Here at Northampton Saints we offer tailored partnerships that allow brands to leverage the power of rugby and sport to create lasting connections with existing and new audiences. Saints will work with you to create a partnership that will help deliver against your company's business aims, whether that be to raise the profile of your brand, receive meaningful business introductions, generate increased sales, or to increase loyalty and engagement amongst key stakeholders.
We know that sports sponsorship can be an investment for your company so it’s best to have a complete understanding of what it is and how it can be properly utilised. If you’re unsure as to whether a sports sponsorship partnership with Northampton Saints is the right move for you and your brand, then this page aims to give you the information you need to take the next steps.
What is sports sponsorship?
Sport sponsorship is a great way for any business to solve business challenges, or create new brand opportunities. A sponsorship deal with Northampton Saints will help to support your business and provide an effective return on investment for your business. Northampton Saints can help your brand get noticed, provide unique opportunities to entertain current or potential clients or customers, and access to a highly engaged audience.
Most people will have a basic understanding of what sports sponsorship is and will likely have seen it first hand when attending or watching a sporting event. For fans of Northampton Saints, you may have recognised our own partners in and around the stadium, either on the kit, advertisement boards or activating in the supporter village. These commercial partners share the same values that we do and enable us to provide the best possible experiences for our diverse range of fans.
Types of sports sponsorship
Sports sponsorship comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes in today's world and there are now more options than ever for a commercial brand to promote themselves. It’s important for the team to consider which assets and benefits should make up each package to ensure that there is something to suit each brand's requirements. Here are some of the main assets that can be sponsored:
- Branding on the player’s kits (home and away)
- Advertising spaces in the stadiums (signs and big screens)
- Match day programme advertising
- The naming of physical spaces (the stadium, stands or bars)
- Business focused networking and groups
- Events and hospitality
- Giveaways and competitions
- Sports equipment
- Individual players
- Social media
What are the benefits of sports sponsorship?
Benefits for sponsors
Increase your brand exposure: Expanding brand exposure is still the fundamental reason for the majority of sports sponsorship deals. Even at an amatuer level, sports gather large groups of people together, many of whom are from completely different backgrounds and demographics. Brand awareness remains one of the key goals for brands both big and small, as it can really help to increase the public's ability to recognise and remember your company.
Creating opportunities for New Business: Access and opportunities to speak to new audiences, and potential customers or clients. Through a sponsorship with Saints, your company could have access to other Saints sponsors as well as other businesses that enjoy Saints matchdays. Hospitality or our conferencing and events programme.
Create a bond between brand and fans: One fundamental aspect of sports sponsorship is that it creates a strong bond between the fan and the brand. Sponsorship deals give brands a brilliant platform to directly engage with their audience and connect with their database.This helps to build a solid consumer relationship which will lead to better brand loyalty and increase your overall sales.
Access and association with Saints players and coaches: Your company can have access to Saints players and coaches. This helps to create content to promote your company, or enhance your corporate events by through player appearances.
Benefits for the sports team
Improving team performance: Sports sponsorship deals help us to improve the quality of the rugby at Northampton Saints, from our first team all the way to our academy teams. Sponsorship deals allow us to develop our training facilities, medical treatment and coaching staff to the highest possible standard - all of which will greatly improve player development and performance.
Improving facilities and fan experience: Alongside the team, it’s important that the fans also get the best possible experience when they come to a game. We can guarantee our matchdays are made truly special by providing extras such as half time fan events, merchandise giveaways and pre-match experiences.
Enforce image: Just like brands can use sponsorship to communicate their image, sports teams can do the same. Brands with known values can be leveraged by the team to help enforce or communicate a particular image.
Considerations to make with sports sponsorship
Creating a truly engaging sports sponsorship strategy isn’t as easy as just collaborating with the first brand or sports team that comes through the door. Both parties have to take careful consideration to ensure that the deal is the right one for them and their audiences.
Sharing your values
Sports sponsorship has the power to link a brand with a team, so it’s important to determine whether the deal is right for both parties. Careful consideration needs to be given to all aspects of the deal prior to it’s agreement as partnering with a brand or team that doesn't share your values can alienate your audience.
