By Amelie Hawkins, Client Services Director, Mongoose
With millions of fans packed into stadiums or tuned into their TVs this summer, there’s no doubt that brands will be wanting to generate mass exposure and utilise these moments to maximise their sponsorships.
But how do they get that right? After all, just a logo on a banner or some financial support alone isn’t going to make a fan take any interest, let alone remember them.
The solution is clever storytelling and an authentic connection with the audience. Fans want to understand why a brand is sponsoring a team, athlete or tournament and transactional partnerships are far more likely to be dismissed.
By contrast, the most effective sponsorships use a number of different marketing channels to create momentum, but social platforms allow us to build momentum around a sporting moment and moreover allows it to live beyond it too. Behind-the-scenes access, tap into a tournament’s emotion as it unfolds, getting to know brand ambassadors, players through the social lens transforms sponsorship from a branding exercise into something memorable.
Pick the right sport and platform for you
You can’t tell a story without the right sponsorship in the first place.
Too often, sponsorship is viewed as a short-term visibility play when it’s the opposite. It should be approached as a long-term strategic investment shaped around audience alignment.
The brands that get the most value are usually the ones that commit to building a lasting association over time. Think NatWest and cricket or HSBC and rugby. Both have established genuine connections with their respective sport because they invested consistently and built narratives around audiences that made sense. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than with Barclays and the Premier League. To the degree that even a decade on from when Barclays last sponsored the competition, many fans still view the two as synonymous.
That long term approach matters because authentic storytelling is difficult to create if brands are constantly moving between properties or chasing the event with the biggest spotlight. Fans are the first to notice when a partnership feels temporary or opportunistic.
Audience understanding should also shape the platforms brands prioritise. Social media gives sponsors the ability to extend the lifespan of sporting moments far beyond the final whistle. A match-winning goal or behind the scenes interaction can continue generating conversation and content for days afterwards. Combine that with the shareability of social meaning that content can travel well beyond traditional fans and you have a recipe for success.
Not every platform serves the same purpose. TikTok, for example, is especially effective for sports brands trying to reach younger audiences and build communities around personality-led content. Much of NFL UK & Ireland’s social strategy now centres on TikTok because the league wants to grow its presence among 18 to 24-year-olds in ways that would not translate as naturally on Facebook. Features such as TikTok Shop also allow brands to combine brand-building with merchandise sales in a way that feels native to the platform and natural for consumers.
What stories do people want to hear?
Audiences want to hear stories that feel human first and commercial second. We are naturally drawn to narratives that reveal something personal, emotional or relatable, particularly in sports where individual journeys are as compelling as the competition itself.
That’s why athlete journeys remain such powerful storytelling tools. Whether it’s a footballer reaching their first World Cup after years of setbacks or someone like Anthony Joshua speaking openly about his path from difficult beginnings to become a world champion, audiences respond to stories that reflect resilience and ambition.
The same applies to participation sport. Events like the London Marathon generate huge levels of engagement because the storytelling is often centred around ordinary people rather than elite athletes alone. Brands that bring audiences into those journeys, documenting the emotional build up to race day, tend to create content that people actively choose to follow.
Finding those stories requires brands to understand the wider cultural context surrounding a sport and its audience. Data and social listening tools can reveal the conversations fans are already having, the topics gaining traction and the emotional moments people care about most. But insight alone isn’t enough. Brands also need to interpret those conversations through a cultural lens and understand how their role within that ecosystem differs depending on the market they’re speaking to.
Take NFL UK & Ireland again. Rather than replicating how the sport is marketed in the US, the league recognised that British audiences engage differently. Its strategy focuses heavily on younger fans, identifying the age at which people typically form long-term sporting loyalties and building content, communities and experiences around that behaviour.
It works, ultimately because the most effective storytelling strategies understand exactly who they are trying to reach, where those audiences spend their time and how the brand can naturally come to life within those spaces.
