World Cup Continued - Relevance Increases Sponsorship Value

Relevance Increases Sponsorship Value

We have examined the impressive marketing campaigns that consumer products giants Coca-Cola and Budweiser are using to leverage their FIFA World Cup sponsorship.

But are soft drinks or bottles of beer intrinsically any more relevant to a soccer fan than to the average consumer? Arguably not.

Soccer gear such as footwear and apparel, on the other hand, is very obviously relevant.

World Cup sponsor adidas (www.adidas.com/World_Cup‎) has the advantage of being able to produce products that both commemorate the events and directly enhance the consumer’s ability to enjoy the sport on a personal level.

There’s nothing like a great-looking pair of soccer shoes to reinvigorate your game.

And having the current World Cup logo attached gives the consumer incentive to buy yet another soccer ball, which is much better from adidas’ perspective than waiting for a ball to wear out before replacing it.

Of course adidas supports their investment with the usual inspirational marketing videos, etc. (does Lionel Messi dream?). This helps to generate lasting affinity between fans of the sport and the company’s products.

In that sense, they are pursuing the same goal as Budweiser and Coca-Cola, but with the advantage of being able to integrate their products quite seamlessly into the action.

adidas has the additional advantage of being able to compute its merchandising ROI very easily.

For Budweiser and Coca-Cola, the merchandising sales/profit lift is much more nuanced.

This supports our first rule of sponsorship marketing: Understand your ROI.

The easier it is to connect sales to the sponsorship – in essence the more relevant your sponsorship is to your company’s products or services – the more value you generate from every consumer reached.

Therefore, in considering adding sponsorship to your marketing mix, look for relevance between your offering and the sponsored activity.

That can make the difference between a sponsorship program that you have to take on faith, and one that you can take to the bank.