The power of sports marketing: Turning fans into customers

In 2010, Procter & Gamble (P&G) unveiled its iconic "Thank You, Mom" campaign: a series of ads that focused on the support mothers give to children who grow up to be elite athletes.¹ The campaign did not seek to promote specific P&G brands, but instead told a story of the connection between a mother and child, as well as the shared dedication and hard work that goes into building an Olympian.

The campaign was credited with adding $500 million in sales for P&G. At the time, it was the biggest and most successful campaign in the almost two centuries of P&G's history.²

"Thank You, Mom" is one of the all-time great sports marketing jobs: A project conceived and executed perfectly, creating an emotional bond between a giant, multinational brand and its customers through the connective power of sports.

This post looks at the overall concept of sports marketing, some of the strategies used to make it effective, and how advanced degrees, such as the online master's in sport management program from the University of Kansas, can help launch successful sports marketing careers.

What is sports marketing, and why does it matter?

The American Marketing Association defines marketing as the activities and processes for "creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large."³

Sports marketing is a subset of marketing with two components:

1. Using marketing tools to promote and sell sports, such as season tickets, team merchandise, and building TV audiences for sports events⁴
2. Using sports as a marketing tool to promote and sell other products⁵

P&G's "Thank You, Mom" campaign is an example of sports marketing doing both: building awareness and excitement for a forthcoming Olympics and connecting a consumer goods brand to an audience of fans through a shared passion for sports.

The global sports market is a complex web of events, media rights, merchandising, sports betting, gaming, and myriad other connected activities. The management consulting firm Kearney estimates the global sports market is currently worth more than $400 billion and predicts it will hit $600 billion by 2030.⁶ Marketing sports and sports marketing are a massive part of the global economy.

What does a sports marketer do?

Careers in sports marketing span functions from data analysis to events management to public relations. The wide range of sports jobs to consider is one of the benefits of a sports marketing or sports management qualification.

Day-to-day responsibilities in sports marketing might include developing social media strategies, creating content for in-stadium advertising or digital marketing campaigns, performing market segmentation analyses, or mining datasets for customer insights.⁷

Sports marketing jobs often require a degree in a discipline such as marketing, business, or a related field. A specialized sports management curriculum will supplement core skills like finance and marketing with industry-specific knowledge of subjects like fundraising, sponsorship, and the legal aspects of sports.

Effective strategies for fan conversion

Careers in sports and entertainment marketing are built on creating authentic connections between fans and brand values. This includes strategies such as engineering a sense of community among fans and generating excitement with exclusive or time-limited opportunities or merchandise.

For example, when Nike wanted to reconnect with skateboarders, it invented the Nike SB shoe line. Many of the products were rebranded versions of existing Nike shoes, such as Dunks. However, through inventive collaborations with designers and stores that were significant to the skateboarding community, Nike was able to shift itself from an outsider brand to one of the core producers of skateboarding footwear and apparel.⁸

Measuring marketing success in sports

Data gathering and analysis is one of the more significant sports marketing trends of recent years. The entire industry has embraced digitization initiatives, including a variety of data analytics methods.

As the saying goes, "you can't improve what you don't measure."⁹ Metrics are vital to marketing campaigns, allowing for progress and effectiveness to be tracked.

Most campaigns start by identifying key performance indicators (KPIs), which are the metrics by which success or failure can be judged. This might be an engagement metric (likes or favorites) for a social media campaign, or a sales target for a campaign focused on selling season tickets. A brand might also conduct before-and-after surveys to look for uplift in brand awareness, or compare marketing campaign costs to incremental sales performance to judge return on investment (ROI).¹⁰

Building a career in sports marketing

Salaries for sports marketing careers vary almost as widely as the industry's job descriptions, ranging from averages of $76,950 for market research analysts¹¹ to $159,660 for marketing managers.¹²

Successful careers can follow a variety of pathways: Dr. Brian Gordon, program director for the KU online master's in sport management program, started out as a history major. Ultimately, however, a marketer will need a core set of skills that are proven to be valuable to the industry. This is one of the aspects of the KU program that Dr. Gordon sees as particularly useful to aspiring sports marketers: "When you look at the marketing and the finance, the law, the organizational behavior, sponsorship, and fundraising topics we cover, it’s a very well-rounded curriculum that prepares students for a variety of different careers."¹³

The combination of industry-specific knowledge and well-rounded networks provides a solid foundation for a sports marketing career. "Each grad student gets assigned an industry mentor, which has been especially helpful in connecting Jayhawks with other Jayhawks," notes Dr. Gordon.

Launch your sports marketing career at KU

Successful careers in sports and entertainment marketing start with the right mix of knowledge and experience. Whether you're considering how to get a job in sports marketing, thinking about a mid-career transition to a new profession, or seeking to advance to a more senior role within the field, KU's online master's in sport management is an elite qualification overseen by exceptional faculty at a university with one of the most respected college sports programs in the US.

Review our career-focused curriculum and admissions requirements. When you're ready to discuss what the Jayhawk Advantage can do for sports marketing careers, schedule a call with one of our admissions outreach advisors.