Audience
It’s true that sports are unique in the way that they round up large groups of people from all kinds of backgrounds and demographics, but even still considerations must be made by both brand and team to ensure that you’re focusing your efforts in the right place. Aligning the audience of the team and the brand is crucial to providing the best possible deal for everyone.
Budget
Knowing exactly what you want to get out of your sports sponsorship deal is integral to keeping within your budget. Resources can be wasted on campaigns and assets if the proper research is done prior to accepting the deal. At Northampton Saints there is a deal to suit all budgets, so you can be assured to find one that suits your needs.
How has technology changed sports sponsorship?
Technology has changed the world of sports sponsorship considerably since its first inception. We now live in a world that is more interconnected than ever and the opportunities to grow your brand awareness is almost endless.
Live sport
Live sports coverage has completely altered the way in which you interact with your team and the same can be said for brands. Companies now have an opportunity to advertise in a stadium that is being broadcast nationally and internationally, greatly increasing their brand exposure. In the 2021/22 season the average audience for live Premiership Rugby in the UK was 14.5 million people. This gives a company a fantastic opportunity to get their brand in front of an exceptionally large number of people, often with a wide audience demographic. It is this that enables sports sponsorship to produce such a successful return on investment.
Social media
Nothing has created more revenue opportunities than the rise of social media. Social platforms can be used to stream live sports and watch and share clips from your favourite matches, as well as giving brands a platform to produce sponsored extra content such as player videos, competitions and charity work to name just a few. This content benefits brand, team and audience as fanatics get far more than just matchday content, whilst the brand and team produce a shareable piece of branded media with a potentially global reach.
Sport continues to be one of the most common interests globally on social networks meaning it can potentially have the power to completely break down barriers in audience reach. Live coverage on TV is no longer the only way to see your team perform. The vast majority of sports fans own a smartphone capable of taking high quality photos and images, all of which can be shared online in seconds with friends and followers.
Sponsorship tracking
Brands and companies now have access to more data than ever which can help to inform their future investment opportunities. It is crucial to have an understanding of how your deals and campaigns are performing so you can spend your future resources in the ways that ensure a better return on your investment. Analisis and data-driven research also allows you to be aware of any new sponsorship opportunities that could be developing.This is especially important in the fast moving world of social media.
What can Northampton Saints offer for sports sponsorship?
Here you can find our selection of different Saints sponsorship packages to give your brand a fantastic platform to grow your business and generate brand awareness with our fanbase. Our match day sponsorship deals are all unique and give you the opportunity to advertise in various ways around the cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens. We are passionate about creating a high quality experience for our dedicated fans and relish any opportunity to work alongside businesses that share that same enthusiasm.
Kit branding
Branding on the home and away playing kits is available, which gives a brand an excellent opportunity to have their logo on both the shorts and shirts of our players. Our kits will be worn across all home and away games in the Rugby Premiership, European Champions Cup and Premiership Rugby Cup.
Advertising
We offer advertising around the cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens, including big screen, pitch side boards and match day programmes. This provides a strong brand presence during match days and a platform to advertise to an engaged and captive audience.
Social media and digital
There are opportunities to access an engaged digital audience of Saint’s supporters through e-mail and social media channels.
Player and staff access
Saints players, coaches and staff can feature in promotional material, including digital, TV and print campaigns, as well as provide testimonials and appear at corporate events.
New business opportunities
By becoming a partner of Northampton Saints, you become part of the Saints family of sponsors and unlock the opportunity to join exclusive business clubs and networks, allowing you to develop key B2B links, locally, nationally and globally.
Player sponsorship
With our player sponsorship package, you can use your business to support your favourite Saints players. This is a wholly unique way to advertise your brand and features the opportunity to have your logo on their kits for all Saints fixtures.
Ball Sponsorship
Saints’ ball sponsorship package puts your brand front and centre on a match day and gives your guests the opportunity to enjoy a first-class hospitality experience.
How to find out more
At Northampton Saints, we would love to talk to you to understand your business needs, so that we can ensure that we can tailor a sponsorship package to suit you, so that we can help you deliver on your key objectives.
Please contact [email protected], and a member of our team and we will be happy to discuss the options available to you.
