Shine at major sporting events

Business digitalization has been accelerating rapidly over the last decade, making the corporate world increasingly competitive. The sports sector is no exception: it has, in fact, become a true industry where marketing  plays a key role.

Driven by values of solidarity, perseverance, and team spirit, sports enjoy great popularity in the professional world, helping to forge strong bonds and lasting, profitable partnerships.

🔢 Sports sponsorship figures in France

> The market is now worth over 2.5 billion euros, primarily captured by professional and amateur clubs (75% combined). 89% of contracts involve SMEs. Finally, a large majority of contracts (92%) are worth less than €100k. A sign that sports sponsorship is not just for large corporations!

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CHALLENGE: How can you make your brand shine at major sporting events?

1. Sports: emotion at the service of your community

- Affirming your values

Sports are often associated with positive values (perseverance, team spirit, determination, excellence, etc.). By associating your brand with sports, you can benefit from the positive image they convey and transfer these values to your brand. This can help build consumer trust and create a positive perception of your brand, which can influence their purchasing decisions.

Furthermore, solidarity, emotion, and sharing allow sports to trigger that characteristic collective euphoria. Additionally, the world unites around unique, unifying events that allow brands to naturally rise to the occasion to promote self-transcendence and teamwork.

- Engaging your community / Emotional connection and fan loyalty

Sports often stir strong emotions in fans. By using sports to promote your brand, it becomes easier to tap into that passion and build an emotional connection with your audience. When fans see their favorite team or athlete supporting a brand, they are more likely to develop an affinity for that brand and show their support through purchases. This can lead to increased fan loyalty and a long-term relationship.

Big emotions also mean getting closer to your potential or existing customer base. Many companies use sports to challenge their community and build customer loyalty through modern, innovative interactions. Through gamification, it is now possible to connect with customers by offering conversational advertising or personalized journeys to further involve your audience. Finally, playable ads are one of the new levers available for engaging a community.

Discover how to gamify your advertising strategies with our white paper! 👾

Coca-Cola, a partner of numerous sporting events, constantly offers new, innovative activations to engage its community. For the Paris Olympics, and with the recent unveiling of the Olympic flame, the multinational has just launched a contest allowing one or more lucky winners to carry the Olympic flame and participate in the excitement of the Games.

Owning over 500 brands, the group is the longest-standing partner of the Games (since 1928) and has renewed its partnership with the IOC through 2032 as a worldwide partner.
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2. Engaging your community with innovative levers

- Using video to drive engagement

Video is becoming a decisive lever, both for building (brand awareness) and for driving engagement and traffic. Internally with their partners, an initiative from the Olympic Committee was launched. It involves creating videos for employees centered on the theme of movement. Each company must spark engagement within its community through video content that symbolizes the collective euphoria triggered by the Games. Energizing your customer base also means making them more productive and engaged. The goal is to make a lasting impression.

Short-form videos in TikTok format have the potential to go viral, generating significant impressions and engagement. Today, the platform represents a truly decisive lever for stimulating a community and bringing people together around sports challenges.

Learn more about TikTok with our white paper! 📲

Why you should get involved:

🏆 The ideal platform to rejuvenate your audience

🏆 Low creative investment : users are less demanding, and you can repurpose creative assets from platforms like Instagram.

With a diverse target audience primarily composed of 18-24 year olds, video is essential for making an impact and stimulating engagement through the emotions and values of sports. To meet this challenge, some companies launch challenges or showcase their products—like Decathlon, which uses a passive drive-to-store strategy paired with awareness campaigns aimed at audiences who are often less active or not yet converted.

Their strategy focuses on discovering new sports through short-form content and meeting renowned Olympic athletes as they train or showcase their gear. By partnering with Unseen Samy (a French video creator who covers American sports), they ensure innovative content that resonates with their target demographic.

Finally, to secure new customer touchpoints and gain significant exposure highlighting their partnership with the Olympics, Decathlon organized Olympic Day in several French cities. This physical event helps attract and retain customers, while TikTok helps make content go viral. This complementarity creates a comprehensive and effective strategy.

