Do you think the term “sponsorships” is outdated and everything should be called partnerships? just an idea I’ve been thinking about…

It was really just an idea I’ve briefly thought about on occasion. A lot of times the terms “sponsorships” and “partnerships” are thrown around and used interchangeably to describe deals between entertainment and sports properties and brands. But does the wording that properties/brands use reflect how they actually see their relationships? Should we be moving towards the use of partnerships (which imply that both sides benefit) and away from sponsorships (which unfortunately has not been very well explained to the general public)?

Your Responses

After I posted that message on Twitter, I got some great responses. Thanks to all who contributed the thoughts below (earliest responses posted first):

rscibetti@JasonPeck I definitely see a mix of both terms. Definitely tells you something about how the entity views the relationships

MJMunson@JasonPeck No, people just need to know what it means. Look up the latin roots for sponsor and you’ll see it is a perfect word for its use.

BizballMaury@JasonPeck It’s moving more & more toward partnerships as deals are multi-pronged. See my NY Post article on Yankees/Audi http://ow.ly/hoef

jpbrunelle@JasonPeck I think it depends on the context, but ’sponsorships’ will remain in play for the foreseeable future. Bigwigs want to sponsor.

MJPatzwaldt@jasonpeck i still think there’s a difference between sponsorships and partnerships…those sponsored tend to have longer term benefits

jeffmard@JasonPeck partnership implys 2-way street, sponsorship implys other “partners” exist. Which is more true? then u have advertiser…

Play3r_VP@JasonPeck sponsorships is out. partnerships are in. it’s about relationships + alliances… NOT about hand outs.

mmahoney13@JasonPeck I think the Sponsor should be emphasized more in many cases, esp PGA Tournaments and even teams. they enable us to do more

sponsorpitch@JasonPeck IMO, not outdated & no need to hide from the term + lots of different types of biz ‘partnerships’.. something more narrow needed

EmilyRCampbell1@JasonPeck There r still true mktg sponsorships out there even tho’ some local partnerships may lean more toward philanthropy.

briangainorRT @JasonPeck poses a great question – thoughts on “partnerships” vs. “sponsorships”? How do you see your relationship with partners?

Darren_Heitner@JasonPeck I love the idea of banning the word “sponsorship”, all successful “sponsorships” are partnerships. Both sides should win.

Sponsorships vs. Partnerships – My Thoughts

Let’s see how Wikipedia defines the terms.

“A partnership is a type of business entity in which partners (owners) share with each other the profits or losses of the business.”

“To sponsor something is to support an event, activity, person, or organization financially or through the provision of products or services.”

The partnership definition that Wikipedia gives isn’t completely relevant to this conversation–which is about using the term sponsorship vs. partnership when describing deals between sports/entertainment properties and brands. In most cases, no brand is going to be willing to equally share in the losses of the property’s business–unless it’s a special deal where the brand is actually able to share in the profits, too. I’m not aware of this happening very often.

The sponsor definition is interesting as it emphasizes giving support. In my opinion, this “giving support” aspect has not been emphasized nearly enough in discussions and articles about sponsorship. For example, all we heard about for awhile was that since Wachovia wasn’t doing well, they shouldn’t be wasting money on sponsoring their golf tournament (and they actually removed their name from it, even though it was paid for). Or that Northern Trust shouldn’t have had a party for their best executives at their tournament. People hear that, instead of hearing about how much money from each PGA TOUR event goes to charity or that the money spent on parties/events provides jobs for cooks, caterers and others. But I’m getting off subject here.

My thinking about this sponsorships vs. partnerships issue is that it’s more of a reflection on how each side sees the other and how they approach relationships. My feeling is that it starts with properties. Do you want a sponsor (someone who supports you via money or services) or do you want (can you get?) a partner (someone who has a greater stake in your success)? While some smaller properties may be happy just finding sponsors, some of the most prestigious properties can be more selective and seek partners who have very strong brands and who must commit more than just money to the relationship.

What do the big leagues/events call these relationships?

Let’s check out some websites to see what wording some of the major pro leagues and premier sports events use when publicly describing their relationships with brands.

• AVP – sponsors (listed on bottom of home page)
• MLB – sponsors (here’s the link)
• NBA – not clear from their website
• NFL – not clear from their website
• PGA TOUR – title sponsors for tournaments and huge list of marketing partners
• USGA – partners (logos listed on bottom right of their home page and here)
• The Masters – no official wording but relationships with IBM, AT&T and Exxon Mobile
• US Open (Tennis) – sponsors (list is here)
• Breeders’ Cup – partners (list is here)

The funny thing is, for some of these properties (and many teams as well), it’s hard to even tell who their sponsors are by looking at their websites! Or they hide them and make you really look around. That would not make me happy I was a sponsor/partner-no matter what the relationship is called. It definitely didn’t make me happy when I used to spend a lot of time researching that stuff.

