Helping brands to partner with athletes in their influencer marketing and sponsorship marketing campaigns

4 Ways your Brand can get Involved in the 2022 World Cup

The World Cup is one of the most highly anticipated sporting events in the world, and for good reason. Every four years, fans from all corners of the globe come together to celebrate their love of football. This year's tournament will be taking place in Qatar, and brands are already starting to jockey for position to get involved. In this blog post, we will discuss some of the different ways your brand can get involved in the World Cup 2022. Whether you're looking for a World Cup athlete sponsorship opportunity or want to create a marketing campaign around the event, we've got you covered!

Logo Placement

One of the most popular ways for brands to get involved in the World Cup is through logo placement. This is where your brand's logo will be featured on signage, kits, or other promotional materials associated with the event. This can take many different forms, but one of the most common is to have your brand logo on the team kit. Logo placement can be a great way to get your brand in front of a global audience, and it's also one of the most cost-effective ways to get involved.

Give Away Prizes

Another great way for brands to get involved in the World Cup is by giving away prizes related to the tournament. This can include anything from tickets to VIP experiences at games. Winners of these prizes can be selected through competitions, quizzes or randomly chosen from individuals who shared your content on social media. By giving away prizes, brands can generate excitement among fans and increase their visibility online and offline.

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Appearance Marketing

Appearance marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on creating a positive association between your brand and the event. An example of how this can be done is by hosting an event with an athlete involved in the World Cup - you could use a current or former player. A result of this will cause fans to link your brand with the World Cup, which will create a trustworthy relationship between potential consumers and your brand. Furthermore, appearance marketing is an excellent way to get you in front of a highly-targeted audience, and it can also be a lot of fun in the process!

Athlete Social Media Posts

Another option is to sponsor an athlete on social media. This can be a great way to get your brand in front of a highly-engaged audience. Many athletes will be using social media to share their experiences of the World Cup, and your brand can be a part of that. This could take many forms, such as the athlete promoting your product on Instagram with media posts, stories, lives, or Reals. However, there are a range of different social media platforms to choose from, this includes: TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook. The World Cup is a perfect opportunity to create awareness for your brand and generate some buzz around the event.

Final Thoughts

No matter how you decide to get involved, the important thing is that you start planning now. The World Cup only comes around every four years, so you don't want to miss out on this opportunity to reach a global audience! 

Get started here today with OpenSponsorship to simplify all your sports sponsorship needs! 

Have you ever wondered how to get your brand sponsored by an NFL Athlete? The long-awaited 2022-23 NFL season kicks off on Thursday, September 8th, and what a better time to find out some important elements of the process! 

Know who your target audience is before sponsoring an NFL player

It’s important to have a clear understanding of who and where your brand is best suited to work with based on ideal demographic information. NFL athletes have some of the highest followers out of pro-athletes and knowing which players are best suited based on the teams they play for is an important factor in gaining the best results

Budgeting and Cost - Understand your budget before starting the campaign

Finding an NFL athlete to work with according to a certain budget is important in understanding how to navigate a successful campaign. Depending on the form of the deliverable, the cost may differ. For example, it might be easier for a brand to ask an athlete to take at-home photos with a product vs a full commercial shoot. These deliverable factors are a huge key in determining the cost of a campaign.

Think about your NFL campaign and how you can maximize personalization

Making campaigns personalized with certain athletes can go a long way in building successful results. Opensponsorship’s platform allows users to see athletes' personal interests and can choose to work with an athlete based on a particular interest. Athletes are much more likely to build a relationship with a brand of their personal interest and could already have the established following that is best suited to market to. 

NFL Sponsorship Growth over the Years

The NFL has solidified itself as the most profitable sports league in the world, generating revenue of $11.1 billion. Out of that large revenue, nearly $2 billion came from sponsorship revenue. The primary industries spending on sponsorships with the NFL derive from technology, alcohol, and gambling. In recent years, the gambling industry has taken its sponsorship partnership with the NFL to new heights with huge long-term deals. This is only the initial stage of what the gambling industry has to bring to the revenue of the NFL and will continue to see year-over-year increases. 

NFL Athletes Leading the Sponsorship Race

With the growth in social media platforms, the engagement between NFL athletes and fans has never been closer before. Last season NFL stars: Rob Gronkowski, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Russell Wilson, and Travis Kelce lead players by taking on 25 brand deals each, with Gronkowski leading the way with 30 deals. More so, an estimated 1000 brands created endorsement deals with numerous NFL athletes. The leading industries that are growing sponsorships with NFL athletes are emerging from appeal brands and technology companies. Out of these deals, Opensponsorship has worked to bring to life a number of campaigns with NFL athletes. 