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Visa has also been a long-standing global partner of the Olympic Games since 1986. As part of their partnership, the Olympic Games recently announced that payments in official Paris 2024 Olympic stores will be made exclusively via the VISA service or in cash. To boost brand awareness and reinforce their association with the event, the company chose to run a multi-channel campaign across various platforms, including TikTok, with this advertisement featuring rapper Prince Waly.

The goal: reach a younger, more active audience.

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- Expand your audience

Major international championships, such as the World Cup, the European Championships, or the Olympic Games, make audiences more receptive to messaging.

On a national level, the Olympic Games provide a real boost to the digital communication market, opening up unprecedented opportunities for players in the sports and entertainment sectors. For the first time in a century, in an era where digital is essential, the Games are returning to our home soil. It is a dream opportunity to extend your influence and grow your audience.

Broadcast worldwide, these events spark new markets, new needs, and a collective national euphoria. Sporting events are a great way to introduce your brand, run innovative campaigns, or strengthen your brand image and stand out from competitors by staying relevant and targeting the right audience.

Visual storytelling and messaging strategies, combined with retargeting, can help evolve your target audiences through successive touchpoints. All of this within the conversion funnel to engage them and turn them into customers.

FFBB EXAMPLE (full case)

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- Building a relationship between a brand and a sporting event

There are various ways to build a relationship between a brand and a sporting event through sports sponsorship. Whether as part of a global strategy, corporate communications or simply to boost brand awareness and visibility, several strategies exist:

- sports philanthropy : uncommon due to its generous and altruistic nature, it is generally found among large corporations. It is a form of support provided by the sponsor without any expectation of a return.
- naming rights : this involves associating a brand with a venue or sports facility. It is highly rewarding for companies looking to improve their reputation.
- sponsorship : a technique that involves exchanging brand image for financial support. It is very popular in the sports world and is based on a win-win contract.

For Paris 2024, numerous major premium and global partners have signed various agreements with the IOC for the organization and promotion of the Games. Coca-Cola, Carrefour, Airbnb, LVMH, Air France, Orange, FDJ, and Decathlon are just a few of the companies taking part in the adventure. More than just a driver of profitability and prosperity, the Games represent a major branding opportunity for these large groups, which are helping to support a global event that has been recognized and followed by 5 billion unique viewers per edition for decades.

Partners are encouraged through numerous promotional and internal operations, allowing the IOC to benefit from various in-kind contributions. Carrefour will provide food for the volunteers at the venues during the event, and some partners will also serve as official equipment suppliers. Airbnb will also provide accommodation and facilitate travel for visitors to Paris. The benefits are reciprocal and diverse, as the exposure provided by such an event can be a source of growth for these organizations. Finally, as the president of Paris 2024 explained, partnerships allow the Games to exist, to shine, and to create synergy between stakeholders across the entire country.

At Klox, we support Corum L’Épargne (an insurance company) in developing its brand awareness (with a digital focus) among savings experts as well as a less familiar target audience (customer acquisition), notably through innovative channels (IPTV, Netflix, podcasts). Corum also entrusts us with its digital communication surrounding its own boat (IMOCA, Vendée Globe, Route du Rhum, etc.)

Are you looking for an agency to support you?

Our sports marketing specialists are here to support your sports-related communication projects. With deep roots in sailing, golf, basketball, and rugby, we offer you the opportunity to boost your brand's visibility among a wide audience and align your identity with the values of sport.

Klox is a digital marketing agency with a sports & entertainment DNA recognized for its work in amplifying major sporting events, such as the Vendée Globe with Corum l'épargne, Olympic preparation matches, and ticketing campaigns for numerous federations (FFBB, FFA, FFH, FFF, FFR, etc.).

= Klox case studies (World Cup, Vendée Globe, etc.)

- FFBB / FINAL - FRENCH CUP
- LOU RUGBY - EUROPEAN CUP
- CORUM - SAILING RACE

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