How Does Influencer Marketing Work For Sports Brands?
Influencer marketing can be highly effective for sports brands and has consequently become an integral part of the marketing mix. However, influencer marketing within the sporting sphere differs from other industries in several ways. Below, we will take a look at how influencer marketing works for sports brands and how working with an influencer marketing platform can generate great success.
How Does Influencer Marketing Offer Something Different For Sports Brands?
Sports brands have always valued loyalty and, therefore, brand ambassadors are a natural choice. This stems from the historic trend of professional athletes signing contracts; sports stars sign contractual agreements with brands, which typically last for years and ensure they stay loyal to one brand during their whole career.
Influencer marketing has breathed new life into this traditional form of marketing. Brands are now able to use creators to work alongside more high profile brand ambassadors, in order to complement and endorse their content and push it out to more targeted audiences. In this sense, working with an influencer marketing platform can be a great choice for sports brands who want to outsource the management of their campaigns. Increasingly, the most successful campaigns are those that use both high profile brand ambassadors, be that a celebrity or a macro creator, and micro creators.
Many sports brands are turning to this format. For example, Nike has created the London Youth Games. The marketing campaign, which uses the hashtag #nothingbeatsalonder, has engaged Mo Farah as the face of the campaign, while using creators Alex Scott @alexscott2 and Jake @Jake100, to name a few, to support him. Both parties have worked to inspire and enable every young Londoner to be their best through sport.
Another example is THIS GIRL CAN, a highly successful campaign developed by Sport England, which aims to promote an active lifestyle and present the amazing ways women can fit exercise into their modern day lives. Sporting personalities Dame Kelly Holmes and Claire Balding, and micro creators such as Natalie Lee @stylemesunday and Amelia Mandeville @ameliamandev, have worked collaboratively to drive the success of this national marketing campaign.
Why should sports brands outsource?
Using an influencer marketing platform is a great choice for sports brands. Take a look below at some of the top reasons that sports brands should consider outsourcing their influencer marketing campaigns.
Make the most of data and analytics
Whether you are using a self-service platform or running managed campaigns, data is one of the most valuable and beneficial elements of working with an influencer marketing platform. Influencer’s technology combines data with creative flair, meaning that brands are able to understand their key strengths, recognise potential weaknesses, and identify what works.
Data also enable brands to choose creators with an authentic and credible voice, as well as identifying particular demographic groups that match their target audience. This allows for specific targeting and, therefore, allows brands to reach their target audience with greater ease.
Get full transparency
Working with creators can be complex. Firstly, there is deciphering whether they have fake followers. Secondly, there is working out whether their price point is accurate and finally, there is deciding whether a trustful relationship can be established. Working with an influencer marketing platform removes this complexity and ensures that both the brand and creator are protected.
Manage campaigns effectively
Even the most experienced internal teams struggle to oversee a creator campaign from start to finish, as most companies do not have the suitable support to manage it properly and effectively. Typically, brands will be most comfortable working with brand ambassadors who are sports stars, however, when it comes to working with creators, they are unsure of where to begin. Therefore, working with an influencer marketing platform will allow the brand to curate campaigns that run more holistically and successfully.
Save time on creator discovery
Finding the right creator can take a long time, however, when you work with an influencer marketing platform they are able to take care of that for you. Knowing that a creator is legitimate, and having the data to back it up, is a huge benefit of working with a platform or using an influencer marketing platform. Sports brands are increasingly investing in up and coming creators who can offer exclusivity and are able to tap into different markets and target niche audiences. By discovering new creators who have unique niches, brands can reach out to audiences that are much more engaged.
What’s next for influencer marketing in sports?
Influencer marketing within the sports industry is constantly evolving; it is predicted that the future of marketing will focus on using brand ambassadors who employ an ‘always on’ approach. Brands will use creators as a source of constant connection to targeted audiences, whilst using high profile ambassadors, be that sports stars or macro creators, as the face of the campaign.
Using highly recognised brand ambassadors increases reach and credibility, whilst the smaller creators are necessary to keep the product on a consumer’s radar and reach a more targeted audience. Therefore, influencer marketing is not simply focused on promoting a product once or twice through a popular athlete’s social account, it is about strategically using creators to boost the campaign alongside the traditional brand ambassador method.
If you have any questions about the topics raised in this article or would like to discuss influencer marketing further, please head to the Influencer website or email us on contact@influencer.com.
