Energy Drinks And Sport Advertising

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015 Last Modified: 18 Apr 2017

Any sport is surrounded by numerous advertising agents. Sports clubs want to play, win and earn the audience - to attend the competition; manufacturers of sports goods want to increase sales, sponsors want to promote their brands; channels want to broadcast rating matches. Successive actions of each of these subjects to achieve the goals relate to the category of sports marketing.

To understand the sport marketing profession it is important to say what a marketing is: "Marketing - the art and science to choose the right target market, to attract, retain and increase the number of consumers by creating a buyer's confidence that it represents the highest value for the company."

Sports marketing is a relatively new field and concept of marketing. It is import ant to note that this discipline within marketing is not clearly defined. Sports today utilize corporate sponsorships and television money in order to compete and pay for top quality athletes: the companies use teams, leagues, colleges, and individual s to differentiate their products in a very competitive business environment. (Howard Schlossberg)

One of the greatest phenomena in today's sports is the development of its business sphere. And in this business the central place is occupied by sport "first persons": athletes, athletic teams, coaches, managers and owners. They facilitate business expansion, attracting sponsors and sports audiences.

Firstly, the development of sports contributed to the strategic orientation of many companies manufacturing sports accessories: clothing, footwear, equipment, etc. They produce its products depending on the needs of modern sports and the growth of athletic performance.

Secondly, the marketing of sport is put in the center of sports activity. Sporting event is not the only product of entities from the inner world of sports activity and, of course, it is within the sports industry. Obviously, in reality, this event is located in the center of attention and it gives a lot of commercial opportunities for athletes and teams.

But I have to say that in sports there are other opportunities of commercial effect, independent of the specific events, such as image and reputation of athletes and team sports brand. They too are part of a sports product, are in demand in the market and, hence, participate in the sports industry. Such sources of commercial opportunities are components of all events, not just one specific event or just a single season. They are the end product of a comprehensive work teams, athletes and ideas about them.

In today's best sports marketing plays an important role, because thanks to him the most heavily involved in sport activities.

"Many companies are looking at sports marketing as a utility expense, a dynamic view of achieving their goals in the market. Sports Marketing is an extremely attractive proposition for sponsors and advertising agents, a combination of widespread fairs and mass audiences in a modern and stylish event "- so brilliantly and accurately noted Messon Izell. And business interests sport companies and sports marketing should use this interest. (Howard Schlossberg)

Sports marketing agents

Sports marketing agent works in the marketing sphere, being an agent for an athlete, a sport team or company. His main task is to promote the athlete's career within sport, to make good contracts with advertising companies, so to say to make an athlete a "a big star".

This means that the sports agent is responsible for meetings, negotiations and making agreements, as well as picking the best contracts for the athlete that he represents. Much of a sports agent's day he spent in networking, talking and negotiating, that usually means hot working time-table, travelling a loy and doing few works at the same time, that requires certain personal skills, abilities as well as good motivation.

Sports managers should have strong knowledge in different spheres as:

1. Sports knowledge (philosophy of sport, sport psychology, sociology of sport management in sports education, management of school sports, management of free time, control athletes).

2. Management in business (marketing, economics, law, consumer behavior, strategic management, financial and personnel management).

3. Communications (journalism, public relations and media, advertising, broadcasting).

4. Social sciences (personal relations, cultural knowledge, labor market knowledge).

To be a good sports marketing agent means to be well informed about the particular sport and the trends in the sport, to stay up-to-date on sports events and sports advertising. But it is also important to have good business skills and knowledge about: business management, financial and risk analysis, investment analysis as well. Excellent communication and negotiation skills are so important for this position, and good language and foreign languages knowledge.

The work activities of a sports marketing agent include:

Meeting with athletes, team owners and managers, and constant networking with them;

Making contracts and negotiating agreements, promoting the athlete with the best possible options for advertising contracts;

Providing marketing and financial analysis on various contracts, providing this information to the athlete and interested companies;

Traveling to different regions and countries to represent the athletes and commands to the interested companies for the contract negotiations.

Being well-informed about the latest events in the world of sport , as to the current trends in different kinds of sports;

Recruiting and marketing advertising services to the sport commands, athletes , sport organizations and sport events to get new clients.

