What is the current situation and trend of sports sponsorship?

1 the origin and development of sports sponsorship

1. 1 definition of sports sponsorship

Sports sponsorship refers to paying a certain amount of cash or in kind to a certain sports asset (sports events, stadiums, public welfare sports activities, etc.). ) as a special business behavior, participate in the cooperative development with sports assets to achieve their respective organizational goals. Sports sponsorship is an effective way of modern enterprise marketing, and it is the actual need to enhance enterprise image, expand product sales and improve market competitiveness.

1.2 sources of sports sponsorship

According to historical records, there was a nobleman in ancient Rome who volunteered to pay a day's reward in the arena in order to please the Roman emperor. This kind of behavior is not charity. Nobles want to get the emperor's reward by sponsoring competitions, which is essentially the same as today's sports sponsorship. However, sports sponsorship in the modern sense began in the middle of19th century, and the transportation industry was the first to use sports sponsorship in the modern sense. 1852, an American railway transportation company provided free transportation service for the rowing teams of Harvard University and Yale University, and vigorously publicized this matter to attract thousands of sports fans to take the company's train to watch the game on the spot, so the initial modern sports sponsorship appeared. Large-scale and formal sports sponsorship began in Britain in the 1960s. Shell, Esso and BP, three multinational oil companies, invested 1965 * * in100000000 Deutsche Mark Sponsored 1 5-year automobile competition, which realized the return of putting a circle of company signboard stickers on the participating cars, thus making the large-scale sponsorship of enterprises directly related to their own products. Britain and the United States clearly stipulated in 1966 and 1970 that cigarette advertisements were not allowed to appear on TV, followed by a sharp decline in cigarette production and sales, which caused a huge blow to the tobacco industry. They had a brainwave and spent huge advertising expenses on sports competitions, thus becoming pioneers of large-scale sponsorship of sports events that were not directly related to their products. Many countries also prohibit advertising of spirits on radio and television, so tobacco dealers and spirits dealers have long been the main force of sports sponsorship. Although Britain, Canada and the United States have recently promulgated some laws and regulations prohibiting tobacco companies from sponsoring activities, their success in sports sponsorship has undoubtedly greatly promoted the development of sports sponsorship activities.

1.3 Sports sponsorship has developed rapidly

As a combination of equality and mutual assistance between sports and economy, sports sponsorship can play a dual role in promoting sports and economic development, so it is favored. With the development of society, sports are becoming more and more attractive. Stimulated by advertising effect and excess profits, sports sponsorship has been paid more and more attention and developed rapidly. According to the statistics of USA-Today magazine, 1998, the sponsorship expenses of North American enterprises reached US$ 6.8 billion, of which sports sponsorship accounted for US$ 4.6 billion, far exceeding other sponsorships (entertainment sponsorship was US$ 67.5 billion, festivals/exhibitions/annual activities sponsorship was US$ 58.7 billion, charity sponsorship was US$ 45.4 billion and art sponsorship was US$ 46,543.803 billion). In Germany, according to a statistical data of 1998, sports sponsorship lags far behind the high proportion of scientific and cultural sponsorship (24%), social welfare sponsorship (24%) and environmental protection sponsorship (5%) in the budgets of various undertakings. In absolute terms, the sports sponsorship of Germany 1997 is as high as $2.2 billion, which is the sum of the 1980s. In China, sports sponsorship has also developed rapidly. As far as the sponsorship of the China Olympic delegation is concerned, only Jianlibao and Seagull Watch sponsored the delegation in cash and in kind for a total of 700,000 yuan when they first participated in the Olympic Games in 1984, while the sponsorship fee collected by the China Olympic delegation in Sydney 2000 reached 70 million yuan, which was not included.

2 Advantages and disadvantages of sports sponsorship

2. 1 Benefits of sports sponsorship

In the past, for those tobacco and liquor industries with limited media choices, sponsorship activities only created an opportunity for them to communicate with customers or potential customers. Now, the benefits of sponsorship activities have been widely circulated and deeply rooted in people's hearts.

One advantage of sports sponsorship is that it is easily recognized by the public. According to a survey conducted by Robert Ndach International Research Company, 80% of Americans believe that corporate sponsorship is an important source of sports funds, and 74% believe that the government should not (or less interfere with) what kind of enterprises can participate in sports sponsorship. This awareness score is much higher than that obtained by the public in other advertising and marketing activities.

Sports sponsorship has a natural effect. Although the sponsoring enterprise is an advertisement, it almost makes people feel that it is an advertisement, which effectively avoids the influence of the public's "anorexia" attitude towards traditional advertisements on the advertising effect.

Because sports have a strong appeal, sponsoring sports is a kind of intimate emotional investment for those loyal sports fans, which can quickly transform sports fans' loyalty to sports into the purchasing power of sponsored enterprises' products. For example, according to the survey, when the quality of two brands of sportswear is similar, most sports fans will choose the brand they often see on the court to sponsor sports.