NFL Player Sponsorship Case Studies to Inspire Your Own!

Over the last several months, Opensponsorship has been able to work with Walmart and some of the leading NFL stars on apparel campaigns. Sponsorships with Walmart include the likes of: Seattle Seattle Seahawks Pro Bowler Jamal Adams, Dallas Cowboys star Micah Parsons, Chicago Bears Quarterback Justin Fields, Eagles Running back Miles Sanders, Cleveland Browns defender Myles Garrett, and 49ers Wide Receiver Deebo Samuel amongst others. 

Intel Sponsors NFL star, Rob Gronkowski

During Superbowl 51, Opensponsorship worked to create a campaign with Rob Gronkowski and technology leader Intel. The purpose of the campaign was for Intel to promote users to use their technology to capture videos.

The Bouqs Co. and Tyler Eifert 

Former Pro Bowl Tight End Tyler Eifert teamed up with The Bouqs Co., one of the largest online flower distributors in the U.S. The unique collaboration created a successful campaign for the brand which increased brand awareness in a completely new market.

Sleefs and Bud Dupree NFL Sponsorship Campaign

Sleefs, a modern fashion apparel brand created a successful campaign with Pittsburgh linebacker Bud Dupree. Bud posted a photo to Instagram, telling his followers to go to the Sleefs site to snag a free sleeve or headband. Sleefs gave him his own code to direct his followers to use.

The results were staggering: Sleef’s site traffic increased by a substantial amount, fans of Dupree browsed and purchased way more items on the site, and each user stayed on the site for 91% longer than the average user.

Learn More About How To Work with and Sponsor NFL Athletes

With the NFL season fast approaching, there's never been a better time for your brand to work with an athlete. Sign up today and learn how to get started with an endorsement campaign with NFL athletes to grow your brand!

European soccer has been a positive outlet from the stresses of this past year, and the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament is another opportunity to sponsor some stand-out athletes popular both regionally and internationally. This is the first time that the tournament will be held in more than two countries, with half of the countries hosting an international tournament for the first time. The tournament will also be celebrating its 60th anniversary and projecting that it will have over 5 billion live viewers. So, this is a great opportunity to reach an audience excited to be back in stadiums and engaged with their favorite sport and athletes. 

Because Euro 2020 was rescheduled for June 11 to July 11 now is the best time to connect with some of our athletes for sponsorship. Here are some of our athletes taking part in the tournament that would be ideal for any brand looking to capitalize on the digital connection fans have built with their favorite athletes. 

Recognized for his exceptional passing, shooting, and dribbling abilities, the 29 year old midfielder from Belgium is widely considered as one of the best players in the world. Kevin De Bruyne plays a fundamental role in the Belgium national soccer team, and alongside Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku, they made a deadly trident up front. Other than the numerous titles that he has won playing at Manchester City, he has been awarded important individual achievements such as "Bundesliga Player of the Year", "Manchester City Player of the Year", "FIFA World Cup Dream Team: 2018", and "Premier League Playmaker of the season". Now, on the 2020-2021 season, De Bruyne has lead Manchester City to reach its first UEFA Champions League final, looking to raise the first-ever UEFA title for the club. Clearly, one of the EURO 2021 main attractions.

For Manchester United, Romelu Lukaku played a key role on the team through his aggressive passing, which led to many goals, but since joining Inter Milan he has been making his mark as a striker scoring 34 goals in 51 matches this past year. In addition to reaching his personal goal of 300 career goals Lukaku has been awarded "2019-20 UEFA Europa League Player of the Season," "Best Belgium Footballer abroad: 2020," "IFFHS World's Top Goal Scorer: 2020," and the "Italian Football Hall of Fame (Davide Astoria Fair Play Award): 2019." In addition to this Lukaku strives to maintain a positive presence on social media, even in the face of adversity.

Defensive players do not always get the recognition they deserve, but Dutch National Daley Blind is one that stands out. Blind rose to prominence through his defensive strategies and performance during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, which is considered an impressive example of modern defending. Daley started his career with Ajax, having come up through the academy, but he also had the opportunity to play for Manchester United, where he played a crucial role in the 2015 FA Cup triumph. Daley has since returned to his boyhood club, Ajax, where he continues to prove his versatility and has also acted as a leader to the younger players on the squad as the vice-captain.