As consumers’ attention becomes even harder to get (because we have more choices now than ever), my feeling is that the term “partnerships” will be used more often. Properties who used to sell out every event and may have been content just getting money are now in the same boat as brands–they need eyeballs and attention, too. Now both sides are asking each other for access to market to their customers, and the best relationships will be those where both sides help each other. Sponsorships certainly aren’t dying–I just think the word “partnerships” may be more beneficial in describing these relationships and ensuring that both sides are getting what they want and working to help each other succeed.

But maybe I’m completely wrong. Maybe the words should be used interchangeably and there isn’t really much difference between them. Maybe good sponsors are essentially partners. What do you think?

I wrote this about a month or so ago- some of the numbers may not be exactly correct now, but I think the overall message is still accurate.

The Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) runs some of the most exciting and accessible events in the sports world.  If you’ve seen an event live, you know what I mean. Beach volleyball players are some of the most athletic people on the planet and the AVP’s events have a cool festival/party community atmosphere.

So, the AVP has great events, awesome athletes, cool content, passionate fans and some good sponsors  (Crocs, Barefoot Wine, Russell Athletics, Bud Light, etc). There’s a huge opportunity for the AVP to leverage social media to connect with their fans, build their brand, increase traffic to their website and extend their sponsorships. Here are some social media tools and platforms they’re using (based on some quick research), along with some opportunities for ways they can get more out of their efforts. But I really think they need goals and strategy (if they don’t already have them) to maximize their social media efforts.

Twitter

The AVP’s Twitter account is difficult to find (it’s not linked to on their main website). It appears that the AVP started their Twitter account on April 3rd, but they haven’t really utilized it much (only have 2 updates and 168 followers, and they are following zero people). The biggest benefit of Twitter is that it allows brands to show their human side and share interesting content to build trust and relationships, so the AVP has a lot of room to grow here.

Facebook

The AVP’s Facebook page has about 7500 fans and appears to be updated occasionally with pictures, videos and links to AVP content. They have done a good job at including their 2009 events in this page. However, I think they could do a better job at posting interesting content (AVP-related and other volleyball related stuff) to become a resource for all volleyball fans. And they should look at ways to reward their fans on Facebook to give them a reason to connect with them there.

YouTube

The AVP links to this YouTube account on it’s Facebook page. However, there are no videos on this YouTube account. With all the great videos and content the AVP likely has, they’re missing a big opportunity here to syndicate their content to YouTube, create original content and involve their fans and sponsors.

As we know, social media isn’t just about off-site tools and platforms. On-site elements and features can be utilized to enable audiences to easily share content with their friends and empower them to create their own content (or let them be involved in the process) to give them a stake in your brand. Here’s some of what the AVP is doing on-site.

Blog

I was excited to see that the AVP links to their blog on the front page of their site in a very visible location. However, I was disappointed to see that the blog hasn’t been updated since August 2008. The blog also lives on wordpress.com, instead of on avp.com, so the AVP doesn’t have full control over the creative design of the site and they are missing out on capturing the traffic that comes to the blog. On the plus side, it was nice to see that AVP pros such as Jake Gibb and Todd Rogers had been contributing content to the blog. But a blog needs to be updated at least weekly to be effective, and they should have a content strategy in place to ensure that what is written is relevant and engaging.

Videos

The AVP has a nice video section on its website that features a variety of videos and channels. They appear to be professionally done and they include some great content. People can share these videos on other sites such as Facebook, Digg and StumbleUpon by clicking the “share” link under each video. I’d probably look at making this more visible by including the logos directly under the video and I’d also add a few sites to this list to really give people an opportunity to share this content with their friends.

Other

The AVP has some very passionate fans, but the organization is missing out on capturing this conversation and soliciting feedback on their website. It may make sense to build a community for fans, similar to what other leagues and teams have done. This would most likely increase time spent on the site and page views. More time spent with a brand = stronger fans = more revenue. There also are ways to integrate sponsors into a fan community to add value and generate additional revenue.

If the AVP is going to be successful with any community efforts (on-site or off-site through other social media tools/platforms), they probably need to hire a community manager who is very passionate about volleyball and the AVP. This would be someone whose job is to facilitate conversations, content creation, fan evangelism and feedback and help grow the AVP’s brand and community.

Of course, the AVP really needs a strategy before doing anything. They need to figure out what their goals are, what they will measure as indicators of success, how they will achieve these goals, and what tools/platforms they will use. Once they do this, they will be in a much better position to leverage social media to help them engage fans and build business. What do you think?

Teams and properties often include a lot of different assets in packages for sponsors. Signage, radio and TV spots, other media, experiences, tickets and more and the impressions, ratings and other metrics can be difficult to keep track of. When sponsors ask for results at the end of a season or after an event, you need to be able to tell them exactly what they got and what the results were to ensure that they are happy with what they paid for.

The Solution:

SponsorshipPRO+ presentation software

I was fortunate to speak with Tom Stipes recently about his company and its SponsorshipPRO+ presentation software tool that enables teams and properties to more easily track their sponsors’ assets so they can give them accurate and detailed post-event recap reports. These reports help properties demonstrate that they fulfilled or exceeded what they were supposed to deliver. He didn’t ask me to write about his software, but I wanted to anyway, because I was very impressed with its features and ease-of-use. Tom walked me through a demo (which he’ll happily do for you as well), but you can also see how this works online.

