Get Content Teams Into Pitch Meetings

👋 Welcome back to Sponcon Sports, a weekly newsletter dedicated to sponsored content strategy in the sports industry!

Let me put you on the League of 72’s social strategy.

The League of 72 is a YouTube channel featuring stories, insider access, and personalities from the English Football League. Run by Sky Bet, the EFL's title sponsor, the channel drops new videos every weekday during the season.

In February, the League of 72 returned after a three-month break, launching dedicated X, Facebook & Instagram accounts, introducing new, player-focused content formats, a fresh group of hosts, and an updated look and feel.

Content series typically feature a duo from one of the league’s clubs. Some highlights include:

• LEVELs: Players and hosts compete in increasingly difficult training drill challenges.

• You Laugh You Lose: Players try not to crack up at bad jokes.

• Score Draw: The Player with the best drawing wins.

• First Time Fan: Behind-the-scenes access to an EFL match day.

The account essentially acts as a guided tour of the EFL, introducing you to the league’s many faces.

This framework is a smart approach for leagues, player development/academy accounts (like @YoungBucsPIT), or sports with large rosters (NFL, NHL, etc.) to help fans connect with players on a deeper level.

In Today’s Edition:

• More Collaboration, More Sales 🤝 

• Buffalo Bills [Candy] Crush It With Snickers 🍬 

• Dallas Cowboys QB Sneak ft. Post Malone 🎙️ 

🏊️ DEEP DIVE
Get Content Teams Into Pitch Meetings

We live in a siloed corporate world.

This is not unique to the working environment with sports teams. Nevertheless, collaboration between partnership and content teams is the key to unlocking better digital partnerships.

What do I mean by better?

A focus on earning a renewal rather than getting a quick sales win. We can do that by creating content that serves the fans and hits brands’ business goals.

So how do we up our game when it comes to cross-department collaboration?

1. Implement the golden rule of digital inventory

2. Stop gatekeeping content meetings

3. Get content teams into pitch meetings

The first two steps will only get you so far.  But if you want to provide the best digital partnership experience for brands, a representative from your content team must be part of your pitch meetings.

What’s Standing In The Way?

Why isn’t this already happening?

There is an element of partnership teams being territorial. They are the experts in getting the sale after all.

That said, utilizing your content team needs to be looked at as support. The arrow in your quiver you can use to get buy-in from the partner who can’t wrap their head around the digital concept.

But this isn’t all on partnership teams.

Content teams need to make time for this. While I’ve said many times that content supports several departments, if the goal is to reduce bad sponsored content from being sold, content teams need to prioritize taking some ownership in the process.

When more people are included in client meetings, there’s also inherently a fear of how new faces will handle the client pushing for a “bad” idea or providing tough feedback.

I imagine partnership teams think content teams will hear an idea they don’t like and react like a frustrated Doctor Cox.

Express those concerns beforehand. If content teams are being trusted to join sales pitches, they need to understand partner requests should be addressed with a solutions-oriented approach.

I personally believe that you should never respond to a partner with, “No.” Instead, you should say something to the effect of, “we can’t do that for X reasons, but here’s what we can do and why it’s a more effective way to reach X goal.”

Ultimately you need empower your content team to take on this client-facing role and work on building that trust. We can’t treat it like an entry-level job listing that asks for two to five years of experience.

And before you say, “Alex, we can’t have EVERYONE in a pitch. Too many people from the rightsholder side can create an imbalance  in the meeting”, I have the solution.

I recognize that your partnership pitch is likely not predominantly digitally-focused.

If you don’t want too many people in the room (or Zoom) at once, have the content representative block off the time of the pitch on their calendar and have them join only for their part of the presentation.

I’ve done this many times and it neither disrupts nor disturbs the flow of the meeting. On the flip side, it allows the content representative to maximize their time and work on other tasks.

There are too many benefits that outweigh the “risk” of including content teams in sales pitches. Here’s how we can put that into practice.

Sales Materials

Before we get to the meeting, your content team should review how their ideas are being represented on presentation slides. A final set of checks and balances ensures activation details are correct.

Also, they can spot opportunities to showcase the value of living within the team’s digital ecosystem (league rankings, benchmarks, demographic data, etc).

At the same time, since you’ll now have a content representative in the room, it allows you to take words off the page that can be addressed in a voice-over, leading to better focus from the client.

The Pitch Meeting

Once we’re in the meeting you’ll quickly see the value of having your content team involved in this part of the process.

It removes the language barrier for both internal and external stakeholders who don’t have a strong understanding of digital. They live and breathe this every day at work and at home. They can easily make digital approachable and simply explain why tactics are mutually beneficial.

