#51 The Ballketing Letter
3 "purpose-driven" partnership ideas in sport, the future of the eSports business model, understanding the metaverse, masterclasses for sport apparel brands & more!
Hey there Ballketers,
Welcome to #51! It´s been a busy week with a few projects going on, potential opportunities in the horizon and of course, more outstanding content we share with you today! This week:
In the Ballketing Brief we share 3 sport sponsorship ideas we wish to see happen. Developing “purpose driven” partnership ecosystems will be key for any brand related to sport to stand out going forward, especially among the younger segments of the population.
As always, awesome business content to improve your skills, with a special section for sport apparel brands but also with stuff about eSports, the metaverse, marketing related materials and a few more!
We keep updating our “Resource Center" in Notion and we are close to 500 pieces of content so you can learn something new to put in practice! Feel free to suggest resources of your own, and we can make the database even more amazing.
Let´s get down to business!
"Excellence in any stream requires a trade-off"
Youngme Moon - Author of "Different"
We took this week´s quote from yet another awesome episode of "Everyone Hates Marketers" in which Louis Grenier urges businesses to niche down and focus on one specialty rather than being "everything to everyone."
Think for example about how doctors usually focus on one field of practice or how pro athletes usually focus on developing their career on one specific sport to become great rather than trying to be "good" at several of them.
3 sport brand related partnerships we wish to see happen
The brief is inspired on this episode of The CMO Moves podcast in which the CMOs at Electronic Arts and Gatorade sit down to discuss the landscape from a marketing perspective from their corresponding angle and even hints at potential partnerships in the future.
While listening to the conversation, a situation I witnessed in college quickly came to mind. One of my close friends moved in with a new roommate and I remember perfectly well the first time I met him: He was playing Madden and he had a giant Gatorade right beside him. This got me to think about 3 potential partnerships that we believe make sense in the world of sport and that we wish to see happen:
Peloton & Wren – Community efforts aimed at fighting climate change.
Wren is a subscription service that helps users compensate their carbon footprint while, well, I guess everybody here knows about Peloton, the connected fitness service that revolutionized the industry during the pandemic.
Why do we believe it makes sense? Both businesses rely on building network effects and community in order to create meaningful impact. Wren needs more users to capture more emissions while Peloton needs more people to make classes more engaging. Besides, from a “purpose” perspective, we could argue both brands look to make the world a better place.
How they could make it work? It would be worth testing if Peloton users would consider increasing their membership fee if that meant that for every session they completed on their bike translated to X tons of compensated C02. At the end of the day, it would be “riding for a purpose,” not only would Peloton users be helping themselves, they would be helping the planet.
eSports team & Zwift or Ergatta – Keeping gamers fit
One of the biggest concerns around that play video games for a long period time is their potential lack of physical activity. However, if you get these group of users to be active while playing a video game, you help them take care of themselves while doing something they like.
Why do we believe it makes sense? In theory, it is a win-win for both brands. Zwift or Ergatta enter a new niche (the gamers) while the eSport Brand can help take care of their athletes (keeping them fit would help their performance during the competition). The challenge here is that these gamers would need to invest in equipment to actually make this happen but…
How they could make it work? Perhaps the eSports team could subsidize somehow the cost of the equipment or include it as part of the salary of the player. Another option is for Zwift or Ergatta to receive “free” advertising during streams, competitions, etc. in Exchange for giving away equipment to these gamers. The decision between one of the two connected fitness brands will depend on the gamer´s preference and personality (Zwift is for more “community driven” users while Ergatta is more targeted to individual users).
Dove & Simone Biles or Naomi Osaka - Sport heroes are also human
Dove´s mission is about "beauty for all women" and they have famously carried out campaigns around "everyday women."
Why do we believe it makes sense? This may seem like a stretch but at the end of the day, if there is one thing we have learned from Biles or Osaka this summer, is that they are not super-humans. They are normal people, like you or me, with insecurities, pressure and they sometimes need a break. Who doesn´t? So if they are "human" after all and Dove looks to enhance beauty for all women...wouldn´t it make sense for them to work together?
Why do we believe it makes sense? In our view, this could well with a campaign centered around "health & wellness content," showing Biles or Osaka in every day situations (rather than performing their sport), hosting events or a podcast where they would talk with other athletes & personalities about "tools & tactics" to improve mental health and distributing that organically through social channels (Tik Tok, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.) and content platforms (YouTube, Twitch, Podcast platforms, etc.).
