Sports Sponsorship in 2021: A Predictive Outlook

2020 introduced considerable changes to the landscape of the sports industry. Fanless stadiums and shorter seasons altered the way that sports organizations and brands operated with one another and we can expect some of these developments to continue well into the future. 2020 was a weird one, but what does 2021 look like for the sports sponsorship industry?

Our team at Trajektory has made the following predictions for the sports sponsorship industry heading into 2021 and gives some insight into how we can help teams succeed.

New technology will better connect, align, and service relationships with sponsors

Sports organizations are quickly determining that there are real threats being posed against traditional forms of sports sponsorship. In a 2020 survey conducted by Seaver Marketing Group, Corporate Executives identified the expensive cost, lack of measurement, and poor servicing of sponsorships as major concerns. In response, sports organizations will continue to leverage external vendors to provide solutions to these problems and strengthen their relationships with brand sponsors. We believe expansive asset valuation tools and asset data management solutions will be demanded and utilized to properly price assets, provide greater asset performance transparency, and to help sponsorship departments draw and communicate more meaningful insights to their sponsors

Evolving data expectations from brands will be at the forefront of a major transformational shift towards data-driven decision-making within partnerships

Brand sponsors have heightened the performance reporting expectations of their sponsorship assets. The COVID-19 pandemic positioned brands to question the effectiveness of their current sponsorship deals while games are being played in stadiums without fans. As brand sponsors reallocate their spending amongst new sponsorship assets, greater transparency and measurement accountability will become the new standard. These brands will need assurance that their sponsorship spending is generating value that cannot be obtained through other forms of marketing and advertising. Sports organizations will need to tell better data stories for each of their sponsor’s assets to justify the value. To meet the increased demand for data-oriented insights, sports organizations will be forced to dive deeper into understanding their surrounding markets and underlying fan personas.

New and creative forms of sponsorship activation will be needed to recoup revenue losses experienced in 2020

It comes as no surprise that the sports industry lost out on billions of dollars of revenue in 2020. As we enter into 2021, many of the difficulties that were experienced in 2020 still remain. Sports organizations are more reliant than ever on TV deals and corporate sponsorships to generate a large percentage of their overall revenues. Teams will look to fully capitalize on these revenue streams with new and creative activations that will add value for each of their sponsors. In the first week of 2021, the NHL has already expanded league sponsorship opportunities by introducing logo sponsorships on helmets. The league also sold naming rights to its newly-aligned divisions for this upcoming season. Other professional sports leagues have lessened restrictions surrounding alcohol and gambling partnerships in an effort to recover lost revenues. With an influx of new assets, sports organizations will need to work closely with brands to determine how these assets are helping reach brand goals and objectives. Without proper sponsorship data organization and analysis, these organizations will quickly lose out on sponsorship related revenues in the next couple of years.

Sports organizations and brands will rely on digital and social sponsorship assets

The uncertainty surrounding in-person events will place greater importance on the utilization of digital and social channels to reach consumers. Technological advancements that are being applied to enhance the fan experience and to increase fan engagement will also provide numerous opportunities for digital forms of sponsorship in 2021. Sponsorship campaigns will be conducted across these new platforms that can easily collect and track fan data.

Trajektory’s Role in 2021

Trajektory’s mission is to provide sports teams with the infrastructure and data organization that is needed to transparently communicate the performance of sponsorship assets to brand partners. The introduction of new sponsorship assets will further complicate these existing relationships. Trajektory aggregates multiple sources of asset data to decrease the amount of time that sports organizations spend cleaning data, and increase the amount of time spent acting on data. We take the aggregated asset data and provide data visualizations to help understand the asset performance. Our proprietary algorithms also provide accurate valuations of sponsorship assets so teams don’t need to guess on a price. As the shift continues towards data-driven sponsorship, Trajektory can help sports organizations improve their partner relationships by giving them the means to go above and beyond in their asset recaps and reporting.