Sports sponsorships are becoming a staple for many B2B brands, allowing them to extend their global reach by reaching a broader demographic. The competitive nature of sports sponsorships make it extremely difficult for companies to stand out. Alex Clarke has uncovered the B2B brands going the extra mile this year
Pushing the boundaries with Europe’s footballing giants
Following a six-year relationship with the UEFA Champions League and having recently renewed its sponsorship, UniCredit is leading the way with what a B2B sports sponsorship can achieve.
Unwilling to rest on its laurels, the Italian bank has increased its business and sales focus by expanding its reach across UEFA’s footballing spectrum, including the UEFA Europa League, UEFA Super Cup, UEFA Youth League, UEFA Futsal Cup Finals and UEFA Women’s Champions League Final. It illustrates the success UniCredit has experienced through its UEFA sponsorship, as well as the confidence it possesses going forwards. This expansion will enable the bank to extend its demographic by engaging a number of new target audiences, extending potential coverage to nearly three times as many competitive matches, and strengthening client relationships through the ability to offer more promotional tours and ticketing incentives.
In terms of solid results achieved, UniCredit has sold 1.5 million products and treated 70,000 guests to matches, helping to generate an average return on comparable costs of 225 per cent over its five-year sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League.
Despite extending its brand awareness to all corners of the globe, UniCredit is also keen to incorporate local brands into its sponsorship strategy. Along with referee mascots, unique match coins and trophy tours, UniCredit has recently launched a ‘player of the week’ competition to boost fan engagement across it social media platforms.
The global reach of the tournament is almost unparalelled, with 180 million football fans from over 200 territories tuning into the final between FC Barcelona and Juventus in Berlin earlier this summer. Add to this the global coverage the tournament demands over the course of a season and it’s easy to understand UniCredit’s eagerness to extend and expand its relationship.
This conversion journey from brand awareness to clear sales results has been one of the key benefit of UniCredit’s sponsorship, as the head of strategic sponsorships at the bank, Daniele Penna, explained: “This deal has been specifically constructed to meet that objective, providing ample opportunities for enticing, engaging and strategic sales activations in addition to on-going awareness and brand building. We aim to provide an easy and convenient multi-channel banking service that can make a real difference to our customers’ lives in good times and bad, and we wish to convey this as much as possible.”
He added: “Each year we monitor the progress of our sponsorship, reporting on key performance metrics to ensure we have the clearest picture of what works and what doesn’t. This insight helps us to continually refine how we activate across UEFA’s properties and we are expecting to see our greatest returns yet over the coming season.”
Revolutionising tennis coverage through analytics
Over its 26-year relationship with Wimbledon, B2B giant IBM has completely re-defined the conventional parameters between a sporting event and their sponsor.
As digital technology surges forward and the demand for instant data and statistical response increases, the global tech company has demonstrated sponsorship of a sporting event requires much more than mere advertising.
During this year’s tournament IBM took over Wimbledon’s broadcast centre, establishing two ‘bunkers’ dedicated to data collection. One room was for live incoming data, monitoring social media and threat data management, while the other collected specific outbound data.
This was all an effort to increase engagement across its platforms, shifting focus away from self-advertising to audience response and interaction. The Slamtracker app was a key aspect of this social strategy, providing tennis enthusiasts with instant access to on-court data, including number of aces, serve speed, winners and other key statistics. The app renders statistics in real time, and is the product of 41 million data points, cultivated over an eight year history.
IBM’s social growth following the Wimbledon campaign is impressive, with 82 million Twitter impressions versus 44 million in 2014. It also enjoyed a 100 per cent increase in peak social media reply rate, recording 45,000 shares and engagements from over 200 news articles.
Moving forwards, IBM has continued to develop its coverage at major tennis tournaments, pushing the boundaries of audience engagement by refining its digital platforms at the US Open.
Sam Seddon, IBM client executive for Wimbledon, explains the recipe for success in sports sponsorships: “It really comes down to value and ensuring there is a clear alignment of values between your brand and how you are trying to communicate and the brand you are looking to align with from a sports point of view. If you can’t easily articulate that then you really need to question why you are doing it as your clients and customers will.”
Establishing trust through local investment
While IBM succeeded in boosting its digital footprint through a global sporting event, our next contender has focused strongly on community investment as its sponsorship strategy.
Intuit Quickbooks is keen to expand brand awareness by connecting with local businesses, as part of its sponsorship of Aston Villa FC. As its main sponsor for the 2015/16 and 2016/17 Premier League campaigns, the online accounting software firm is engaging with the small business community, running local competitions and events for entrepreneurs across Aston Villa’s fan base.
The Premier League is arguably the most popular footballing division in the world, with a reported audience of 4.7 billion across 212 territories and 80 different broadcasters.
QuickBooks is able to profit from the global reach of the Premier League, while also generating customer loyalty through local engagement, the online accounting firm has achieved a clever balance between leveraging its existing brand strength in areas such as the US, and cultivating new relationships in the West Midlands and beyond.
The sponsorship deal, which is estimated to be worth £5 million, involves much more than merely plastering its logo on Aston Villa’s home and away kits. The company is running numerous competitions across its social media platforms throughout the season, providing financial support at the club’s regular pre-match Family Fun Zones and even developing a digital game for supporters of the club.
Community investment is an approach some sponsorships overlook, yet it’s a fantastic way to build trust with local businesses and establish relationships that will undoubtedly prove fruitful as a company grows.
Trisha Rassatt, senior marketing manager of sponsorship and activation at Intuit Quickbooks, explained the reasoning behind the sponsorships: “Aston Villa is one of the UK’s biggest football clubs with a large fan base and a rich history of success. It also has huge growth ambitions that mirror our own. We’ve been incredibly impressed by the set-up here and see Aston Villa as the perfect club to help us grow the QuickBooks brand in the UK.
“We have prior experience of sponsoring a premier league team in the West Midlands and because of this, we already have great relationships with many of the local businesses in the area. This season, we want to build on this experience and privileged position to further grow our brand in the UK and help businesses across the West Midlands, and beyond, thrive.”
