‘Brands have to understand the relevance of connecting with a sport’

The e4m-GroupM Let’s Play: Sports marketing summit held in Delhi on Wednesday included a panel discussion titled ‘Sponsorship Rights Packaging 2.0’.

With sports marketing evolving manifold in the last few years, the discussion revolved around league sponsorship, how brands need to make the most out of sports sponsorships and much more.

The panel was chaired by Ruchi Mathur, Chief Growth Officer, Mindshare. The panelists were Vikram Garga, Group Head Marketing, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Apollo Tyres Ltd; Vinit Karnik, Head – Sports, Esports & Entertainment, GroupM; and Hugh Gillum, Commercial Sales Lead, Two Circles.

During the discussion, Hugh Gillum touched upon how sponsorships around technology and women’s sport have evolved.

“I have been working with the ICC very closely for the last seven or so years. If I look at the conversations that we were typically having with brands here for ICC partnership earlier, there were two main traits, which have really evolved over the course of time.”

“The first of those would be how integrated partnerships are. So, previously, there was more focus on eyeballs, on immediate values and on hosting. I think it is beginning to evolve.”

“The second thing that we saw was when I first started talking to brands about women's sport in 2017, very rarely a brand wanted to invest in that. But as I say, that has really changed in the last couple of years. When we speak to brands now, there's a far more integrated approach on how do we integrate that technology services, how to do CSR programmes or how to do employee programmes. That has been a real shift,” Gillum shared.

Vinit Karnik also spoke about the relevance of women sports and investing in them. “Coming to the subject of women's sports, I think the momentum is as high as ever and it's an absolute exciting time for the conversation. Most of our women athletes are world-level players. If you look at individual sports like Olympics, Commonwealth and Asian Games, maximum medals, almost 35%, have been won by women, and that's a very encouraging sign. This means that if you invest your time and energy, all in the right direction, it's not only the men, but the women who can actually get medals for you.”

Vikram Garga spoke about the strategic view that brands need to take for their sponsorships. “I think every brand is on a journey. And I've seen certain brands, which are newbies, D2C companies or the likes of tech brands, use it very tactically and quickly burn out and move away from it.”

“Brands have to understand the relevance of connecting with a sport and how they would leverage the association to build the brand. Of course, eventually it is also the commercial reason of getting more business out of it, but I think it takes a lot more than just getting quick visibility to actually create engagement with the consumer, and today consumers can see through it. So brands need to decide if they are really serious about that association or they just want a quick awareness out of it?”

“At Apollo, several of the initiatives and the programmes that we've done, whenever we have done it with Manchester United or with Chennai FC, have had local flavours. Today the culture of sports is growing in different parts of the country at a different level. So brands need to really find a way to connect at a larger level as well as at a micro level. I believe if you stay longer with your partners, they also understand and then they take that extra two steps to help the brand become more relevant and connect with the consumers. Then it's a win-win for both. But otherwise, it's a quick walk-in and walk-out, which usually doesn't work for either side,” Garga added.