On the admin side, the tool allows properties and teams to create presentations for specific sponsors and catalog and identify assets. You can use some of the built in categories (radio, TV, tickets, etc) or add your own. Within each category, you can assign a description and results to specific assets and upload documents, pictures, and videos to help tell the story of what your sponsors actually received.

After you finish putting in information about each asset, you can easily turn this information into a presentation which you can put on a CD for sponsors. You can include a video intro if you’d like, and you can add any file type–including large audio/video files, spreadsheets, pictures, documents, etc. At anytime during the presentation, you can pull up these specific files to really show the aspects of the program and the results. If you or your sponsors just want to see everything together in a chart, the software enables you to do this as well.

The software isn’t cheap ($699 for the first license and $449 thereafter). However, I think it would pay for itself due to time saved, money saved (on printing costs–no need to print pages and pages of notes and put them in binders anymore) and features that enable you to track assets and results to show sponsors and keep them happy. One thing that may be interesting to develop in the future is an online version of the software, so people can access the data anywhere. But I can see the value in presenting this information in person, so sponsors really get a good picture of what they paid for. And you can always give the sponsor a copy of the presentation so they can look at the data again later.

Has anyone else used or tried this software? If so, what did you think?

People such as life coach Tony Robbins, Peter Diamandis (XPrize Foundation) and Rick Jones (Fishbait Marketing) and Sam Hill (FTI Helios Consulting) gave thought-provoking and motivating speeches. It was also great to have to have the opportunity to hear from people from brands such as Lee Jeans, McDonald’s, Carlsberg Breweries, the NBA Nets, the NHL, Kodak and meet some of the people who work with IEG. I also had a nice chat with Evander Holyfield on Monday night at the House of Blues.

You can find some detailed conference notes on IEG’s blog, but here are a few thoughts I wanted to share.

The Economy and Sponsorship Industry

Obviously, the economy was a hot topic at the conference. There was a good amount of discussion about what people think will happen over the next year. While this is tough to predict, the dominant view seemed to be that we aren’t anywhere near where we were in the 1930s, but it will take at least a few years for us to recover.

There was also a lot of discussion about the image of the sponsorship industry as a whole.  Most everyone was  upset by the recent attacks by congressmen and media on the sponsorship industry. While it’s not fair that sponsorship was thrown under the bus, perception matters, and it’s up to us to educate the public on the benefits of sponsorship–and how it actually is used to build business. More than ever, it’s important that people measure their efforts and link them to business objectives.

Social Media

Another hot topic was right up my alley – social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc) and new forms of marketing that can be used by properties and brands to save money, connect with their audiences, and add value to their sponsorships. Liz Cahill from Lee Jeans gave a great presentation about how they use social media to promote their cause marketing efforts around Lee National Denim Day, which helps raise money to fight breast cancer. Tom Green spoke about how he uses social media to promote his music festival, D Fest, and how he integrates his sponsors into these efforts.

In one of the more interesting examples of new media/marketing campaigns, Johan Jervoe from McDonald’s talked about their unbranded Alternate Reality Game, “The Lost Ring,” which was launched around the 2008 Olympics to target the advertising-adverse Gen Y audience. The game generated 430 million measured media impressions over six months, and five million people participated. Johan said brand favorability and future visit intent increased 45% and 67%, respectively, among people who played the game. It’s still hard for me to understand alternate-reality gaming, and even Johan admitted that McDonald’s still doesn’t understand exactly how/why it worked so well. But this stuff is definitely something to keep an eye on for the future.

Other Thoughts

I was able to use Twitter to find a few other folks who were at the conference and meet them. The ability to find others who share your interests is one very valuable benefit of using Twitter. I’m JasonPeck on there if you want to follow me.

During the presentations, I was one of the only people there taking notes on my laptop. I wish I could have gotten the wireless internet to work in the big conference rooms. The ability to be online and use Twitter during some of the speeches would have brought an added level of interaction to the conference. You may think that this would cause people to feel disconnected from the speakers, but I disagree. Twitter allows for real-time dialogue and discussion to take place during an event. When you know you’re going to share something with your network, you actually are more likely to focus on what is being said, so you share the right information. Twitter also allows for new information to be brought into the conversation. It certainly doesn’t replace the experience of actually being there, but it can help introduce other people to the content. And maybe they’ll see that there are valuable ideas being discussed and will decide to come to the conference next time. That’s a win for the speaker and conference organizers.

I hope some of these notes/ideas from the conference were beneficial. I had a great time in Chicago and look forward to building on some of the relationships that were started there.

