Influencer marketing in sports

Influencer marketing in sport industry

Our generation is extremely attentive to its health. Worldwide we can see a huge interest in healthy living. Modern culture and sports brands are promoting an active lifestyle for everyone. According to the recent A.T. Kearney study, today’s global sports industry is worth between €350 billion and €450 billion ($480-$620 billion). Some researchers predict the total grow up to 5.6% until 2020.

In a booming market, brands have to find some special ways to highlight themselves among their competitors. One of the good ways to promote itself among average consumers is to use the influencers’ power.

Find your channel

First of all, brands should choose the channel of communications, where they are going to search for influencers. For the sports industry, the most popular social networks are Instagram and Youtube. Here bloggers share their experiences and conduct various marketing campaigns.

Track down the influencer

Influencers may be professional sportsmen, semi-professional or amateur athletes. It can be someone who isn’t related to the sport industry but has an active lifestyle and influential opinion.

The best choice for a brand are influencers with a loyal audience. And it’s not about audience quantity, but engagement. Researches prove that a small group of followers can be more engaged to influencer’s channel and bring huge benefits to the advertising campaign.

Find the right way of collaboration

Influencers are an example to their followers and they have an impact within its communities, and a direct advertisement isn’t a good idea. Influencers build their reputation on honesty and gained experience, so they prefer to avoid an obvious commercial.

Sometimes it is enough to be recognizable for the brand. A good case-study is a fitness trainer Kayla Itsines (@kayla_itsines). She wears shoes from Adidas and changes different sport outfits every day. She makes fitness and sports brands attractive to an average consumer.

It is good to have live chats or video sessions with influencers. Ask them to host or participate events. It can be everything, even social campaigns.

Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre Misty Onpointe (@mistyonpointe) hosted a private showing of the Disney film “Nutcracker” for students of Baltimore. It was made in collaboration with the Under Armour brand to support students after the mass riots and shooting. Misty Onpointe was wearing brand’s outfit.

Every campaign created with the influencer is unique and individual. Majority of influencers are very creative and know their audience, so it is important to consider their opinion.

influencers are expanding the scope of advertising campaigns in the sports industry. Many marketers believe that it will become more and more popular and relevant to include influencers in the brand marketing strategy.