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Entry 6 - Reflection on Subject

At the start of the semester, I already knew that sponsorship was going to be an integral part of my future career if I continue to want to be a Talent Agent within the sporting industry. As we learnt throughout the subject, they really do play important roles with one another. 

A sponsorship proposal isn’t as simple as a piece of paper with a dotted line saying you want $1000 to wear a certain brands shoes or clothing. As the weekly presentations showed it takes reputation, hard work, investment and more to create and sign on to some of these extremely lucrative deals we see today. 

Another part of sport sponsorship that seems obvious, but I never fully thought into, is how congruence and the fit of the sponsor and the sponsee fit and the brand image transfer that occurs between the two (Carririllat, E., Lafferty, B.A. 2010). 

Sure, someone who is massive in the sports industry like Lebron James could sign on to a deal with McDonalds but does a fast food, unhealthy restaurant really fit his image of a healthy high-profile athlete whose life truly revolves around sport. It just doesn’t fit correctly. But his lifetime partnership with Nike has a perfect congruent fit of Athlete and Athletic wear always wanting to better yourself (Harrington, 2021). 

 In terms of engagement with my VAFA Club, Old Ivanhoe Grammarians. I feel that with this lockdown the engagement from both parties had fallen. Having passed the communication reigns to another group member to try and take the load I was carrying lighter but it seemed to not be the correct decision. 

With my group the overall engagement from three out of four was fantastic with one really lacking behind in engagement, drive and lacked wanting the group to succeed. I’m aware this will always happen in any group, so it’s become paramount to always be on the ball and ready for whatever curveball comes our way. Finally, my presentation experience, I’m extremely proud of the proposal I have come up with and I truly do feel like if Old Ivanhoe were to approach The Foreigner with this proposal and they accepted there’s a good partnership there for both parties. 

It’s always a little weird presenting online and I felt I was a little rushed and worrying about my timing but hopefully next year is back to normal.

 Carrillat, Harris, E. G., & Lafferty, B. A. (2010). FORTUITOUS BRAND IMAGE TRANSFER: Investigating the Side Effect of Concurrent Sponsorships. Journal of Advertising, 39(2), 109–123. https://doi.org/10.2753/JOA0091-3367390208

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Entry 5 - Exploration of Leveraging

When researching further into what is sponsorship leveraging, it’s easy to understand that it can be quite an easily understandable term. Sponsorship leveraging is using other marketing tactics and activities to reach the previously set goals and, in some cases, it can cost multiple times the amount of the actual sponsorship itself. Some of this include but aren’t limited options like social media content whether it be video, photo or audio or any type of promotion whether it be a TV ad or product placement. 

The AFL and Toyota making those “Legendary Moments” (AFL 2020), advertisements last year show one concept of sponsorship leveraging. Just regular ads with the AFL logo or the Toyota Logo on the AFL ball may get the sponsorship to meet its requirements, but the “Legendary Moments” ads was used as a leveraging tactic to put them above the other sponsors and are car companies that deal with the AFL in one way or another. 

AFL “Legendary Moments”

For an example to do with my VAFA Club old Ivanhoe, with the Foreigner café making multiple posts for the social media channels will increase engagement and interest as well as build awareness about the new and upcoming sponsorship. Which in turn will leverage The Foreigner café over other cafes in the area. Another example of co-activation and leveraging was when the NBA slowly released new images for each team’s exclusive jersey for the NBA’s 75th Anniversary building excitement and intrigue over the new and exclusive jerseys that the NBA players will be donning for this one season only. These three examples are perfect ways of showing that co-activation and leveraging are vital to a sponsorship. Leveraging and co-activation may cost the company more on paper to pursue and ‘activate’ properly but the returns that the partners should see should outweigh the amount of money spent and in return can cause a restart of a future partnership down the line. 

Hoye, et. al. (2018). Sports Management: Principles and Applications. Routledge. 

Toyota Legendary Moments - AFL.com.au. afl.com.au. (2020). https://www.afl.com.au/toyota-legendary-moments.

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Entry 4 - Importance of Congruence

The congruence between brands and sponsors are one of the major keys to successful and unsuccessful partnerships. Two partners that have a strong congruence fit with one another, they make sense to partner together and both partners receive mutual benefits from one another. Within the sporting industry, brand image transfer is usually the most common and most successful part in justifying whether are partnership is or will be congruent with one another or not as explained in (Hoye et. al, 2018). 

