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

As Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) become more and more popular, an increased number of partnership opportunities have begun to emerge across numerous platforms and interfaces. Daily Fantasy Sports platforms such as DraftKings and FanDuel have seen first hand the benefits of using athletes to assist in the  promotion and the use of Daily Fantasy Sports gameplay. 

The Coronavirus pandemic has taken the sports world by storm, and athletes now have an unprecedented amount of time on their hands leading to an increase in the number of athletes on TikTok. Some are taking on new hobbies -see Giannis Antetokounmpo learning the guitar and Cody Zeller learning to cook and play the guitar (well, trying to). Some are doing their best to stay in shape at home- nice setup, Serge Ibaka! But most of all, athletes are more active and engaging on social media than ever before. The most interesting takeaway from this uptick in social media activity has been the increase in athletes on TikTok.

If you’re not familiar by now, TikTok is a social media platform where users can post short videos of just about anything they want- dancing, comedy, music, tricks, or one of the countless “challenges” that go viral on the platform. TikTok began to take off in 2019 has over 500 million active users, making it a great place for influencers, like athletes, to build their brand and engage with their audience.

The sports world began to take notice long ago, with teams, leagues, broadcast networks, and even team mascots creating accounts and regularly posting content, ranging from highlights, messages from players, and just normal funny clips. The NBA even invited TikTok stars Addison Rae, Charli D’Amelio, Dixie D’Amelio, Chase Hudson, and Jalaiah to 2020 All-Star Weekend. The former three made videos with several NBA stars, including OpenSponsorship athletes Nikola Jokic and Pascal Siakam, and even helped out Aaron Gordon with this Dunk Contest dunk! And now, with athletes home and quarantining, they have had the time to join in on the fun themselves, and we love seeing athletes on TikTok.

Philadelphia 76ers rookie Matisse Thybulle was one of the first- “the only logical thing for me to do at this point is to start making TikToks!” He has been regularly posting content, even taking the time one day to interact with a fan who was hoping an NBA player would notice his post. Star Grizzlies rookie Ja Morant joined in too, making a fake player introduction to help cope with him missing basketball. Young Thunder stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Darius Bazley teamed up in a different way than usual to perform one of the hundreds of viral dances that become popular on TikTok.

But it’s not just the young guys having fun on TikTok, even the world champ athletes are on TikTok! LeBron James and his family enjoy the platform, where LeBron’s son Bronny posted a video of the family dancing that LeBron later re-posted on his Instagram story. Retired athletes on TikTok include NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal who is a regular on the platform and collaborated with Forto Coffee to create a fun and energized post promoting their coffee shots that received over 310 thousand impressions and nearly 19 thousand engagements.

TikTok is the hottest social media platform in the world right now and athletes on TikTok prove that the sports world is taking notice. These posts garner massive amounts of impressions and engagement from fans and partnering with athletes on TikTok is the perfect way for brands to connect with these audiences. Talk to an OpenSponsorship rep today to take advantage of this opportunity, or send us an email info@opensponsorship.com

How to Find Sponsorship Opportunities

Knowing how to find sponsorship opportunities is important for every professional athlete. According to Forbes, sponsorship makes up 47% of the total income for the top 15 athletes in the world, and for some lesser known athletes sponsorship can make up to 80% of total income. Figuring out how to find sponsorship opportunities is thus very very important. 

We all know that athletes such as LeBron James and Serena Williams do not have a problem in finding sponsorship opportunities, but what about the non top 1%? Let's go down the checklist of things you may have tried:

1. A website with contact details
2. Social media channels to engage with a fanbase
3. A powerpoint presentation on why you are worth sponsoring
4. An agent who has found you a few deals
5. Cold calling or emailing the top brands such as Nike

OpenSponsorship

Well, we have a better solution. Think about if you wanted to find a job, you wouldn't do the above points, you would go straight to Monster.com or if looking for a house you would go to zillow.com.

