What Do Companies Get By Sponsoring Athletes?

Sponsorship today has changed exponentially from the years gone by and it has created enormous synergies for the companies, sports teams and their athletes. Gone are the days when sponsorship used to be just about logo’s and TV coverage, today digital content is as important to sponsors as any other medium. Brands sponsor athletes because they are interested in their likability and respectability and may want to share the athletes’ content with their existing audience to influence perceptions.

Sometimes companies looking to sponsor athletes are interested in the audience a certain athlete has attracted and see potential in the potential growth of this audience along with the ability of the certain athlete to position their products and brands with this audience. Sponsorship is a marketing tool hence corporates generally select the option that offers the greatest demonstrable value and commercial viability. Here are the potential reasons and incentives for corporates to sponsor established and up-and-coming athletes.

Improves Brand Recognition and Recall

Having a highly skilled athlete as your brand ambassador has significant value especially if the athlete is established and has a strong fan base. Corporates align themselves with such athletes for mutli-million dollar deals to get close to the his audience and then try to push their products and services in that segment. Sports apparel and accessories companies are most keen to sign athletes because it provides affirmation of the product’s excellence and authenticity just by wearing it on the field or court. Being associated with a favorite sport and player improves brand recognition and recall in the minds of consumers.

Increases Market Awareness

Athletes have extremely strong fan bases which forms the cornerstone of their commercial viability and when a popular athlete endorses a shoes or mens short sleeve tees , it is almost certain that some of that halo effect will benefit the sponsoring enterprise. Endorsement agreement with athletes which provide for personal appearances are absolute advertising gold in today’s time and age and they can be used for ad shoots to amplify the endorsement over a wider area and period of time.

Boosts Brand Equity

The value realized by a company from a product with a popular name is called brand equity and endorsement deals with athletes have a stellar impact on increasing brand equity for brands as well as the athletes in question. Athletes can help build brand equity through endorsements and big brands are willing to pay athletes in order to create and maintain brand equity.