Critical success factors for purpose driven sponsorship
If you noticed, these 3 partnerships would be founded on the base of “purpose,” which we believe is one of the critical success factor for these agreements to succeed.
Partnerships should be aimed at improving the user´s quality of life, leave a legacy and not just be about financial incentives.
Clearly defined “win-win” scenario for brands, athletes & users / fans.
Long term perspective, which ensures “brand association” among consumers. A “one-off” initiative will lack relevance.
So, what do you think? Do the make sense? Any other partnerships that come to mind that make sense? If so feel free to share and we can improve this post together.
We start off with a few resources for sport apparel brands…
Masterclass on building & growing a sport apparel brand
If you are pondering the idea of launching your own apparel brand, don´t miss this awesome episode of How I Built This in which Inov-8´s founder shares how he started & grew the brand over the years. You will learn about the importance of targeting a niche audience, understanding their needs to every detail, growing from the "minimum viable audience," the importance of having a fantastic product, how to approach international growth and even selling the business. This one has it all!
Focus on the customer to understand monetization opportunities: Sneakerheads
Marc Randolph shares fantastic advice in this episode of "That Will Never Work" to an entrepreneur who has built a sneaker flip business. While the initial question was related to embracing "subscription" as a business model, Marc urges him to go deeper into understanding buyer motivations (collecting sneakers vs trying to gain a profit), purchasing habits and value they obtain from his platform to validate if that makes sense). This will also enable him to position his business one way or another (value proposition, messaging, etc.) This is a must if you have a sport apparel business!
The state of the D2C industry
Interesting episode of the eMarketer podcast in which they discuss the rise of D2C brands, key success factors, opportunities for growth, challenges and examples of the brands performing best. They also share insights related to what fans value in loyalty programs (immediate rewards) and how context is key for successful advertising.
Level up your marketing game…
Leveraging social media even if you are a "seasonal" brand
Some sport or fitness businesses are highly seasonal but that does not mean they need to dismiss the possibility of engaging with users on social. In this episode from Social Media Marketing Pros you will learn how, understand the value behind Tik Tok, Pinterest, influencer marketing or even user generated content.
Crushing your sales w/ email marketing
You are really going to need to read the show notes of this Social Media Examiner episode. It is an awesome review of tactics across the entire funnel to increase sales w/ email marketing.They go deep into different type of emails you can send during the "pre-purchase" & "post-purchase" phase so get ready to have tons of ideas popping into your head!
Shifting the mindset from ABM to mastering the fundamentals
Chris Walker shares his thoughts on why you need to focus on the marketing fundamentals. how branding in today´s day and age is about understanding your audience, segmenting appropriately, being present in the channels where they buy and nailing the micro-moments by engaging with them in moments that matter. These lessons are applicable across any business...
Stay up to date with updates on the industry…
State of the sports marketing industry
Interesting deep dive into the sports marketing industry where the folks at The Unofficial Partner touch upon several current topics such as sponsorship dynamics, incremental revenue opportunities for sport brands, D2C, sports betting or the future of broadcasting.
Why eSports needs to develop its own business model and not follow traditional sports
An awesome article from a16z into the general states of the sports & eSports industries and why eSports needs (and can) consider embracing different business models that foster monetization tactics that traditional sports simply cannot consider…
Understanding the metaverse and how it will impact the sports industry
A friend the other day came up and said "I have just started getting into trying to understand NFTs and now everybody starts talking about this metaverse thing...What´s the deal??"
Should I tell him that there is a world where NFTs will have a predominant role within the metaverse??
Anyway, if you feel the same (it does get overwhelming at times), this is fantastic intro into the metaverse and potential opportunities within sport from Sports Pro Media.
Andrea Sullivan, CMO at Vayner X, on the power of culture in branding
Culture, culture, culture. This is what Sullivan would focus on if she had to start a brand now. Another great lesson from this Brandingmag interview on that front is to ask yourself:
"Will anyone really care? Are we simplifying the idea and the offer enough?"
Use Social Media to drive customer loyalty
In today´s world, it seems most brands use social media mainly to acquire new customers. However, it is a fantastic channel to engage with your audience and keep them loyal to your business. Read this great article from CXL to find out how with detailed examples on the type of content, channels, etc.
And that does it for The Ballketing Letter #51! Thank you if you made it to the end. If you have any feedback, let us know so we can keep improving this newsletter and let it take your sport brand or fitness business to the next level.
And, if you know about somebody that could enjoy The Ballketing Letter, feel free to share it out with them!
Keep safe.