Speaking of LinkedIn, there will be a meetup for members of the Sponsorship Insights LinkedIn Group on Sunday, March 8 at 6 PM at Kitty O’Sheas Pub in the basement of the Hilton Hotel in Chicago.  This will be the first official gathering for the group, which Dan Beeman has built up to about 3,000 sports marketing and sponsorship professionals. LinkedIn is a great way to network with professionals and form new relationships, so if you’re in this industry, I highly recommend joining this group. Dan also has a great blog (Sponsorship Insights) that you should check out if you’re interested in this stuff.

Dan asked me to help host this meetup, and I’m excited about discussing sports marketing and social media with anyone who is interested. Please let me know if you’ll be able to make it. If you can’t make this meeting, but will still be attending the conference, I’d still love to meet up. Drop me a line if you’re interested!

Super Bowl Ads

Russell Scibetti from the Business of Sports shares his picks for Super Bowl Ad winners and losers. Also, here’s an interesting post from a UNC business school senior about what makes a Super Bowl Ad super.

Michael Phelps

Caught by the camera for taking a bong hit, Phelps was suspended by USA Swimming for three months. CNBC’s Darren Rovell says this is a joke. Kellogg’s announced that it won’t renew his deal when it expires (but it might have decided that before this whole thing came out), and Sports Media Watch writes that his day’s as America’s golden boy are fading fast.

The Economy’s Effect on Sports

Dominic Perilli wrote a great article at SportsAgentBlog.com about the effect of the economy on sports. The outcome is that sports aren’t as recession-proof as you might think

NJ Nets Creative Promotions

Brian Gainor at Partnership Activation writes about an interesting promotion the NJ Nets are doing to give local CEOs a chance to win 2-months free sponsorship next season by participating in the Metropolitan Madness Basketball Challenge in March. Nets exec Brett Yormark is also teaming up with his brother Michael and the NHL panthers in a promotion to allow fans of either team to cash in unused season tickets for a seat at the other team’s games.

National Signing Day Thoughts

Marc Isenberg, author of Money Players (the book and the blog), provides some interesting thoughts on National Signing Day and how the process could be improved to better help/protect student-athletes.*Side note* I’m very pleased that the Tar Heels are ranked by Scout and Rivals as having a top 10 recruiting class. Big things are coming for UNC football.

Marriage of Live Nation and Ticketmaster?

The Wall Street Journal announced that Live Nation and Ticketmaster, two of the largest players in the sports and entertainment ticketing industry, are close to a merger. Russell Scibetti provides some thoughts about what this could mean for venues, teams and other ticketing companies.

“Just in time to keep the partnership bull raging, Singularity—sudden, unprecedented progress including breakthroughs in brain science, social media and digital data—alters the physics of sponsorship.

Sponsorship is founded on the instinctive, often subconscious, equation that together, the value of each partner is worth more than either could achieve on its own: 1+1=3.something, or Pi.”

In our economy today, it is even more vital than ever  that companies in the sports industry figure out ways to work together and use new strategies and tools to survive and generate revenue.  I’ve never attended an IEG conference before, but I’m planning on going this year, as I think there will be a lot to be learned from some very smart people. They’ve got a great lineup of keynote speakers, including:

• Peter Diamandis, X PRIZE creator
• Rolf Jensen, award-winning author of The Dream Society
• Johan Jervoe, corporate VP, global marketing for McDonald’s
• Tony Robbins, Life coach (I’m a pretty big fan, and am pretty excited to see Mr. Robbins)
• Keld Strudahl, international marketing director for Carlsberg Breweries

It looks like this conference will also feature some great presentations and worshops conducted by thought-leaders from companies such as:

• American Airlines
• Chevron
• MillerCoors
• Kodak
• P&G
• Sprint
• Visa

You can see more about the conference here. It looks like a great event and I’d love to connect with any of you who are planning on attending. It’s not cheap (individual ticket is $1,895), but I think it will be worth it, and you get a discount for purchasing multiple tickets. IEG was nice enough to get in touch with me and provide a discount code. The first 25 people who register using the code “AC2009Sports” will get 10% off the cost of their tickets.

According to their website, almost half of the 1,200 tickets have sold, so if you’re planning on attending, you might want to register soon before the tickets sell out.

Let me know if you’re coming to this event and let’s meet up!

Sponsor Pitch, which launched in closed beta in early December, aims to connect sponsors, properties and agencies to improve the sponsorship discovery/pitch process for all parties. I first heard about the company from founder Kris Mathis on Sports Marketing 2.0 about a month ago, so I requested an invite to see what it was all about. According to the Sponsor Pitch blog, they recently had their 1,000th beta user sign up, so I thought this might be a good time to explore the site a little more and try to help them get the word out. I really like that they launched in beta and are soliciting feedback and involving their users in the development process.

First, a little more about Sponsor Pitch. The site lets properties to upload a video and add information to explain their pitch and what they are all about. Sponsors can search through pitches based on a variety of criteria to find something they’re interested in. The search criteria includes:

• Property Genre (arts & culture, sports, charity, etc)
• Location (city, state and/or zip)
• Timing
• Media assets
• Audience demographics (age, gender, HH income)

After I received my invite code, I signed up as a property so I could explore the site. I searched for sports properties and found that there were already 10+ results, such as the AVP Crocs Tour and The CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament. Each property has its own page, which includes a logo, description, who to contact, video, existing sponsors, and event location/s. I really liked this layout, which you can see on the AVP Crocs Tour page (and the picture below). Another added benefit here is that people can rate sponsor pitches, and the best ones appear on the “Hot Opps” section of the site. You can also share these pitches on Facebook, LinkedIn, Delicious and some other social sites.

