NFL Sponsorships in the “Fanless Era”
Photo by Dave Adamson on Unsplash
After an unusual off-season, the NFL has finally returned to action. Games are looking a little different this year as nearly 90% of the opening-weekend games were played without fans. In the absence of revenues from ticket sales, team sponsors are finding themselves to be more creative and reliant on other sponsorship assets such as TV deals and digital channels. Although higher viewership can be expected on TV, many of the traditional in-stadium sponsorship activations have been significantly altered in an attempt to keep brands connected with their targeted audiences.
Throughout the pandemic, we have seen many sports organizations work closely with their partners to get creative with their sponsorship assets. There has been a notable shift to digital and social sponsorship assets as well as the introduction of new sponsorship inventory opportunities. Tide and Oakley are just a few of the NFL’s league-wide partners that have taken advantage of the moment and impressed our team at Trajektory with their creativity.
Earlier in the off-season, the NFL decided to ban post-game jersey swaps between players. Recognizing an opportunity, Tide partnered with the NFL to facilitate jersey swaps while ensuring player safety by taking on the responsibility of cleaning each player’s jersey before the actual exchange takes place. This was a brilliant move by Tide as it positioned their products in the eyes of the consumer while providing authenticity for their brand. In the process, Tide was able to restore an entertaining and storied NFL tradition.
Photo courtesy of the Kansas City Chiefs.
In another example of a brand taking advantage of and adjusting to the current environment, Oakley found a creative way to connect their product with the importance of wearing a mask to control the spread of the virus. Oakley, the NFL’s official helmet visor provider, introduced an innovative full-face shield for players during the 2020 season. The face shield design was developed to address the breathability and communication problems that wearing a mask would present for the players during the game. This allowed Oakley to promote their support in the importance of wearing a mask while providing a solution that keeps everyone safe.
The new fanless environments around the NFL will most definitely impact various facets of the partnership business in the future. As teams and their partners adapt to the “new normal” it will be more important than ever to measure the effectiveness of every sponsorship asset. This will certainly place pressure on teams to remain proactive while transparently communicating the value of their sponsorship packages. Leveraging important consumer data to deliver more accurate valuations and forms of measurement will play a pivotal role in the management of a team’s various partner relationships.
Photo by Free To Use Sounds on Unsplash
The trend towards purchasing more digital assets will continue to roll on and the differentiation between finding distinctive forms of activation versus piling on signage should not be overlooked. Creativity will be a necessity for brands that would like to stay in front of their potential consumers. The brands that position their products in innovative ways will experience tremendous results in reaching their objectives and will fundamentally shift the ways in which we look at sports sponsorships. Sponsorship assets will no longer be focused solely on how many impressions an asset receives, but how those impressions are obtained as well.