Seeing these industries become so efficient we decided it was time to do the same for ours, hence why we started OpenSponsorship, the largest two sided marketplace for sports sponsorship connecting brands directly to athletes, teams and events.

At OpenSponsorship we have you fill out your basic information such as your name, age, and gender. In addition we have you fill out:

1. What sport(s) you play
2. Location
3. Your interests (pets, family, technology, etc)
4. Social media followers on various platforms
5. What kind of deals you would be willing to do (social media posts, appearances, photo shoots, etc)

By taking in all of this information, we pair you up with brands that fit your interests. If you are a pet lover, we will put you in contact with a pet brand looking to promote their product. If you're into the latest technology, workout equipment, or clothing, we will put you in touch with the right contact.

Additionally, our brands offer various types of sponsorship deals. Brands can ask you to post about them on social media, grant you free product to use and give a testimonial for, have you come in for a photoshoot, or even have you as their brand ambassador. The range of sponsorship opportunities are endless on OpenSponsorship.

Signing Up as an Athlete

As an athlete, the process is simple. Here is a quick step-by-step guide of how to sign up:

• Go to OpenSponsorship
• Click the sign up button and select “I am an Athlete, Team or Event”
• Create your account and fill in your profile
• Once you have finished creating your profile, click on the “campaigns” tab to see a list of all of the sponsorship opportunities available

In conclusion, we have found a way to make sponsorship available to all athletes. There’s no need to search up how to find sponsorship opportunities anymore. 

Make sure to like our Facebook page. In addition, make sure to like our OpenSponsorship athlete community group for tips and pointers on how to best market yourself.

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.

Our OpenSponsorship team is made of athletes as well as huge sports fans. Which is one of the reasons we love those new sports technology products so much. These products make athletes safer, help them reach their peak and improve competitiveness levels in every sports. We love being the connecting point between these great products/brands and our awesome OpenSponsorship athletes!

SportTechie has been an invaluable source of information for this article.

4 brands caught our eye through their amazing new sports technology:

I/ AfterDark Technologies: LED jerseys and ball for flag football

LED Flag football jersey and ball by AfterDarkTechnologies

These awesome jerseys and balls are definitely going to revolutionize flag football. Indeed, these kits will allow us to enjoy our favorite sport at any time of the day. No more cancelling a game because of the hour! Not only do these amazing kits let you play in the dark, these also include some useful features such as alternating colors on the QB's jersey, representing the rush count down. Also, its optic fiber flags to never miss your "tackle"!

Our idea for a campaign is to have a major league player from the NFL, NBA or NHL, to take a video playing some flag football with their friends, family, teammates or have kids play at one of their football camps! The NFL player could be Michael Vick who is now playing in the AFFL: American Flag Football League or Eric Berry (ballhawk safety and 2016 all-pro). Another idea could be finding an athlete from a Niche sport like Rowing, Skiing or Triathlon, who loves football, to test the product out, thus showing the appeal of the fastest growing sport to athletes (in college) to all.

II/ Mobile Virtual Player (MVP)

Mobile Virtual Player Drive

The MVP is the future of american football and rugby training. Dummies have been used for decades in contact sports training as it reduces unnecessary injuries during practice. However, a moving target makes training more realistic, thus prepares athletes better to in-game action. This is one of the reasons MVP has been developed! The MVP also has been tested for tactical training: now preparing shooters better than ever! Our idea for MVP is to make a campaign is to have a player with a reputation for his tackling such as Clay Matthews (NFL linebacker) or Fulgence Ouedraogo (Flanker, France national team 7s and Union), record and post a 30 seconds video trying the dummy out in different game like settings.

III/ CTRL Eyewear: Tint changing glasses 

CTRL Eyewear's tint changing glasses

Vision is key to any sport, it is even more important for activities during which you are highly exposed to environment changes and sunlight such as cycling. CTRL Eyewear released a pair of glasses changing tint within 0.1sec depending on your environment's light. Finally, people are safer during situations such as: being exposed suddenly to very bright light. Or on the contrary, riding through a dark zone right after having the sun in your face.