Next, I decided to check out the “My SponsorPitch” section, where properties can enter details about themselves (and I assume sponsors can do the same here). I decided not to do this tonight, but the fields were very easy to navigate and it looked pretty easy to complete.

Other interesting parts of the site include areas for resources, recent news headlines and a place for service providers (agencies, media, etc) to add their own informational pitch.

Overall, I think Sponsor Pitch has a ton of potential and can help save marketers time by allowing them to more easily find and filter sponsorship opportunities according to the criteria that they’re looking for. Did I mention the site is free for both sponsors and properties?

Have you had a chance to look at Sponsor Pitch yet? If so, what are your thoughts?

One main theme of the day was access–giving fans exclusive content and making them feel like they’re getting something unique/special. Some sponsors/teams are already doing a good job of this, but others should think about this more. I took a decent amount of notes so I won’t make you read through all of them. But I do want to share some key points on widgets that I made note of.

Widgets can be a powerful way to reach people and spread content, though I think the majority of people still don’t know what one is, so it’s not easy to create a widget that spreads easily. People are lazy, and as content creators, we should think about ways to go to them, instead of asking them to come to us. The NBA has over 700 widgets (player stats, pictures, videos, etc) and monetizes by selling ads/sponsorship across units. The Washington Wizards Playoff widget was successful in generating ticket revenue last year.

Widget best practices
1) content needs to be exclusive
2) Individuality- let people take what they want and customize it

Thanks to Pat Coyle for organizing this conference. You can see some pictures from the event in the widget below.

Find more photos like this on Sports Marketing 2.0

I’m excited to meet new people and hear some new ideas tomorrow. I actually attended the first ever Sports Marketing 2.0 Summit (also in NY) back in January and really enjoyed the discussions about how technology, the internet and social media are changing the sports and sponsorship landscape. You can see some footage from this event here.

If you read this blog and are attending the event tomorrow, let me know so we can meet up and get to know each other better.

Bottom line: sports websites will continue to grow and there is an opportunity for teams, leagues, sponsors and brands to take advantage of this and make money. There is an opportunity to connect fans via sites that have social networking features, provided that this is done in the right way. In my opinion this means:

• targeting a specific or niche group of fans (unless you can somehow come up with a great way to attract general fans and make it interesting for them)
• providing something (besides social networking features) that is valuable and will attract fans to the site
  • exclusive content, merchandise, stats, athlete blogs, etc.

Revenue and sponsorship opportunities are definitely there for sports sites and social networks that can build a good audience. Fans love buying team and player merchandise, so that is one way to generate revenue, besides the ad-supported model. Fans are also accustomed to seeing sponsors and brands in sports. Sponsors can even enhance the game experience for fans offline (e.g. Lexus providing free parking and VIP lounges for car owners at certain arena/stadiums) so why can’t they do the same online.

Pat Coyle from the Indianapolis Colts has been talking about the rise of sponsorship online for a while now. Basically it boils down to the fact that while you may be able to reach X people at a stadium, a sponsor can reach 10x or 100x people online.  For more of his thoughts about this topic, I suggest you read his post, “Look beyond the stadium to find MOST fans.”

If you have any questions or would like to discuss any ideas relating to sports and social media feel free to contact me and let me know.

Have a great weekend!

Anyways, what I wanted to talk about today was the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Basketball camp that came to Raleigh’s Athens Drive High School. The camp’s official name is the Pledge to be a S.T.A.R (sportsmanship, teamwork, attitude, respect) Summer Camp. The goal of this event was for the NBA to teach about 250 boys and girls ages 9-13 basketball fundamentals, while emphasizing important values like listening, teamwork, etc.

I went out to the event this morning to check it out and meet up with a friend who works with the NBA in community relations. Olympians Katrina McClain and Teresa Edwards were there helping teach the kids and build enthusiasm, and Charlotte Bobcats player Sean May was scheduled to arrive later. The energy in the gym was great, and the staff had all the kids clapping, smiling and having fun. I tried to put together a quick video to show some of things that were going on (awesome editing skillz, i know). At the end the kids are screaming, “Teach me, coach! I wanna learn!”

The Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Basketball Camp is a great example of grassroots marketing and integrating a league sponsorship at a local level. Raleigh is not an NBA market (closest team is 2.5 hours away in Charlotte) so this was a good chance for the league to connect with people who may not be as likely to be fans. The NBA  will conduct 12 of these camps this summer in similar markets, but typically runs more than 100 grassroots events each year.

