With the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro less than a year away, global sponsorship spending continues to climb into the billions. However, while brands continue to spend more money than ever on sponsoring major sports, music and entertainment events, there is one glaring miss that I see all too often. Too many marketers are wrestling with the challenge of extracting more ROI from sponsorships while overlooking an increasingly accessible, affordable and effective solution: content.
You might be picturing a war room of 30 people sitting around and waiting for something to happen, but where sponsorships are centered on carefully engineered events and experiences, content can be both strategically planned and spontaneous.
Take it from a brand like Esurance, which flanked its recent MLB All-Star game sponsorship with 32 short videos spotlighting super fans. Some stories were planned, others were captured in real-time as they unfolded, and all collectively helped Esurance reach an incremental 2 million people on social media during and beyond the event.
With the right plan of attack, a content marketing plan can amplify a sponsorship exponentially.
Read on >> 5 essential components of a sponsorship content strategy.