With all the money being spent on professional and big college sports, there are other very creative places in the sports world where you can launch a message for your product. The experts are starting to take a serious look at high school and small college sports as a highly effective marketing channel. Kind of the “grass roots” (or field turf) level of sports marketing. “There’s nobody advertising, you can own the space” says one expert.
Selling high school and college sports play by play and sponsorship is a different animal say’s P1 Learning’s Speed Marriott. “You can feel free to replace the words spot, sponsorship and liners with the words. “passion, tradition, and community.” It’s all about selling the emotion. Paint a picture in your sales presentation of last year’s big rival game, played under the lights on a football Friday night.”
“Remember last year’s big game? We were down by three with five minutes left, and our Tigers, Eagles, Hawks… (feel free to insert your team name here) forced a fumble and ran it back to win the game. As a sponsor of this year’s post game show, Lawson Lumber, James Insurance, Wilson Auto Mart (feel free to insert a business name here) can be at the center of next year’s big rivalry win.”
As you can see, the basic rules of marketing and logic are no longer necessary.
Many rural schools won’t have play by play so this is an excellent opportunity for creating a sponsored podcast uploaded immediately after the game for those not in attendance. You may even find a teacher or former student athlete to do the play by play and color. Invite that current student interested in a sports play by play career to serve as the “sideline reporter.” Each of these people can be endorsers for sponsorship products too. There are many more opportunities for creative advertisers to join in on the emotion and spirit of the game by presenting their message of support in these different ways rather than just that sign on the side of the press box.
Need more help on how to market to sport teams. Sign up for a 7-Day Demo and watch “Selling the Passion”
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