It’s the difference between reading off performance stats from a slide to providing color around why the brand is getting a special opportunity to be included in a given moment in time.

For example, let’s look at NFL game day injury reports. You could focus on the content’s performance and the total posts, but your content team can provide firsthand knowledge of fans connection to the content.

Given the popularity of fantasy football, the injury report provides real-time news that will impact the lineup fans set for their teams. They sit in anticipation waiting for this post to go live. That emotional connection is what drives the engagement and why you want your brand to be integrated into those posts.

And even if the prospect doesn’t go for the idea or asks for adjustments that better suit their goals, your content team is the best resource to successfully pivot in real-time. They know the inventory best and can provide alternate solutions based on the client’s feedback that work for everyone.

Taking a step back, it’s also good for your partners to meet the team that will be handling their digital assets. It deepens the brand’s connection to the team. You can even tout that you have in-house digital experts that are focused on driving great performance.

Meanwhile, from the content team’s point of view, they can a better understanding of how clients operate. With that direct relationship being formed, they’ll be more empathetic if and when you need to deliver requests good and bad from the client.

Discovery Calls

This approach should go beyond pitch meetings. Inviting a content team representative to discovery calls is a huge timesaver.

You no longer have to play a game of telephone communicating notes from the call. Also, you will greatly decrease the number of times you have to go back to the client to ask for additional information focused on digital.

The content rep should be here to ask these eight questions. It’s also an opportunity to soft-sound ideas with the client to see if there’s any initial interest.

Partnership Activation

The content team’s inclusion in pitch meetings shouldn’t be limited to prospects. They should also be a part of meetings with current partners.

Do they need to be in every weekly/biweekly meeting, no. Don’t be afraid to send the invite when any digital asset is going to be discussed. At the very least, your content team should be included in reporting, recap, and upsell discussions.

This is another great way to develop stronger relationships with your partners. It also gives the team a more direct way to ask the right clarifying questions, address feedback, and provide solutions.

The Takeaway

It’s not us versus them. If you want to elevate your digital partnerships, stop treating your content and partnership teams like separate silos.

Get your content experts in the room during pitch and discovery meetings. They’ll bridge the gap, make digital concepts more digestible for clients, and help craft solutions on the spot. In short, it’s a win for everyone—better pitches, stronger relationships, and more effective content that hits brand goals.

🔍 SPONCONSPIRATION
Steal These Ideas

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NBA schedule release stats you NEED to know.

Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott casually dropped track names from Post Malone’s new album during his press conference. This is the latest collaboration with Post Malone, which has also included a Cowboys-themed Raising Cane's, a streetwear line, and appearances in schedule release videos. I could see FC Barcelona doing something similar with Spotify to promote artists.

Mercedes F1 and WhatsApp strike again with a game of “I’d Reply With”, featuring Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton.

Don’t miss seasons one and two of the Seattle Kraken’s “Uncharted” series presented by Filson (A+ website experience). The videos highlight the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest while giving a deeper look at Kraken players off the ice.

🚨 ICYMI
What To Watch For

Prideful Plug: I joined Sport Design Australia on the latest Art of the Game podcast to talk about streamlining workflows for better sponcon. We highlighted top teams and leagues driving innovation and shared tips on maximizing revenue and getting buy-in across the business.

Great Listen: Ricardo Fort joined Tom Richardson and Joe Favorito on the CUSP Show to discuss the evolution of sports sponsorships, the role of agencies in partnership activation, the properties with great potential for successful sponsorship appear; and much more!

Centennial Planning: A closer look at how the New York Giants are celebrating their 100th NFL season with an epic calendar of events that was 18 months in the making [via Sports Business Journal].

New Report: According to SponsorUnited’s European Football Marketing Partnerships 2023-2024 Report, Real Madrid CF, Manchester City, and FC Barcelona led all clubs in total branded engagement, while SV Werder Bremen, VfB Stuttgart, and Genoa CFC ranked highest in branded engagement rate. If you need a TL;DR, Dawid Prokopowicz shared 15 insights from the report.

Every Seat Counts: How Brentford FC partnered with Ticketmaster to reduce empty season ticket holder seats on match days [via Sport Industry Group].

Tag Team: I’m looking forward to the digital campaigns that come from AFC Bournemouth’s new partnership with WWE 2K.

Stat of the Week: Influencers with less than 10K followers delivered far better returns compared to influencers with more than 100K followers in a study looking at 2M purchases and hundreds of paid influencer endorsements [via Harvard Business Review].

Strategy Breakdown: How the Chicago Bulls are growing their social media following [via Marketing Brew].