Roll in, roll out?
HOW TO AVOID SPONSORSHIP TUMBLEWEED - AND HOW TO GET IT RIGHT
Sports sponsorship is booming. But too many campaigns land without trace.
Finally, someone’s revealing what to ditch – and what to double down on. Here’s your new, 12-step sports sponsorship playbook. And this one’s specific.
Sports sponsorship is a captive, lucrative, growing market, exceeding $100bn in 2023 and set to double by 2030. But the boom is also ushering in a dustbowl of marketing that rolls out, then rolls on again, landing nowhere – it’s sponsorship tumbleweed.
It’s completely understandable. Tight budgets limit what’s possible. Clients want to play it safe. Rights restrictions add layers of complexity. And we’re living in an age of AI-optimization, which is great for business, but can sometimes lead to beige. So agencies often turn to familiar formats that feel secure.
There are more opportunities for fame in this space than ever before, says Laura Randall, creative director at Sid Lee Sport: “But the full return on that investment is being lost because the ideas just aren’t bold or creative enough to unlock it. We’ve all contributed to this. We’ve all said yes to the expected idea. But there’s a sharper and smarter way forward. And, as an industry, we’ve got to grab it.”
Laura Randall, Creative Director at Sid Lee Sport
It needs to be grabbed for the sake of ROI, too. The Extraordinary Cost of Dull project from eatbigfish and Peter Field recently revealed that brands have to invest double the amount of media on dull, generic ads, to achieve the same commercial impact as creative, interesting ads that get noticed and drive fame.
Applying that principle to sports, better creative assets will make better use of the media opportunities provided by sponsorship. There’s no point promoting brand partnerships with tired, clichéd content formats that have been seen a million times before. It's wasting the opportunity to capture the attention of millions of engaged fans.
So it stops now. It’s time for a tumbleweed amnesty. We’re calling out seven creative tropes to ditch and avoid, without shame. And we’re sharing five best practice approaches that drive successful sponsorship activations – ones that drive meaning, difference and fame.
7 sponsorship tumbleweed moments
These are all fine in theory, says Randall, but the problem is “they’ve been used so many times, in the same way, that the brand becomes invisible. Fans see the format, not the brand behind it.”
1. The carpool
The in-car chat moment has been and gone. James Corden did it best with A-listers. When brands try to replicate it, there’s no reason to watch. Today’s audiences want storytelling with tension, not just GoPros and small talk.
2. The emotive interview
Player interviews can work but not when they’re a checklist of clichés about their career journey. Ask sharper questions – or find more visual ways to tell their story.
3. The First PE Coach
You’ve seen the nostalgic content; the athlete’s first mentor talks through their early days of promise. It’s emotional, but unless there’s a fresh angle, the story risks feeling recycled. And consumers will remember the tears, but not necessarily the brand.
4. The surprise & delight
Aka ambush a fan, film the tears, hope it goes viral. Capturing a fan reaction is powerful, but the format is too familiar, so viewers expect the moment and forget the brand. For surprise to stick, it needs originality.
5. The fan zone foosball table
In the spirit of true amnesty, Randall admits: “we rolled this out three times last year. It’s time to leave it now.” Simple activations aren’t inherently bad but if they don’t invite true interaction or leave a memory, it’s time to rethink the format.
6. The skills challenge
The branded drill has become a go-to. It promises energy and interactivity, but often feels flat. Fans might watch the dribble but they’ll forget the brand on the bib. If you’ve got precious time with talent, use it to create something new.
7. The Spotify Playlist
Music can be a great storytelling tool when it fits. But dropping a playlist for the sake of it doesn’t always connect. If music’s part of your brand’s DNA, lean in. If not, there may be stronger ways to engage.
5 sponsorship growers
And these are the approaches that will help avoid the tumbleweed, that will help “build ideas that feel fresh but land hard,” advises Randall.
“When we talk about fame, we’re not chasing headlines or visibility for the sake of it. We’re talking about work that travels, entertains, connects, and performs. Fame to us, is when fans remember your brand for the right reason, and the results prove it,” says Randall.
1.
Create a banned list
Call it, oh, maybe, ‘sponsorship tumbleweed’. Include on it the ideas that feel tired, safe, or embarrassingly forgettable. Circulate it. And make sure they never make it into a deck or a pitch meet again.
2.
Write the headline first
Think about the hero visual and headline for a billboard, say, that would sum up your idea and make it talkable, memorable, and scroll-stropping. If you can’t, it’s not ready. Take, for example…..Sid Lee Sport’s launch of Tommy Hilfiger's sponsorship of F1 The Movie. The headline came first: ‘Damson Idris pulls off a red carpet pit stop costume change at the Met Gala’. This meant every element of the creative execution and content plan was tailored to generate maximum talkability around one iconic moment.
3.
Apply the ‘who cares?’ test
Sponsorship audiences differ wildly. You could be a B2B brand targeting c-suite executives or a B2C after Gen-Z. Think about where you want your idea talked about. Is it the pub or a boardroom? Then tailor activations accordingly. Not every concept or experience has to be viral, but it does need to speak to your audience.
4.
Don’t rely on talent alone
If your deal includes talent access, be wary of the constraints. Rights holders mandate multi-player line-ups, which can change at the last minute and be curtailed by time and location. Creative concepts must stand up to these. Additionally, many deals don’t include talent, so prepare to sweat what you’ve got access to, if you don’t want expensive, supplementary ambassador deals.
For example, Sid Lee Sport’s ‘Fuelled by Lidl’ creative concept for Lidl’s Lidl-Trek cycling partnership centred on the message, not the talent. By positioning Lidl as a provider of energy and nutrition, the message reinforced the brand’s commitment to healthy lifestyles while making professional cycling more relatable to everyday shoppers. It was a message that was built to land across all channels, no matter who turned up on the day.
5.
Don’t reinvent – refresh
Some formats work for a reason. Think interviews, behind-the-scenes, day-in-the-life. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel – just make it feel brand new. Switch the lens, flip the tone, add detail no one’s captured before.
Sid Lee Sport’s work for Lidl at UEFA Euro 2024 is a case in point. Instead of launching a standard player escort programme (Lidl’s exclusive right), the team rebranded it as the Lidl Kids Team and built the entire campaign around it. This approach drove over one million Lidl Plus app sign-ups and positioned the retailer as the most recognised sponsor of UEFA Euro 2024 – an extraordinary result for a first-time sponsor.
Randall's final piece of advice?
“Whatever creative trope you leave behind or new crowd-pleaser you land on, instead of focusing just on the idea, home in on its effectiveness, at every single stage of the process.”
Find out more
For more insight and advice on how to make your brand a champion in sports sponsorship, contact Sid Lee Sport.