Sports Marketing Summit topics unveiled including Big Bash, E-sports, gambling, athletes panel, and when to ditch a sponsorship
Top athletes, marketers and agency practitioners are among the first speakers to be announced for this year’s Mumbrella Sports Marketing Summit.
The Mumbrella Sports Marketing Summit kicked off last year with a sell-out audience at the MCG. This year it takes place Thursday July 28 at Sydney’s Royal Randwick.
Last year’s sold-out Sports Marketing Summit
The man behind the Big Bash League, Anthony Everard, will give a keynote presentation on how the annual cricket event became one of the top 10 most attended sports leagues on the planet.
Australian test cricketer Ed Cowan and Australian netball star Sharni Layton will be on a panel of athletes in a session moderated by Pickstar founder James Begley, talking about their experiences and expectations as brand ambassadors.
And Venessa Hunt, the head of mobile for GroupM, will open the day with a presentation looking at the vast impact mobile technology is having on the way fans engage with their favourite sports, both at the venues and at home.
And the future of sports betting advertising, one of the fastest growing sectors in the advertising market, will be debated, with Heath Davis, director of critically-acclaimed feature film ‘Broke’ – about a footy star who falls from grace after struggling with a gambling addiction – along with Sportsbet’s legal and regulatory affairs director, Ben Sleep, on the panel.
The rapidly-growing global phenomenon of E-sports is presenting marketers with a new way to reach millennials, and will be unpacked in a session at the conference. Andrew Condon of sports marketing agency, Gemba, will lead a panel featuring Daniel Ringland, head of eSports at Riot Games; Scott Wenkart, CEO of Spiral Media, which represents streaming service Twitch in Australasia; and tournament organiser Nick Vanzetti, director of Electronic Sports League.
The biggest sporting event on earth, the Olympic Games, happens in August, but draconian rules limit what content brands that are not official sponsors and athletes can post around it. A session on How to Crash the Olympics will feature advice from the likes of Twitter’s brand strategy lead Grant Baxter and media lawyer Stephen von Muenster on how brands can capitalise on conversations around the event.
Former sports editor of The Australian and director of Womensport and Recreation Society, Louise Evans, will lead a panel of sports administrators and marketers examining the impact the upcoming women’s AFL league will have on women’s sport in terms of its broadcast and sponsorship potential.
A session entitled ‘Should I Stay or Go?’ will see top marketers and codes investigate the fine margins between brands sticking beside or ditching teams or players following major controversies. Moderated by former Visa global head of sponsorship, Andrew Woodward, the panel will feature former Jeep chief marketer and CEO of media agency Maxus, Mark McCraith, with more speakers to be announced soon.
The huge potential of grass-roots sports will be looked at in another session at the conference. With millions of young and old Australians taking part in organised sporting competitions each week, are marketers overlooking a potential goldmine in terms of return on investment? Head of the Australian Sports Foundation, Patrick Walker, will lead a panel which includes Andrew Purchas, the founder of Australia’s first gay rugby club and President of the Bingham Cup.
The Mumbrella Sports Marketing Summit takes place at Royal Randwick Racecourse on Thursday July 28.
