Three Ways to Amplify Activation in 2025

Many reports from the second running of Formula 1’s Las Vegas race this past weekend noted the sheer volume of brand activation and promotion from event, team and sanctioning body partners, including multiple brands going head-to-head with competitors in categories such as beer, spirits and financial services.

Other sports business items this past week noted the expansion of the partner roster for the UEFA Champions League, which is seeking to add a fourth sponsor to its second-tier Global Enhanced Product/Service Partner level after increasing its number of top-tier Global Partners to nine.

All of this activity—some would say clutter—requires participating brands to make doubly sure their activation efforts are attention-getting and relevant if they want to stand out and have the desired impact among their target audiences.

To do that, brands must stay on top of consumer sentiment and trends and be prepared to capitalize on them. Below are three areas that sports and entertainment marketers should pay attention to and seek to incorporate into their promotional efforts depending on their goals and objectives.

Rising Costs of Sports Participation. In an interview with Sportico, Sports & Fitness Industry Association CEO Todd Smith noted that the cost to provide one child with a soccer ball, uniform, shin guards and cleats has risen 46 percent from $115 in 2017 to $168. Furthermore, “only 25 percent of children living in households earning less than $25,000 a year participate in sports, whereas that number jumps to 40 percent for children in households with income of more than $100,000.”

Smith goes on to mention “the negative impact that we’re going to take on from healthcare costs, both physical and mental, as fewer people are able to access sports and fitness.”

This creates a natural opportunity for sports marketers to use their activation platforms to raise both attention and action to address the issue of ensuring more children from underserved populations have access to sports equipment, facilities, etc.

Increased Interest in Experiential Rewards. Research firm Euromonitor International reports that nearly half (48 percent) of brands with loyalty programs now incorporate experiences as part of their rewards offerings in response to consumer demand.

To keep pace in the rewards arms race, brands that partner with sports and entertainment properties should further leverage their relationships to obtain exclusive benefits that can be passed on to loyalty program members.

Choice and Information Overload. As Euromonitor also noted in a trend it calls Filtered Focus, “Consumers are inundated with notifications and surrounded by an ever-wider variety of choices. People want to spend less time sifting through an overabundance of options to find exactly what they need. Brands are in a race for consumer attention.”

Amidst all of that, 54 percent of consumers say they only buy from companies and brands they completely trust, in part because brand trust reduces the amount of information they need to collect and retain.

As they have for years, sponsors can borrow the loyalty and trust of their sponsored properties to help build those consumer connections. Activations should lean into messaging and content that reinforces the trust that the two parties have placed in each other to achieve their individual goals.