In comparison a sponsorship or partnership that is incongruent do not fit well with one another, one partner may receive bigger benefits from one another, or they just might not go well with one another. Making sure that a partnership is congruent with one another can change the proposal entirely. An example of a partnership that is congruent with one another is Cristiano Ronaldo and Nike. The brand image transfer that occurs between the two partners go well with one another. Nike’s slogan of “Just Do It” and their continued image of continuing to try and get up to go again fit well with the way that Ronaldo handles himself on and off the soccer field. The partnership between the two parties positively affects one another effectively. 

 On the other hand, an example of a partnership that is incongruent with one another would be the Olympics and McDonalds. The Olympics is an event where the highest quality athletes all around the world come to one country and compete against one another at the highest competition available for each respective sport. Athlete’s will work extremely hard to reach the Olympics and there will be some athlete’s that spend years training to never make it. That is why their partnership with McDonalds just doesn’t make sense in the slightest. The world’s best athletes won’t be stopping to eat multiple large Big Mac Meals. They are going to be fuelling their bodies with the correct food that is going to always give them the upper edge. That is why the partnership between McDonalds and the Olympics are incongruent hence it is one of the speculated reasons as to why Mcdonalds and the Olympics split in 2018 as reported on (Dewey, C. 2018). 

Hoye, et. al. (2018). Sports Management: Principles and Applications. Routledge. 

Dewey, C. (2018). Olympic athletes love McDonald’s. But its role in PyeongChang will be the smallest in decades. The Washington Post.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/02/09/olympic-athletes-love-mcdonalds-but-its-role-in-pyeongchang-will-be-the-smallest-in-decades/.

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Entry 3 - Reflection on A1 and Importance of Asset Inventory

The third entry in this portfolio investigates the importance of what an asset inventory is to a sporting organisation as well as reflecting upon the completion of Assessment 3 in which an Asset Inventory document was completed for Old Ivanhoe Grammarians Football Club to help the club see where they can potentially entice more than their current 40 sponsors (OIGFC, 2021). 

After completing A1 and developing an appropriate asset inventory for Old Ivanhoe Grammarians it is clear how it can be useful for not only sporting organisation but organisations in any industry. 

 Comprehending what assets, you have available to you at any point in time is monumental in getting your sporting organisation ahead of the next (Dees, W, et. al. 2019). When first looking at Old Ivanhoe Grammarians asset inventory we struggled to think of 20 potential assets, but after understanding what an asset can be, a wide range of potential ideas were found, we ended up listing 55 but as the semester has continued that could quite easily and quickly jump up to a much greater number with the variety and options that Old Ivanhoe have at their disposal and most other sporting organisations would be sitting in the same boat. There are so many more opportunities than just a sign on the side of the oval or a logo on the left chest. 

Common and somewhat obvious places like in the corner of newsletters, signs in club rooms and around the ground signage are great places to look for initially, but there are many, many more smaller and uncommon areas to potentially have sponsorship assets, sponsorship signage in the bathrooms and on the scoreboard if applicable. 

The uniform is a fantastic spot for multiple sponsorship asset positions, years ago you would be shocked to see anything other than the playing colours and strip on the uniform but now you can find multiple sponsors on jerseys from the elite level all the way down to the grassroots level. 

Using all this information and an open, creative mind the potential sponsorships a sporting organisation has at their disposal can be endless and is up to them or their marketing team whether they will capitalise upon it or not. 

Dees, W., Gay, C., Popp, N., & Jensen, J. A. (2019). Assessing the Impact of Sponsor Asset Selection, Intangible Rights, and Activation on Sponsorship Effectiveness. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 28(2), 91–101. https://doi.org/10.32731/SMQ.282.062019.03 Sponsors – Old Ivanhoe Grammarians Football Club. Oigfc.com.au. (2021). https://www.oigfc.com.au/sponsors/.

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Entry 2 - The Importance of Providing Real Tangible (and intangible) Sponsorship Benefits and a Review of Your club’s Sponsorship Packages / Proposals

The many advantages that come with providing tangible and intangible benefits with sponsorship packages. Tangible benefits can be isolated to physical items for example, items like cash, signs, equipment, and items of inventory are tangible assets. In comparison to intangible benefits which aren’t physical. Some of these can include but aren’t limited to benefits like increased network, exposure, and reputation. These benefits aren’t physical items but can go a great way to benefiting your company or business. As shown in the image embedded below, there are multiple different benefits that sponsors are expecting to be delivered from partnering with a party.

