniform on any of its bags of potato chips.
So while there are some disadvantages to sponsorship, the unique advantages will continue to make sponsorship a prominent corporate communication strategy.
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