John Stones is a young English defensive back, who has been part of the impressive Premier League Championship-winning Manchester City squad for the past three seasons. Stones is also slated to be one of the best center-backs in world football today and expected to play a key role in the Champions League final this Saturday. Since joining Manchester City Stones has enjoyed some real positive momentum, which has been attracting attention from rival clubs this transfer window. Stones shows a real passion and excitement, which is anticipated to help this young defender to continue to rise as he builds his career.

With the transfer window coming up Declan Rice is another young prospect getting a lot of attention from rival teams such as Chelsea and Manchester United. Rice has made his mark as a midfielder for West Ham United where he has scored several key goals for the club and has been awarded "West Ham United Player of the Year: 2019-20." In addition to this honor, Rice was "London Football Awards Young Player of the Year: 2019" and has played for both the Republic of Ireland and English National Teams.

N'Golo Kante is a strong and versatile midfielder known for his ball-winning abilities and has become more offensively driven under the Chelsea manager, scoring more goals and providing more assists than he had previously. Kante was an integral member in Leicester City winning its first Premier League title and has since had a notable and successful rise within the English league. In addition to his two Premier League title wins he has been awarded "Leicester City Players' Player of the Year: 2015-16," "Chelsea Player of the Year: 2016-17, 2017-18," "French Player of the Year: 2017" and "ESPN Midfielder of the Year: 2019." Kante was even France's "Man of the Match" for his performance in the 2018 FIFA World Cup match against Denmark.

Fellow Frenchman Karim Benzema has made a similar impact in the Spanish League, La Liga. Benzema has been a creative and dynamic striker for Real Madrid since 2009 where he has raised the league trophy there times and is hailed for his performance in the most recent title race. This season he even rose in the La Liga goal rankings to be just below Lionel Messi. In addition to his La Liga success, Benzema has been awarded "UNFP Best French Player Playing Abroad: 2018-19, 2020-21," "Trofeo Alfredo Di Stefano: 2019-20 (Annual Association Football Award)," and "MARCA's Best Player in 2019-20." Benzema has also had the opportunity to play for the French National Team in the FIFA World Cup four times.

Portugal is another talent-producing powerhouse in Europe and Andre Silva is just one of several athletes you can find on OpenSponsorship playing in Euro 2020. Silva recently transferred from Serie A's AC Milan to Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany, where he scored 26 goals in 31 games. At the age of 25, Silva has already been honored as "Segunda Liga Breakthrough Player of the Year: 2015-16," "Bundesliga Goal of the Month: June 2020," and "Bundesliga Player of the Month: January 2021." Within the Bundesliga Silva has made great strides towards his full potential, gaining the interest of other international clubs such as Barcelona and Manchester United.

Cinco de Mayo, commonly thought of as Mexico's Independence Day (this isn't true), is a holiday that celebrates the country's underdog victory at the Battle of Puebla against France in 1862. Nowadays, the holiday has spread to the United States as well and is often associated with tacos and tequila, but the true meaning of the day is to celebrate the rich history and heritage of Mexico.

In the 1980s and 90s, brands began incorporating Cinco de Mayo into their marketing plans by positioning their product as one that should be consumed during holiday celebrations.

Corona was one of the first, which makes sense given that it is a Mexican beer, and some even credit their 1989 ad campaign for making Cinco de Mayo such a widely celebrated holiday in the United States. Through their marketing efforts aimed at positioning themselves as a beer of celebration and bringing people together, they are now the leading beer brand in association and consumption around the holiday.

As seen from Corona, a strong marketing campaign can help consumers associate you with Cinco de Mayo celebration. Using influencers with Mexican heritage can be one way of launching your campaign, and there are several Mexican athletes who would make great fits. Here are our top 10 Mexican athlete influencers:

10. Hector Velazquez

Hector Velazquez is an MLB pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles entering his 4th season in the MLB, spending the previous 3 with the Boston Red Sox. He was born in Ciudad Obregon and prior to going to the MLB, he played six seasons in the Mexican League and two seasons in the winter Mexican Pacific League.

He can be found on Instagram at @hvelazquez76, where he has over 30,000 followers. He posts often with his wife and his two young boys. 

9. Will Hernandez

Will Hernandez is an offensive lineman for the New York Giants. He was drafted by the Giants in the 2nd round of the 2018 Draft out of the University of Texas at El Paso.