Our idea for a campaign is for a skier/snowboarder or a cyclist such as Travis Rice or Cam Zink to record a close angle video while riding down a mountain to show how quickly and accurately the glasses change tint (from the sunny top to a dark valley for example).

IV/ FlyPro Drones

New sports technology :Fly Pro's XEagle Sport smartwatch controlled drone

FlyPro revolutionizes the drone industry for athletes and sports enthusiasts with its smartwatch controlled drones. No more worrying about your filming: just focus on your activity! This is like having a photographer following you around. It makes it easier than ever to record your best feats no matter where you are and if you are alone! This helps you keeping your followers up to date and content going at all times.
Our idea for a campaign is to have one or more snow or water sports athletes such as Gus Kenworthy or Kelia Moniz taking the drone for a ride and post curated highlights of it on their social media!

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 then sign up for a free account here and start applying to some of the awesome campaigns posted by our brands 

How to Increase Sales Using Social Media

Anyone looking to sell a product or service needs to understand how to increase sales using social media. As the world continues to shift towards an online marketplace, digital marketing has not only become a powerful marketing technique to increase sales, but it has become a necessity. Social media outlets such as Facebook and Instagram have grown exponentially in the last few years. Facebook has about 2 billion active Facebook users a month while Instagram has about 700 million. When looking at how to increase sales using social media, it's important to be aware of this growth. Because of it, social media has become the ultimate platform in which to target potential customers or clients.

Due to their popularity however, many businesses have set aside large sums of money to swarm people’s news feeds with ads. Thus, being a smaller company that stands out in social media has become increasingly more difficult. One has to ask themselves "how can one increase sales using social media in the most efficient and cost effective way possible?"

The Power of Influencer Marketing

One of the most efficient ways to increase sales using social media is through the concept of influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is a type of advertisement that focuses on one powerful individual in a certain market that usually has a large (and loyal) social media following. For more details on what influencer marketing is, check out a previous blog post “Why Your Company Should Be Using Influencer Marketing”.

One of the benefits of attracting such an individual is due to the great influence and power that they have on social media. In a post entitled “Love it or hate it: Influencer Marketing Works” Daniel Newman offers countless statistics proving how one can increase sales using social media:

• “Influencer marketing is the fastest growing and most cost-effective channel. (Tomoson)
• Customers acquired through word-of-mouth have a 37 percent higher retention rate. (Deloitte)
• Word of mouth generates 2 times the sales of paid advertising. (McKinsey)
• Ninety-two percent of consumers turn to people they know for referrals above any other source. (Tapfluence and Influitive)
• Businesses make $6.50 for every dollar invested in influencer marketing. (Tomoson)”

In addition, there is another reason for how using an influencer can increase sales using social media. Generally on Facebook, posts with the most likes or comments are the ones that show up higher on news feeds. The problem however is that encouraging engagement on these posts can be difficult. With an influencer however, their followers are determined to have a connection with the influencer and thus like, comment, and share the post. With this engagement, the post is more likely to be located at the top of people’s news feeds. By being at the top of people's news feeds, it will lead to greater exposure for potential sales.

How Can I Get an Influencer for My Brand?

When determining how to increase sales using social media, influencer marketing is one of the most efficient & cost effective methods. Now, how does one attract an influencer to help increase sales using social media?

A common misconception is the idea that one needs to have connections to obtain these major influencers.  In reality however, at OpenSponsorship we have changed the game to better help you increase sales. OpenSponsorship is the leading marketplace for sports sponsorship.  We find ways to connect brands to professional athletes in the most efficient and cost effective way possible. Once paired with an athlete, your business is sure to take off. 

If you're a brand sign up for free here to access our roster of 2600+ athletes, teams and events. If you're an athlete, sign up for a free account here & start applying to campaigns posted by our brands.

