Sports aren’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Influencer Marketing for Sports Brand. It’s difficult to envision sports stars snuggling up in front of a television or stopping to Instagram the scenery. Yet, even in a more conventional media like television, how many sports players have you seen endorsing something?
For many years, sports superstars have been advertising items, even those in ostensibly amateur sports. Sports is just a subset of the health & fitness and fashion niches, which are two of the most significant influencer marketing industries.
However, influencer marketing in sports is a tale of two sides. The big-name sports businesses are more likely to collaborate with well-known athletes. These celebrities, on the other hand, frequently come with a price tag to match their famous status.
For a worldwide sports gear company, for example, this is great, but it’s out of reach for a tiny local fitness brand. Many lesser-known athletic influencers, on the other hand, may assist companies of any size while staying inside their marketing budget.
Some Stats regarding Indian Sports Industry
The Indian Sports Industry is expected to be worth INR 5894 crores by 2020. Sponsorship spending, celebrity endorsement, and media spends on sports assets are all factors included in this research.
The largest part goes to media, with advertisement spending on TV, digital, and print media accounting for INR 3657 crores, or 62 percent of overall expenditures. Sponsorship spending comprised On-Ground Sponsorships, Team Sponsorships, and Franchise Fee, accounting for 28 percent of the industry’s total revenue, or INR 1673 crores.
There was a substantial increase in the degree of social media Influencer Marketing for Sports Brand among popular sportsmen throughout the period of inactivity in sports. Cricketers once again controlled the roost, with 92 percent of the vote. Cricket players were engaged in 275 of the 377 endorsement deals that took place last year.
While these numbers may have fallen as a result of the current COVID epidemic, they will surely rise when more stadiums reopen and people feel more secure attending sporting events.
Many businesses are aware of this and wish to be associated with a healthy lifestyle. As a result, businesses have broadened their appeal to include those interested in fitness and healthy living. Even cosmetics companies now cater to the desire of fitness fanatics to look beautiful.
Influencer Marketing for Sports Brand
What is Trending
In recent years, there have been a few distinct trends in sports influencer marketing. Many sports and fitness fans regard sports influencers as the ultimate source of motivation, assisting them in achieving their own personal objectives. This is especially true for non-superstars. A young athlete may look up to someone who appears to be successful, yet they may think that he or she was once just like them. Many of these figures will be delighted to provide followers tips and encouragement on how to improve their training and athletic pursuits.
Another development in sports influencer marketing has been the effective division of supporters into tribes on the internet. Every English football team, for example, has a core of devoted supporters that interact and speak nearly entirely on the club’s activities.
Effectiveness of Sports Influencers
In recent years, there has been a significant surge in interest in health and fitness. Sport and other physical activities are important in this regard. While COVID has slowed things down a bit, especially with lockdowns that limit sports participation and live sports viewing, more individuals than ever recognise the significance of being healthy.
Fans of athletes and fitness influencers have long flocked to the internet to hear about their heroes’ newest accomplishments or to pick up coaching advice from them. They are, however, more essential than ever now, when people are confined at home and looking for other methods to train or simply pass the time.
Working with a high-profile athlete in a sport related to your business can increase your credibility with that athlete’s fans/followers if you have a large enough market. You may discover numerous lesser-known athletic and fitness influencers that motivate their fans even if you can’t afford an A-list sporting personality.
Choosing right Influencers for your Sports Brand
The most essential thing is to make sure you’re targeting the proper Influencer Marketing for Sports Brand for your followers and customers’ tribes. Don’t just pick someone because they’re well-known and whose name you know. Working with the “wrong” influencers might negatively impact your brand’s image among sports fans.
You should look at possible influencers’ engagement rates, like with any influencer marketing. Your sports star will not be of significant value to your company if they are too busy practising to spend time online or connect with their followers.
If you offer items that appeal to a specialised activity, working with an enthusiastic, active, and engaging influencer, even if they don’t have a large following, may be a better option. They are more likely than many more well-known influencers to have the proper audience for your company.
Indeed, if you can build a clear relationship between them and the sorts of individuals who are likely to be potential consumers, you may opt to work with influencers outside of the athletic specialty.
Plan your Influencer marketing Campaign
When running an influencer marketing campaign centred on sports and fitness, you must be properly structured, as with other influencer marketing initiatives. It would be a good idea to review our 11-step influencer marketing approach.
As we’ve mentioned throughout this post, you should start by identifying your campaign’s target demographic. Who exactly are you attempting to contact? You can’t choose the right sporting influencers until you know who you want them to impact. You should also make sure that the influencers you pick have followers that belong to the same tribe as your target market.
Then you’ll want to make a list of precise goals for your campaign. What do you hope to achieve by combining these influencer posts? What is your motivation for going through this?
While you’re at it, consider how you’ll assess your progress toward this goal. Whether you want to collaborate with an influencer to promote your Get Fit videos on YouTube, for example, how will you know if the influencer is effective in driving traffic to your channel?
You must next decide whether to choose influencers manually (maybe you already know who you want to work with), use a platform to find influencers, or hire an influencer agency to handle the entire process.
You may cooperate with influencers to create and share great content once you’ve discovered the appropriate ones who appeal to the proper tribe for your company.