Hernandez's family moved from Mexico to Las Vegas before he was born, and his journey from there to the NFL was inspiring. Hernandez's family faced devastating financial struggles while he was growing up, forcing them to spend time living in a storage unit. These struggles led to his grades falling and the decision to drop out of high school and quit football to begin working for his father, but his coaches encouraged him to come back to school and the team because he had the opportunity to earn himself a college scholarship.

Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Well, they were right, and Hernandez is now a promising young starter for the Giants. He can be found on Instagram at @willhernandez71 with over 50,000 followers (and this hilarious photo of him and his dog) and on Twitter at @willhernandez76 with 15,000 followers.

8. Luis Urias

Luis Urias is an MLB infielder for the Milwaukee Brewers who was once one of the top minor league prospects in baseball. He spent time playing in the Mexican Pacific Winter League in 2014 and also represented Mexico in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, a highly competitive international baseball tournament.

He can be found on Instagram at @luisurias97 with 77,000 followers and on Twitter at @luisurias03 with 18,000 followers.

7. Erik Perez

Erik Perez is an MMA fighter competing in the bantamweight division of the Bellator MMA promotion. He has been fighting professionally since 2008 and his three brothers, Jorge, Jair, and Ivan, are also professional fighters.

Erik can be found on Instagram at @goyito_perez with 54,000 followers and on Twitter at @goyito_perez with just under 42,000 followers.

6. Gilberto Ramirez

Gilberto Ramirez is a professional middleweight boxer. He held the WBO super middleweight title from 2016-2019 and was the first boxer from Mexico to hold that title. Gilberto made big changes to his life last year, including moving to Los Angeles, hiring a new trainer and replacing the one he had for years, and proposing to his girlfriend Priscilla (ESPN wrote a feature article about it here) for the good of his career- and things have paid off for him so far.

Gilberto can be found on Instagram at @zurdoramirez where he has just under 92,000 followers and is active in taking his fans along with him on his journey and his day-to-day routine as a professional boxer.

5. Jaime Munguia

Jaime is a 23-year-old professional boxer in the middleweight division. He held the WBO junior middleweight title from 2018-2019 and is currently ranked as the 7th best middleweight boxer in the world and the 2nd best from Mexico with a 35-0-0 record.

Jaime can be found on Instagram at @jaimemunguiaofficial with 142,000 followers. He most recently fought against Gary O'Sullivan, the world's 27th ranked middleweight fighter, and won in an 11th round KO, winning his middleweight class debut.

4. Sergio Romo

Sergio Romo is an MLB pitcher for the Minnesota Twins. He made his MLB debut in 2008 with the San Francisco Giants, where he was a part of three World Series champion teams and made one All-Star appearance in 2013. He is now on his 5th MLB team and has put together quite the resume for a 28th-round pick in the 2005 MLB Draft.

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Sergio and his wife, Chelsea, have two sons named Rilen and Ryder. Sergio is active and has large followings on both Twitter and Instagram, sporting 169,000 followers on Instagram (@sergioromo54) and 250,000 on Twitter (@sergioromo54).

3. Jonathan dos Santos

Jonathan dos Santos is a professional soccer player currently playing for the LA Galaxy of the MLS. He was signed by the Galaxy in July 2017 after playing for Spain's Villareal CF. Dos Santos also represents Mexico in international play, being named to the Best XI in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and making his World Cup debut in 2018.

Dos Santos sports very high followings across social media. He has 2.2 million followers on Instagram (@jona2santos) and 1.4 million followers on Twitter (@jona2santos) and recently joined Tik Tok as well, where he has amassed 92,000 followers in just one month (@jona2santoss).

2. Giovani dos Santos

Narrowly beating out Jonathan is his brother Giovani, also a professional soccer player for Liga MX club America. He also played for the LA Galaxy from 2015-2019, spending two seasons playing with Jonathan and making two MLS All-Star teams. He also has a strong career in international play, winning one Olympic gold medal in 2012 and 3 Gold Cup titles.


USA Today Sports

He has 1.8 million followers on Instagram (@oficialgio) and 3.4 million on Twitter (@oficialgio). According to his Instagram, he's been spending his quarantine working out, reading books, playing video games (he loves FIFA!) and cuddling with his dog.

1. Oribe Peralta

Taking the top spot is professional soccer player Oribe Peralta. He currently plays for Liga MX Guadalajara and has bounced around during his club career, spending the most time with Santos Laguna. Peralta has also represented the Mexican National Team, but announced his retirement from international play after the 2018 World Cup.

Peralta is an active user of Twitter (@oribeperalta), Instagram (@oribepm), and Facebook (Oribe Peralta) with 3 million followers on the former and over 1 million on the other two.

