Even though music and sports involve selling sponsorships and events to consumers, they can be very different in the way that they do things. Andrew Goldberg, who used to sell sponsorships to the USF Bulls and Tampa Bay Lightning, is now the lead seller at a major outdoor amphitheater and is in charge of selling strategic partnerships for a company that puts on major music festivals across the United States. Goldberg outlines some of the similarities and differences between the two industries and their selling strategies throughout this episode.
Goldberg explained how people have a harder time transitioning from the sports industry to the music industry regarding selling.
For music festivals, fans are investing money into a 3 or 4-day event months in advance, with unknown factors such as the weather in the back of their minds. Concert and festival attendees try to get the best experience out of the event that they paid for with the people that they care about the most.
In the world of selling in the music industry, they face many unknown factors such as how many shows will be booked every year, what locations they will be at, what genres will be played, and ultimately how much will be sold.
With all of that uncertainty, if certain events get canceled, Goldberg tries to accommodate for the loss of that experience for the sponsor with an additional year added with no extra charge, the offer for them to represent another event with no fees, or they return 25% of the investments.
This is a major concept because, in the sports industry, the games are sold pretty much knowing there will be a specific number of games and events surrounding them.
Brandon Parks noted that “Sports have evolved so much” meaning that they want to try to be more like the music industry in selling for an experience rather than having more of a “cookie-cutter” package.
Paul Sickmon states that “The definition of success has changed” which means that the same methods and strategies that first worked in sports sponsorship, don’t work nearly the same now.
Years ago, sports promotions were very customary with possible season ticket prizes or running a few 30-second promotions, but in more recent years, sports games have become more experiential for the fans like music festivals. The family-friendly and experiential approach has been used in sports sponsorship, just at different venues, and is now one of the key pillars in sponsorship
A large comparison between the two industries is how sponsors want their brand to be linked to an experience. In sports, legacy sponsors want to create an impression that goes beyond a sign in sport. They want to be recognized on a different level than other sponsors, which is the same for a music festival that lasts for only 3-4 days.
Sports have also become more conceptualized by trying to sell on a client-to-client basis and want to give sponsors the best opportunities to help customers remember who they are and the experience they had involving the sponsors.
When asked what sports can do more of, Goldberg made it clear that customers love promotions that they can physically touch or interact with. This kind of promotion makes customers feel involved or hopeful that they can win some cool prizes.
These types of promotions and ideas help make the customer enjoy their experience more and also associate a certain company or brand with their multi-day experience.
Overall, it was very eye-opening to see how similar, but different, these two industries can be when looking through the lens of sponsorship and selling in different areas. To learn more about the comparison between selling music to sports, listen here.