One of the most obvious benefits of sports sponsorship is that enterprises can effectively enhance their image and product brand awareness by linking with a certain sports asset. For example, by providing a considerable amount of funds to the IOC all the year round to support the necessary expenses of the Olympic Games and the IOC and establishing a "partnership" with the IOC, the products produced by these companies can be marked with the five rings of the IOC on their packaging and become the designated products of the IOC, and this product is the only exclusive designated product. The returns these companies get from developing the intangible assets of the Olympic Movement are undoubtedly extremely rich. First, because of the unprecedented appeal and attraction of the Olympic Games, the popularity of these products can be consolidated and improved; Secondly, the reputation of these products can be greatly improved, because the Olympic Games is the highest level competition in the world today, which requires extremely high quality of people. Generally speaking, all products selected for Olympic athletes should be top products in the world. Therefore, anyone who is selected as the designated product of the Olympic Games "means that the product is a world-famous product", and the survey also shows that most people have this view: "Because it is a designated product, they have a better impression on the product". This undoubtedly has a good effect on the promotion of corporate image. In a word, the most exciting benefit of sports sponsorship is its high efficiency, which can bring rich returns to sponsors, as can be seen from the above discussion. In addition, we will discuss it in detail later.

2.2 defects of sports sponsorship

Sports sponsorship costs a lot (especially exclusive sponsorship), so it is risky. Poor management may cause serious harm to the normal operation of enterprises (according to statistics, only about 25% of the more than 200 enterprises that sponsored the Atlanta Olympic Games have been rewarded, some have only gained some short-term benefits, and some even lost all their money). Therefore, in order to spread risks, most enterprises now sponsor activities in the form of joint ventures, and the expenses are shared by several enterprises according to a certain proportion.

When co-sponsoring, there will be another problem, that is, too many sponsors will make the message of each enterprise not prominent and it is difficult to receive good results. For example, in a car race, if there are too many sponsors and many sponsors' names are printed on the car body, you may not be able to see which sponsor's name clearly.

The effect of sports sponsorship is difficult to measure, because sports sponsorship is carried out at the same time as other marketing activities of enterprises. The key to measure the effect of sports sponsorship lies in how to distinguish the influence caused by sports sponsorship from that caused by other simultaneous marketing activities.

3 Several objects of sports sponsorship

3. 1 Sponsor sports events

Most of the funds sponsored by sports (more than 65%) are spent on sports events. Any kind of sports event can be sponsored, from the Olympic Games, the football World Cup, and even professional leagues in various countries. No matter how big or small the company is, as long as it is properly managed, most of them can get rich returns from sponsoring sports events.

3.2 Sponsorship for the purpose of obtaining naming rights

Some sponsors associate sponsorship with naming rights, or name teams (for example, Chengdu Top Group bought the deputy naming rights of Shanghai Shenhua Football Team for $6,543.8+million, and Henderson Ye Wei bought the naming rights of Sichuan Football Team for $6,543.8+0.6 million, etc. ) or name the stadium. Naming right often means huge benefits and returns for enterprises. Take the Chinese Football League One as an example. At that time, the domestic stadium was deserted, but the international management group still found this uncultivated fertile soil. As a result, the popularity of League A proved the shrewdness of these sports promoters. Those large-scale venue advertisements and Pepsi titles appear on the screens of central and local TV stations for hundreds of hours every week, and their cheap input and huge output make them rich.

3.3 Sponsorship of the Olympic Movement

The International Olympic Committee published a survey in Lausanne, the content is: people's familiarity with the Olympic rings. The survey was conducted in Australia, Germany, India, Japan, Britain, the United States, Brazil, Jamaica, Nigeria and other countries. Among the people surveyed, 86% believe that the five-ring symbol is familiar to people all over the world; 82% people think that the five rings represent the largest sports meeting in the world; 77% people think that seeing the Olympic rings will immediately remind people of sports; 74% people think that the five rings are a sign of success. To this end, the International Olympic Committee believes that people's familiarity with the five-ring logo far exceeds the commercial logo of any famous brand enterprise in the world. In order to take advantage of the inestimable influence of the Olympic Games and the Olympic rings, some famous large enterprises in the world have sponsored the Olympic Games. According to relevant statistics, the sponsorship fee for the Olympic Games is $700 million in Los Angeles of 1984, more than $3 billion in Seoul of 1988, and $2.29 million in Barcelona of 1992. 1996 Atlanta is called the Coca-Cola Olympic Games because of its absolute advantage of high sponsorship fees. For a time, Coca-Cola with the five-ring logo was popular all over the world and won high profits for the company.

3.4 Sponsorship of sports stars

Because sports stars are the real "gods" of sports fans to some extent, they are the objects of their devout worship, and every move of sports stars may have a sensational effect. Sponsors will package sports stars, suffer a little loss in sponsorship, and will definitely get a big bargain in sales. Nike signed a contract with Jordan 1984. Since then, Jordan has become the spokesperson of Nike. Because of Jordan's influence, Nike sneakers have become the darling of the world. In the second year after the appearance of Air Jordan sneakers, the brand sales were $65.438+0.6 billion. By the 1990 s, the Jordan sportswear series earned Nike 200 million dollars a year. In addition, Jordan has signed contracts with many companies, including Coca-Cola Company, General Flour Company, Grain Advertising Company, McDonald's, Wilson Company and Columbia Company. The above-mentioned companies pay Jordan $2 million to $5 million every year, and at the same time greatly increase the marketing budget of products to make full use of Jordan's personal charm. And the economic benefits they get are considerable. No company has ever complained that its investment in Jordan has been wasted.