Sports agents are often employed by a special agency, that provide the promotional and sponsorship service in the needs of sporting events, teams, and individual athletes. For example The Sport Marketing Association (SMA) is a company that develops a beneficial relationship between professional practitioners and academicians engaged in the business of marketing sport. ()

Some sports marketing agents work for a sports team , for the organizers of sporting events (like competitions and tournaments) . in this case agents are responsible for promoting the team or event for which they work, providing necessary radio and newspaper advertisement, news about upcoming games to encourage their attendance. Additionally, they may sick for outside sponsorship by selling advertising space , including spots on game-time overhead screens, advertisements on scoreboards and collectible cups, and so on. ()

So why does so many companies want to advertise their products with the help of sports marketing?

A successful advertising campaign in the sport , as in any other field of marketing, is based on the ability to identify the key benefits of a sports product and explain to consumers why do they need it. In the sports marketing the following promotional themes are used: health, emotions, fear and pleasure.

Emotional techniques are often used in sports marketing. In this case, it is important to understand how emotionally the consumer perceives this, for example, some sports fans even see themselves as a member of their favorite teams. An example of an emotional reception can be considered in the slogan "Excitation of victory and the agony of defeat", which was used for advertising several years ago. Fear is used in advertising primarily in order to emphasize the negative consequences that may arise, if not used or misused the product. Manufacturers of bicycles and motorcycles are often appealing to fear in advertisements, pointing to the terrible consequences of accidents caused by lack of head injured helmets.

Athletes do actively participate in promotional materials, companies are using the fact that they are credible for a wide audience. Although in recent years the confidence in the professional athlete's advices decreases: people understand that for the positive words about a particular product they receive a decent fee. However, the most well-known athletes - Michael Jordan, Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods - has established themselves as a reliable source of information.

Another advantage of showing athletes in advertising is their attractiveness. When you want to emphasize this feature in the video or picture then put emphasis on physical beauty of an athlete, his lifestyle or a high level of intelligence. A good example of using this technique - advertising "I want to be like Mike" with the participation of Michael Jordan and Nike ads with the slogan "I am - Tiger Woods" in which children of all races and ages trying on shoes of Tiger.

Energy drinks and sport advertising

The energy drinks market is targeted mainly at young consumers with buying power, being very popular and covering markets all over the world. The role of energy drinks is potentially large: young clubbers wishing to be active all the night, and the long working hours means a lot of employees could be an ideal target market for these drinks . This market shift has led some energy drinks manufacturers to specifically develop products aimed at young people, who have active life and wants to be the leader But for achieving this, a certain kind of ads is necessary, that could be interesting for young people.

Speaking about the market of energy drinks, Red Bull remains the market leader and now is the most popular and fashionable one.

Breakdown of Top 10 Energy Drinks

Drinks Share of Energy Drink Market

(based on dollar sales)

Red Bull 42.6

Monster 14.4

Rockstar 11.4

Full Throttle 6.9

Sobe No Fear 5.4

Amp 3.6

Sobe Adrenaline Rush 2.9

Tab Energy 2.3

Monster XXL 0.9

Private Label 0.9

Rip It 0.8

Sobe Lean 0.7

However, Red Bull dominant position should be kept , and that is the strategy for a marketing company. That can be achieved only through a good promotion and advertising company. The brand Red Bull spends heavily to achieve this - it is reported to invest up to 30% of its turnover on promotions. (Findarticles.com)

The focus of the promotional company of Read Bull is extreme-sports and cultural event sponsorships, that there is now a strong association between the drink and sport games, races, with dangerous, adrenaline-fuelled activities.

Red Bull has an aggressive international marketing campaign, as it is the sponsor of many extreme sports: like windsurfing, snowboarding, skateboarding, kayaking, wakeboarding, cliff-diving, surfing, skating, freestyle motocross, rally, Formula 1 racing, and breakdancing to art shows, music, and video games. (Findarticles.com)

The company owns the team "Red Bull Racing" and Scuderia Toro Rosso in Formula 1, and football club "Red Bull New York" and "Red Bull Salzburg" and others all over the world. It is also the organizer of the championship on Aerobatics "Red Bull Air Race World Series championship" and aircraft "Red Bull Flugtag" and some other. With the help of sport advertising company Red Bull tries to promote a "cool" public image and raise brand power.

So an example of The Red Bull company shows the effectiveness of the sport advertising.

Conclusion

In today's sport marketing plays an important role, so the sports marketing agents have a great field for working. The task of the agents is to show the importance of sport for companys' promotion, and evaluate how the consumer perceives its relationship with business. Sport teams and athletes are increasingly dependent on promotional companies too today.

Sports marketing have a tendency to expand, so trend's success or failure will hinge on sports' role in society in the coming years. Many issues arise everyday between fair play and big money, so it is important for sports marketers to increasingly police themselves in order not to ruin an effective marketing tool and sport in general. (Paul Schaaf)