Global Partnership Activation with Jason Clerkin, Orlando Magic - a podcast by Brian Clapp - Work in Sports

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning at WorkInSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast.







Look, I hate to do the old…”I remember when I was kid…” start to a story, I hated it when others around me did this when I actually was a kid, and I hate doing it now. 







But, with all that qualification out of the way...I’m about to do it, so forgive me. Thanks.







I think we all have moments where we graduate from being solely sports participants and fans to having a more broad appreciation of the business of sports. The first time I started to realize the entanglements between sports and business was as a little league youngster. No, it was not the sponsored names on the back of our jerseys from Valpak or Sylvester's restaurant. Rather the memory that vividly sticks out for me is the cheesy local ads created by the stars of my then-favorite team...the Boston Red Sox. 







I remember vividly watching Wade Boggs, before he became a traitor and went to the Yankees, reading an advertisement for Hood Ice Cream. He’s standing on the field, clearly reading from off-camera cue cards and telling everyone how they should eat more Hood ice cream and that if you came to an upcoming game, you’d get a free mini red sox baseball helmet sponsored by Hood.







This was a lightbulb moment for me, and I wondered aloud how much extra ice cream was sold because of Wade Boggs telling kids like me to do so. I told my mom we had to buy Hood because Wade Boggs said so. Frankly, she didn’t give a crap about Wade Boggs, so she bought the store brand at Country Fare Star Market in Stow, Mass if you are wondering. 







I found myself paying more and more attention to this connection, this association, after that point. Dwight Evans endorsing local car dealerships, Jim Rice talking up OceanSpray juice box night.







Brands have always sought out sports franchises to build their reputation, move more products and grow awareness of their brand. These mutually beneficial partnerships between brands and sports have done nothing but grow since my halcyon days. 















The revenue of the North American sports sponsorship market was estimated at approximately 17 billion dollars in 2018 and is expected to grow to over 20 billion U.S. dollars by 2022. This figure, in 2018, accounts for around 70 percent of the total sponsorship market. 







So that means, sports partnerships comprised the vast majority of the sponsorship market -- far more than entertainment, causes, the arts, festivals, fairs and annual events. 







Sponsorships are activated today in far more robust ways -- the advertisements have improved, but so have the in-stadium, social media, and digital marketing methodologies. The only limit is creativity. 







Notice, in the stats I referred to earlier - over 17 billion dollars of revenue was from the North American sports sponsorship market. 







The growth market, the exciting place to be right now in sports… is the global market. 







In 2018, global sponsorship spending was 65 billion dollars around 70% of which was spent in sports - so the total market for sports sponsorship across the globe, was around 45 billion dollars. 







Teams are investing in their global reach more than ever - and it’s a perfect relationship. 

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