CHICAGO – Authenticity was the word of the day during “The Sponsorship Remix: Culture, Creativity & Conversion” panel at SBJ’s Brand Innovation Summit on Tuesday. Each of the five panelists noted that finding authenticity in activations unlocked their effectiveness.
The panel featured Brian Graybill from Intersport, Jay Kaufman of the National Research Group, Jim Van Stone from Monumental Sports, Matt Lederer from Comcast Xfinity and Leela Srinivasinan of Parity.
Graybill said his favorite Intersport activation brought an authentic New York Italian restaurant, Rao’s, to the Ryder Cup in Bethpage last fall.
“One of the benefits of creating this unbelievable experience is it removed all the friction,” Graybill said. “So at the end of the day, rather than sitting in traffic for two or three hours, you got to experience this iconic restaurant that you may never have a chance to experience and relax and have a band playing and have fellowship and all that camaraderie.”
Van Stone said fans are looking for that authentic experience in hospitality, no matter their entry point. Sometimes that’s in exclusive clubs, and others it is a food hall at Capital One arena.
“It really is about making sure that you’re delivering something on the experience side to match every customer,” Van Stone said.
Lederer said the return on investment shouldn’t be forgotten when talking about sponsorships.
“We are firm believers that sponsorship ROI is science and not art,” he said. “We have found that in our space, sponsorships is the No. 1 driver of brand equity across media, and it’s the most efficient tactic.”
With the growth in women’s sports, the conversation quickly turned to how female athletes can not only offer authenticity but also encourage purchases with their brand activations.
“Our lens on this is the brand to athlete connection,” Srivasinan said. “I think from just a data perspective, what we see behind that is when you ask women’s sports fans about women athletes, they’re three times as likely to purchase a product or service recommended by a professional woman athlete than by any other kind of influencer.”
As the panel winded down, Kaufman spoke about how the future of sponsorship will be driven by data.
“I think the access to data, the amount of information that we have and not just access to the data, but how we interpret the data and use that data to really drive insights and strategy.”
