Tech enterprises’ role in sponsoring sports organizations perpetuates potential yet to be completely realized. They’re a litmus test for undefined boundaries. The former enters this arena to build goodwill from fans. The latter attempts to position themselves as forward-thinking as possible. Both parties strive to create an enhanced fan experience as a byproduct of the partnership.
Still, brands search for ways to leverage fans’ passion to its own business, regardless if they come from the tech sector or not.
Fans’ desires, meanwhile, could be narrowed down to three key areas: access, community, and recognition. Access delves into a personalized window to the team or athlete’s daily happenings. Community revolves around the interaction among like-minded fans. And recognition reinforces the team’s acknowledgement and appreciation for fans’ loyalty.
Social media networks invariably interlope all of the aforementioned together.
Nonetheless, sponsorship expenses are always examined critically for its return on investment, as with all advertising types. There’s a greater imperative to be quite creative, in terms of how both parties build these partnerships and how they’re activated. New models of sponsorship must be formed that extend conventional ad constructs; they have to seamlessly integrate insofar as complementing the passions exhibited by fans, while clearly defining brand’s characteristics in the same process.
As much as a sponsor can uplift a sports franchise’s perception, it can work in reciprocal fashion under the right circumstances. The partnership dynamics evolve in order to meet new objectives and grow in a mutually beneficial way.
This season, the Phoenix Suns find themselves at a unique interchange with one of their sponsors, Annexus, a company in the financial services space. They entered into a relationship together a few years back, where Annexus didn’t have much brand presence and the Suns weren’t familiar with who they are nor its business model. The amplification of their messaging and investment has become visible throughout in-arena assets, including the title partner for the Suns’ practice court, its pertinent uniforms and locker room, and significant club level suites at US Airways Center. They added apron signage (the sideline area in front of the bench) this season as well.
Thus, the Suns represent Annexus’ largest marketing spend partner. When it comes to brand transference, Suns’ President, Jason Rowley, mentions to SportTechie that the team’s history in the city of Phoenix, close to 50 years now, has played a role for the sponsor, both to project themselves locally and nationally. Just as importantly, though, is the ability to host annual events at Suns’ facilities for their sales team that’s spread all over the country, where they can see the company’s branding and be a token of gratitude for their service. This setting enables a strong directive internally and be a fun environment all at once.
“As their business has grown, they are looking that their message is more consumer-facing. They’re based in the business of selling annuities and they have insurance partners that they work with. So, they are looking for that brand recognition out to the consumer, particularly people who tend to be Suns fans; which a lot of times are individuals who’d be looking to invest for their retirement,” says Rowley.
The cumulative effect of this mix engenders Annexus’ brand to their liking. Yet, social media platforms didn’t enter the equation until a serendipitous event took place from an unlikely source: LeBron James.
The video above occurred at the Suns’ practice facility, which, again, is sponsored by Annexus. It’s become virtually an annual tradition for James to tease basketball fans everywhere about his reluctance to compete at the slam dunk contest during NBA All-Star Weekend. This video went viral, with multimillion views scattered across several external sources that captured the footage. Annexus indirectly benefited from such exposure, but missed out on personally receiving traffic to digital properties. This instance drove home to them that they had tap into social channels.
Annexus’ Chief Strategy Officer, Jim Richards, tells SportTechie that “live sports and business is about special moments.” Social media stands as the funnel to host these unique moments and share them with others. He confirms that the results from James’ spectacle necessitated Annexus to want a tighter relationship with the Suns, where they can enhance their respective, sorely lacking social arena.
Although it’s sometimes difficult to measure social mediums’ impact, authenticity and the cool factor from something like James’ dunk-a-thon drives user consumption. Then it’s a matter of figuring out how to intertwine a partner’s marketing message to that without being intrusive.
“You almost have to view the fans and the people who are engaging with you on social media as partners as well. Involve them in the conversation and give them a voice; because that creates the deeper level of connectivity that you need to have for it to be valuable,” Rowley states.
Concurrently, Annexus has asked the Suns to help them find someone who can fill a social media specialist role for their own in-house team. The Suns are promoting the job listing, fielding resumes, and conducting interviews in order to get the right person, whom they’ll be mentoring best practices on social media for Annexus’ marketing purposes. The individual that’s hired will be able to work from the Suns’ offices periodically, while attending practices, too, to compile content that happens on the Annexus Practice Court.
They’re open-minded to applicants who have worked in the sports industry or not, provided they have some experience handling social properties for other organizations. The demonstrated ability to create engagement across these mediums previously is important. The intangibles, though, matter, especially given that these accounts must strike a balance between Annexus’ financial information and the Suns as a sports entity. It doesn’t strictly entail the latter in this case.
In terms of strategy, it’s largely ambiguous at the moment.
The learnings from social media that the Suns’ digital team has taken as their own over the past six years will be shared with Annexus’ new social media strategist. Given the chance to shadow what the Suns do on social networks on a daily basis, the Suns plan to stress that each platform is tailored to be different in its own specific way. Jeramie McPeek, Suns’ Vice President of Digital, informs SportTechie that he’d recommend this person to keep tabs on every single account under the same vertical as theirs, finance, in order for them to get an idea what others are doing across social media from that standpoint. The fact that Annexus is involved in the sports realm, it places a different angle compared to others in that space.
“I think a lot of it will be experimenting and seeing what works. And then kind of taking that to try and learn from it, using that to help shape the strategy moving forward,” says McPeek.
The Phoenix Suns and Annexus look to have the social media strategist position filled by around the start of the new year. Both of these organizations are delving into uncommon territory within sports sponsorships. The Suns are extending their resources–talent, knowledge, and time–to act as mentors to a newly created role formed by a sponsor for social media purposes, albeit not completely abreast on the financial services forum. Annexus is willing to invest to add an employee as part of their multi-year partnership, while taking lessons from an award-winning digital team. This experimentation intends to reach new users and convey a brand to the basketball-conscious fan, hopefully converting them; and prove that the Suns and Annexus are as dynamic of a duo through social media akin to Suns’ starting backcourt of Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe.