It is my pleasure to present the ebook, Sports and Social Media Predictions for 2011, which features 17 smart people and thought-leaders who have graciously shared their opinions, thoughts and predictions for sports and social media in 2011.

Feel free to download this, read it, blog about it, and share with your friends and coworkers. I hope you find it interesting. Apologies if the links to share this on Twitter don’t work…had a lot of trouble with that for some reason.

Click the image below to download this compilation (for best usability/results) or you can read this on Scribd.

*Note: I screwed up and forgot to include Joe Favorito‘s prediction in the ebook. Here are his thoughts. Sorry, Joe.

I think that you will see more team and brands integrating social media practices into their marketing plans so long as it does not increase budget and there is a more direct return on any investment. Teams have tried and abandoned a great deal of programs in 201 and now they are treating social media as much more of a tangible asset and less of a curiosity. Traditional media still is essential but an effective social media plan is a growing compliment and makes good sense. I think we will also continue to see a weeding out of self proclaimed “experts” and a bigger migration to those with a wide background who show that they can bring consistent and effective results.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Here are the slides from my presentation, as well as some key points. My goal was to give examples of opportunities made possible by social media and share some ways brands/properties can enhance current fan experiences or create new ones. The video from slide 19 didn’t make it into Slideshare (it didn’t work during my presentation either), but you can watch it here. On a couple of the other slides, the formatting looks a little strange, but hopefully you can still get the main points.

3 Main Points

1. Social media tools and platforms are unlocking some great opportunities for properties and sponsors
2. We can measure this stuff and prove its value
3. There are people out there doing some really cool things

Intro

Social media tools and platforms are everywhere. But they’re not social on their own; people are social.

There are a lot of opportunities–listening, responding, content delivery, promotions, etc. 1 to 1 conversations and 1 to many.

What do you do? Focus on your fans and enthusiasts. These people have always been passionate about brands/teams/properties they love. Social tools have just helped amplify their voices and bring people close to the things they love and others who share their passions.

Fans crave experiences, engagement and recognition. This has always been true, but now there are new opportunities to deliver these things.

New opportunities – beyond the stadium, for enthusiasts and fans to engage with each other, and for properties and sponsors to engage fans.

Example of access, engagement, and recognition coming together – Old Spice response campaign with Isaiah Mustafa. 40 million views after first week. Now, most viewed YouTube channel of all time. And sales went up.

Relationships are the currency of social media. Likers, fans, followers, subscribers are essentially the same–people you can build a relationship with. Relationships are what help you increase the things you care about–awareness, sales, attendance, customer lifetime value, etc.

Opportunities to make current fan experiences more social

Socialize your website. Enable and encourage people to share your content. Over 1 million websites use the Facebook Like button. People who like articles click on 5.3x more links than average Facebook user and have 2.4x as many friends (310 vs. 130).

Encourage fans to share their experiences. Empower your advocates and enthusiasts. Strategically reward or incentivize people to encourage sharing.

Socialize your events

• Location-based services. Offer rewards (content + experiences) to incentivize check-ins and increase awareness, foot traffic and sales.
• Encourage people to share content while at events
• Show people at events what others are saying about it

Group buying. People like buying things with others, especially if what they’re buying is cheaper this way.

Socialize your giveaways and promotions. Encourage people to share them and think of how you can use social platforms to get the word out and create/run specific promos and giveaways for social platforms.

Ideas for creating new experiences

Identify your passionate and profitable fans – within your database and outside it. Involve these people in new experiences and targeted programs.

Appreciate and Involve Bloggers. Warriors did a great job of this with their Tweedia Day.

Create new content. If you want people to care about you, you have to offer them something of value. Offer people exclusive, behind-the-scenes content on Twitter and Facebook (use tabs and maybe require a “like” to unlock the content)

Extend your event’s reach. American Express and Twitter created a great real-time hub for Mercedez-Benz Fashion Week. The site displayed tweets, pictures and videos about the event from fashion gurus, models and others. Great way to reach people who may not have attended the event, but still wanted to keep up with what was going on. And another way for AmEx to further align its brand with fashion while giving people exclusive access and content.

