The last years we have witnessed more and more financial / fintech companies linking their brand with sports personas or sponsorships. fintechview sat with the founder of Tenacity Sport & Entertainment, a creative agency based in Cyprus specializing in sport sponsorship consulting, brand ambassador activations and tailored made VIP sport experiences to discuss the trends of 2023 and how the two sectors complinment each other.
What are the sport sponsorship trends for 2023 in Fintech?
Fintech brands will continue to build synergies and relationship through sport partnerships in 2023. In 2021 we saw an increase of activity that dropped substantially in 2022 with the downfall of the crypto industry. However, Fintech and Fintech marketing is growing on a high-speed train and brands need solutions that would enable them to expand quickly in their target markets. Global sport sponsorship is a great tool to employee in your arsenal. Providing Match and Non-Matchday experiences to clients will still be key being in post Covid era. Sport fans have missed the one-of-a-kind experiences that sports offers and fintech brands will come up with an approach to capitalize within their sponsorship campaigns. Technology also goes hand in hand in both sport and Fintech; both worlds will find ways that takes fans closer to the action by using augmented reality, NFTs or metaverse. During the World Cup in Qatar, we saw examples of Visa, Adidas, crypto.com offering fans new interactive activations to become artist- to create and collect the most unique collectibles that will live forever on the blockchain. Definitely technology will be trending in 2023 as well.
In such a competitive environment, how can your brand stand out with a sport sponsorship?
Brands can stand out focusing on 3 aspects: Authenticity -Purpose -Impact. Sponsorship is an indirect promotional platform so it’s an opportunity to show your creativity, show love to the brand and to your customers. Logo placements on a t-shirt or on a board will not tricker audience interest. Content is King and will remain the king to be utilize on digital marketing strategies–and truly engage with your audience. Being first, is another factor that brands are start looking in to. Growing your brand together with a new sports platform can bring immediate results as for example women’s sports. According to SportBusiness Women’s Euro 2022 revenue sponsorship growth went from 3,5 million in 2017 to 17m in 2022. 2021 US open tennis final between Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez av. TV viewership as much as the final between men’s Novak Djokovic and Daniel Medvedev; that’s astonishing growth that well established sports are difficult to reach. Consequently, it’s a great time now for brands to be involved with the women’s sport industry.
What are the opportunities of the two sectors and benefits?
Apart from the obvious money in exchange of brand exposure and advertisement, there are various ways a partnership can benefit both sport right holder and a Fintech brand. In a recent study by Nielsen Sports shows that event sport sponsorship ranks on the top of the list as the most trusted advertising channel by consumers surpassing ads on TV, online ads and advertising on social media. And we know how important is to gain the trust from the consumers knowing that the majority of Fintech brands are either in the introduction or growth stage.
Brands and sport right holders teaming together can build also strong Corporate Social responsibility programs that would create benefits such as brand reputation, increase followers and employee fulfilment.
Another important part especially for fintech brands is to support sport entities revolutionizing their financial ecosystem. With the orientation of blockchain technology, crypto and that consumers shifted towards contactless transactions makes it a necessity for sport stakeholders to connect now with the solutions financial technology has to offer.
Finally, technology adaptation through sports as we saw with Nfts, will have even bigger effect in the future. Let’s not forget crypto.com announced nfts just a year ago, opeansea had the enormous growth in 2021. Therefore, the booming in a short-term period and setback today will not stop technology creators working on even better products for the consumers and the fans.
Any recent success story you wish to share?
Our recent project is CFI Financial Group sponsoring Mubadala World Tennis Championship; the 2nd biggest sporting event in Abu Dhabi. CFI plan is to work with leading national institutions to develop sports in the UAE and the region and MWTC made right fit for this. MWTC is committed to creating a legacy for tennis in the UAE through various community programmes that raise awareness of the benefits of tennis and the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle, values and vision shared as well by CFI. MWTC since 2009 brings the best men’s and women’s tennis from all around the world with previous participations of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Ons Jabeur.
CFI as the official platinum sponsor of Mubadala World Tennis Championship will reveal breakthrough activations that include fans meet and greet with a top tennis players, ProAm tournament, VIP hospitality and will receive strong TV visibility at the event being the statistics sponsor, speed serve and review replay partner.
Who is who
Aristodemos is the founder of Tenacity Sport & Entertainment, a creative agency based in Cyprus specializing in sport sponsorship consulting, brand ambassador activations and tailored made VIP sport experiences. Over the last three years, he helped several leading brands within the Fintech and gaming industry to grow through the power of sport and entertainment partnerships. Projects handled successfully in US, U.A.E, Germany, Cyprus, Finland and other countries with the ability to deliver a high level of services. Majority of Tenacity Sport & Entertainment sponsorship projects lied with ATP Tour Tennis and European Tour Golf events however Aristodemos has also past experience activating sport sponsorships with football and racing teams in his previous endeavours.
