Sports Sponsorships Driving More Than Brand Awareness|The Case of Top 5 Kenyan Banks
It's no secret that sports fans are some of the most passionate and dedicated people. They're also some of the most brand-loyal consumers, which is why sponsorship of sporting events and teams is such a powerful marketing tool.
For brands, sports sponsorship offers a unique opportunity to reach a wide audience of potential customers througmainstreamam media outlets. When a brand is associated with a popular sport or team, it benefits from the increased publicity and visibility that comes with it.
A recent example of this is Rwanda's tourism sponsorship of the English Premier League team, Arsenal. According to the Rwanda Development Board (RDB): The number of tourists from England alone climbed by 5% compared to the previous period. Before the partnership was signed, 71% of the millions of Arsenal fans worldwide did not consider Rwanda a tourist destination, but at the end of the first year of the partnership, half of them considered Rwanda a destination to visit, Belise Kariza, head of RDB’s tourism department confirmed.
Besides raising brand awareness, sports sponsorship builds brand favourite goodwill. When consumers see a brand supporting their favourite team or sport, they are more likely to develop a positive opinion of the brand or in this case, a travel destination.
Would Sports Sponsorship Be The Key To Mainstream Media Publicity?
Let us break down this in the case of 5 Banks; KCB, Equity Bank, ABSA, NCBA and Co-Operative Bank analyzing their themes on mainstream publicity from December 2021 to February 2022.
For the past few months, we have been analyzing mainstream media data captured by ReelAnalytics to generate insightful reports for the banking industry on their brand reputation on this media.
In the time frame-December 2021 & February 2022, there were 7 relevant themes in mainstream publicity for the top 5 banks in Kenya.
- Ad-Hoc Mentions
- Corporate
- CSR
- Industry
- People & Alumni
- Sports
- Stocks
In this timeframe, KCB bank had the highest number of stories on mainstream media publicity with 50%; being sports stories. Therefore being the main driver of its publicity during this period as always has been the case.
In this period under review, KCB’s month on month sports mentions consistently contributed more then 49% of its mainstream publicity stories. Compared with the top five banks in terms of mainstream media publicity, Equity bank would have topped KCB bank in each of the last three months in terms of the stories it had on mainstream media excluding sports stories.
Sports stories have the characteristic of enhancing a flow of media attention to your brand. That can be seen with the multiple coverage of one sports event in the many media outlets increasing the audience reach for your brand. Besides, many sports events have follow up activities to track the progress of the sports activity which would last a whole season. This is a continued and sustained source of healthy publicity for your brand.
Ultimately, sports sponsorship is an effective way for brands to reach a wide audience and build positive associations with potential customers. With the right strategy in place, brands can reap the many benefits that come with being associated with a popular sport or team. Sponsoring a team may not be easy but its return on your brand publicity can be exponential and it is one of those ways to catapult your brand to greater levels.