Marketing is everywhere. But today, we cover a wonderful concept of sports marketing and how you can make a career as a sports marketer.
If you are interested in marketing and want to combine it with your passion for sports, read the entire article. We cover various concepts regarding to sports marketing in this article.
Overview of Sports Marketing
Sports marketing is that sub-division of marketing where goods and services are marketed through a sports entity, be it a tournament, a team, or even an individual athlete.
It is a well-known fact that sports attract huge masses of people both online and offline. That creates a huge platform for companies to promote their products.
From acquiring ad space, bagging title sponsorship rights to signing up an athlete or buying billboard space in a stadium, sports marketing has a varied methodology.
There are two types of sports marketing,
One is ‘Marketing through Sport’, where brands use sport as a medium of marketing their products or services.
The other is ‘Marketing of Sport’, wherein a sports entity itself uses marketing platforms for promoting their own cause.
For example, the concept of Futsal was not very popular in India before it’s introduction in the form of Premier Futsal. But the company then onboarded India’s favourite son Virat Kohli as the brand ambassador.
What followed was a never-before-seen collaboration between Virat Kohli and Luís Figo. Here, Premier Futsal tried to grab the attention of its target market for increasing brand awareness of the league.
Sports marketing cannot be simplified into definitions and examples for neat understanding. There is a lot of stuff that goes behind every marketing campaign, individuals involved have quite some work to do. We now dive deeper into the concept further through the article.
Education Required
Sports marketers usually need a bachelor’s degree. Though the ones with an MBA – Master of Business Administration (may or may not have sports marketing/management as specialization) have better chances at jobs.
There are many bachelor’s degrees one could pursue to get into sports marketing. For Example, Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Sports Management/Management Studies, etc.
Scope Of Work
As a sports marketer one may go through quite a variety of tasks. The primary goal of a sports marketer is to create engaging marketing campaigns to attract their target group/sponsors and ensure the strategy aligns with the vision and objectives of the organization.
As a sports marketer, you could be working at a sports team, a sports apparel or equipment manufacturer or even a sports management company. Even in the marketing department of a company from a different industry, sports marketing professionals may be needed to market through sports.
Profiles and departments like business development, sports sponsorships, promotional campaigns, digital marketing, brand awareness, product planning, sports broadcasting are all interrelated under the umbrella of sports marketing.
Skills Required
A sports marketing manager has to be up to date with the trends, get work done on time and put efforts that are creative enough to fulfil the purpose and get the job done. Jobs are not the same everywhere.
You might be working in a highly professional set up, but you could also be working for a relatively smaller club or a youth organization where there are entirely different models and priorities.
One has to have the right set of skills in order to fit in different work environments, the essential ones include:
- Project Management – Sports marketing does include work on a project basis which makes project management one of the key skills to have as a sports marketer.
- Perspective – Professionals with an understanding and inclusive perspective can figure out what idea would suit the company best and lead proceedings in the right direction.
- People Skills – People skills are very important for marketers from any niche. The ability to communicate effectively and to keep everyone on the same page is important for a sports marketer.
- Task Management – A sports marketer has a lot of things to do in a day. Media creation, event planning, creative assistance, or even planning budgets, the responsibilities keep changing simultaneously. Task management here forms a highly crucial skill to have and develop over time.
- Writing – This is more of technical skill as compared to the above mentioned. Writing can be of use anywhere for a sports marketer. Whether it includes directly creating write-ups for a marketing campaign or planning instructions for the junior operations team. Good writing always adds to the strength.
Salary
A 2007 survey by Baylor University found that marketing employees were generally earning approximately $150,000 per annum. That in Indian numbers is approximately INR 1.10 crore. But that amount is in context with jobs in the US.
According to a report by payscale.com, the average salary for a Marketing Manager in India is ₹691,931.
But companies today do expect their sports marketing managers to have or pursue an MBA for a competitive salary.
How Sports Marketing Benefits Brands
Brands need more people to know what they have in store, in an intriguing way, sport gives them the exact platform to do so. Companies look at sports events as an opportunity to basically acquire newer audiences in relevant target groups.
In early 2019, the automotive industry was going through a low slide in India. M.G. Car Company Limited entered the sub-continent in this very tough phase.
They started with acquiring ad space for the launch of MG Hector, during the India v Australia limited-overs series in February and March 2019 and furthered that partnership with star sports during the Vivo IPL 2019.
Hollywood star Benedict Cumberbatch was cast as the lead in the advertisements. MG observed 20,000 car bookings throughout the IPL. And was trending no.4 after IPL, as per google search analytics. MG even had to halt the booking procedure for MG Hector.
The rise in demand for MG Hector generated a waitlist of 7 to 8 months according to afaqs.com.
The Indian market was already a competitive space with automobile giants like Tata, Hyundai, Kia, Ford, Mahindra and others. Therefore, the MG Car Company through efforts in sports marketing managed to enter this market with grand success.
That is one example out of countless many, where sports marketing has boosted a brand’s business.
Are you interested to become a sports marketer? Let us know in the comments!
To explore more career options under the sports management umbrella, check out this article – 15 Careers in Sports Management