In terms of my assigned VAFA club, Old Ivanhoe Grammarians Football club. Reviewing their current sponsors and sponsorship deals will provide an understanding on what tangible and intangible benefits they provide in their sponsorship deals.

Old Ivanhoe currently have 7 Major Sponsors, 12 gold sponsors, 12 Silver Sponsors and 12 Bronze sponsors with each level or sponsorship providing the sponsor different level of benefits.

Starting with the bronze level for $1500, the sponsor is provided with tangible benefits like club room signage and invitations to Old Ivanhoe’s Chelsworth Clubs home game matches. The sponsor will also receive advertising on their social media accounts and website but will also benefit from intangible exposure from said advertising

The silver level is double the price, and they receive all the tangible and intangible benefits of the bronze package, but they also receive priority promotion on the digital scoreboard at home games and an around the ground banner with their logo of choice on it.

The 2nd tier from the top is the gold level package which currently cost $5000, gold sponsors can receive the tangible benefits of the previously mentioned packages as well as branding on club apparel if desired, individual promotion at one of the Chelsworth Club Lunches and a corporate logo underneath the team list in the VAFA Record. Finally, they also receive the intangible benefit of having a single home game named exclusively after them. Finally, the top tier sponsorship package is the major sponsors package, it is the most expensive option at $7,500 but it does coincide with the largest amount of benefits. Just like the previously mentioned tiers the majors receive all the same benefits as the gold tier as well as tangible benefits of video production advertising on the digital scoreboard at home games they also receive 2 tickets to the annual Auction Gala Night. Where they are sure to receive the highest exposure and increase their intangible benefits greatly.

https://www.oigfc.com.au/sponsorship-packages/

https://www.oigfc.com.au/sponsors/

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Entry 1 - The Increasing Importance of Sponsorship With Regards To The Business of Sport and The Sponsorship Framework

The importance of sponsorship within the business of sport is growing rapidly by the day and the amount of money involved seems to be increasing at the same pace.

Over the past years professional sport as a business has seen a massive overhaul regarding sponsorship. The importance for leagues, franchises, and players all to have their own sponsorships to keep the league afloat or push it further into a lucrative area.

Understanding the four main stages that apply to sponsorship as a process develops a stronger understanding of the sponsorship framework within the sporting industry. The first of the four main stages is the foundation stage. Developing a strong foundation includes developing a strong asset inventory; this helps the sporting organisation their opportunities they have available to capitalise upon. Creating a marketing plan as well utilising and maximising the reach and use of said clubs’ platforms. 

The next important stage in the framework is under the customisation portion. Being able to customise and target a specific sponsor and finalise a complete sponsorship plan will not only get the strongest results out of the sponsorship but will also help create a stronger relationship between the two parties and can potentially provide larger sponsorships and relationships in the future.  

The third section of the sponsorship framework is the realisation section. This part of the framework can be the most difficult and if not handled correctly, If handled incorrectly one party may benefit largely over the other and then that may create a conflict between the two and eventually connections could be severed if not worked and improved on.

The fourth and final stage of the sponsorship framework is the co-activation stage. This is usually taken place midway or towards the end of the sponsorship deal. Servicing a sponsorship throughout the intended period is a great way to see if the partnership is going the way it had intended to. Being able to adapt and change the sponsorship throughout its tenure can help improve or stabilise the results. Sitting down and reviewing the partnership post its conclusion will help both parties, any grievances, issues, and positives they had found throughout said time and begin discussions as to whether they’d like to renew the partnership again or thank each other for their services and go their own separate ways.

Biscaia, R., Correia, A., Rosado, A. F., Ross, S. D., & Maroco, J. (2013). Sport Sponsorship: The Relationship Between Team Loyalty, Sponsorship Awareness, Attitude Toward the Sponsor, and Purchase Intentions. Journal of Sport Management, 27(4), 288–302. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.27.4.288

O’Hara, B. (2021) Sport Sponsorship Week 1, [PowerPoint Slides]. Holmesglen Brightspace. https://holmesglen.brightspace.com/