Social media is unique in that it powers experiences and is also used to promote them. Social-only programs are cool, but it’s a lot more powerful when you have a great idea/program and can integrate social into it.

Panthers Purrsuit case study. The Panthers teamed up with a main sponsor (Allen Tate) and 14 other sponsors to create a social media scavenger hunt. The event wasn’t just a social thing-it was promoted  in a variety of ways (email, social media, banners on Panthers/sponsor websites) and generated some great coverage in traditional media. On Saturday, October 23, 64 participants started at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, NC, and followed clues to arrive at specific sponsor locations. People had to tweet, post content, check-in, complete challenges, etc at each location. More than 1000 photos were posted to sponsor walls and there were 1200+ tweets with the #purrsuit hashtag posted on the day of the event. More importantly it drove actual people to sponsor businesses to help build new relationships and it showed businesses that Twitter and Facebook are more than just tools for pushing out content.

Measuring Success

• Establish goals
• Map metrics to goals
• compare before/after numbers
• Look at long-term trends

What to measure:

• Business metrics
• Share of voice and sentiment
• Awareness
• Engagement
• Influence
• Popularity

7 keys to success for implementing a program – slide 41.

5 things an agency can help you with (obviously there are more than 5, but here are a few)

• monitoring what’s being said
• identifying enthusiasts and influencers
• help set up/socialize presence on social sites
• creating and executing promotions
• Measuring results and collecting data

Hope you enjoyed the slides/notes. Would love to hear what you think.

October will be an even busier month. I’ll be at some great events next month and would love to meet up if you’re there or in the area.

DMA 2010 Conference

I’m really looking forward to the DMA 2010 Conference and Exhibition in San Francisco. As my friend Espree Devora said on the phone today, social media and direct marketing have a lot in common. I’m excited to meet with some smart people and talk about social media, online communities and the integration of direct and digital marketing. I’ll be there from Oct. 10-13 if you want to try to meet up.

I’m also excited about the fact that the company I work for, eWayDirect, will be an exhibitor there. We’re working on a very cool algorithm that takes a brand’s marketshare, awareness, popularity and trust (looking at social media trends and sentiment, email marketing trends, acquisition trends and search trends) and combines them into a metric that the company can use to determine how successful its online marketing is and see how it is doing compared to its competition. We’ll be releasing the first version of this metric at the DMA show and if there’s enough interest, we’ll really build it out. If you’re going to the show, I’d love to walk you through our approach and get your thoughts. Or you can follow the eWayDirect Blog for updates and news about this.

BlogWorld

I’m definitely looking forward to going back to Las Vegas again this year for BlogWorld (October 14-16). You can see some of my takeaways from last year’s event here and some video interviews I did with some smart folks about the ultimate mobile+social app here.

I’ll probably do another series of interviews this year, but I haven’t yet decided what the question should be. If you have ideas, I’m all ears. But interviews or no interviews, the best part of BlogWorld is hanging out with some really awesome people in Vegas. Let me know if you’ll be there and let’s definitely meet up.

Western Sponsorship Congress

I’ll be speaking on how social media platforms can benefit sponsors and properties at the Western Sponsorship Congress in Calgary on October 26-27. I’m looking forward to having a good discussion about this and hearing from some other smart folks in the sports marketing industry. If you’re going to be there, I’d love to chat!

Please see below for some questions and answers about the Panthers Purrsuit from Mike and Dana Thomas, Account Manager/Events Coordinator with the Panthers.

What is the Panthers Purrsuit?

The Panthers Purrsuit is citywide quest to discover new places, visit local businesses and non-profits, and connect with other Panthers fans. Team up with friends to find clues, complete challenges, earn points and win prizes – all while sharing the experience with friends via popular social networking sites.

What was the thinking behind launching this? Did anything that other teams/brands have done with social media inspire this?