From a sponsorship standpoint, this was also a unique opportunity to reach an engaged audience. The event was sponsored by Singulair (an asthma medicine), which is made by Merck, an official league partner. Singulair was integrated into the event via banners and a nice brochure, which was created to help parents understand asthma and sports and how asthma controllers like Singulair can help.

Overall I’d say the JR. NBA/Jr. WNBA Basketball Camp and other events like it are great. The league reaches a new audience, sponsors are integrated at a local level, and most importantly, kids have fun and learn about basketball.

What is Social Media?

Common Craft does a great job at explaining complex things in simple ways. Here’s there video about social media that makes it pretty easy to understand, in my opinion. Obviously there is a lot more to it than this but the video makes it easy to grasp the basic concept of social media and why it is so powerful.

Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

Why Does It Matter?

Social media and related tools allow people to easily connect around common interests, form close bonds and make their opinions heard. Sports generates a huge amount of passion in people, and social media has made it easier for people to display and share their passion for their favorite players, teams and sports. People are now consuming information about your team in new ways, instead of just reading about you in the newspaper or watching ESPN. Fans write their own news and can reach a large amount of people through simple blogging and social media tools. If you’re winning, people are talking about you. If you’re losing, people are talking about you. Just know that even if you choose not to get involved, the conversation is still happening. You might as well monitor it and participate, don’t you think?

What Does It Mean For Fans?

Sports fans love talking. If you give them an opportunity to react to stories and videos, share them and submit their own stories, you’re providing a way for them to become even more engaged with your team. Instead of having the conversation take place only on outside message boards because your team website isn’t relevant, why not open the site up for conversations, or start a new site (ex: MyColts.net) to provide an outlet for fans to connect and communicate?

Another part of this is that social media tools have given fans who don’t live in your team’s city a way to keep up with what’s going on and connect with other like-minded fans.

What Does It Mean For Sponsors?

Building a team community website and/or participating in other social media sites gives sponsors a way to extend their connection to the team and provide relevant content or exclusives to fans online. Sponsors can get more impressions and have the opportunity to engage fans in new ways through content, communities, blogs, groups and widgets.

How Can Social Media Help Generate Revenue?

Social media tools can help teams reach more fans and deepen their connection with current fans. More engaged fans means more ticket sales, merchandise sales and increased revenues. Teams can also take advantage of social media tools to provide new ways for sponsors to activate. New activation ideas and more options for sponsors should help teams generate more revenue.

That’s all I’ve got for now. What else should teams be thinking about in the social media space? If you’ve had experience working with teams on their social media initiatives, what questions have they asked you?

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• Book a lesson with a PGA professional and bring a friend free.

US Open Golf Tickets and Travel Packages (visit this site for more details)
2008 US Open

• Stay at a nice hotel for 3 nights and get 2 weekend grounds passes as well as access to the American Express Hospitality tent. $2,699 per couple

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As you can see, these are tangible, valuable benefits that American Express offers its Cardmembers. You can see more benefits at http://www.americanexpress.com/golf.

If you’re an avid golfer and have an American Express Card, are you taking advantage of these benefits?

Both of these developments signify that marketers are starting to see MMA as a legitimate sport and platform for promotion. I think we’ll definitely see more networks and sponsors get involved in the next year or so.

You can read more about the UFC-Bud Light deal here and the ProElite-CBS deal here.

I recently had the opportunity to attend the Sports Marketing 2.0 Summit in New York, which was organized by Pat Coyle of the Indianapolis Colts and sponsored by by UserPlane, ExactTarget, Powered and Cantaloupe.tv. The event was a collection of bright minds from professional sports teams, leagues, sponsors, agencies and consultants who came together to discuss web 2.0 opportunities and challenges. Basically, with the increasing popularity of blogs, user-generated content, video, widgets, chat, etc…how can sponsors, teams, and others take advantage and drive fan engagement and revenue?

The event kicked off with an introduction from Daniel Aronson of IBM. There were four panel discussions focused on measurement, engagement, communication and socializing. Panelists included representatives from Rotoworld, Pringo, Federated Media, Infield Parking, ESPN Sports Poll, Clearspring and more.

Please see below for a few notes I took from the summit. This certainly is not meant to be a full recap of what everyone said, just a few things I found interesting from each segment. You can discuss the summit and more over at the Sports Marketing 2.0 Community.

Intro by Daniel Aronson

Daniel spoke about the some key things to think about when dealing with social networking/web 2.0–content, control, measurement, etc. The two things I took away were:

1. “What is rewarding gets done”

• It’s rewarding to be a sports fan so giving sports fans an opportunity to express themselves and connect with each other online is a way to tap into the natural passion/community that exists within sports

2. “What is measured gets proved (and improved)”

• We know that social media elements (user generated content, videos, blogs, etc) lead to increased engagement with websites (time spent, number of visitors, number of visits, etc) but we need to be able to measure how these factors affect business–and not just in the short term. I think measurement is crucial, as brands are sure to make mistakes in this space, but the ones who have measured their actions will be in the best position to learn from mistakes and provide more value to fans.

Panel 1 – Measurement – Measuring sports fans online: How many are there and why do we care?

