Looking to expand your marketing strategy in 2021? Have you wanted to work with athletes but didn't know where to start? OpenSponsorship is here to guide you through athlete sponsorship for the coming year to elevate your brand's marketing plans. Below is a curated list of top athlete influencers whose engagement rates predict a strong performance for the coming year. 

The impact of Covid-19 is evident, we have seen how it affects businesses and consumers alike. We are witnessing the shift in focus for companies both large and small. The importance of digital content marketing rather than on-site experiential marketing will be a major theme moving forward. As consumers rely on watching sports on a television screen instead of going to a stadium. Using online applications to work from home and to stay in touch with friends and family. This major shift in the landscape is an opportunity for marketers and brands to utilize content marketing strategies to reach their consumers in newer ways.

The Coronavirus has thrown the world for a loop and forced many of us to make major changes to our daily routines. Schools are closed, restaurants are closed, we're stuck video chatting our friends instead of seeing them in person, and, scary enough, gyms are closed! However, our OpenSponsorship fitness influencers haven't let this keep them from staying in shape and they're now working out at home while they don't have access to their gyms.

A lot goes into what builds an athlete's brand. This starts, of course, with accomplishments in their sport. Strong performance and accolades can put an athlete in the spotlight and get people to talk about them and become fans of theirs. However, the athlete's presence outside of their performance on the field can go a long way to taking their personal brand to the next level and turn them into stars.

Although professional athletes may seem like distant celebrities, they actually have a lot more in common with regular people then you may think.  That includes the love of man's best friend.  Dogs.  Or just pets in general.

The Coronavirus pandemic has taken the whole world by storm.  The sports world and the rest of society are staying home in lockdown, trying to figure out ways to cope with something they have never experienced before.  One unforeseen way people have been coping is by spending hours browsing and creating content on the app TikTok.  TikTok, which has been mostly viewed as a social media or content creation platform for the younger generation, has suddenly turned in to a platform where you could find people from any age simultaneously creating and consuming content.

New sports technology

Most aspects of our lives are now linked to the internet and electronics. Food delivery, social networks, shopping, entertainment, communication.. You name it. Sports are no exception to the rule. In fact, new sports technology might just be one of the most dynamic market as possibilities are pushed further everyday by both developers and athletes.

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jason Severiano Lampkin - that's me in the picture above - and I'm one of the new interns here at OpenSponsorship. Though many - if not all of you - will never have even heard of me, there once was a time when people thought the world would never forget my name. Instead, I became the man that many never even get the chance to know.

Last week, we helped one of our brands (Trago) work with one of our athletes (Amanda Ruller) for an amazing social media post.