👋 Hey, it’s Alex. Welcome to Sponcon Sports, my weekly newsletter dedicated to sponsored content strategy in the sports industry!

I've led digital partnerships for seven years, three of which were with NBA, NHL, and MLB teams. I've learned a lot, from wins and losses, and I have 14 rules for successful sponsored content. But, if you break the number one rule outlined below, the other 13 don't matter. Let’s dive in!

In today’s edition:

• Sponcon’s Number One Rule☝️

• Season Tipoff Checklist 🏀

• Sponcon of the Week 🐧

DEEP DIVE
What Sports Teams Get Wrong With Sponsored Content

The biggest mistake sports teams make when it comes to sponsored content is that they treat it as if it's different from all the other content published on their digital channels. There are two key differences between unsponsored content and sponsored content.

1. You need to find a creative way to integrate partners into the content without it feeling like an ad.

2. The review process takes on an added layer.

But the approach should remain the same! You need to ask yourself one question to determine if sponsored content can work.

Does this content match the expectations of our fans when they hit the 'follow' or 'subscribe' button?

Think about it. When a fan hits 'follow' or 'subscribe,' that action comes with expectations. They want to hear the latest and greatest about players, coaches, updates on how they're performing on the field, court, or ice, and get more access to the team than they can from TV. They don't want to hear about your partner's latest sale, their latest community initiative, or why you, as a fan, should use their product.

When you agree to speak like your partner to your fans, you end up sounding like this ⬇️

Integration vs Interruption

Successful sponsored content on any channel is all about ensuring that including a partner feels natural within the kind of content you're already sharing with your followers.

It should be an integration rather than an interruption. Integration makes it possible for sponsored content to help the team and its partner achieve their business goals throughout the marketing funnel.

Now, all of the negative examples listed above can be solved, but it all boils down to how you can align the content with followers' expectations. That can be done through channel selection, alternate accounts, paid media, player endorsements, influencer marketing, and more. We'll delve into those solutions in more depth in upcoming newsletters. What you need to know right now is that if you give the people what they want, it drives engagement and, in turn, fuels the algorithm to distribute the sponsored content to more people.

On the flip side, fans can quickly identify ad-like content. They'll scroll past it so fast that your partner will be disappointed with its performance, and your content team could see its relationship with their audience (the #1 responsibility of their job) take a hit.

Fueling The Digital Partnerships Flywheel

Interruption is a significant problem because sponsored content is a flywheel for digital partnerships. Content teams build large, highly engaged audiences. These audiences bring in sponsorship revenue, allowing content teams to bring bigger and better ideas to life. These bigger ideas increase the size of that highly engaged audience.

Let's take a closer look at the relationship between sports teams' social media accounts and their position in the market.

According to a 2023 Rival IQ Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, , sports teams have an engagement rate 61% to 300% higher than the median of 14 industries studied across Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok.

That engagement is one of the most crucial reasons why sponsored content matters in sports partnerships. Unlike its counterparts in the arena or stadium, sponsored content is signage you can touch. The more engagement on content, the more you know fans actually saw your brand, as opposed to an impression, which can be challenging to measure precisely through TV ratings or doesn't guarantee that 100% of a post is on the screen when it appears in fans' social media feeds.

The Takeaway: The size of sports teams' highly engaged digital audiences is why brands want to be a part of sponsored content in the first place. If they could create that themselves, sponsored content would barely exist. Sports teams need to remember what helped them build that valuable audience in the first place and provide more of what it wants. You can continue to nurture that audience and help your partners achieve their business goals. The key to making sure that happens is aligning sponsored content with followers' expectations.

TIMELY TIPS
Season Tipoff - Digital Partnerships Checklist

The 2023-2024 NBA season tips off on Tuesday. Here are four things you need to do in any sport to get your digital partnerships off to a great start.

1. Set a partnerships meeting with any digital team included in a partnership (social, web, app, email, performance marketing, etc). Order in some lunch and take an hour to walk through every partnership that includes digital assets. This gives each team a chance to ask clarifying questions on how something should be activated and flag any needs they have before the season begins.