Robert Fox (TNS Sport/ESPN Sports Poll) – It’s important to keep things in perspective. Of all sports fans, only 50% go online for sports news and content. Robert also mentioned that the number of people who view sports content online isn’t rising as fast as you might think it is, because people have more and more choices.

A few other interesting measurement-related thoughts were discussed later:

• Difficulty in getting big brands to notice team sites, even though they may have fans who are much more engaged than the average sports site. Obviously engaged/passionate fans are more valuable, but how much more?
• To what extent should we care about the number of fans vs. how passionate they are?

Panel 2 – Engagement – Engaging with sports fans online: how do we attract and engage sports fans?

Rick Wolf (Rotoworld, NBC Sports) – Rick said that breaking news and results drives engagement on Rotoworld.

Gene Mauro (Bunchball) – Gene mentioned that it’s important to create a daily habit for users so they will want to come back.

Andrew Gregory (Exponentia) – “People want to belong.” If you give them this opportunity they will want to come back.

The group generally agreed that rewards and recognition are key factors in engagement. People want to be seen. One panelist pointed out that research showed that when people write a review they check back an average of three times in 24 hours to see if anyone has responded to it.

Panel 3 – Communication – Communicating with sports fans online: which applications are the stickiest?

Hooman Radfar (Clearspring) defined a widget as “a portable application a user can place on websites, blogs, profiles, etc.” He said that widgets are essentially a way of publishing content and help brands/teams increase their reach.

Scott Dorsey (Exact Target) – Email still plays a key role in reaching people online and isn’t going away any time soon. Scott mentioned that social networks often rely on email (ex: LinkedIn emails you when you have a new friend request). Email should also be a part of any CRM strategy.

Another way to reach fans is through phone calls and voicemail. The Memphis Grizzlies used a pre-recorded message from Rudy Gay to generate an extra 1,500 tickets sold for one game.

Panel 4 – Socializing – Socializing with sports fans online: how can sponsors join the community?

Sponsoring video competitions may be a good way for brands to integrate themselves into these communities, as evidenced by P&G’s succes with a cheerleading competition on a high school sports social network.

Chad Bockius (BazaarVoice) – Customer reviews drive revenue. 80% of all consumers seek reviews before purchasing something online, and people who write these reviews are likely to be brand advocates.

So we should definitely look for ways to encourage reviews, since this is a natural way of getting brands involved in the conversation.

Buck Krawczyk (Powered) – Brands can create online learning centers (how-to guides, wikis, etc) and their research has shown that people who interact with these learning centers are more likely to purchase products.

Shawn Gold (Social Approach and former MySpace marketing chief) – “Sponsors buy social networks for what they get for free.” -the sharing aspect.

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Like I said, those are just a few of my thoughts. If I misquoted anyone or misrepresented any thoughts, let me know and I’ll fix it. I don’t think any of us have it all figured out exactly, but it was definitely valuable getting everyone together to discuss these things. Thanks for organizing, Pat.

If you’d like to discuss any of these things, head over to Sports Marketing 2.0 and join the conversation. Also, check out PaidContent’s coverage of the fourth panel.

There’s an interesting article in this month’s issue of SportBusiness International that discusses the fact that poor research and planning is keeping sports sponsorship from meeting its potential. The author discusses five key areas where research should be improved:

• Research the consumer – We often value sponsorships based on TV audience delivery, but sponsorship ideally should be platform neutral-we shouldn’t treat it like a media buy
• Brand Fit with the property – It’s not just about if the property fits the brand. The brand should also fit the property, so people will be more likely to accept this link as authentic
• ROI research – Tracking TV viewers is only a small part of the overall picture
• Measure Recognition – We often measure awareness, but consumers are bombarded by so many messages that this ignores the “recognition” factor that often triggers an emotional response and, if triggered, can leave a positive impression of the brand on the consumer
• Don’t attribute all successes (or failures) to sponsorship – Examine all aspects , including activation, media, communications, etc.

I would add another thing to think about before deciding to sponsor a property (as indicated by my horrible graphic): Besides the sponsorship fitting with the brand (and vice-versa), does the sponsorship fit with the current advertising and communications? For example a football sponsorship may fit with the brand (or the decision-makers may think so) but if the brand is currently running ads with ballet dancers, how does a football sponsorship fit into this mix? Either it doesn’t or the brand needs to get some updated creative.

On another note, due to the growth of the Sports Business Carnival and my original intentions to have this be something bigger than just a Take A Peck feature, I’ve decided that it’s time to start having other sports business blogs host the carnival. The November 19th edition will be housed at Sports Agent Blog. You can submit articles directly to Darren Heitner –heitner(at)gmail.com–or through the Blog Carnival main page. The goal is for this to be hosted by all the major sports business blogs. I’m sure the Carnival will return here again (and often), but I just wanted to let everyone know what the plans were.

InterContinental Hotels Group’s Crowne Plaza has done a great job of aligning itself with golf and reaching golf travelers in the first year of its sponsorship of the PGA TOUR Crowne Plaza Invitational.

