Whether you call them influencers or brand ambassadors, it doesn't matter: former basketball star Kobe Bryant (nicknamed "Black Mamba") and Nike, like David Beckham and Adidas, are successful examples of long-term partnerships that work across the entire marketing mix and within communications across all media genres.
In order to become more independent of the large platforms, Adidas is using an extremely exciting targeting strategy: its own platform, the Adidas App. This was even advertised on the boards during the football World Cup, which led to 14 percent more downloads.
Climbing is one of the trend sports. Sponsoring in this area helps companies to rejuvenate their target group and find new customers. In trend sports, supporters also have much more room to get themselves involved.
No company knows how to make the most of trend sports like Red Bull. The young target group has turned the brand into a huge group, which no longer only stands for the energy drink, but has also changed into a media group.
In Germany's Bundesliga, all 18 clubs have both jersey and sleeve sponsors. Deutsche Telekom, on FC Bayern's jersey, pays the most: about 35 million euros.
Storytelling is becoming increasingly important for sports companies. The US sporting goods giant Nike is particularly marketing France's World Cup victory in Russia. Here the campaign shows the young Frenchman Kylian Mbappé with the ambiguous hint: "A star is born." On the one hand he himself is meant, on the other hand the World Championship star for 2018 on the jersey.
Particularly interesting at present are sponsorships of regional running groups, which are now offered by many sports brands. In almost every major city in Germany, companies rely on this marketing tool.