We started talking about this in May when Scott Hepburn mentioned this concept over a coffee brainstorming meeting. He thought the Panthers could be a tour stop on this brilliant “road rally” concept he had thought up to get folks to interact not just online but in person with places around Charlotte. I thought it was a perfect (purrfect) way to get our fans in closer contact with our team partners, sponsors and non-profits and brought it back to our team internally who saw the potential in the event.

How are you getting the word out about the Panthers Purrsuit?

Mainly via social channels, our Twitter and Facebook pages, but also email, PR, and they’ll be Panthers radio ads and also ads in our GameTime program as well. So far at least one Panthers player, Everette Brown, has done a Youtube video inviting fans to participate and we are hoping for more support in that area.

How has social media changed the way you think about creating programs like this that engage fans?

From the sponsorship side, our partners really share a passion for Panthers football and they want to engage our fans that share that passion. Social media is a great bridge between traditional media (print, radio, tv) and interactive sampling that happens at and around games. Social is also measurable and helps start conversations as opposed to one-way messaging. Our sponsors have been asking for more ways to interact with fans and social media really helps make this possible.

I see that Allen Tate is a sponsor. How were they involved in creating this and how will they be involved on October 23rd?

Once we met internally as a team around the Panthers Purrsuit idea and decided it was an event we wanted to make happen, we had to have a sponsor that believed in social media as a medium to help cover the costs of such an event, the prizes, the T-Shirt, the food and beverages at the awards party. Allen Tate was the first company we looked to because of their adoption of Facebook, Twitter, and blogging. We also executed a Twitter contest last year with Allen Tate that netted some excellent results for them and for a lucky fan so we thought they might have an appetite for pushing the envelope a little further.

Registration for a team is $40 – what was the thinking in having people pay to register vs. letting them register and participate for free?

We have two main reasons for the entry fee. We believe the fans will find value in the event. It’s going to be a lot of fun to participate and fans will get a T-shirt for signing up and checking in, as well as an awards after-party where the teams can gather and have dinner and drinks and watch as the prizes will be handed out. Secondly with so many local partners involved we had to have a way for them to plan their day and how many people will show up. We have a defined start and end but lots of clues along the way. We need to plan exactly how many teams will show up an Allen Tate office or a Harris Teeter store (if those are clue stops, my lips are sealed) so that the brand staff can have a positive experience with them. So with an entry fee there is a commitment to participate.

What kind of prizes can people win by participating?

The grand prize is a trip to our Panthers vs. Steelers game in Pittsburgh with airfare, hotel and game tickets on 12/23. There will be many different prize categories from something as simple as Best Team name or best team costume. I hope nearly everyone goes home with something from the awards party whether that’s a trip to the ‘Burgh or a Panthers hat.

What are your expectations for this? What would make it a success?

First I hope we have all types of teams sign up. This is not only for social media addicts. This is for Panthers fans and fans of shows like the Amazing race. It’s not all social, but there are physical challenges as well. Then I want 100% of the challenge teams that participate to sign back up in 2011 when we have this again. The same for our partners because that will mean it will have been fun for the teams and a productive example for our partners that social media is not just online, but its real life.

—

Mike and Dana – Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions.

I hope you found their answers valuable and that they spark some thoughts on new ideas that you can try with your company or organization.

What do you think about the Panthers Purrsuit?

• why should fans care?
• why should teams care?
• why should athletes care?
• why should agents care?
• why should coaches care?
• why should colleges care?
• why should agencies care?
• why should properties care?

Even if you already know why this is important, I hope you enjoy getting a variety of perspectives on this subject. If you have bosses, colleagues or friends that still don’t get it, maybe they’ll find some value in this series if you share it with them.

Today’s topic is sponsors. Sponsors should care because social media can help them increase the effectiveness and reach of their programs and activation efforts. Social media can help them achieve their goals and reach fans in interesting ways at the stadium and beyond it. Everything online is measurable, so sponsors can see what is driving actions/activity they’re interested in.

See below for a few thoughts from other smart folks about why properties should care about sports and social media.

Jackie Adkins – Social media gives sponsors a whole new medium to reach fans. The catch is the sponsors have to completely rethink how they approach fans in this medium. Talking at them isn’t going to work, so sponsors have to figure out how to start conversations with the end-consumer in a non-intrusive manner that leans more towards a conversation than it does advertising.

