Sporting tourism is a booming business. According to Yougov research, 70% of Aussies say they would travel domestically this year for a sporting event. With this, the price of being an official event sponsor has gone through the roof.
The days of simply whacking a logo on a pair of footy shorts are long gone — now brands aren’t sponsors, they are ‘official partners’, with official tie-ins, bespoke merchandise, on-site activations, airport billboards, TV commercials, six-month social media strategies, and everything in-between. It’s not the Tillies, after all, it’s the CommBank Matildas.
When the 20-metre line on a football oval has a major bank as a naming sponsor — and the oval itself is named after a corporation that makes Hollywood movies from old comic-book characters — you know the chance of smaller brands getting officially involved in a major sporting event is … well, it’s slimmer than the Socceroos winning the upcoming World Cup.
Dean Jones, Jess Montague, Anita Godbeer, and moderator Tim Burrowes
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This is where guerrilla marketing comes into play.
The idea of ‘unofficial’ sponsorship was raised during a lively panel at the Mumbrella Travel Marketing Summit on Thursday afternoon. An audience member asked the question: Can sports sponsorship be accessible and effective for those working with small budgets?
This led to a discussion on guerrilla marketing – even if everyone involved was reluctant to call it that.
Tourism Australia’s GM of public relations, Anita Godbeer, noted that “you don’t necessarily have to be a sponsor of the event” to reap the brand benefits of a major cultural moment.
“You also don’t have to be a sponsor of Sam Kerr or whoever it might be. It’s looking at how you show up in that space and be involved in it and how you leverage. How are you targeting the people that are coming? How are you leveraging that space as well with your offering?
“Be smart about it. How are you geotargeting your spend? How are you creating content that is relevant to that audience and tapping into what people are thinking about when they’re going to said event?
“I think there are a lot of opportunities [without] being a direct sponsor.”
Jess Montague is head of commercial content at News Corp’s sports network. She pointed to the increasing levels of action surrounding the Formula 1 in Melbourne each year.
“[It’s] becoming increasingly expensive to sponsor F1, but you’ve got that huge influx of people in Melbourne. How many people had an after-party last year who weren’t actually affiliated with F1?”
Godbeer said that the Formula 1 generates about $3.3 billion for the state of Victoria each year.
“That’s just phenomenal,” she said. “So there’s pieces of the pie, I think, for everyone.”
Dean Jones is the commercial VP for IHG Hotels and Resorts. It was the official hotel partner of the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia that wrapped earlier this month. It was a “significant investment”, he noted, but it wasn’t the logo that did the business.
“Where it really came to life was not the investment in the sponsorship itself, it was all the activations,” he said.
“We did a lot of those activations without significant budgets. It was either leveraging the talent in different ways.”
Brands can also go the official route without it costing the earth, as long as they are diligent in looking for opportunities.
“The World Paddle Championships are happening out of Penrith with Jess and Naomi Fox. They are the best in the world. They’re going to be competing at Penrith, which is their home ground.
“I don’t think the sponsorship dollars for that would be astronomical. If those girls win, it will be everywhere.”
Godbeer, notes that, while Tourism Australia leaves the actual event promotion to the state tourism offices and the sporting bodies themselves, there are also broader benefits to major sporting events occurring in the country.
“The eyes of the world, all the fans, are on Australia — whether it’s through broadcast or social, those following certain players through their various mediums — it’s an opportunity for us to leverage and promote brand Australia,” she said.
“The way [Australians] show up with sporting events is phenomenal. Anyone who’s been to Melbourne during the Australian Open, it’s just next-level, in terms of how we put on events.
“It’s not just the sport itself, it’s what’s surrounding the stadium, but the whole city comes alive. Restaurants, live music, et cetera.
“It’s a way for us to showcase brand Australia: how we welcome people in, how we do events — and tourism more broadly — really, really well.”