Where Youth Sports Sponsorships Go Next

Everyone wants to talk about sponsorships in youth sports right now.

But the industry needs to better distinguish what they entail, according to Priority Partnerships’ Dan Scheinman.

“I think a lot of what I'm seeing being talked about as sponsorship is really advertising around sports, or advertising around youth sports,” Scheinman told Buying Sandlot on the heels of Priority’s second Youth Sports Sponsorship Study in tandem with YouGov Sport.

“It’s more similar to a media buy or a digital buy. That is a great strategy, I’m not discounting that strategy by any means. I just think if a brand goes into a sponsorship, they're often looking for association. That is the difference I think our industry will benefit from. There's an opportunity from just being more clear about what we're selling. Are we selling advertising through youth sports, or are we selling youth sports sponsorships?”

The most powerful asset in sponsorship is giving a brand the ability to tap into the organization’s IP, Scheinman said. And youth sports organizations may be leaving revenue on the table by failing to speak the same language as buyers.

Scheinman pointed to the deal his firm brokered between Soccer Shots and Trust & Will as an example of what is possible with sponsorships.

The online estate planning platform has its logo on hundreds of thousands of Soccer Shots shirts nationwide and is able to position its services in front of a desired audience. The pact also includes a community grants program to help expand access.

“Youth sports offers a level of personal relevance that you can't get anywhere else,” Scheinman said. “For brands to be able to find a way in that's natural and additive to the experience, additive to the families, solving pain points or helping to make sports more accessible. There's something really powerful here. I really hope what this study ultimately does is give brands a reason to really consider youth sports. The more brands that come into the space, the more it is going to help with accessibility issues. Not only for families, but also for operators that are spread very thin and are trying to do a lot all at once. Having additional revenue come into the system is going to help them run better programs for these families as well.

“This is a really powerful marketing platform that happens to have every attribute a brand could ever want in a marketing strategy. It's community-oriented. It's brand safe. You've got an engaged audience, it invokes emotion. It encourages kids to stay active.”

The initial study found 84% of youth sports parents are supportive of brand partnership with only 3% having a negative opinion. The latest report said 68% of respondents were likely to build trust with a brand that sponsors their child’s youth sports program and 71% of parents would consider a brand when they need what it sells if it was endorsed by their youth sports program.

“Youth sports is showing all the same signals that women's sports showed before it absolutely skyrocketed,” Scheinman said. “I think youth sports is ready for that breakthrough moment right now. We're already starting to see some blue chip brands move into the space and I think we're going to see a lot more.”