Sports Marketing Is Possible Without Breaking The Bank

From June 11 to July 19, teams from around the world will participate in the FIFA World Cup, a soccer tournament that will be contested in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Thus far, as often happens in the lead-up to major sports events, much of the media coverage has focused not on the sport itself, but on the costs associated with the event. And that has been especially true in the United States, where ticket prices and transportation charges make attending a match prohibitive for many longtime supporters of soccer, dating back to the days when the sport was considered minor here.

It’s not only average fans who find attending a World Cup match out of reach financially. Many companies that would like a sports marketing publicity tie-in with a major sports event also find that aligning with one would consume too much of their marketing budget.

According to internet estimates, being an official sponsor of the World Cup costs approximately $100 million for the current games. Longer sponsorships cost even more. For the Olympic Games, top-tier sponsorships can exceed $200 million per four-year cycle. A 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl costs roughly $8 million. Add in production and talent costs and the total can skyrocket to anywhere from $15 million to $50 million.

Companies with unlimited marketing budgets obviously believe those investments are worthwhile, even though many marketing experts argue that more targeted advertising and promotional programs can deliver more bang for the buck, as I believe they can.

For many companies, the cost of being able to say “official sponsor” is simply prohibitive. But that doesn’t mean a sports marketing program is out of the question.

The solution is simple: Create your own sports marketing program, which, if done correctly, can generate significant local and national earned media year-round if the client wants it to. I know it can work because I’ve done it several times.

Here are a few examples:

St. Regis Paper Company: After reviewing the company’s product catalog, we focused on “Math Baseball,” a flash card game consisting of simple math problems. By answering correctly, the “batter” was awarded a single, double, triple or home run, depending on the difficulty of the questions.

Monte Irvin, the Hall of Famer, who at that time worked in the baseball commissioner’s office, agreed to serve as the “Math Baseball Commissioner” and gave interviews on the importance of making learning fun. We worked with the New York City Police Athletic League to organize our first “Math Baseball” game. The event achieved its objective, generating substantial print and television coverage, and was later rolled out to other cities.

The program was independent of Major League Baseball, eliminating expensive rights fees. Nevertheless, many Major League Baseball teams embraced “Math Baseball” as a community relations event and volunteered players to participate at no cost. Because of the program’s uniqueness, “Math Baseball” received considerable local and national publicity, proving that depending on the project and product, it is not always necessary to sponsor a sport or pay major rights fees to generate significant awareness.

For a national substance abuse treatment organization: We had executives speak publicly about substance abuse in sports and its impact on young people, resulting in national media coverage.

For a sports marketing firm: A campaign featuring the CEO discussing the growing “parent problem” at youth sports events resulted in extensive national publicity.

What was necessary for success in these examples was not an officially sanctioned logo, but original and creative thinking.

Here are some tips for companies of all sizes that would like to create a sports marketing publicity program without spending enormous sums of money:

• Create your own local program, keeping in mind sports that are covered regularly by the media. Owning your own program also makes it easier for the media to provide sponsor recognition.

• When selecting a local project, consider how it can later be expanded nationally while keeping costs within budget.

• Once you have decided on a program, look for a spokesperson with name recognition who has been out of the public eye for a number of years and can speak about the “good old days.” Nostalgia remains a powerful part of sports coverage and can make a spokesperson highly appealing to the media.

Once all of these elements are in place, the program is ready to launch. And if managed correctly, it can achieve what every client wants: positive earned media without spending a fortune.

Another option is to partner with a local business as a sub-sponsor, provided your organization maintains control of the program.

I’m not suggesting that independently created programs will generate the worldwide attention of mega-events. But brand recognition is often more memorable in focused campaigns than in events crowded with sponsors, where audiences sometimes struggle to remember which company is tied to which event.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of creating your own sports marketing and publicity program is that you retain control and avoid the costly restrictions and requirements that often accompany official sponsorship programs.