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! :)

Social media serves as a platform for athletes to have honest and authentic communication with their fans. It is the best way for an athlete to leave a lasting impression on his or her fans. Fans love connecting with their heroes, and social media is a great way for your presence, as an athlete, to be felt in the world.

Posting on social media with your personality apparent in the posts can humanize you as an athlete. In turn, that can make your fans even more devoted! The almost friend-like relationships athletes can create with their fans is incredible. 

As an athlete posting on social media, you control what information goes out about you by having control over your brand and the image that is perceived from the media and fans. Basically, you are marketing yourself.

Why should they create close connections to their fans? 

By posting on social media, you, as an athlete, can strengthen your relationship with you fans. And the connections you make can last a long time. Even to when you're retired.

Look at Shaquille O’Neal. He’s been retired for almost 10 years and has 14.3 million followers on Twitter and 5.4 followers on Instagram. He posts daily (sometimes even multiple times a day). Everyone knows who he is. Shaq is staying relevant to a group of people who weren’t even alive during his glory days. This is huge!

He even announced his retirement on social media on Twitter with a video. That was the bow on his social media present. That connection he created with his followers cannot be faked. He is genuine with his fans and you can tell how much they appreciate it because he is constantly conveying his larger than life personality over social media.

People are sick of unauthentic celebrity-fan relationships and prefer sincere relationships. That is why Shaq is so popular, amongst other athletes. Especially in influencer marketing.

A study by TapInfluence and Nielsen Catalina Solutions in 2016 found that influence marketing has an 11 percent higher ROI than more traditional forms of brand marketing.

Staying Relevant 

The loyal connections an athlete can make with fans and followers cannot be replicated. Companies and brands notice that and see an athlete’s fan base as a potential new market. An athlete has the ability to introduce an amazing brand to his or her devoted fanbase.

This connection can lead to Sponsorship deals for athletes.

Lastly, social media can take you places. With a loyal following, there are so many opportunities that become available to you, as an athlete. For example, Golfer, Sharmila Nicollet is able to participate in ShopRite's LPGA Classic after her fans secured her a spot. This year, the tournament organizers decided to open one more spot to an athlete with a loyal social media following. They created a Twitter poll asking which pro golfer should be invited to their tournament, and Nicollet won! The relationship she created with her followers was the only reason she was invited to the LPGA Classic. 

Build an organic relationship with your followers and you never know where they will take you.

Imagine a world where global merchandising behemoth Nike ceases to exist. Can’t do it, can you?

Well, that’s good news for Cristiano Ronaldo, as he recently became the third athlete to sign a “lifetime” deal with the Swoosh - meaning as long as both he and Nike are around, he’s getting paid. Already the highest grossing athlete in the world, Ronaldo now joins Michael Jordan and LeBron James as Nike’s only lifetime endorsers.

Ronaldo: One is made of wax. The other is made of money.

While these athletes may only come around once in a lifetime (pardon the cliché), our tools can help you start finding athletes that already align with your brand!

Powered by IBM Watson, every athlete profile includes their most used keywords and the most important topics they mention on social media. Our Social Insights tool also allows you to manually search for key words or phrases used by any of our 2,000+ athletes. If your brand sells vodka and you want to sponsor an athlete who drinks vodka, a simple search will show you all athletes who have mentioned the word "vodka" in a social media post before!

If you're looking for an athlete influencer who is already aligned with your company's core values, speak to an OpenSponsorship rep today or send us an email at info@opensponsorship.com.

Examples:

Want to find players who discuss their virtues? Search terms like "trust", "faith", and "charity" to find athletes like Amir Khan.

Looking for father figures? Bet you didn't expect UFC fighter Matt Brown to frequently hashtag #dadlife.

Interested in playing off the #MannequinChallenge craze? 54 of our athletes have talked about it on social media, including Chad Johnson.