What do you think about our list? To learn more about any of these athletes and how you can use them in your next campaign, reach out to an OpenSponsorship rep or send us an email at info@opensponsorship.com

What's cooler than sports innovation for athletes? It enables athletes to play harder for their team, be safer while competing and fans can know more about their favorite athletes.

OpenSponsorship is the leading marketplace for sports sponsorship. We are finding ways to connect more of these cool brands to professional athletes. This week we have been focused on finding out who are the coolest companies bringing sports innovation for athletes. We then find ways to make these matches between the brands and pro athletes. We help the sports innovation companies decide who to use, what to do and how to do it (clue: largely social media and content marketing based).

Our friends over at Sportstechie have been a major source of knowledge to understand who is leading the charge in sports innovation for athletes. We have also been referencing the sports brands highlighted by the Sports Technology Awards (quick plug: we were named a finalist in 2015 in the category of Best Technology facilitating commercial returns!).

So how do we do this matchmaking process for these companies who are bringing sports innovation for athletes? Thanks to integrations with IBM Watson and the largest marketplace network of athletes, globally, we are able to find which athletes who are talking about sports innovation; who are already promoting innovative products and even find which athletes get the best engagement on social media when they do promote a sports innovation for athletes.

Our Top 4 Sports Technology Products Which Stood Out As Great Sports Innovation For Athletes And Teams

I/ GuardLab's 3D Printed Mouthguard

Concussions are plaguing sports nowadays and thus this first entry on our 'sports innovation for athletes' list operates in the all-important security space. According to Head Case's website, the number of total concussions doubled from 2002 to 2012. Mouthguards are an integral part of head protection in many sports. Such as rugby, soccer, american football, combat sports and of course martial arts. Lots of players throw their elbows from left to right at head height. It is easily understandable that players want to protect their head, mouth and teeth. 3D printed mouthguards ensure a top-notch fit and thus, protection.

Our idea for this sports innovation, Guardlabs, is to find an athlete that is not happy with their current fit, and design a custom product for the athlete to use. A great before and after shot showing the better fit would be great. Using an MMA fighter who is known to produce great content would be recommended. Someone such as Andre Fili - full disclosure we assume he wears a good mouthguard.

II/ Vicis' Zero 1 Football Helmet

Vicis Zero 1

Football helmets are known to be hard, very hard. Football helmets all feature the same principle: a hard shell coupled with padding inside for comfort and shock absorption. However, Vicis is going in the opposite direction by featuring a soft shell and multiple layers to redistribute the impact over the whole helmet. And thus this helmet is second on our list of best sports innovations for athletes.  Judging by their testing, helmets are much more efficient by absorbing impacts with a soft and adaptive surface. This approach could reduce concussions significantly.

Our idea for this sports innovation, Vicis, is to find an athlete that is known for hard knocks. Such as a Defensive Tackle in the NFL e.g. Cleveland Browns athlete Desmond Bryant.

III/ StatSports' Sensors

StatsSports have been developing sensors which are being used by lots of sports teams across 6 of the most popular sports in the world. Soccer (FC Barcelona, Juventus), rugby (Springboks, Chiefs), football (Panthers, Raiders), hockey, athletics and basketball (Grizzlies, Wizards). These Sensors get into our list of top sports innovations for athletes thanks to the incredible accuracy in measuring many criteria. E.g. for American football - Power, Snap reaction, speed and acceleration at time of first hit. This sports innovation is all about helping performance.

Our idea for StatSports, is to use their sports innovation for athletes, by exemplifying the accuracy of Statsports Sensors over traditional methods. They could have a NFL player do the 40 yard dash and then post it on social media. Fans could guess what the acceleration rate was, and whoever got closest to the StatSports time gets to meet the player. Jeremy Langford, NFL running back for the Chicago bears would be great for this sponsorship.

IV/ Humon Hex

This innovation in sports for athletes focuses on performance and predicting tiredness, by determining Oxygen levels in real-time. This sports innovation also helps athletes know if they are warmed up enough before a workout. Then allows athletes to set limits for a workout and enables athletes to quantify the effort they are putting in.

Our idea for Humon Hex is to use their sports innovation on athletes who have been active on social media talking about oxygen levels and its importance. E.g. recently surfer Luke Davis told his Twitter followers that he was taking "oxygen utilization" supplements.

If you are a brand sign up for free here to access our roster of 2600+ athletes, teams and events. If you are an athlete you can sign up for a free account here. Then, start applying to campaigns posted by our brands! :)