Crowne Plaza launched its first ever national ad campaign in April with golf-themed ads featuring national golf commentator/journalist David Feherty attempting to moderate an unscripted conversation among TV personality George Lopez, rocker Alice Cooper, golf legend Lee Trevino, LPGA star Natalie Gulbis and outspoke golf scribe Dan Jenkins. Not a bad crowd to hang out with. The commercials focus on the spontaneous dialogue of the group around topics such as golfing secrets, putters, and rules. According to USA Today, footage for the ads came from 18 hours of the cast ad-libbing. Crowne Plaza’s tagline is “the place to meet,” and golf has long been a great social activity for people, so it is a good vehicle for this message.

Up until recently, Crowne Plaza never even entered my mind when I thought of hotels, but now it stands out as one of the best brands that connects with golf fans. My favorite spot is the one that talks about golfing with wives. The spot opens with Natalie Gulbis talking about going on a golf date. Eventually George Lopez says, ” I think my wife would understand that I’d rather play golf with Lee Trevino than my wife.”

David Feherty responds, “I think my wife would understand that I would rather sleep with Lee Trevino than play golf with her. But that’s not a negative comment against my wife.”

You can see all six of Crowne Plaza’s golf-themed ads, plus some nice bonus footage, at its golf site.

In addition to sponsorship of its PGA TOUR event, Crowne Plaza is sending 72 average golfers to play in a pro-style tournament called the Crowne Plaza Amateur Inviational at Colonial in Ft. Worth, Texas. It also sponsors LPGA golfer Natalie Gulbis, and has some presence in Major League Baseball through InterContinental Hotels Group’s larger deal with MLB. Intercontinental Hotes Group also has deals with some MLB teams and Richard Childress Racing, in addition to some cause-related sponsorships, such as UNICEF and Big Brothers Big Sisters.

I’d like to thank Darren Rovell over at CNBC’s SportsBiz for making us aware of the phenomenal 19-year old Serbian tennis player, Ana Ivanovic. She happens to be a pretty decent tennis player, too. Starting with this post, Rovell calls Ivanovic the next Maria Sharapova, and not just because of her looks- Ivanovic dominated Sharapova at the French Open semis earlier this year.

In his next Ivanovic post, Rovell calls Ivanovic the most beautiful female athlete in the world. and gives us a great slide show of Ivanovic images. There is also a poll on SportsBiz asking readers who is the world’s sexiest tennis player – Sharapova or Ivanovic? After almost 1000 votes, the winner is clearly Ivanovic–she got 90% of the votes. In his most recent Ivanovic post, Rovell gives us an interview with the tennis goddess herself.

It’s amazing how much beauty plays a role in female athletes’ marketability. Not that she wouldn’t have sponsors if she wasn’t amazingly good looking, but you can’t say it doesn’t help. People like to see/watch/hear about beautiful people, and the attention she’s getting because of her looks can only help boost her visibility, which will mean she’ll be getting more sponsors, soon. If she can do well during the US Open, business is sure to pick up even more for her and her marketing team.

As listed on her website (which claims to be the #1 visited website of all female sports stars), Ivanovic’s sponsors include adidas, Verano Motors, Wilson and Juice Plus. I’m sure there will be more sponsors, commercials, magazine spreads, and maybe even movie appearances in the future. In case you won’t get to see her playing tennis on TV, check out this YouTube video for a slideshow of Ivanovic pictures.

With the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup–the playoffs of golf–beginning this week (with Tiger Woods’s absence) the following questions were posed on Relay Worldwide’s Sports Sponsorship Symposium Blog:

Does Woods need to play for the playoff concept to be a success? Or has the PGA Tour, with or without him, already created a platform that sponsors will continue to rally around in years 2, 5 and 10? What are some of the right steps, and what can be improved upon?

I think that whether or not Woods’ plays, the playoff concept has been a failure so far in year one. Maybe that’s to be expected but I (someone who actually pays close attention to golf) still can’t figure out why I should care about the FedExCup. And I’m pretty sure that most casual golfers and fans still don’t know what the FedExCup is exactly.

See, the problem with having playoffs in golf is that golf isn’t basketball. Everyone knows the regular season doesn’t matter in the NBA, but in golf the four tournaments that really, really matter (The Majors) aren’t included in the playoffs. Yes, I know the Majors are weighted and worth more points than regular tournaments but that’s too complicated for the average fan. Regardless of who plays in the FedExCup or who wins the $10 million prize, everyone knows the Majors are still the most important tournaments, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Adding a huge purse to four meaningless tournaments won’t give them true meaning or the history that the Majors have–it just makes them tournaments with a huge purse.

That said, I guess the FedExCup makes the PGATOUR more valuable to sponsors, since it gives them an additional platform to activate around. But if people don’t care about the FedExCup, will sponsors continue to care? The sponsors’ and TOUR’s challenge is to get people to care, but I think this will be a slow process, if it happens at all. But who knows, I could be wrong. What do you think?