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Every year on Labor Day Weekend in the US, NASCAR hosts the now famous throwback weekend in Darlington, South Carolina. The sport has embraced this concept to bring the most memorable moments from its storied past back to life. It also gives teams and sponsors a chance to do something we regularly encourage marketing teams to do - celebrate heritage. Heritage is something your competitors can never replicate from your brand and its something unique to you.

Topics: Sponsorship Activation

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We are operating in a complicated, scrutinized, analyzed and need-to-deliver world. In the last few years especially, marketing has jumped to the center of the universe of importance for organizations. For a short while, vanity metrics such as "awareness" and "impressions" seemed to cover the bases. Then executives and board members started asking the most critical question, “impressions are great, but then what?"

Topics: Sponsorship Activation

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There is an insatiable demand for “the next thing” that has brands constantly spinning wheels trying to create stunts to boost impressions and other vane metrics. Why?

It might be because marketers have forgotten how to listen to consumers to understand what they actually want. Forgetting to listen has lead to a lack of understanding, which has generated even more noise.

Topics: Marketing Strategy

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What sounds like a simple difference in wording turns out to be the most important distinction in sports business. As digital media continues to command more of our attention and marketing dollars, there have been some important changes to traditional approaches to sports and entertainment. To maximize value for your brand, the key is finding the balance of investment between sponsorship rights and brand activation programs. 

Topics: Sponsorship Activation

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There are so many elements that go into a well-run and well-considered marketing strategy. We have been an experiencing a massive shift with marketers moving their budget and resources toward digital resources - putting millions of dollars behind search campaigns, YouTube ads, promoted social media posts and more. That has been what is stealing the headlines, anyway. Quietly behind the scenes, event specialist Bizzabo tells us that 80% of marketers still believe live events are critical to their company's success. Live events is a broad topic and platform in its own right. It could be proprietary events, sponsored events, or even smaller lunch & learn type concepts.

Topics: Marketing Strategy, Foundations

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You can deliver big-time ROI with the right sponsorship activation in place. We define sponsorship activation as what you do with what you own. Simple as that. We also consider activation to be the driving force behind the ongoing value you expect to see from your sports marketing programs.

This can take many forms, but it is bringing your brand to life from things as simple as booth spaces at an event to more sophisticated programs like employee engagement initiatives, sales contests, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and customer celebrations.

Topics: Sponsorship ROI

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Rapidly switching platforms and tactics is a difficult way to find ROI, especially when large amounts of budget are involved. It takes time to grow into a platform - no matter what it is. Leaving behind equity built up is one of the most expensive things marketers can do. We see this a lot in the sponsorship world as part of the 3-and-out issue. Brands come in fast in year one by spending loads of money, and then they have a reality check in year two without much enhancement, then inevitably in year three they fade.

Topics: Marketing Strategy

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There is a lot you can do when your brand "owns" an entire weekend in sports. Few other platforms allow you to build out a multi-dimensional and dynamic weekend like motorsports can. Our partners at Quaker State have taken the entitlement sponsorship to a completely new level and we are proud to be part of it. Through the title sponsorship of the annual Quaker State 400 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup race at Kentucky Speedway, the brand has continued to engage its partners, employees and customers in new and exciting ways.

Topics: Sponsorship Activation

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For many years, rights holders and properties did not need to change their model to reflect a more dynamic marketplace. Things were simpler and were valued in a more basic way. Digital platforms have shaken that up dramatically for industries of all forms.

Only recently are we starting to see sports look for new evolutions in the way they are presented and consumed. SportsBusiness Journal recently covered the changing sponsorship model of NASCAR and we thought it deserved some extra analysis from the agency side.

Topics: Sports Business

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Bill Gates once said, "Whether it’s Google or Apple or free software, we’ve got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes."

No matter what kind of business you operate in, an attitude like Bill Gates' is essential for long-term success and growth. This kind of competition with the new challenging the established is critical to progress. Look at the world's largest airplane manufacturers as an example. The younger Airbus recently completed 50 years of successful airplane operations and the more established Boeing made a fun video for them as a tribute.

Topics: Motorsports Marketing

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