Hospitality for sports events
When investing in sports, a marketer is often faced with the alternative to use media exclusively, or an integrated platform of media and sponsorship. One of the most valuable components of the sponsorship alternative is hospitality, which has long been an underutilized tool by marketers.
The problem is that there is confusion about whether hospitality is a marketing function or a sales function. As a result, sales people grew too accustomed to sports tickets and often hosted friends or long term clients. Marketers would encourage high opportunity clients as guests, but would do little to help in the selection of guests or in the post event reporting.
Today, hospitality offers marketers a rare opportunity to accurately measure sales lift and marketing ROI. For sales people, the market for hospitality is growing. Ticket allocation is watched over carefully and access is limited.
The level of regulation and surveillance is not limited to the NFL. The Masters, U.S. Open and now the NCAA are now denying third party vendors the ability to profit from sports tickets.
In 2006, the NCAA came up with their own official hospitality program, called “The Tournament Club. The result is that significantly fewer tickets find their way to the public. This means more than increased prices for the common man who wants to see his team in the big game. This has made dealing with ticket brokers and third party vendors, more risky. However, the hospitality component of a sponsorship has evolved and matured.
If your sales organization wants to entertain at the most popular sporting events in the U.S, they have two options. One is to go for an official sponsorship with the governing body of the sport (anywhere from $5 - $100 million per year) and the second is the purchase of official hospitality directly from the governing body (prices range from $3,000 - $8,000 per attendee). One option requires a huge marketing budget and offers no solution for a B2B marketer. The second option, although not cheap, is fast becoming the reliable and cost effective alternative.
Keep in mind that to satisfy the return on investment and accomplish your firm’s goals, marketing has to work in conjunction with sales to provide access to these events. In turn, the sales organization must think and act like marketers conducting one on one brand building and in turn increasing sales.
The budget required is sizable and the access has become increasingly scarce. If you are going to take the plunge, it would be wise to do your homework and start with the official governing body. If a sponsorship doesn’t make sense and you can’t gain access, it is better to call the official vendor.