How Athlete Partnerships can Breathe New Life into Jersey Sponsorships

This article originally appeared on the ProStories Blog.

Team jersey sponsorships aren’t dead, but without finding ways to more directly involve their players, they might die soon.

The novelty of jersey patches is wearing off, with supply far outpacing demand. And it’s not nothing. The impact of not having a jersey sponsor can be massive, sometimes swinging a team’s marketing budget by up to $30M.

ROI matters (a lot), but that ROI and the future of jersey sponsors comes down to better storytelling. As Excel partner and Chief Business Officer Emilio Collins puts it:

“Brands want to see a more holistic story, combined with a lot of additional assets that make it work.”

Teams are finding creative ways to sell their inventory with things like dual team patch deals and QR codes, but there is a massive opportunity that teams and larger corporations haven’t properly explored: working with individual players as an extension of the jersey sponsorship.

The value and opportunity of jersey patches

Nancy Lough, an education professor and sports marketing expert at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas describes the life of jersey patches:

“If you go on ESPN.com, the Vistaprint logo is on the homepage because Jayson Tatum scored 50 points in the game. You play NBA2K , and at the free-throw line, the Vistaprint logo is there.”

And while sponsorship value is based on exposure time per live game (see below), the way we consume sports continues to evolve beyond a single screen. According to Greenfly, 43% of Gen Z fans (and 32% overall) use social media platforms while watching live sports. But there is no Vistaprint + Celtics (or more crucially, Vistaprint + Jayson Tatum) experience for fans at home to navigate to on Instagram while watching the game.

According to Michael Neuman at Horizon Media, jersey sponsors look for a minimum 3:1 ROI on media value. In-person sponsor activations give live crowds a way to get involved, but without more opportunities for viewers at home to take action, that ROI is hard to achieve.

Leveraging the era of the individual 

As a fan, you may be able to resonate with the history and culture of the Celtics franchise, but we’re in the era of the individual, where fans follow players more closely than teams.. And while you may follow the Celtics on Instagram, you’re more likely to see what’s going on with Jayson, Jaylen and the rest of the players through their stories, posts and reels.

Vistaprint and other jersey/kit sponsors around the world can drive massive media value by extending partnerships to individual players—in a way that benefits the team, the sponsor and the players. And it can be done with a relatively low lift, using a similarly passive “patch” system through players’ social media profiles.

Here’s an idea of how it could work:

Establish season-long contracts with each Celtics player

In the same way brands set up deals with athletes and influencers as ambassadors, a jersey sponsor can agree to certain deliverables throughout the course of a season as part of their athlete partnership.

Create content featuring the sponsor, the team, and the player partners

The key here is finding ways to engage the fans who watch from home and the fans who may not catch the live games, but follow the players on social media as fans.

Continuing the Vistaprint/Celtics example, maybe Peyton Prichard’s followers get 30% off each time he makes three 3’s in a game. This incentivizes fans to stay engaged with the Celtics games, the brand, and the individual. There could also be a more passive “pinned” post and/or bio mention in each player’s social profile to further drive traffic and awareness.

Create a digital patch in each player’s link-in-bio

One reason why jersey patches are so unique is that even though you see a VistaPrint logo, the jersey is still unequivocally the Celtics. You can present a digital patch in a similar way.

There’s a big difference between seeing a brand’s name typed out (like a mention in the bio) versus seeing the logo next to the player’s face. 

Even though there’s no way to miss the logo, the profile is still about the player. With a patch that’s there for the whole season, the jersey sponsor gets months of visibility and awareness.

The result is a level of brand alignment (winning brand, winning player) that doesn’t feel forced, and doesn’t alienate fans with in-your-face promotion. And unlike most link-in-bio platforms, the goal here isn’t to fit as many links into one page as possible. It’s to create a real story and alignment between athlete and brand.

When you add in data tracking capabilities where athletes can be compensated by supplying their audience data to brands, as well as space that allows for collaborative products, links and content…your recipe for ROI gets a whole lot tastier.

Jersey Sponsorships must Evolve through Athlete Partnerships

Changes like these will take some getting used to. Ultimately, it might be hard for teams to give in to sharing some of the pie with their players who they already pay for their on-court performance, especially when it gets into sticky areas like salary caps and fair-play, something the Las Vegas Aces are dealing with. But where there’s a will there’s a way.

Individual players are the future of sports marketing. And by finding new ways to involve players and realize that players’ success off the court will ultimately help the team grow, they will not only open up new revenue opportunities, they’ll also position themselves as more attractive destinations for talented players.

At ProStories, we’re on a mission to help teams, brands and athletes maximize the value of their partnerships. For more info, check out prostories.com.

--

Further reading: The Pro Athlete Partnership Guide for Teams and Agencies