6 Sports marketing ideas to make your brand stand out

As technology advances, sports marketing is becoming more sophisticated than ever before. So, how do you stand out from the crowd? Creating digital experiences that complement rather than disrupt sports has made a rapid ascent to the top of the ladder. Below are some of the leading ideas that are taking the industry by storm.

What is sports marketing?

Sports marketing ranges from promoting sports events and teams to promoting products and services through sports. As a branch of marketing, it’s focused on creating strong connections with fans while also building value for sponsors.

Whether you’re a venue, team, or producer of sporting goods and services, smart sports marketing matters. It helps generate brand awareness, drive attendance and boost revenue. So, let's explore some of the ways you can use innovative digital experiences to help your brand stand out in an extremely competitive industry.

1. Create rewards at a venue

Sporting organisations are increasingly using technology such as augmented reality (AR) and geo-mapping to drive engagement and sponsor traffic at events. One strategy is to place rewards throughout a venue that sports fans can collect and redeem at sponsors’ online stores or event booths. This helps entertain and engage attendees during breaks while also driving greater value for sponsors and business partners.

2. Digital challenges and games

AR is also used by brands and organisations to deliver interactive challenges and games to their audience by inserting digital effects in real world settings. Whether it’s catching a ball or kicking a goal, AR provides a great opportunity for interaction whether your audience is at home, attending a match or in a store.

3. Tailored marketing using segmented audiences

Through digital experiences such as those mentioned above, sports marketers can collect valuable information about audiences. This data is the key to creating more relevant marketing and content tailored to a person’s interests. XRii allows businesses to create in-venue or at-home digital experiences and includes built-in analytics and insights to help understand your customers more and drive better engagement.

4. Run a contest or giveaway

Do you want to run a cash giveaway, meet-and-greet with an athlete, or product giveaway? Running your contest through a high-quality digital experience helps drive entries and gather valuable information about audiences. QR codes have become a popular, fast and easy way to gain digital engagement at venues.

XRii provides a simple dashboard that allows businesses to build an app for their contest and generate a QR code. You can then measure the success of your contest with built-in analytics and insights.

5. Guide attendees through the venue

Augmented reality can also be used to guide attendees through your venue with the assistance of geo-mapping. This can provide helpful directions to seating areas as well as stalls and activities. By creating an interactive map, you can highlight key sponsors and drive traffic to live events happening during breaks. This can be used in combination with location-specific rewards to help drive interactive experiences.

6. Create fan loyalty programs

In 2022, Manchester United appointed a new role—head of fan engagement. The goal was to strengthen the club’s relationship with game attendees as well as those who can’t attend live games (for example, overseas fans) but want to interact with the club. An essential part of this strategy is recognising and rewarding digital fan interactions, ultimately creating a positive feedback loop between your audience and your brand.

Perth Heat boost engagement with giveaways

Now that you have a few ideas to work with, let’s look at an example of effective sports marketing in action. Australian Baseball Club, Perth Heat, used XRii to create a blended digital engagement campaign to gather data and incentivise fans at games. They launched a custom-branded app for a $50k cash giveaway and incentivised users through in-app rewards. This resulted in 60% of app downloads converting to sign-ups and 95% of vouchers redeemed.

Take some time to think about how your audience is, and could be, interacting with your brand. Don't be afraid to shake things up. From AR to geo-mapping, you have the opportunity to create a range of unique, memorable interactions. XRii Digital Loyalty solutions makes this more accessible than ever with out-of-the-box digital experiences that you can customise with your own brand. Learn more about how you can use XRii on our sports marketing page.

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