3.5 Sports venues sponsorship

Sports activities attract a large number of spectators, and the advertising effect of dynamic venues is unparalleled. Experts in the advertising industry say that buying the naming right of a large stadium for 20 years with 30 million RMB and 654.38 billion US dollars means that the name of this enterprise will be able to contact with potential customers more than 654.38 billion times through printed words, radio waves and the Internet, which is really unmatched by traditional commercial advertising methods. By sponsoring stadiums and buying the naming rights of stadiums, an unknown company can immediately become famous all over the country, and even a well-known enterprise can greatly enhance its image in this way. 1997, Pheko insurance company in Seattle, USA, bought the naming rights of the Marine Corps baseball field in Seattle and became famous in one fell swoop. As a result, it was upgraded from a regional company to a national company by the US Financial Services Authority. Sponsorship activities of named venues have developed rapidly. According to statistics, so far, more than 50 professional courses in North America have been named after beer, airlines, oil companies and other enterprises.

3.6 Sponsoring sports public welfare undertakings

Adidas sponsored German youth street basketball, sponsored national street basketball championships in 40 countries, and sponsored world street basketball championships, which became the general backstage of world youth street basketball and became an instant hit. Coca-Cola Company selected 1600 teenagers through competitions in more than 100 countries and regions, and asked them to be standard-bearers and court caddies in France 1998 World Cup. In China (including Hongkong and Taiwan Province Province), 65,438+065,438+0 children have realized their dream of the World Cup. Sponsoring sports public welfare undertakings has undoubtedly painted a strong color for beautifying the image of the enterprise itself.

4 sports sponsorship should pay attention to several issues

4. 1 Don't be eager for quick success, but have a long-term vision.

Many businessmen who are keen on sports and sports sponsorship in China are not very popular in sports circles because they pay too much attention to the actual advertising returns brought by a sports competition. Taking football as an example, when the field of football became the focus of public attention, many domestic manufacturers and advertisers suddenly woke up and invested a lot of money in football, but most of them invested millions of dollars in commercial competitions for a few goals. As a result, except for excitement before and after the game, the effect was not great. In sports sponsorship, domestic enterprises must avoid pursuing only short-term sensational effects and conduct long-term sponsorship regularly and rhythmically for a specific and clear goal. Only in this way can we achieve good results.

4.2 Sponsorship should be targeted and have an accurate target, customer orientation.

For example, Adidas will focus on young people aged12 to 20 in customer orientation, and launch a series of sports sponsorship activities around young people. Adidas decided to focus on teenagers based on the following considerations: (1) people of this age group are the biggest potential consumers of sporting goods, and catching them is equivalent to catching the mainstream of the market; (2) Teenagers are full of youthful vitality. Choosing them for enterprise packaging and publicity is helpful to establish their own good image; (3) They are the most enthusiastic sports fans, and the characteristics and strategies of sports sponsorship with sports stars as the main target are the easiest to see benefits from them; (4) They are middle-aged and even elderly Depth Charge. To arrest them now is to pave the way for arresting them forever.

4.3 The sponsor should be professional.

Sponsors should have professional knowledge, be able to fully analyze concepts and form their own opinions, and have the ability to control accurately. Sponsors should extensively collect information related to sponsorship activities, and summarize, sort out and analyze the information. The main purposes of analysis include: (1) the nature of the event or activity; (2) the maturity of the event or activity; (3) the scale of the event or activity; (4) the right to control events or activities. Through the above analysis, predict whether the proposed sponsorship activities can bring benefits to enterprises and the size of the benefits, so as to decide whether to sponsor and how to sponsor.

4.4 Sports sponsorship should be coordinated.

Sports sponsors should strive to increase the exchange activities with sponsors in order to enhance their cooperation ability, institutionalize cooperation and exchange, and deepen their awareness.

4.5 Sports sponsorship should consider extensive media coverage and participation.

Sponsors should ensure adequate and appropriate mass media exposure to make up for any possible expenses, and the investment of enterprises in sports sponsorship should not be greater than the income of enterprises due to additional mass media exposure. An important goal that sports sponsorship should consider is whether sponsors have the opportunity to display in some form to guide the performance of a key feature of their products or services.

4.6 Sports sponsorship should be extensive.

Sports sponsorship should not be targeted at local areas, but it is important to have global strategic goals. In sports sponsorship, enterprises should not only focus on domestic sports activities, but also take the development of foreign markets as an important goal of enterprises, and strive to sponsor international sports activities as much as possible when conditions permit. In addition, sports sponsorship should also consider the financial support of sponsors, and should be carried out without affecting the normal operation of sponsors.

Source: Sports Sponsorship Network

(Excerpted from Journal of Chengdu Sport University)