If you didn’t know who UFC star Conor McGregor was when we gave his video game appearance a shout out in our blog post last week, chances are that you became aware of him over the weekend. Despite being 5’9”, he has become a giant within the UFC along with the gold standard for sports sponsorship.

So your consumers follow golf, but you don’t want to wait until the Masters in April to get into sports sponsorship? Well, events take place across the globe year round and Hero Motocorp, the largest two wheeler manufacturer in India, is hosting their annual Ladies European Tour event this week!

One element that we often see missing from brands' influencer efforts is how they leverage the events afterwards.

We hear it all the time: Sports sponsorship isn't a B2B strategy. There's no concept of B2B sports sponsorship.

While it's a valid concern from companies who focus on B2B sales ... if you think about the pro sports community and the $60B in sponsorship spend that you see at work every time you tune into a game, you’ll realize that this thinking has little merit.

On Sunday, October 23rd, former Wisconsin Badger basketball standout Josh Gasser attended a Cyc Fitness exercise class in Madison, WI as part of a sports sponsorship deal reached through OpenSponsorship. The athlete endorsement agreement also included an Instagram post in the days leading up to the event.

We believe that an athlete influencer can be an effective voice for any brand.

Do you ever see a celebrity endorsement and think to yourself “he/she is a perfect sponsor for that brand”? Lincoln and Matthew McConaughey, Apple and Justin Long, even Progressive Insurance and Flo (she’s a celebrity now, right?).

On Tuesday, October 11th, Seattle Seahawks (NFL) cornerback Jeremy Lane posted to both Instagram and Twitter on behalf of our newest member - FanWide. FanWide is a social network for sports fans that organizes viewing parties for every team in every city.