The size of the club’s audience and ability to influence the audience will play a major role in determining the value of the sponsorship.
But who is the club’s audience?
The club’s audience can include:
- Players and members
- Pathway clubs and/or Auskick centres
- Extended family of players and members
- People who attend games and club events
- Other sports/community groups who use the facility
- Followers on all social media platforms and newsletter distribution list
- People who watch a livestream game
A club also needs to consider their ability to influence their audience. While signage is a simple way to promote the sponsor, it may have a little influence over the club’s audience and is hard to measure. A club can add more value to the sponsor by bringing the sponsor to the audience or bringing the audience to the sponsor which can be easily measured. An example of a junior club being sponsored by the local barber shop is provided below.
Example – audience to the sponsor
The club can send information about the barber to the audience and encourage them to use the service. The barber can set up a code word for the club audience to access a cheaper rate. The code word helps measure the influence as the business can determine who is using the service because of the club’s influence.
Example – sponsor to audience
The junior club allows the barber to set up a ‘pop-up shop’ at the field during a club training session before team photo day. Families are then encouraged to use the service during the training session to make it simple for families to access the benefits of the sponsor.
A club can estimate a percentage of the audience will take up the deal and calculate the worth of the deal i.e. 40 people access the deal at $15 per haircut. The barber has received $600 value from the sponsorship.