2. Confirm branded content tool approvals. If you have any partnerships that include sponsored content on Facebook or Instagram and your team plans to tag a partner using the branded content tool, you need to check if your partner approved access to being tagged in that manner. If a partner has not approved branded content tool usage, sponsored content on Instagram will only say “Paid Partnership” rather than “Paid Partnership with [insert your partner name here]”. Meanwhile on Facebook, you will be unable to post using the branded content tool. Ask your content team which partners approvals are still incomplete, then email your partner with these step-by-step guides for Facebook and Instagram as soon as possible.

3. Set up your tagging strategy. Before the season starts make sure you know who will be tagging sponsored content throughout the season as well as how often that will be done, and what the tagging structure looks like on your platform of choice. This is crucial for campaign analysis and reporting not only on active sponsored content, but also, open inventory for new business pitches and upsells. Trust me, you don’t want to go back and retroactively start tagging. Sports teams post a lot and if you fall even a week behind that can set you back so far.

4. Monitor digital channels for the first week of the season. With a new season comes new partners and creative solutions to connect brands to action on and off the court/field/ice through sponsored content. Keep your eye out for content series names, how partners are tagged, where logos appear, new opportunities for gameday integration, trigger offer execution, how your current partners are activating with other teams, and much more! Truly this is some of the best time to discover new ideas for digital partnerships (like the case study below).

CASE STUDY
Sponsored Content of the Week

If you're not already following the Pittsburgh Penguins on social media, this is your sign to start. They initially caught my attention with their sponsored content ideas, and I've stayed around because of their fantastic design aesthetics.

One of my personal favorites from the NHL's opening week is the game recap graphic displayed above. In a time when fans crave more analytics, the Penguins go above and beyond the traditional final score and box score graphics you typically see in the industry. Their design is top-notch, effectively conveying the game's story in a clear and concise manner. What's even better is that it benefits the team, its fans, and its home jersey patch partner, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield.

• Why it works for the Penguins: It's a social-first content piece, different from a traditional game story write-up you see on team websites. It's already an integral part of the team's gameday social media plan, and they know their fans will love it.

• Why it works for Penguins fans: In a single post, fans can learn everything they need to know about the game. More importantly, it makes them more informed fans by providing in-depth game analytics.

• Why it works for Highmark: This is a high-frequency play since this content goes live on X and Instagram Stories for all 82 games of the season. Its connection to the final score on X will undoubtedly generate numerous impressions and engagements, especially after wins. Based on the results from the first few games, I'd expect this sponsored content series to generate at least 8.2M impressions and 60K engagements. It's a platform worthy of a jersey patch partner, and it will do a great job of driving increased logo recognition, given the clarity of the blue against the black background.

Fortunately, the Pens are serving up a combo meal of sponsored content inspiration on Instagram Stories. Following the game recap graphic is a preview of their next five games, presented by Ticketmaster. This demonstrates how thoughtfully they plan their content.

• Why it works for the Penguins: It provides the team with an opportunity to sell tickets when interest is high, and it's on a channel (Instagram Stories) where linking out to another page makes sense.

• Why it works for Penguins fans: It immediately offers them upcoming schedule information at the perfect moment, making it easy to purchase tickets if interested. Schedule pages tend to be one of the most visited on a team's website, so it's smart to present that information when fans are actively engaged.

• Why it works for Ticketmaster: It reinforces their position as the official ticketing partner of the Penguins and provides another relevant opportunity to encourage Pens fans to buy tickets on their platform.

SPONCONSPIRATION
Steal These Ideas

The Atlanta Falcons and Delta gave player arrival content an in-flight magazine aesthetic.

The Detroit Lions have their players providing instant reactions to winning plays. Great idea for a phone or tablet partner!

Have a job search partner? Check out a guess the player based on their career path from the England football team.

Man City cleverly branded their team bus to show their partner NEXEN Tire some love when arriving to a Champions League match.

The Buffalo Bills came up with an all-time name for their content series with Frito Lay.

INDUSTRY NEWS
What I’m Reading

Twitch launches stories for Streamers - possibly a new sponsored content placement for brands?

X continues to restrict links to rival apps and news publishers - another reason to avoid linking out for sponcon via organic social media.

Why the Sports Industry can’t target TikTok users enough - a potential opportunity to increase partner product consideration?

Big 12, Allstate launch largest women’s sports partnership in conference history - Allstate will become the first-ever digital presenting partner of Big 12 women’s basketball.