Dennis Allen – Social media provides sponsors a way to eliminate layers between them and their consumers. The real time assessment of their brand, product and strategy is invaluable in today’s world of global competition. Social media also affords them a way to be more personally involved with their audiences. As well as a method to get out in front of potential negative branding issues before they cause irreparable damage.

Anthony De Rosa – Sponsors, like properties need to connect organically on social media. They have to be here because that’s where the audience is.

Brian Gainor – Sponsors should care about social media because it serves as an additional channel to deliver and reap value from their property agreements. Sponsors can utilize social media as a cost-effective, engaging means to drive awareness for programs/promotional offers, drive traffic to microsites and URLs, stimulate discussion about products/team affiliation, capitalize on new inventory (owning social media channels), and seamlessly align with athlete endorsers (to name just a few). Properties are still in the early stages of developing and valuing their social media channels, so sponsors looking to make a huge splash with limited activation dollars should seek out this inventory now!

Lewis Howes – Sponsors should be looking at new ways to use social media in their campaigns in place of the traditional advertising methods. It’s no secret that people are becoming less trusting of companies and want to trust and interact with “real” people today. Sponsors should capitalize on that and come up with sponsorships that are personable to their consumers.

Ash Read – Social media allows sponsors to build up relationships with sports fans. Rather than just broadcasting their message they can provide interesting content, interact with fans and really build their brand through sponsorship. If a sponsor really wants to make the most from their sponsorship they should look into the possibilities of social media and digital activations. Sponsors shouldn’t try and use social media as a way to broadcast their brand name though, they should look to provide content that fans will appreciate and become a part of the community.

Brian Reich – The economy of eyeballs has been undermined by social media — its not enough to deliver a message, a brand now has to make a strong case for why their product is worth buying, address questions that consumers might have… and explain how their connection to an athlete or team can translate to an individual’s life. Sponsoring a sporting event and having your ads appear in the stadium or between segments of the broadcast won’t be enough. Fans get information from a variety of sources, and they look for more information than what is simply put in front of them before deciding to make a deeper investment. Sponsors make it possible for sports leagues to exist and games to be played, but social media gives them both an opportunity – and I would argue an observation — to add more to the fan experience, and the quality of the sports offering as well. They can use sports sponsorship as a venue to deliver a message about their commitment to a serious issues — and mobilize action among fans to respond and support a worth cause. They can add data and insight, through a lens that promotes their products or services — and in doing so demonstrate the value of their offering and commitment to creating a valuable experience for the audience. But they have to do something different if they want to realize a return on their investment.

Trevor Turnbull – Social media is all about building relationships. The success of a sponsorship agreement can be directly related to how closely tied their brand is to a team, athlete or event. Social media allows sponsors the opportunity to directly associate themselves to a sports team, athlete, venue or event. The influence that these entities have over their fan base can be directly attributed to the connection consumers might inevitably have with a sponsor.

Brendan Whilhide – Social media is a unique opportunity to reach your audience directly. Also, when done well, marketing via social media can have incredible results. See the recent Old Spice viral YouTube campaign as evidence of that.

Joseph Yi – To an extent, social media has changed the way that sponsorship deals have developed. No longer are online assets limited to banner placements and pre-roll advertisements on videos. Rather, sponsors are looking for ways to tap into the large distribution opportunities that social media provides. Because of social media’s sharing capabilities when sponsors look at areas like impressions, visibility, and the distribution networks that are possible, the opportunities are endless.

—

Now it’s your turn – why do you think sponsors should care?

It’s been a lot of fun putting this series together. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I have.

*photo credit – http://www.flickr.com/photos/spiros2004/3896658394/sizes/s/

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?

Friend of a Cardmember program

• 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

2009 US Open

• Presale now through June 15 for daily trophy club tickets, which are ONLY available to AmEx Cardmembers.

2009 PGA Championship

• Cardmembers have access to a presale (now through May 31) to purchase Wanamaker Club and Season tickets

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.